New Insights into the Royal Burials of the Great Tumulus of Vergina

The Great Tumulus of Vergina (Aegae) is considered to be the royal burial complex of the Macedonian kings. Beneath it four tombs were discovered, referred to as Tomb I, Tomb II, Tomb III and Tomb IV. Several hypotheses have been proposed for the identities of the occupants of the “royal tombs”, but these remain unsubstantiated. We present new data from Tomb I (“The Tomb of Persephone”), which contained inhumed, unburnt skeletal remains previously interpreted as the remains of Philip II of Macedonia, his wife Cleopatra and their newborn child. We applied a range of scientific techniques, including radiocarbon dating, ancient DNA (aDNA), strontium and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis, supported by osteological and odontological observations on the adult and baby bones found in Tomb I to provide concrete evidence for the date, sex, age at death and origin of the burial(s) in this tomb. Our results show that, with the exception of three bones that were identified as female, all the adult bones are male according to the aDNA results, and they belonged to a man aged 25-35 years with a stature of approximately 167 cm. Radiocarbon dating places this burial in the first half of the 4th century calBC, specifically between 400-367 cal BC, and by applying a potential collagen offset correction this is slightly shifted to 388-356 cal BC at the latest. The female bones date to the same period. However, all the baby and animal bones, date to the Roman period with a maximum range from 150 cal BC to 130 cal AD, therefore these are not related to the other burials. Lastly, a fused pair of leg bones, previously presented as belonging to Philip II, were found to be unrelated to the Tomb I burial(s) through multiple lines of evidence. Our results provide solid evidence that the skeletal remains in Tomb I are not related to those of Philip II, his wife and child, as previously asserted. The occupant was most likely an important Macedonian royal of the Argead/Temenid house (and his wife?) who died in the period 388-356 calBC and was honored or worshipped in the shrine above.