The Tumulus of the Macedonians – Drawing by G. Sotiriadis

On 4 November, Georgios Sotiriadis informs in writing the ‘Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Education’ about the start of the excavations on the low tumulus being excavated, with an assessment of their monetary value, to complete the expropriation process.

In the margin of his report, he draws a sketch of the tumulus, from which we derive information about the course of the excavation. He draws a tumulus with a diameter of 40 m (the actual diameter was in fact 70 m), on which he represents the outline of the 25 m trial trench that has been excavated. At the end of the trench, the central portion 5 x 5 m is determined. At this point, as he mentions in his report on an excited tone, he found a thick layer of charcoal, ash and bones and relates the monument to the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. Essentially, what he is excavating and drawing is the tumulus of the dead Macedonians of the battle, whose bodies were burned in the majestic pyre set up by Philip to honour the dead Macedonians.

In the present exhibition, the original reports by Georgios Sotiriadis are presented in the section “The archaeological rediscovery of the battle”. They are kept at the Ministry of Culture, Directorate for the Management of the National Monuments Archive, Historical Archive of Antiquities and Restoration.