
Samaras expects 'exceptionally important find' at Ancient Amphipolis - megafounder
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_12/08/2014_542093
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pp19dd
All pure speculation. They haven't even excavated yet, only outlined the
walls.

They write so much in 3 different places, including literally admitting hype
in the write-up: "There has been speculation that the tomb could contain the
remains of Alexander the Great..."

Worse yet, this is old speculation news. Last year, nearly to the day, they
(the Culture Ministry) made a similar announcement:
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2401057/Have-...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2401057/Have-
archaeologists-discovered-grave-Alexander-Great-Experts-enormous-marble-tomb-
fit-king-Greece.html)

This area is home to many excavation projects; google "site:.edu Amphipolis"
and you'll see quite a lot of them.

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sebkomianos
Although you are not entirely wrong, "all pure speculation" is different than
"this is a speculation based on some findings, so far".

~~~
pp19dd
Sorry, my language is harsh because I was addressing the nature of this
writeup, which I labeled as "pure speculation." I work in the news industry,
so I both experience and see this side of the news industry, and I don't like
it. It's the un-informed PR rewrite story.

Way it happens is a general-assignment person (who writes well but has no
specific topic knowledge) gets an assignment to write a story. The story
originates from a press release. The press release is political: (culture
ministry is an office, tasked with promotion amongst things). Politician
bypasses actual archeologists and scientists and then peppers the story with
speculation designed to boost their office priorities and awareness. "By the
way, this is probably Alexander's tomb. Very exciting."

The person writing the story has no training in history, archeology or is
generally aware of trends, claims and excavations. No clue what an in-situ
find is. They look at the PR, look-up a few background factoids, rewrite the
piece and publish it. As you walk by and ask how their morning is, they
casually proclaim "did you know pp, they discovered Alexander's tomb this
morning???"

I cringe and walk on.

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sebkomianos
Yup, you are not wrong. This particular newspaper (Kathimerini - "Daily" in
greek) is known to be government-aligned and is basically jumping on every
opportunity to make it look like more and more things are running better in
the country.

It is also very much worth noting that the greek prime minister himself,
Samaras, said "Please be patient for a few days - for a very important
archeological discovery to be made". Alexander's tomb? "I told you so".
Someone else's tomb? "This is still an important discovery, blah blah blah".

~~~
christudor
Some Greeks are very proud (even precious) about their cultural history. Check
out this response to Dr Armand D'Angour's 'attempt to re-write Greek history'
(and dont' forget to read the comments):
[http://eu.greekreporter.com/2014/07/23/bbc-attempts-to-
rewri...](http://eu.greekreporter.com/2014/07/23/bbc-attempts-to-rewrite-
ancient-greek-history/)

On the issue of Alexander specifically, it's important to note how important
Alexander is in whole Greece/FYR Macedonia thing. Alexander was a Macedonian,
of course, but what was then Macedonia is now part of Northern Greece, meaning
the (modern) country of Macedonia can only be called (The Former Yugoslav
Republic of) Macedonia. By 'locating' the tomb of Alexander in (modern)
Greece, the Greeks further solidify their claim that Alexander is part of
their cultural heritage, not (FYR) Macedonia's.

(This is interesting because when Alexander was actually alive, he did
everything he could to make himself look more Greek, whereas the Greeks proper
saw him as a barbarian Macedonian and wanted nothing to do with him...)

~~~
sebkomianos
I am greek. :D

~~~
christudor
Yes, as I said, it's only /some/ Greeks that feel this way. I hope I haven't
misrepresented the situation too much? (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

~~~
sebkomianos
No, you are pretty much right. Our national identity is our ancient (not just
the cultural - more recent poets for example are not that prominent in our
daily pride-talk, and more recent events like the civil war are comfortably
omitted when we talk about "Greece") history. So there is a lot in stake for
us with those matters.

However I would disagree with the "Macedonian barbarian" note you made:
Alexander was educated by Aristoteles and he was elected as the main greek
general in the war against the barbarians (Persians) by the rest of the
greeks.

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wahsd
What hope is there for humanity if war mongering tyrants are at the very least
not honored and worshiped. War and organized murder should not be a virtue, it
should be a necessity for defense; after which you lay down your arms while
still preparing for the possible necessity for defense from ever present
psychopathic human demons.

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sbmassey
This would conflict with the generally accepted story, that the Greek general
Ptolemy took Alexander's body with him back to Egypt, where it was used to
bring legitimacy to his new regime.

~~~
bellerocky
He was transported to Memphis, then Alexandria and was laid to rest there and
Roman Emperor's used to come and pay respects at his tomb long after his
death,

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Egypt#Ptolemaic_Period](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Egypt#Ptolemaic_Period)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Alexander_the_Great](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Alexander_the_Great)

The title of this post is way off, it doesn't even reflect the actual article.

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Hardrada
From what I've read the tomb is said to be 10 times bigger than that of
Philippos his father. Now if history is correct and Ptolomy took Alexander's
body to Egypt, could it not be so that the tomb was in any case originally
built and intended for Alexander?

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gpvos
Couldn't the submitter have waited a few weeks until they actually found
something? (Also, how did this get so many upvotes?) The article doesn't even
quote the archaeologists, but only a government minister, for chrissake.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
A few weeks? Well, they've been two years excavating as of the date of the
article, and so far it looks like they've found a strange tomb. It may be
years rather than weeks before they know anything definitive.

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peter303
Unlikely. He was buried in Alexandria, then moved to the desert, then taken to
Rome and lost. They might have found his family tomb in Greece however. They
found his Dad about 20 years ago with lots of spectacular artifacts.

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megafounder
Another link with video [http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/08/11/the-
mystery-of-an...](http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/08/11/the-mystery-of-
ancient-amphipolis/)

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th3iedkid
>>There has been speculation that the tomb could contain the remains of
Alexander the Great or his wife, Roxana, and their son, Alexander IV.

TLDR

