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This review article is The Archaeological Institute of America and was originally pub-
lished in AJA 117(4):599608. This reprint is supplied to the primary author for personal,
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definitive electronic version of the article can be found at www.jstor.org/stable/10.3764/
aja.117.4.0599.
Volume 117 Number 4
October 2013 www.ajaonline.org
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2013
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599
Some Comprehensive New Publications
on Ancient Macedonia
BERYL BARR-SHARRAR
American Journal of Archaeology 117 (2013) 599608
REVIEW ARTICLE
Das Palmettengrab in Lefkadia, by Katerina
Rhomiopoulou and Barbara Schmidt-Dounas, with a
chapter by Hariklia Brecoulaki (AM-BH 21). Pp. 166,
figs. 18, b&w pls. 33, color pls. 19, maps 8. Philipp
von Zabern, Darmstadt 2010. 59.90. ISBN 978-
3-0053-4206-3 (cloth).
Brills Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies
in the Archaeology and History of Macedon,
650 BC300 AD, edited by Robin J. Lane Fox. Pp.
xiii + 642, figs. 73, map 1. Brill, Leiden and Bos-
ton 2011. $251. ISBN 978-90-04-20650-2 (cloth).
A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, edited by
Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington (Blackwell Com-
panions to the Ancient World). Pp. xxvi + 668, figs.
4, pls. 28, maps 10. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester,
England, and Malden, Mass. 2010. $199.95. ISBN
978-1-4051-7936-2 (cloth).
Heracles to Alexander the Great: Treasures
from the Royal Capital of Macedon, a Hel-
lenic Kingdom in the Age of Democracy, ed-
ited by Angeliki Kottaridi. Pp. 271, figs. 268, maps 3.
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology, Ox-
ford 2011. $45. ISBN 978-1-85444-254-3 (paper).
Au royaume dAlexandre le Grand: La Mac-
doine antique, edited by Sophie Descamps-Lequime,
with Katerina Charatzopoulou. Pp. 728, figs. 620.
Muse du Louvre, Paris 2011. $108. ISBN 978-2-
35031-340-5 (cloth).
As excavation in northern Greece has slowed dur-
ing the countrys economic crisis, scholars of ancient
Macedon have worked to catch up with the publica-
tion of finds long uncovered; offered new insights and
reconsidered old concerns about the archaeology and
history of the kingdom; and, through two major exhibi-
tions, shared with the public at large some of the better-
known and some of the lesser-known objects from the
archaeologically rich geographical area that it covered.
Some 25 km northwest of Verginathe ancient
Macedonian royal city of Aegaein the vicinity of an-
cient Mieza, where Aristotle is traditionally said to have
taught the young Alexander the Great, are Lefkadia
and the Tomb of the Palmettes. A large, stone-built,
two-chambered tomb with vaulted ceilings covered
by an earth tumulus, the Tomb of the Palmettes is an
example of the most grandiose and sophisticated type
of grave found in ancient Macedonia, the so-called
Macedonian tomb. Systematically excavated and re-
stored under the direction of Rhomiopoulou from
1971 to 1973, its official publication in the volume Das
Palmettengrab in Lefkadia is a welcome event.
Named for the brilliantly colored palmettes painted
to appear three-dimensional that cover the ceiling of
the antechamber, the tomb was unfortunately found
pillaged by intruders who broke through the vaulted
roof. Left behind in the burial chamber, however, was
a group of beautifully crafted small ivories represent-
ing more than 20 human figures and horses. Rhomio-
poulou and Schmidt-Dounas date the tomb to 320300
B.C.E. based on analyses of the architecture, the ap-
plied Ionic facade carved in poros stone and enhanced
by plaster and paint, the painting of two monumental
semireclining figures in the pediment, the masonry
style of both chambers, and the unique ceiling of the
antechamber, as well as the ivories and some pottery
fragments from the area behind the tomb believed to
have been a pyre.
Rhomiopoulous four chapters describe the excava-
tion and restoration (ch. 1), discuss the wall paintings
(ch. 3) and small finds (ch. 4), and provide a conclud-
ing summary (ch. 5). Schmidt-Dounas presents an
extensive chapter on the architecture (ch. 2) and a
series of 11 informative appendices (which constitute
ch. 7). (The appendices amplify earlier catalogues of
Macedonian tombs but have now been superseded
by extensive new catalogues and a concordance by
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
BERYL BARR-SHARRAR 600 [AJA 117
von Mangoldt.)
1
Excellent color plates, black-and-
white photographs, and instructive drawings augment
the texts. Chapter 6, by Brecoulaki, reveals the results
of a scientific investigation of the painted decoration,
accompanied by figures, tables, and color photo-
micrographs.
Since 1993, it has been acknowledged that the high-
ly individualistic character of the known Macedonian
chamber tombs reveals little or no morphological
development among them and that any sequential
dating in architectural terms is therefore impossible.
2
Schmidt-Dounas places the origin of the Macedonian
tomb in Aegae during the third quarter of the fourth
century B.C.E., pointing out that the king and the ar-
istocracy around him controlled sufficient means in
the years before the Asian conquest of Alexander to
finance burials in such expensive vaulted tombsnot,
as some would have it, only afterward.
