The cluster of the Temenids (cluster C)
In the royal “cluster of the Temenids” 12 tombs came to light: 5 pits, 6 monumental cists and 1 Macedonian tomb, all dating from 570 to 300 BC.
Around and next to two of the earliest tombs (570-550 BC and 550-330 BC) the remains of the two earliest funeral pyre (pile of combustible material used for cremating a corpse) in Aigai known to us were found: shards of clay pots and fragments of bronze vessels, half-melted bronze helmets, silver-riveted swords, similar to the ones described in the Homeric epics, swords with ivory handles or purposefully bent, symbolically “killed” ones, spears and lance heads, even pieces of a horse bridle. Objects purified by the fire, surrendered to the flames of their holokautoma (total incineration), attesting to the continuation of a burial custom that inextricably links the Macedonians of the archaic times with the world of the Homeric epics.
- Written by: Αγγελική Κοτταρίδη
