The eye injury of King Philip II and the skeletal evidence from the Royal Tomb II at Vergina

Science

Volumn 288, Issue 5465, 2000, Pages 511-514

  Bartsiokas, Antonis ^a  

^a Anaximandrian Institute of Human Evolution   (Greece)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EYE INJURY; FRACTURE HEALING; OSTEOPHYTE; PALEOPATHOLOGY; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SKULL INJURY; ZYGOMA ARCH FRACTURE;

BONE AND BONES; BURIAL; EYE INJURIES; FAMOUS PERSONS; FRACTURES, BONE; GREECE; HISTORY, ANCIENT; HUMANS; MALE; MORTUARY PRACTICE; ORBIT; PALEONTOLOGY; SKULL;

EID: 0034697281     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.288.5465.511     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. M. Andronicos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs (Ekdotike Athinon, Athens, Greece, 1994).
2. E. N. Borza, Phoenix 41, 105 (1987); In the Shadow of Olympus. The Emergence of Macedon (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1992).
3. E. N. Borza, Phoenix 41, 105 (1987); In the Shadow of Olympus. The Emergence of Macedon (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1992).
4. The archaeological evidence itself now weighs strongly in favor of a post-Philip II identification. In their recent work on the Derveni tombs, which date to the late 4th century B.C., P. Themelis and J. Touratsoglou [The Derveni Tombs (Publication 59, TAPA, Athens, Greece, 1997)] describe pottery similar to that in Tomb II at Vergina, thus moving trie date of Vergina Royal Tomb II down to the generation after the death of Philip II. See also O. Palagia, Minerva 9, 25 (1998). Palagia's views are expanded in her article "Hephaestion's Pyre and the Royal Hunt of Alexander," in Alexander the Great: fact and Fiction, A. B. Bosworth and E. J. Baynham, Eds. (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2000).
5. The archaeological evidence itself now weighs strongly in favor of a post-Philip II identification. In their recent work on the Derveni tombs, which date to the late 4th century B.C., P. Themelis and J. Touratsoglou [The Derveni Tombs (Publication 59, TAPA, Athens, Greece, 1997)] describe pottery similar to that in Tomb II at Vergina, thus moving trie date of Vergina Royal Tomb II down to the generation after the death of Philip II. See also O. Palagia, Minerva 9, 25 (1998). Palagia's views are expanded in her article "Hephaestion's Pyre and the Royal Hunt of Alexander," in Alexander the Great: fact and Fiction, A. B. Bosworth and E. J. Baynham, Eds. (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2000).
6. The archaeological evidence itself now weighs strongly in favor of a post-Philip II identification. In their recent work on the Derveni tombs, which date to the late 4th century B.C., P. Themelis and J. Touratsoglou [The Derveni Tombs (Publication 59, TAPA, Athens, Greece, 1997)] describe pottery similar to that in Tomb II at Vergina, thus moving trie date of Vergina Royal Tomb II down to the generation after the death of Philip II. See also O. Palagia, Minerva 9, 25 (1998). Palagia's views are expanded in her article "Hephaestion's Pyre and the Royal Hunt of Alexander," in Alexander the Great: fact and Fiction, A. B. Bosworth and E. J. Baynham, Eds. (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2000).
7. N. I. Xirotiris and F. Langenscheidt, Archaiologike Ephemeris 1981, 142 (1981).
8. A. S. Riginos, J. Hell. Stud. 114, 103 (1994). It is not clear whether Philip II's left or right arm was maimed.
9. A.J.N. W. Prag, J. H. Musgrave, R. A. H. Neave, J. Hell. Stud. 104, 60 (1984).
10. J. Prag and R. Neave, Making Faces, Using Forensic and Archaeological Evidence (British Museum Press, London, 1997), pp. 53-84.
11. A. J. N. W. Prag, Am. J. Archaeol. 94, 237 (1990).
12. B. K. B. Berkovitz and B. J. Moxham, Color Atlas of the Skull (Mosby-Wolfe, London, 1989).
13. See, for example, T. D. White and P. A. Folkens, Human Osteology (Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1991), fig. 4.2; G. Hauser and G. F. De Stefano, Epigenetic Variants of the Human Skull (E. Schweizerbartsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany, 1989), plate VIII.
14. See, for example, T. D. White and P. A. Folkens, Human Osteology (Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1991), fig. 4.2; G. Hauser and G. F. De Stefano, Epigenetic Variants of the Human Skull (E. Schweizerbartsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany, 1989), plate VIII.
15. J. H. Musgrave, in Current Topics in Oral Biology, S. J. Lisney and B. Matthews, Eds. (Univ. of Bristol Press, Bristol, UK, 1985), pp. 1-16.
16. N. Xirotiris, who did the reconstruction of the face, said on Greek television in 1999 that he was the one who misreconstructed the maxilla, that it was the best one could do at the time to preserve and support these delicate parts of the facial anatomy, and that it was probably this reconstruction that misled Musgrave. Indeed, the facial surgeons J. Lendrum and E. Curphey, who first suggested the antemortem asymmetry of the face (7), examined only the casts of the mandible and the maxilla. The consolidants and glues Xirotiris used are reversible.
17. J. Musgrave, Annu. Br. Sch. Athens 85, 271 (1990).
18. W. L. Adams, Ancient World 22, 27 (1991).
19. T. D. Stewart, Essentials of Forensic Anthropology (Thomas, Springfield, IL, 1979), pp. 59-68; D. H. Ubelaker, Human Skeletal Remains (Taraxacum, Washington, DC, 1991); N. P. Herrmann and J. L. Bennett, J. Forensic Sci. 44, 461 (1999).
20. T. D. Stewart, Essentials of Forensic Anthropology (Thomas, Springfield, IL, 1979), pp. 59-68; D. H. Ubelaker, Human Skeletal Remains (Taraxacum, Washington, DC, 1991); N. P. Herrmann and J. L. Bennett, J. Forensic Sci. 44, 461 (1999).
21. T. D. Stewart, Essentials of Forensic Anthropology (Thomas, Springfield, IL, 1979), pp. 59-68; D. H. Ubelaker, Human Skeletal Remains (Taraxacum, Washington, DC, 1991); N. P. Herrmann and J. L. Bennett, J. Forensic Sci. 44, 461 (1999).
22. See, for example, P. Shipman, Life History of a Fossil. An Introduction to Taphonomy and Paleoecology (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1981).
23. D. W. Von Endt and D. J. Ortner, J. Archaeol. Sci. 11, 247 (1984).
24. P. E. Hare, in Fossils In the Making. Vertebrate Taphonomy and Paleoecology, A. K. Behrensmeyer and A. P. Hill, Eds. (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1980), pp. 208-219.
25. I thank A. Kottaridou for allowing me to study the male skeleton of Royal Tomb II and M. Teliopoulou for curating it during the study.