Philip III Arrhidaeus

*My honours thesis for undergraduate degree in Classical Archaeology. Originally written in April 2012, re-edited for upload on Academia in April 2017.*
The museum located on the site of the ancient royal tombs at Vergina, currently display inaccurate signs detailing  the occupants of the tombs. This paper examines the literary, archaeological, and osteological evidence to argue that the remains found in Tomb I belong to Philip II and (one of) his young wife, while the famous Tomb II belongs to Arrhidaeus and his wife Eurydice. The osteological evidence shows no reliable evidence of trauma, but shows signs of having undergone a dry cremation. Philip II was cremated and buried immediately after his death. Arrhidaeus on the other hand was only cremated and buried months after his death, giving his body time to decompose, hence the dry bone cremation. The evidence is clear in this matter, and the signs at the museum should reflect this.

Huber, M. Traugott. Pharaoh Alexander the Great – his Tomb, his Sarcophagus, and his Mummy. Norderstedt, Feb. 2019. ISBN 9783748140658. 288 pp. EUR 49.

Appendix 1: The Tombs of Philip II and Philip III at Aegae

This is the first out of four Appendices from the aforementioned book. Appendix 1 is published simultaneously to the book on academia.edu. As this Appendix is voluminous and deals with one particular subject, it is published separately from the book. The book investigates the tombs of Alexander the Great. This also includes Amphipolis. Philip II was one of the proposed owners of the Casta Hill monument in Amphipolis. Katis & Katis (2016) suggest that Casta Hill was where Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, was buried. Therefore, inquiries into the fate of Philip II are necessary. This Appendix analyses in detail and submits identities of the persons buried in Tombs I-IV under the Great Tumulus at Vergina. It thereby demonstrates that Philip II was undeniably buried at Aegae but was not reburied at Amphipolis. Philip II is ruled out as the owner, and as the uncremated Person 3 (male of mid-forties) in the Casta Hill monument at Amphipolis. Appendix 1 thus supports the conclusions of Chapter 1.6 of the aforementioned book.
https://www.bod.de/buchshop/pharaoh-alexander-the-great-traugott-huber-9783748140658

https://www.amazon.de/dp/3748140657/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550674420&sr=8-1&keywords=Pharaoh+Alexander

THE COINS FOUND AT THE EXCAVATIONS OF AMASYA - OLUZ HÖYÜK BETWEEN 2009-2013.
Oluz Höyük (Yassı Höyük - Tepetarla Höyüğü) is located on the western part of the city Amasya which is in the central Black Sea Region of Turkey. The mound lies on the fertile Geldingen plain, from the south of which an important tributary of the Yeşilırmak (ancient Iris), the Çekerek (ancient Skylaks) passes.
During the archaeological excavations at Oluz Höyük which were carried under the direction of Prof. Dr. Şevket Dönmez between 2009-2013, 90 coins (one gold, five silvers, 84 bronzes) were discovered, dating from the last quarter of 4th century B.C. till 48 B.C. A great majority of the coins (70 of them) belong to the Hellenistic kingdoms: 13 Macedonian (Alexander the Great and Philippos III Arrhidaios), two Bithynian (Prusias II Cynegus) and 55 Pontic (Mithradates VI Eupator). The coins of the Macedonian Kingdom are the mints of the cities Amphipolis, Sardis, Colophon, Miletos/Mylasa and Salamis. Between the coins of the Pontic Kingdom, which were minted of bronze, the coins of Amisos constitues the largest group with 41 coins, while five coins of Amastris and only one coins of Sinope and Panticapion each were identified. Among the other 11 coins, three of them which are dated to the Roman republic period, give the names of Roman moneyers: Caius Curiatius filius Trigeminus (135 B.C.), C. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus (88 B.C.) and Lucius Procilius filius (80 B.C.). The remaining eight coins which are dated to 2nd-1st centuries, are known to be minted in Apameia (Kelainai), Cyzicus and Sardis. All these numismatic materials add new information to the Hellenistic history of Oluz Höyük as well as Pontic Region.

(chapter introduction precedes this…) The five-year study of the Tomb II bones by the Antikas team provided more accurate age profiling for both Tomb II occupants: the male was aged 45 +/-4 years at death, and the female 32 +/-2 years, supported by her previously unseen pubic symphysis joint, a more accurate ageing marker, along with her fused collarbone. Although they had given her statutory 4-year leeway in their paper, Professor Theo Antikas and Laura Wynn-Antikas felt the evidence suggested the woman was closer to 30. When reading their conclusions, I first questioned how these ranges fitted the life expectancy of the day. The study of skeletal remains suggests that longevity averages in ancient Greece were around 43 years for men and an even shorter 34 for women. These average lifespans are something of a reversal of the demographics in today's society, where female life expectancy at age 83 is three years longer than that of a male at 79. 1 Considering the lifestyle markers and wounds found on the Tomb II bones, the short life expectancy is not surprising, but there was another significant factor that impacted female mortality rate: childbirth. In the ancient world girls married young and they were expected to produce offspring when hardly physically mature. The inscriptions on the 1 Angel (1947) pp 18-24.

In this paper the consequences of changing the value of a single Carian letter are explored: the letter Masson 36, for which a value z had been assumed, is here redeciphered. The results are certainly striking: the new decipherment not only offers good results in the inscriptions C.My 1 and C.Ki 1, but it reveals a complete dating formula in the bilingual of Hyllarima (C.Hy 1), where the fourth year of the king Philip Arrhidaios is mentioned. This has many consequences, both linguistic and historical,
which I try to analyse here, albeit in a preliminary way. Other consequences of this decipherment can also be envisaged: the interpretation of the enigmatic inscriptions C.Ke 1 and C.Ke 2 or the real value of the letter Masson 42 used in Egypt, which in all likelihood is a simple variant of 36 = l. Apart from all these results, the new decipherment opens up new pathways of analysis of the Carian
alphabet.

The article discusses a gold staters coin hoard of the last kings of the Argead dynasty -  Philip II of Macedon (1), Alexander III the Great (3) and Philip III Arrhidaeus (2). All specimens were minted during the reign of Arrhidaeus, including his own ones, as well. However, one of Alexander’s staters was issued under Cassander, in 314/313 BC, which is also the year of deposition of the last coin into this hoard. The place of discovery, Nerezi Village, in Skopje Region (Republic of Macedonia), which was part of Paeonia at the time, indicates that this small treasure most probably belonged to one of the veterans of Alexander's army, originating from this area.