We survived our Greece-Romania double header and have mostly settled back at home in one piece– these past few weeks ended up being a little crazy at work, as I have been asked to develop the short list of candidates for my successor. It has been a huge learning experience of what works (and what doesn’t!) when lobbying for jobs, so it’s somewhat of a pity that I won’t stay in the Foreign Service long enough to use my newfound knowledge. I conducted seven or eight phone interviews, which will surely be good experience no matter where I end up.
The weather has also slowly begun changing after what has felt like an interminable summer. It’s now dark by 6:30, and the mornings and evenings are in the low 70s. We’ve had our last day over 90 degrees for the year; soon we’ll be leaving the 80s behind too. I can’t wait! And with GMAT and MBA applications behind me, I have turned my energies to mapping out the epic 30th birthday trip to Egypt next month!
But there is still some blogging to catch up on from Cyprus, Greece, and Romania. And I would remiss in not covering our side trip to the Royal Tombs of Aigai near Thessaloniki. While the mound above looks quite unremarkable, it is actually home to a small museum and the contents of several incredible marble tombs, including the tomb of Philip II, who was Alexander the Great’s father. I never would have heard of this place if it weren’t for the UNESCO World Heritage List.
They’ve done a great job with the museum– the walls are black and the lights are low, though the artifacts themselves–particularly the gold ones– are spectacularly lit. You can descend a flight of stairs and stand right in front of the facade of the tombs, which are stately white marble, probably little more than one story high, with some painted stripes still visible on the front. They are impressive and seem vaguely Greek, but also vaguely Egyptian to me. Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed inside so I will try to recount for you what we saw based on some notes, our memories, and what little detail I could find online.
In ancient Greece, it was customary to burn the dead, and Philip II’s tomb included his funerary pyre. The museum meticulously sorted the contents, including animal bones, iron tools and weapons, and the remains of food (like olive and grape piths) into piles for viewing. Once cremated, Philip’s bones were washed in wine, wrapped in cloth, and placed in a small golden box (called a “larnax”) with the stylized sun of Vergina embossed on it. The larnax is on display and absolutely spectacular; you would never know it is nearly 2300 years old. Philip’s crown made of gold oak leaves and acorns was also found. Severin read that while most funerary pyres included a couple of small weapons such as spears, Alexander the Great threw four full suits of armor on the pyre.
The tomb also contained banquet ware (i.e., serving vessels, plates, goblets, etc), greaves (shin guards for ancient Greek soldiers), Macedonia helmets, and numerous weapons. The archeologists had meticulously reassembled the intricate gold, ivory, and glass designs that were embedded on the now-decayed wooden funerary couch. Most impressive of all, however, was the suit of armor and shield placed in the tomb. The shield was probably a good three feet across and though the elaborate design was quite degraded, you could get a sense of how spectacular it must have been in its day. Here is an image of the armor and here is an image of the shield.
Once we finished up at the museum, we stopped for a freshly squeezed orange juice and sandwiches at the lovely cafe located on-site. A few large stray dogs had a run of the grounds– at one point I looked down and was shocked to see this sleeping fur ball curled under my chair! Probably hoping for food…