Rhomiopoulou identifies the bearded man and
mature woman painted in vivid colors on the plaster
surface of the pediment, oriented with their heads
meeting near the center, as Pluto/Hades and Perse-
phone. Hades, who gazes at his bride, holds the key
to the underworld, while Persephone rests her chin
on her hand, holding a fold of her veil to her broad,
impassive face in a gesture that survives in Roman wall
painting. Rhomiopoulou places the two figures in the
context of a cult of Hades and a belief in an afterlife
that existed on a local level in Mieza and is implied
by other Macedonian tomb paintings.
In chapter 4 (Kleinfunde), Rhomiopoulou divides
her catalogue of the surviving ivories into two groups
based on size and subject matter. The first includes
23 carved heads (e.g., fig. 1), of which most are male
(one bearded and helmeted) but at least two are fe-
male (one a bust), together with parts of male bodies
and horses, as well as some ornaments. The second
group comprises pieces of smaller dimensions, in-
cluding Erotes, a herm, a partly vegetal female figure,
and floral and other ornaments. While some of the
smaller decorative elements conceivably belonged to
a container for ashes, the ivory figural elementshu-
man, horse, and mythicalalong with both clear and
colored glass elements and 141 bronze nailscame
from the wooden kline (or klinai?) that originally
stood deep in the burial chamber near a rectangular
stone platform that may have held an ash receptacle.
Forty-one tombs in ancient Macedonia containing
ivories of this naturecist graves as well as Macedo-
nian chamber tombsare listed with an appendix ref-
erence or bibliography (99). Like those from Philips
Tomb at Vergina/Aegae,

these ivories were compo-
nents of figures completed in other materialswood,
plaster, gold foilin frieze-like compositions on the
sides of klinai. Many retain original gilding and/or
paint. The larger compositions were organized in
scenes involving horses (battle or hunting); the small-
er, in Dionysian scenes. In dating the ivory heads from
the Tomb of the Palmettes to the end of the fourth cen-
tury, Rhomiopoulou contrasts the intensity of feeling
1
Von Mangoldts (2012, 1:63377) Katalog B: Makedo-
nische Kammergrber includes 145 Macedonian vaulted
chamber tombs in Greece (cat. nos. B1145), another 56
in Turkey (cat. nos. B146201), and six in Cyprus (cat. nos.
B2027), with extensive descriptions, dates, and bibliogra-
phies. Von Mangoldts (2012, 1:395406) Appendix D is a
concordance listing the 207 tombs in Katalog B with the des-
Fig. 1. Ivory head of a young man from the Tomb of the Pal-
mettes, Lefkadia, ht. 0.038 m (courtesy K. Rhomioupoulou).
ignations used for them by authors of earlier publications; his
Appendix B lists 59 Macedonian chamber tombs in the Bal-
kans and the area of the Black Sea (1:38190). For full publica-
tion of the Tomb of the Erotes in Eretria (von Mangoldt 2012,
1:13539, cat. no. B50), see Huguenot 2008. I owe knowledge
of both publications, with gratitude, to Stella Miller-Collett.
2
First pointed out by Miller-Collett in Miller 1993, 2.
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
NEW PUBLICATIONS ON ANCIENT MACEDONIA 2013] 601
conveyed by their swelling forms and movement to
the Late Classical idealizing of those from Vergina/
Aegae (97).
Such outstanding evidence of the extensive and
highly skilled manipulation of ivory in the production
of klinai from fourth-century Macedoniafound as
well in the elaborate ceremonial shield from Philips
Tombsuggests that it would be prudent to hesitate
before accepting recent arguments that Pausanias was
wrong to describe the Macedonian royal portraits by
Leochares for the Philippeion in Olympia as chrys-
elephantine.
3
It is entirely plausible that these statues
of Philip II, his son Alexander, his wife Olympia, and
his parents, Amyntas III and Eurydice, were compos-
ites of ivory, gold, and marblewith faces and other
components of ivory and gold but supportive lower
parts of stone. This would be an assemblage technique
without known parallels.
4

The composition of the statues in the Philippeion
is mentioned briefly in the second publication under
review, Brills Companion to Ancient Macedon. In The
Arts at Vergina-Aegae, the Cradle of the Macedonian
Kingdom, one of 28 chapters in a volume by 19 au-
thors, Saatsoglou-Paliadeli expresses no doubt about
Pausanias description. Reaffirming her identification
of the heavily draped marble female from the Sanctu-
ary of Eukleia at Aegae, dated stylistically to 350325
B.C.E., as a copy of the chryselephantine Eurydice, she
introduces the fragment of a base in reuse in an Early
Christian basilica discovered since her initial publica-
tion of the statue. Her comments significantly update
her earlier hypothesis about its base. Paspalas, in his
essay in Brills Companion on classical art in Macedonia,
refers only to the earlier hypothesis (188), a discrep-
ancy that should have been corrected in the final ed-
iting. This newly discovered base fragment preserves
the queens name and patronymic on a lateral side,
suggesting Eurydice stood at the right end of an ex-
tensive monument that may have supported marble
versions of the entire Philippeion group (28182).
