Giant Greek Tomb Discovered

schwit1 writes Archaeologists have uncovered the largest tomb ever discovered in Greece and think it is linked to the reign of Alexander the Great. "The tomb, dating to around 300 BC, may have held the body of one of Alexander's generals or a member of his family. It was found beneath a huge burial mound near the ancient site of Amphipolis in northern Greece. Antonis Samaras, Greece's prime minister, visited the dig on Tuesday and described the discovery as 'clearly extremely significant'. A broad, five-yard wide road led up to the tomb, the entrance of which was flanked by two carved sphinxes. It was encircled by a 500 yard long marble outer wall. Experts believe a 16ft tall lion sculpture previously discovered nearby once stood on top of the tomb."

Comments

meh

[Anonymous Coward]

It should be a requrement for people to include all of the measurments in metrics so people shouldn't be requred to dechipher how many feetsies are there in a yard and how much that is in crows wings, car tyres, pencil lenghts, cat paws etc.

Re:meh

[Anonymous Coward]

OK.
"It is ordained that 3 grains of barley dry and round do make an inch, 12 inches make 1 foot, 3 feet make 1 yard, 5 yards and a half make a perch, and 40 perches in length and 4 in breadth make an acre."

Oh it's based on barley, i thought the whole system is flawed but now i know it all makes sense, so next time just write 90.9090909090909090909090909 perches and I'll know thats like 499,99999999 in yards (Sorry 500 doesnt divide by 5 and a half), just multiply that by three and then 12 and get inches, now multiply by three, whip out that barley sack and start to line them up to get a seeable reference.

Thanks man.

Re:meh

[TapeCutter]

All you need to know is that a greek giant is buried under the mound so obviously the giant was larger than an average greek but smaller than the mound. His exact height in barley grains will have to remain a "known unknown" until they dig him up.

Re:meh

[Sockatume]

You really should've called them out on calling it "BC" rather than "BCE" while you were at it. What's pedantry without thoroughness?

Re:meh

[amicusNYCL]

There's another article here, which contains this quote from the prime minister:

This is a monument with unique features: A surrounding peribolos of 497 meters, almost a perfect circle carved in Thassos marble. The Lion of Amphipolis is 5.20 meters high; let’s imagine it as being on the top of the tomb

That article also shows a picture with a partial glimpse of the entrance. This article from the same site has a picture of the lion, and the video down below is basically a slideshow of pictures of the tomb site. There's another article here with another exterior picture. The site of ancient Amphipolis is here, on the land surrounded by the river (you can zoom in and see the ruins of the acropolis). Based on the pictures in the articles, it looks like the tomb itself is just northeast of the site, here.

I'm not an archaeologist, I just play one on the internet.

Re:The tomb of Geryon!

[nava68]

Since Roxana (Alexanders wife) and his son Alexander IV were killed in Amphipolis by one of the Diadochen it could be either one of them or the Diadochen (Cassandos) who was buried in that tomb. Btw the excavation is running now for more than one year - hardly news except that Samaras went there for a visit and archeologist plan to enter within the next few months...

Yes and no

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a requirement leaving primary school to be able to do a division. it is not a requirement to know what feet or yard or stones or furlong are. When you have an international audience, it is polite to use the international measurement methods that about 95% of the world use maybe put it in parenthesis near the medieval unit. like say 500 yards (about 450 meters).
 
This has an ecological impact by the way, because if thousand of people google "500 yards to meter" the electricity and time lost, would have been better spent on something else. If one person the submitter does it it is maybe 5 second lost to him and no big deal. If say 10000 persons do it, guessestimate international audience slashdot, that's 50000 seconds lost, electricity, bandwidth usage and so forth. Not a lot but cumulated over the years ? And jsut because the submitter does not want to make 1 step, he forces those loss on everybody else

Only Major Site Not Stolen From

[Kagato]

One of the problems with the historical sites in Greece is so many of the large ones have been stolen from over the centuries. Want to see the full Parthenon? Better book a trip to the Vatican, Louvre in Paris and the British Museum what's still left for public viewing. Various conquers and rulers have been selling off bits and pieces of greek history for as long as Europeans have been collecting art.

Better pictures of the tomb

[sls1j]

Here is a better article with actual pictures