Alexander's Great Palace Unearthed ( Posted by Dharmapada )

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Alexander's Great Palace UnearthedBy Dalya Alberge - Arts Correspondent

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-101058,00.html

3-19-1

Gold, jewellery, marble sculptures and terracotta statuettes are among thousands

of treasures that Greek archaeologists have unearthed in excavations at Pella,

the Ancient Macedonian birthplace of Alexander the Great. Among their

discoveries is the palace, complete with swimming pool, where Alexander was

born, three main sanctuaries including one devoted to Aphrodite, the agora, or

marketplace, and tombs of both the aristocracy and ordinary people. Although

Ancient Greek historians dismissed the Macedonians as coarse and barbaric,

finds made by their 21st-century successors show that they led a luxurious and

refined lifestyle, particularly in the 4th and early 3rd centuries BC. Many of

the artefacts will be shown at a three-day conference, Excavating Classical

Culture: Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Greece, at Oxford University next

weekend. The Department of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at

Somerville College has invited 25 prominent, mostly Greek, scholars to present

their finds for the first time outside their homeland. The Ancient Macedonian

capital was so big that, although archaeologists began excavating the site in

the 1970s, less than 1 per cent of it has been excavated so far. The palace

alone covered 60,000 square metres. Maria Lilibaki-Akamati, head of the Pella

excavations, said: "It is an excellent example of Greek palatial architecture,

an impressively elaborate and magnificent complex. The palace was made up of

five large buildings with a central courtyard. As well as the royal apartments,

archaeologists have found the remains of a gymnasium with a swimming pool

measuring about 35 square metres. Pella, 30 miles north west of the northern

Greek city of Thessaloníki, was once the capital of the Macedonian kingdom that

Alexander built into an empire stretching to Egypt and India. The artefacts

reflect that the Ancient Macedonian aristocracy profited from the spoils of

battle and an export trade in timber and locally mined gold, enjoying a

sophisticated and luxurious lifestyle. The palace was constructed by King

Archelaus at the beginning of the 4th century BC and continued to be used by

Alexander the Great,s father, Philip II, under whom the city developed rapidly.

A head of Alexander the Great and a marble figure of the deity Pan, with the

facial features of the ruler, are among the finds. Dr Lilibaki-Akamati said

that the agora and the administrative centre of the city had yielded marble

statues, terracotta figurines, bronze monuments with figures, animals and

inscriptions. At Aphrodite,s sanctuary, archaeologists found an inscription

bearing the deity,s name. They also uncovered six tombs of the wealthy

aristocracy, decorated with paintings and carvings. The women were buried with

exquisite jewellery, including earrings and rings. The men were buried with

elaborate swords. Dr Lilibaki-Akamati said that it was a custom in the 4th

century BC to put into the tomb a gold leaf inscribed with the name of the

dead. "So we have the certificate of the dead. Professor R. R .R. Smith,

Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at Oxford and a co-organiser

of the conference, said: "We know Classical Greece from Athens and Corinth. This

excavation is putting the Macedonian civilisation on the map.

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