Like Schmidt-Dounas, Saatsoglou-Paliadeli places
the origin of the Macedonian tomb in Aegae. She re-
minds the reader that even before the discovery there
of the earliest known Macedonian tombEurydices
Tomb, which has been dated to ca. 344/3 B.C.E.
based on associated pottery and

which has two vaulted
chambers but is completely enclosed
5
Andronikos
had suggested the crucial innovation from the stone-
built cist grave with its horizontal roof was the barrel
vault (289). This advanced technique, chosen for its
superior structural strength to support the tumulus
of earth that traditionally covered the burial, was fol-
lowed by the addition of an entrance in an impressive
but nonstructural facade.
6
The logic of such a develop-
ment seems unambiguous.
In another chapter of Brills Companion, The Palace
of Aegae, Kottaridi shares discoveries made during
her recent excavations of the remains of this enormous
palatial structurecovering 12,500 m
2
the date of
which has been controversial.
7
Kottaridi believes the
palace, including the west peristylethought earlier
to represent a secondary building phasewas com-
pleted by 336 B.C.E., with some restructuring in the
Hellenistic period. Kottaridi understands this vast
edifice as a public space, not a residence for the roy-
al family. She identifies 16 banquet halls with space
for 224 couches, or more than 400 diners, and open
spaces large enough to hold several thousand people.
Various surviving elements are later, including terra-
cotta roof tiles and antefixes dated to 315310 B.C.E.
and some Roman-era stone relief fragments from the
tholos room removed to the Muse du Louvre in the
19th century.
8
However, if Kottaridis foundation date
proves sustainable, the implications are of great signifi-
cance not only for the study of architecture but also for
an understanding of the nature of Philip IIs kingship.
In two successive chapters, Lane Fox addresses the
somewhat problematic date of Philip IIs accession,
his ambitions, and his self-presentation as king. He as-
sesses Philips great wealth from mining initiatives, his
available manpower, and the organization of his army
(which increased threefold from 358 to 338 B.C.E.), as
3
Schultz 2007, 22021.
4
Others have suggested this. For references, see Schultz
2007, 231 nn. 1067.
5
The associated potteryfragments of three Panathena-
ic amphoras with an archons name (Lykiskos) and traces of
burningis illustrated in Kottaridis Heracles to Alexander the
Great (149, g. 168), reviewed below. Von Mangoldt (2012,
1:29194) dates the tomb (cat. no. B135) at or shortly before
340 B.C.E.
6
Andronikos 1987, 13; Saatsoglou-Paliadeli 2004, 1124.
See von Mangoldt (2012, 2:pl. 112.5) for an excavation pho-
tograph that shows the exterior of the Tomb of Eurydice
with its low, rectangular front wall.
7
Kottaridis footnotes include bibliographic references
from Heuzey and Daumet (1876) forward. Earlier interpre-
tations suggested that the palace was probably built during
the reign of Antigonos Gonatas (277239 B.C.E.). When Kot-
taridis excavations began, there was, surprisingly, a complete
absence of dairies and photographs from earlier excavations
(298 n. 4).
8
Descamps-Lequimes Au royaume dAlexandre le Grand (un-
der review here) includes the tholos fragments (3046) and
palace antexes and tiles (30711) in the Louvre.
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
BERYL BARR-SHARRAR 602 [AJA 117
well as some of the complexities of his rule, including
taxation and civic organization. Lane Fox characterizes
Philip IIwho tripled the size of the kingdom of Mace-
don through his conquests and annexations, uniting
people of great diversitynot as a military chieftain or
the dominant Argead but as king of the Macedonians
(360). This distinctive designation, Lane Fox believes,
is appropriate to the political and social organization of
Philips sphere of influence, his gift giving and honors
received, and his royal style (35966).
As his introduction to the volume, Lane Fox makes
a refreshingly rational case for the burial in Tomb II
at Vergina/Aegae of Philip II in 336 B.C.E., methodi-
cally disputing the arguments asserted by Borza and
Palagia to assign it to Philip III (Arrhidaeus) in 316/5
B.C.E.
9
Following Hammond, Lane Fox suggests that
the approximately 25-year-old female whose ashes are
buried in the antechamber is Meda, a Getic-Scythian
princess whose ritual suicide after the kings assassina-
tion would explain her youthful death.
10
It seems likely
that the hunt painting on the facade of Tomb II, with
its image of a seemingly early teenage Alexander, is
the close adaptation of an earlier work on view in the
royal palace.
11
While, if this is so, it cannot date the
tomb, what is significantly apparent is its appropriate-
ness to the burial of Philip II. Philip is represented as
a mature and vigorous hunter on horseback in direct
confrontation with a lion. His son and successor, Al-
exander, is not only prominently nearby but placed
in the center of the painting, wearing a green laurel
wreath added by the copyist to signify his new (and
adult) royal status as king.
12
The copyist may well have
been the artist of the original.
