Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai
Drive 75 kilometres west of Thessaloniki and you reach Vergina, a village named in 1922 after a legendary queen. Here, under a low earthen mound, lies the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai, built between 1993 and 1997 to house the burial cluster of Philip II and his dynasty. The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996, not for the museum itself, but for the ancient city of Aigai, the first capital of Macedon.
The story of its discovery is one of persistence across a century of war and resettlement. French archaeologist Léon Heuzey, sponsored by Napoleon III, dug here in 1861 but abandoned the work because of malaria. In the 1930s, Konstantinos Romaios uncovered the first royal tomb; the outbreak of war with Italy in 1940 cut his work short. It was Manolis Andronikos who, in 1977, finally opened the Great Tumulus and found four tombs, two undisturbed.
The most celebrated belongs to someone who may be Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. A golden larnax emblazoned with the sixteen-rayed Sun of Vergina held his cremated bones, alongside a gold wreath, a silver-and-gold diadem, and armour that included a greave shaped to fit a misaligned tibia — Philip is recorded to have broken his leg. The skull shows damage to the right eye from a penetrating object, historically an arrow. Yet debate persists: a 2015 study claimed the bones in Tomb I were Philip’s; the Greek Ministry of Culture called that baseless. More recent work reaffirms Tomb II as Philip’s.
You walk through four connected areas: the Palace, the Temenid burial cluster, Philip’s tomb, and a gateway with semi-open-air sculptures. Cases hold carved ivory, silver and bronze vessels, terracotta figurines, and the jewelry of the 9th-century BC ‘Lady of Aigai’. Over a thousand tombs have now been excavated around the city, and in 2014 five more royal graves were uncovered — possibly for Alexander I or the family of Cassander. The museum is still receiving finds.
Drive 75 kilometres west of Thessaloniki and you reach Vergina, a village that took its name from a legendary queen in 1922. The land was settled by Greek refugees from Anatolia after the Greco-Turkish War. They built homes over what had been the ancient capital of Macedon, Aigai, scavenging stone from a palace they did not recognise. Beneath their fields lay the tombs of kings.
The Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai is an underground building, begun in 1993 and opened in 1997, sunk into the Great Tumulus that dominates the plain. It holds four exhibition areas: the Palace, the royal burial cluster of the Temenid dynasty (Cluster C), the burial cluster of Philip II, and a gateway entrance with a semi-open-air display of sculptures from the city’s sanctuaries and a restored upper floor of the Palace facade.
Archaeologists had suspected since 1855 that the site of Aigai was nearby, but found only empty tombs. In 1861 the Frenchman Léon Heuzey, sponsored by Napoleon III, uncovered parts of a large building — the palace of Antigonus III Doson — near the hamlet of Palatitsa, whose name preserved the word ‘palace’. Heuzey thought this was the city of Valla, a mistake that stood until 1976. malaria forced him to stop.
The first royal tomb was found by Konstantinos Romaios between 1937 and 1940. He had to abandon the dig when Italy invaded. World War II was followed by the Greek Civil War. In 1949 Manolis Andronikos took over. He spent two decades completing the palace excavations, then turned his attention to the Great Tumulus. In 1977 he uncovered four tombs, two of them untouched.
Andronikos identified Tomb II as that of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, and Tomb III as Alexander IV, Alexander’s son. Later, Antonis Bartsiokas re-identified them: Tomb I as Philip II, Tomb II as Philip III (Alexander’s half-brother), and Tomb III as Alexander IV. Tomb I also held the remains of a woman and a baby, whom Bartsiokas identified as Philip’s young wife Cleopatra Eurydice and their newborn child, both assassinated. For years scholars disagreed. The evidence for Tomb II being Philip’s includes a greave shaped for a misaligned tibia — Philip had broken his leg — and a skull with damage to the right eye from an arrow. A 2015 study claimed the bones in Tomb I were Philip’s, but the Greek Ministry of Culture replied that the damaged knee in Tomb I belonged to someone thrown in after the tomb was looted, probably between 276/5 and 250 BC. More recent research gives conclusive evidence that Tomb II contains Philip II and his Thracian wife Meda.
Above the entrance to Tomb II is a 5.6-metre wall painting of a hunting scene. Some believe it shows Philip and Alexander, though that remains a legend. The tomb yielded a golden larnax with the Sun of Vergina on its lid, a gold burial wreath, a silver-and-gold diadem with a Heracles knot, silver and bronze vessels, carved ivory ornaments, gold armour, greaves, shields, weapons, jewellery, and terracotta votive figurines.
In 1987 the tomb of Queen Eurydice I was discovered. Between 1991 and 2009, over a thousand tombs were excavated, along with city districts, farmhouses, cemeteries, streets, sanctuaries, and parts of the fortification. A royal burial cluster of the Temenids — the ancient Macedonian royal house of Dorian Greek origin — was revealed. In March 2014 five more royal tombs were uncovered, thought possibly to belong to Alexander I of Macedon and his family, or to the family of Cassander. The collections continue to grow.
The museum presents the finds in quiet, low-lit galleries. You move from the Palace remains to the Temenid cluster, then into the chamber that holds Philip’s golden larnax. Cases show the fine ivory reliefs from the funeral couch, the delicate jewellery of the 9th-century BC ‘Lady of Aigai’, and the small terracotta figurines that once stood in sanctuaries. The weight of a dynasty is kept under earth, cool and still.
