Ancient Greek Tomb found with Remains of five People

Archaeologists found a huge tomb built in the time of Alexander the Great in Greece contains the ancient remains of five people. Including a woman aged over 60, a child baby, two men aged between 35 and 45 and another grown person of indeterminate age.
The bones of one of the men bore cut marks which were likely to have come from a sword or a dagger, the Greek civilization ministry said, adding a new twist to the occupants of the graveyard. The fifth person, whose gender and age has not been recognized so far, had been cremated.

Since the tomb was exposed at Amphipolis in northern Greece last year there has been intense theory that it may have been build for Alexander the Great, or failing that one of his generals or his mother. Most experts have discounted the Alexander theory, saying that he was maybe covered in Egypt. The tomb has been dated to between 325 B.C. – two years before the death of the warrior-king – and 300 B.C.

Alexander forged one of the main empires the world had ever seen, a sprawling variety of territories that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indus. He is supposed to have died in 323 BC, at the age of 32, after an all-night drinking bout in Babylonia, with his body then elated to Alexandria, a city that he founded, for burial. After his death, his generals fought over control of the empire he had recognized.

Throughout those wars, Alexander’s mother, widow, son and half-brother were all murdered – most of them near Amphiboles. Inside the huge tomb – the major ever to have been found in Greece – archaeologists have found two marble statues of sphinxes and a beautiful mosaic pavement which depicts the abduction of Persephone, the daughter of Zeus, by Hades, king of the underworld.

Tests will be conducted on the bones of the woman and two men to decide if they were connected. “Part of the analysis will look into a probable blood relationship … but the lack of teeth and cranial parts that are used in ancient DNA analysis may not allow for a victorious identification,” the culture ministry said.