13
Lane Fox suggests the earlier nearby cist grave,
Tomb I, is that of one of the wives of Philip II: Phila,
an Elimiote (only possibly Nicesipolis, a Thessalian)
(7). The iconography of the Abduction of Persephone
fresco that covers 3 m of a long wall, its significance
amplified by the images of the mourning Demeter
and the three Fates on adjacent walls, seems a strong
indication of burial preparation for the young woman
and neonate found in it. The painted ambiance of the
tomb enhances the likelihood that the archaeologist
Drougous consistent identification of the male bones
as those of a tomb robber is correct.
14
Drougous chapter in Brills Companion presents a
concise history of excavations at Aegae (with a bib-
liography), and other chapters by Greek archaeolo-
gists also provide invaluable up-to-date information
about Macedonian sites and cities for the wide read-
ership intended. Akamatis writes on Pella; Koukouli-
Chrysanthaki, on Amphipolis and Philippi; Tsigarida,
on cities in Chalcidice; and Adam-Veleni, on Thessa-
loniki. All include ample references to previous publi-
cations. Karamitrou-Mentessidis important chapter on
the historical and geographical context of the archaic
and classical site of Aiani, capital of Elimiotis, a district
occupying the southern part of Upper Macedonia, is
the first publication in English of much of this mate-
rial. She appends a bibliography of her own 42 reports
in Greek on the site.
Hatzopoulos presents two chapters of general intro-
duction to Macedonian studies. One reviews the study
of ancient Macedonia; the other discusses the history
of the region and its inhabitants. A third chapter by
Hatzopoulos, Macedonians and Other Greeks, with a
lengthy bibliography and suggestions for further read-
ing, may be considered provocative by those scholars
who challenge the Greek credentials of the ancient
Macedonians. In the longue dure, the essential point
9
Borza and Palagia 2007. The most recent commentator,
von Mangoldt (2012, 1:27980, cat. no. B129 [Vergina IV,
Philippsgrab]), concludes that a date in the third quarter of
the fourth century is usserst wahrscheinlich.
10
Scythian women followed the custom of suttee. Medas
father, Cothelas, was said to have brought her to the Mace-
donian court bearing many gifts (Hammond 1994, 182 [with
ancient literary references]).
11
The heroic royal hunt is a very likely subject for palace
decoration. For a recent discussion of the hunt painting on
the facade of Philips Tomb as a traditional expression of the
royal Macedonian image, see Franks 2012.
12
While the four spool salt cellars from the tomb have been
compared by Rotroff to examples from the Athenian Agora
dated to 325295 B.C.E., the nature of the export market for
Attic pottery has not been examined. Some Athenian potters
may have had exclusive relationships with the fourth-century
Macedonian market and sent quality products there before
the shapes became current in Athens. Such exclusivity was
perhaps also characteristic for Athenian producers of silver
plate, some of whom may have dealt directly with the palace.
13
Any use of a cartoon has left no evidence, and incised
guidelines are few (Saatsoglou-Paliadeli 2004, 3940, g. 8,
pls. 6a, b). The original prototype may have been cropped
on the right, as suggested by Saatsoglou-Paliadeli (2004), and
even on the left, for adaptation of the frieze to the available
space and the central placement of Alexander. For an ap-
preciation of the Vergina hunt painting that includes scien-
tic information about its realization, see Brecoulaki 2006,
1:10333.
14
Drougou 2005, 247. Phila was one of Philips earliest
wives; her brother Machatas may well have been the donor of
the partially gilded silver strainer found in Philips Tomb.
The strainer is inscribed on the underside of the ange with
the name Machatas in the genitive form, indicating own-
ership. Lane Fox mentions the strainer in Brills Companion
(32), and Green (1982) considered it to be a strong piece of
evidence toward the burial in that tomb of Philip II; see also
Andronikos 1984, 148, g. 108.
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
NEW PUBLICATIONS ON ANCIENT MACEDONIA 2013] 603
is the Macedonians projection of themselves over
centuries (and extensive geographical areas) as the
artistic and intellectual representatives of Greek cul-
ture. Hatzopoulos final contribution is a chapter on
civic institutions in pre-Roman Macedonia, The Cit-
ies. Mari presents one chapter on archaic and Early
Classical Macedonia and another on traditional Greek
religious cults and beliefs in Macedonia. In the chap-
ter 399369 BC, Lane Fox reevaluates early fourth-
century Argead politics and the succession of kings,
and in The 360s he suggests Philip II inherited an
even weaker Macedon than many historians have out-
lined. Kremydi offers a history of Macedonian coinage
and finance; Psoma focuses on the history of the rela-
tionship of the kingdom of Macedon to the Chalcidic
League; and Loukopoulou gives a succinct summary
of Macedonia in Thrace from Philip IIs conquest in
342 B.C.E. until the creation of a separate Provincia
Thracia under Roman rule in 46 C.E. Lane Fox, in his
sixth and final contribution, discusses the reign of An-
tigonos Gonataswhose dynasty finally achieved con-
trol of Macedonia by 277 B.C.E.and what is known
about the rule of Gonatas son Demetrios II. Ma then
gives a vivid account of Court, King, and Power in
Antigonid Macedonia, pointing out what was simi-
lar to other Hellenistic royal courts (e.g., the Friends
of the King, distinctly not patterned after the Argead
Hetairoi) and what was specifically Macedonian. Ar-
chaeological evidence attests that the luxury culture
of Macedonian elites, which Ma calls a diffused or
radiated version of court culture (53942), existed
into the third century, though it must be remembered
that Macedonian burials from the second half of the
fourth century are to date by far the richest.
