Aegae
Aegae(Vergina) in northern Pieria (see map: Greece and the Aegean world), overlooking the coastal plain of Macedonia. Founded by the first of the Temenid kings and thereafter the site of their tombs, it has been made famous by Manolis Andronikos, who excavated a pre-Temenid cemetery of tumuli and then, in 1977, three royal tombs of the 4th cent. bc. Two were intact. The frescos, the offerings in gold, silver, ivory, and bronze, and the weapons were of the highest artistic quality. Tomb II was almost certainly that of Philip II (for an alternative view, that his son, Philip III Arrhidaeus, was buried here, see E. Borza, In the Shadow of Olympus (1990), 256 ff.). Earlier and later burials have also been found. Theatre, palace, and acropolis stand above the cemetery area. Excavations continue.
Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond
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