You're going to trust a bunch of bureaucrats who might have no training in history or archeology, let alone pathology? Dr. Bartsiokas is a paleoanthropologist, meaning he makes a living studying old bones. His co-authors all have similar experience. They closely examined DOZENS of bones and fragments from Tomb 1. Yes, I would trust 5 scientists like that over a government ministry that apparently didn't even know these remains existed...Taphoi wrote:If the Greek Ministry of Culture says in an official statement that the bones were articulated, I would tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. They would be in a position to know the facts.
Okay, fine. But then you build a lovely house of cards, one "if" after another. Since all you have to do to conclude that the rest of the bones (beside that one wounded knee joint) were NOT articulated is to glance through the photos in the PNAS article and supplemental material, your house of cards collapses. Besides, didn't you have "Olympia's" bones climbing out of her grave at Amphipolis due to "brazil nut action"? You can't grant her husband a mere 20 centimeters?Your quote from the paper does not really deny the clear assertion of the Ministry that there were 20cm of post-robbing deposits underlying the leg bones. If so, and if the bones were indeed articulated, then it is quite certain that the bones are not from an original occupant and are therefore not Philip II.
Okay, "a" throne? And I'm assuming that it had the queen's name on it, or that there was some other incontrovertible proof that it WAS a queen's throne. Assuming all that (and I'm not arguing that point!), why is that PROOF that any other depiction of the Rape of Persephone can ONLY be found in a *woman's* grave?? One documented example forms an unbreakable rule? Sorry, I'm not an art history guy, so probably I'm just not understanding.I think perhaps that you are appealing to modern attitudes to rape in implying that a queen of Macedon would not wish to be associated with a scene alluding to the abduction of Persephone by Hades, but since we know that a chariot containing Hades and Persephone was the principal decoration of the throne of a queen of Macedon found in the same cemetery and from the same period, I fear that your argument is demonstrably anachronistic.
Also, am I understanding that *other* skeletal remains from this *same cemetary* are also being interpreted as those of grave robbers? That just seems bizarre to me! In a looted tomb like this, it means the poor guy either got backstabbed by his buddies and left behind, or he got in alone, shoved all the goodies out the hole, and then keeled over for some unknown reason! OR he broke into an already-looted tomb, and killed himself in a fit of pique? Frankly, it all sounds very unlikely to me.
For the Wounded Knee man, it seems obvious that he *did* survive his injury. There was no indication of bad infection, so he was darn lucky. The amount of bone growth clearly showed that this injury happened about 3 years before the man's death. (Gosh, kinda like Philip!)
Yes, the lack of cremation is curious. Is there a written account of Philip's cremation? If not, it may just have to be an uncertainty. Add it to the list--the list which started in 1978 and has only gotten longer with time...
Why can't all these archeologists and ministers be uncertain about anything? What's wrong with the real truth, which is "We're not entirely sure!" Just seems wierd to make it all so political. Wouldn't it be cool if Tomb 2 *was* Arrhidaeus? Because then, from what I've been reading, we've got the actual armor of Alexander the Great! I mean, what's cooler than that??
Matthew