15

Besides Saatsoglou-Paliadelis chapter on the arts
at Aegae and Karamitrou-Mentessidis on the Bronze
Age through Early Classical material from Aiani, the
comprehensive chapter by Paspalas deals mostly with
the Classical period but includes a few archaic mar-
bles. Palagia presents a chapter on Hellenistic art in
Macedonia, and Stefanidou-Tiveriou discusses the sig-
nificant but less well-known art of the Roman period,
168 B.C.E.337 C.E. The final chapter in the volume,
a contribution by Kyrtatas, is a concise discussion of
early Christianity in Macedonia, where Paul and his
associates are believed to have visited in the mid first
century C.E.
Philip II looms large in Brills Companion in unsur-
prising agreement with the conspicuous change in
Macedonian studies over the last 30 yearsthat is,
the shift toward focusing on Philips own achieve-
ments rather than those of his son Alexander the
Great. A similar emphasis can be found in Blackwells
A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, where even Gilley
and Worthington, authors of a chapter dedicated to
Alexander, conclude that the title of greatest king
of Macedonia arguably belongs not to Alexander but
to Philip (205). The most important difference be-
tween Blackwells volume and Brills is the nature of
the scholarly team in Blackwells, which includes no
Greek scholars or archaeologists and thus no reports
from excavations. While Brills emphasis is largely ar-
chaeological, the essays in Blackwells are mostly on
literary and historical subjects. Thus, while there is
some inevitable overlap in those areas of literature
and history also discussed in Brills, the two books are
not in the broadest sense competitors.
The contributors to Blackwells Companion, includ-
ing some well-known scholars of ancient Macedonia,
are from the United States, Canada, the United King-
dom, Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, and Japan. Authors
in both Companions annotate generously, although
few in Blackwells include references to recent pub-
lications in Greek. Only three of the essays in Brills
Companion conclude with a bibliography; all authors
in Blackwells publication contribute a bibliographic
essay, and there is a 51-page inclusive bibliography at
the end of that volume. Both volumes have indexes.
Brills has a single color map; Blackwells has 10 de-
tailed monochrome maps. The illustrations in Brills
are greater in number and higher in quality.
Blackwells Companion presents 27 essays divided into
seven parts: Preamble, Evidence, Macedonia and
Macedonians, History, Neighbours, Politics, Soci-
ety, Economy and Culture, and After Rome. Essays
on the history of the early Temenid kings (Sprawski),
on classical Macedonia from Alexander I to Perdiccas
III (Roisman), and on Philip II (Mller) precede the
one on Alexander the Great by Gilley and Worthington
in History, and three follow: Alexanders Succes-
sors to 221 B.C.E. (Adams), Macedonia and Rome,
221 B.C.E.146 C.E. (Eckstein), and Provincia Mace-
donia (Vanderspoel). Mller does not discuss the
burial in Philips Tomb at Vergina/Aegae but im-
plies a preference by her reference to Worthingtons
published arguments elsewhere that the occupant is
Philip II (183).
16
Adams thinks the evidence points to
Philip III (214 n. 7).
The preamble in Blackwells Companion is by Anson,
who remarks on the more critical view of Alexander
15
See Zimi (2011), with special attention to ch. 4,
Chronology.
16
Worthington 2008, appx. 6.
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
BERYL BARR-SHARRAR 604 [AJA 117
the Great now held by ancient historians and intro-
duces many of the issues discussed in the volume. In
part 2, Rhodes presents literary and epigraphic evi-
dence up to the Roman conquest, and Dahmen exam-
ines Macedonian numismatic evidence, coinage that
first became the province of the king with the reign
of Alexander I (498454 B.C.E.). In part 3, Thomas
illuminates the physical character of the kingdom,
and Engels writes about Macedonians and Greeks.
Engels essay might be expected to be the antithesis of
Hatzopoulos Brills Companion chapter on the subject
of Macedonian identity, but the author comes to only
provisional and entirely mixed conclusions. Pertinent
to the subject is the essay subsequent to Engels in
which Asirvatham describes the changing perception
of Macedonians over the course of antiquity.
Part 5 (Neighbours) covers Macedonias relation-
ship to Illyria and Epirus (Greenwalt), Thessaly (Gran-
inger), Thrace (Archibald), and Persia (Olbrycht).
Part 6 includes essays on Macedonian kingship (King),
social customs and institutions (Sawada), women
(Carney), religion (Christesen and Murray), the army
(Sekunda), the political economy (Millett), classical
art to 221 B.C.E. (Hardiman),
17
and Hellenistic and
Roman art from 221 B.C.E. to 337 C.E. (Kousser).
In the final section of Blackwells Companion (After
Rome), Snively discusses Macedonia in late antiquity.
