• Amphipolis tomb mystery deepens | Daily Mail Online
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2986097/Amphipolis-tomb-mystery-deepens-Burial-chamber-T-belong-Alexander-Great

    The gripping excavation of an ancient tomb in Greece, which has yielded five skeletons, is not all it seems, a geologist claims.

    Evangelos Kambouroglou has poured cold water on the theory that the Amphipolis tomb holds the remains of Alexander the Great, saying the simple burial chamber where skeletons have been found was built later than a series of vaulted rooms dated to the time of the warrior king.

    He said the burial mound is a natural hill and not man-made as previously presumed – and couldn’t have held the weight of a decorative lion linked to Alexander the Great.

    Mr Kambouroglou said a huge 4th century BC sculpture of a lion on a pedestal, which is more than 25 feet (eight metres) tall, was too heavy to have stood at the top of the tomb, as archaeologists had previously claimed.
    ‘The walls [of the tomb structure] can barely withstand half a tonne, not 1,500 tonnes that the Lion sculpture is estimated to weigh,’ Mr Kambouroglou said.
    The famed ‘Lion of Amphipolis’ was presumed to have stood at the top of the tumulus at Kasta Hill - the peak of burial mound in northern Greece.

    It was found decades ago in the nearby Strymon River and is now thought to have belonged to another ancient monument from the time of the warrior king, of which the lion was a symbol.
    As for the box-like tomb that contained the remnants of five bodies, possibly more, ‘it is posterior to the main burial monument ... the main tomb has been destroyed by looters, who left nothing,’ he added.
    ‘The marble doors [of the monument] contain signs of heavy use, which means many visitors came and went.’