The tomb of Amphipolis rewards excavators! According to a press release issued by the Greek Ministry of Culture on Wednesday, archaeologists discovered a human skeleton and several nails apparently from a wooden coffin.
The findings have been discovered under the floor of the third chamber of the tomb, in a depth of 1.60 meters.
According to the Press Release issued by the Greek Culture Ministry – in Greek! -:
1. Works continued in the hill of Kasta and thus in the third chamber. In a dept of 1.60m below the floor stones, a large grave in a form of a box was found, made of limestone.
2. The external dimensions of the tomb is 3.23m length, 1.56 m width and the preserved height is one meter. However, findings during excavations allow us to consider that the height reached at least 1.80m.
3. Inside the grave there was a longitudinal deepening of 0,54m width and 2.35m length, inside which a wooden coffin was placed. Iron and copper nails have been found around as well as decorative elements of the coffin made of bones and glass. Note that the total height of the third chamber from the top of the dome to the bottom of the tomb is 8.90m.
4. The skeleton of the dead was found inside and outside the grave. It is obvious that the anthropological material will be examined by expert scientists according to the latest requirements of the modern science.
The identity of the dead is still to be investigated.
Full text in Greek with more details in Greek Culture Ministry’s website here
PS now the usual “mean Greeks” make fun of the “skeleton of the dead” wondering, whether archaeologist could have found the “skeleton of a living human”…
My question is why the Greek Culture Ministry does not bother to issue its press releases also in English, when Amphipolis is being claimed to be in the focus of public interest worldwide.