The volume ends, somewhat surprisingly, with a discus-
sion by the anthropologist Danforth on the history of
the political quarrel between Greece and the state that
emerged with the breakup of Yugoslavia, proclaimed
in 1993 by the United Nations the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia. Danforth has been studying
the conflict for 20 years, and some readers may be made
aware for the first time of the origin and extent of the
Macedonian question in modern Balkan politics.
The catalogues of two recent exhibitions on ancient
MacedoniaKottaridis Heracles to Alexander the Great
and Descamps-Lequimes Au royaume dAlexandre le
Grandhave different characteristics, and the exhi-
bitions themselves served different goals. The Ash-
molean Museums exhibition, Heracles to Alexander the
Great, focused on excavations at Vergina/Aegae and
was overseen by Kottaridi, director of the 17th Epho-
rate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities. Kottaridi
wrote five of the 18 chapters in the catalogue, as well
as an appendix on the Aegae palace that she greatly
expanded for Brills Companion.
The exhibition opened with the Ashmoleans 53
cm high Roman marble statuette of Heracles, legend-
ary forefather of the Temenid dynasty of Macedonian
kings. What followed was an impressive display of ma-
terial from Vergina/Aegae dating from the middle
of the second millennium to the late fourth century
B.C.E., most of it displayed outside Greece for the first
time. There were 552 objects, many of them illustrated
in a catalogue well organized for their discussion in
extended essays. Catalogue numbers in photograph
captions indicate entries in the List of Exhibits at the
end of the volume; the entries include measurements,
excavation context (perhaps not often enough), and
date (frequently stylistic or, inevitably, general). The
volume also includes a select glossary of terms, a bib-
liography, and a note suggesting some bibliographic
sources for excavation reports. Both the textual con-
tent and the high-quality photographs make this a
readable and highly informative publication.
The most recent find in the exhibition was a spec-
tacular gold oak wreath discovered in 2008 in an un-
marked late fourth-century burial in the area of the
Sanctuary of Eukleia and the agora of Aegae (fig. 2).
It was found together with the remains of a young man
in a gold pyxis placed in a cylindrical bronze vessel. In
a chapter in the catalogue on the royal presence in the
agora (ch. 14), Saatsoglou-Paliadeli, the excavator of
the burial, suggests it may be that of Heracles, the ille-
gitimate son of Alexander III and Barsine. Heracles was
a teenager when murdered on the orders of Cassander.
While the exhibition was to some extent organized
by funerary assemblages (notably the pyre associated
with the Tomb of Eurydice), there were also themes:
the world of the king, royal women, the royal banquet.
Pertinent to the royal banquet, Drougous chapter in
the catalogue discusses some of the metal vessels in
the exhibition (ch. 13). These include a fifth-century
silver omphalos phiale from the rich archaic burial of
the Lady of Aegae (ca. 500 B.C.E.) and selected ves-
sels from later burials. Drougous well-illustrated text,
with enlarged photographic details, is characteristic
of the entire catalogue.
Lane Fox, Hatzopoulos, and Kremydi present chap-
ters in Heracles to Alexander the Great related to their
longer contributions in Brills Companion, and Brecou-
laki writes about the Vergina/Aegae tomb paintings.
Musgrave and Prag address Bartsiokas earlier dispu-
tation of their identification of the human remains in
17
Perhaps a misprint, but if not, a misunderstanding, is Hardimans interpretation of the genitive form of the Thessalian name
Astioun in the inscription on the rim of the Derveni krater as indication of an original by Astioun (516). The genitive form of the
name denotes ownership; it does not identify the artist of the krater. The krater was owned by a man named Astioun, either at the
time of its production in the second quarter of the fourth century B.C.E. or at the time it was buried, ca. 330 B.C.E.
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
NEW PUBLICATIONS ON ANCIENT MACEDONIA 2013] 605
Philips Tomb as those of Philip II. (Bartsiokas chal-
lenge to the authors offered support to scholars who
believed the tomb was that of Philip III Arrhidaeus.)
18
Kountouri discusses the significance of Mycenaean
weapons found in the area of Sphekia and of alabastra
and locally made Mycenaean-type ceramic vessels from
burials at Aegae. Graekos discusses trade from the Iron
Age to the late fourth century B.C.E. and also pres-
ents a chapter on war and hunting. The fragmentary
stone sculpture group from Vergina/Aegaea hunter
in a chitoniskos and an aggressive boar with an attack-
ing dog clinging to its back, carved from the same
stone as the boar (fig. 63 in Heracles to Alexander the
Great)was displayed in the exhibition near a photo-
graph of the hunt painting from Philips Tomb. Kot-
taridi has dated this unusual sculpture group stylisti-
cally to 340320 B.C.E. Among the extensive material
discussed in Kottaridis chapters, the most surprising
to exhibition visitors may have been a group of some
of the 26 life-sized, partially moldmade, hollow male
and female clay heads found in a female burial of
ca. 480 B.C.E. at Vergina/Aegae (e.g., fig. 3). Kottaridi
suggests they were placed on wooden poles to form
xoana for use in a burial ceremony and subsequently
thrown into the tomb.
