Amphipolis tomb - carbon 14 dating

[Alexias]

Thanks for this, gepd. I recall at the time of the discovery there were discussions about the mound incorporating older burials, and the possibility that there were other structures within the mound, but that seems to have been discounted now.

It looks like we will never know anything for definite about who was buried here, and that sort of makes sense for if it was someone really famous (eg Hephaestion) you would have thought that it would have survived in local legend and been investigated well before 2014.

[Paralus]

I've found another candidate for the Amphipolis tomb - Aristonus son of Peisaeus, apparently brought up in Pella and Somatophylax/Bodyguard to Alexander, and possibly Philip. He may be identical with the Aristophanes who removed Alexander's sword during the quarrel with Cleitus.

Gepd has already suggested him as a possibility here viewtopic.php?p=44262&hilit=aristonus#p44262, and he would seem to be a better fit than Neachus to justify the lion monument and the size of the mound. But again, would Cassander have permitted this?

Heckel's 'Who's Who'

once Cassander had prevailed over Aeacides of Epirus and Polyperchon, both of whose armies were weakened by defections, Aristonus thought
it prudent to fall back on Amphipolis. This town, however, he defended until early 315 (D 19.50.3 ) – indeed, he had actually defeated Cassander’s general Crateuas at Bedyndia (19.50.7 ). He was induced by a letter of Olympias to surrender Amphipolis. Cassander, although he pledged Aristonus
his safety (D 19.50.8 ), feared him on account of his popularity, which he derived from his high position in Alexander’s lifetime, and had him killed through the agency of some of the relatives of Crateuas (D 19.51.1 ), though it is not clear if these represent the family of Aristonus’ fellow Somatophylax Peithon son of Crateuas.

The Diodorus section is here https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/ ... /19c*.html

As Marcus has noted, Aristonous assumed a trierachy on the Hydaspes along with his fellow somatophylakes. By this stage of the campaign he - like his fellows - will have been quite well to do. Money and treasure always aggregates to those at "the top" and there's little higher than that office. Aristonous seems always to have been of the Perdikkan faction; having supported that marshal from Babylon to Aristonous' own failure in Cyprus during the Egypt invasion. That faction devolved into that of Eumenes who represented the royal house and, eventually, Olympias who, along with Alexander IV and Roxanne, was what remained of the royal house. As such, he was the inveterate enemy of Kassandros. Much as I'd like to agree that this monument was erected to the memory of Alexander's somatophylax, Kassandros - whose proclivity to murder and regicide was only exceeded by the well of his hatred - is hardly likely to have allowed such. Such would have to have happened after his death in 297. Not impossible though.

[Alexias]

Paralus, good to see you back! Sorry to hear about your health issues, I hope they are improving.

Given gepd's summary, a date of around 300 BC might be stretched to after Cassander's death (297 BC), so someone like Nearchus or even Apollodorus satrap of Babylon, might be candidates.

[marcus]

Lovely to see you, Paralus!

[Paralus]

Thank you both for the welcome. I should really extract a digit regarding engaging with this site. My last deep dive into anything ancient history was back during covid lock down. Nothing like isolation to produce a near 10,000 word rebuttal to Collins' claims that Zama - as we have it - never happened; it being a construct of the Scipios and Polybius.

[chris_taylor]

just saw Paralus' posts - hurrah and welcome back

[Jeanne Reames]

FWIW, I agree on the idea that a later tomb may have incorporated earlier tombs, which might point to a family site, not unlike the Lyson and Kallikles tomb in Macedonia proper. Tomb reuse and/or reincorporation was hardly uncommon.

And I'd bet on a time after Kassandros's death, and possibly even after Demetrios offed Alexander, the last of Kassandros's sons. Kassandros really wanted to elevate Thessaloniki, and we see major movement away from burials around Aigai in Kassandros's time. (I think some moved to Veroia area? Memory is failing me.) But he wanted to downplay things related to Philip and Alexander's family.

Anyway, I'd vote for older material incorporated, which might well explain some of the discrepancies. Dating anything archaeologically with more precision that +/- 20/25 years is tough. First quarter of the third century seems plausible, even first half of the third century if we down-date a bit.