Pella, which served as administrative capital of the
kingdom from about the end of the fifth century and
was called the greatest of the cities in Macedonia
in the fourth century by Xenophon (Hell. 5.2.13),
is discussed in a short but comprehensive chapter
by the excavator Lilimpaki-Akamati. Galanakis, the
Ashmolean Museum exhibition curator in 2011 and
a collaborative editor of the catalogue, contributed a
detailed chapter on the 160 years of archaeological re-
search at Vergina. It begins with Lon Heuzey (1831
1922), a member of the cole Franaise dAthnes,
whose early finds from Macedonia were prominently
displayed in the exhibition at the Muse du Louvre
and are presented in its catalogue, discussed below.
Walker, keeper of antiquities at the Ashmolean Mu-
seum and also a collaborative editor of the catalogue,
offers a concluding chapter on the Roman heritage of
18
Bartsiokas 2000.
Fig. 2. Gold oak wreath discovered in 2008 in a late fourth-century B.C.E. cremation burial in the area of the agora
and Sanctuary of Eukleia at Vergina/Aegae (courtesy A. Kottaridi).
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
BERYL BARR-SHARRAR 606 [AJA 117
the palace at Aegae. Walker suggests there must have
been interim Hellenistic architectural designs that
transmitted features from the fourth-century palace
to Early Roman imperial constructions that, like the
Kaisareion built by Julius Caesar at Alexandria, share
functional ideas with it.
The volume Au royaume dAlexandre le Grand from
the Muse du Louvre, with 728 pages and 29 x 24 x
15 cm in size, is a tour de force accompanying what
was another superior exhibition. The number of ob-
jects on display was well more than 400 and included
many objects from Vergina/Aegae shown earlier
in the same year at the Ashmolean. But the Louvre
exhibition extended its reachboth geographically
throughout ancient Macedonia and chronologically
into the Imperial Roman period. Thus, besides rich
material from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic
period, on display were numerous surviving Roman
marblesstatue heads, statuettes, sarcophagi, votive
monuments, and funerary monumentsall derived
from sites in ancient Macedonia and either borrowed
from northern Greek museums (Veroia, Dion, Thessa-
loniki, Pella, Kozani, Florina) or permanently housed
in the Louvre itself.
Prominent among material belonging to the Louvre
is what remains of the double-story Thasian marble
colonnade, popularly named Las Incantadas, with
high-relief figures of Greek myth carved on both sides
of the upper columns (57688). Much of this monu-
ment, erected in Thessaloniki in the second century
C.E., was removed to France over a period of years af-
ter legal acquisition in 1864 by an envoy of Napoleon
III. It was presented in the exhibition in a dramatic
restoration. The catalogue includes photographs of
all the elements, 17th- and 18th-century drawings of
the colonnade in situ, and an essay by Louvre restorer
Laugier and historian Sve.
19
This, and much of the Ro-
man material in the exhibition, is available in chapter
8 of the catalogue, Une re nouvelle: La Macdoine
antique sous domination romaine.
After a series of nine short introductory essays by ar-
chaeologists and historians, Descamps-Lequime, chief
conservator of the department of Greek, Etruscan,
and Roman antiquities at the Louvre, introduces in
Fig. 3. Life-sized male clay heads from a female burial of ca. 480 B.C.E. at Vergina/Aegae (courtesy A. Kottaridi).
19
The authors suggest a date of the middle or third quarter of the second century C.E.
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
NEW PUBLICATIONS ON ANCIENT MACEDONIA 2013] 607
chapter 1 (La dcouverte de la Macdoine antique)
some of the exhibited objects from ancient Macedo-
nia belonging to the Louvre. Her essay recounts the
relevant French activity from the end of the 18th to
the beginning of the 20th century. French consular
presence in Thessaloniki prior to Heuzeys missions
resulted in the acquisition of numerous objects
notably, in 1833, an impressive colossal marble portrait
head of Caracalla transported from Philippi to the
orthodox church in Drama a century earlier. Excava-
tions by the archaeological service of the French army
in 19171918 uncovered Macedonian necropoleis of
various dates and contributed ceramics, weapons, and
small objects in bronze and gold. Much of this was on
display for the first time, as was the Caracalla head
(667). All are well illustrated in this chapter.
Better known is the material of late fourth- to early
third-century B.C.E. date excavated by Heuzey and
architect Pierre Jrome Honor Daumet in the early
1860s. On display were major elements from the early
third-century two-chambered vaulted Macedonian
tomb at Korinos, near Pydna. They included the mar-
ble front of a funerary bed carved in relief and painted
to resemble a kline of gilded wood and ivory with a
Molossian dog reclining underneath (813). While
the Korinos material appears in chapter 1, architec-
tural elements brought to France from the late fourth-
century Heuzey Macedonian tomb at Vergina/Aegae
(then called Palatitsia) are catalogued in chapter 7,
La religion et la mort aux poques classique et hell-
nistique. Augmenting photographs and texts of both
tombs excavated by Heuzey are detailed drawings and
watercolors by Daumet. This chapter also includes fu-
nerary stelae, votive reliefs, and relevant marble and
terracotta sculptures, as well as gold wreaths, jewelry,
and ceramics from various burials of that period. While
the separation of the elements from the two related
tombs into chapters more than 400 pages apart may
seem somewhat arbitrary, perusal of the catalogue re-
veals that its overriding organization is the integration
of material together with meaningful texts.
The exhibition was conceived and directed by
Descamps-Lequime as a collaborative effort between
France and Greece, and collaboration is strikingly ap-
parent in the catalogue. More than 90 authors are rep-
resented, with Greek archaeologists, historians, and
specialists outnumbering their French colleagues by
roughly three to one. Too numerous for more than a
few to be mentioned by name, the authors each con-
tribute one or more of the 418 catalogue entries and/
or one or more of the essays; the language is consis-
tently French. The opportunity to see the Louvres
material from ancient Macedonia in the context of
hundreds of objects (many discovered in the last few
decades) in Greek museums was justification enough
for the exhibition. All objects and architectural ele-
ments appear in the catalogue with generous texts,
bibliography, and high-quality photographs. Explana-
tory photographs and drawings, both historical and
new, add further information, and the reader will be
grateful to find footnotes close to the texts.
After the first chapter, another four proceed
chronologically. Chapter 2, from prehistory through
the sixth century B.C.E., catalogues gold from Sindos
among much else. Chapter 3, covering the fifth to
fourth centuries, presents the extensive gold orna-
ments found decorating the remains of the Lady of
Aegae, including her gilded silver sandal soles, in a
burial dated to ca. 500 B.C.E. In this chapter is the
material removed from the Aegae/Vergina palace site
and brought to France by Heuzey and Daumet in 1876:
large Ionic crowning blocks and bases; fragments of a
smaller Ionic order; and the Roman fragments from
the tholos and tiles and antefixes dated to 315310
B.C.E. (mentioned above). By way of introduction,
Saatsoglou-Paliadeli outlines the excavation history
of the palace, with particular reference to the tholos
or exedra in its later, Roman phase, and Kottaridi dis-
cusses recent excavations. Pertinently, Chrysostomou
reviews in this chapter what is so far known about the
palace at Pella. Chapter 4 covers the Hellenistic pe-
riod to the beginning of the second century B.C.E.
but includes earlier material discovered in later grave
contexts.
Chapter 5, titled La socit macdonienne aux
poques classique et hellnistique, includes essays
on, and material relevant to, athletic education, lit-
erature and philosophy, music and dance, and the
theater in Macedonia. Also within this chapter is an
essay, titled Le monde des femmes: Parure, vie do-
mestique et objets du quotidien, introducing a range
of domestic objects, jewelry, and terracotta figurines
of high quality. Two more essays in this chapter are
concerned with lunivers masculin: the symposium and
the hunt in Macedonia. Yet another essay presents the
rural world. Chapter 6 introduces still more objects
discovered in classical and Hellenistic Macedonia, with
essays and entries now organized by material: archi-
tecture, major painting, mosaic, sculpture, coroplastic
material, ceramics, toreutics, gold jewelry, glass, ivo-
ries, and works in alabaster. It closes with an essay by
Blond and Muller discussing the possibility of local
Macedonian artisanal and commercial production,
significant indications of which are at present limited
to Pella. After chapter 7 (discussed above) and chap-
ter 8 on Roman Macedonia, the final chapter (ch. 9)
is dedicated to Alexander the Great and his legend
and includes the catalogue entries for the exhibited
2013 Archaeological Institute of America
B. BARR-SHARRAR, NEW PUBLICATIONS ON ANCIENT MACEDONIA 608
portraits and statuettes of Alexander in the Louvre
and the Archaeological Museum of Pella.
There are two appendices in Au royaume dAlexandre
le Grand, the first a useful alphabetical list of archaeo-
logical sites with photographs and maps. The second
is an introduction by Sideris to the exhibitions virtual-
reality reconstruction of the House of Dionysos in
Pella, supervised by Sideris in association with the
Fondation du Monde Hellnique. The bibliography
is extensive, and the two indices are essential.
The five publications in this review cover most of
the major developments and bibliographies pertain-
ing to ancient Macedonia over the last 3040 years.
Of relevance, especially to Au royaume dAlexandre le
Grand, is the catalogue of a current exhibition on view
through 2013 at the Archaeological Museum of Thes-
saloniki titled Archaeology Behind Battle Lines: In Thessa-
loniki of the Turbulent Years, 19121922.
20
The authors
of the 15 essays in the catalogue are mostly Greek, but
Shapland from the British Museum writes about the
British Salonika Force collection in that museum, and
Farnoux, director of the cole Franaise dAthnes,
presents an essay on archaeology and the Arme
dOrient. All texts are in both Greek and English.
The same dual-language presentation can be found
in Threpteria: Studies on Ancient Macedonia.
21
This is a
volume of 25 essays on ancient Macedonia written by
members of the university community and members
of the Ephorates of Prehistoric and Classical Antiqui-
ties of Macedonia. The inclusion of English texts in
these publications suggests they are directed toward
and intended for the academic community at large.
institute of fine arts
new york university
311 east 72nd street
new york, new york 10021
bbsharrar@aol.com
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2013 Archaeological Institute of America