AN incomplete inscription might reopen the debate about the identity of the owner of a tomb from the Alexander the Great era, according to new research into blocks from the circular retaining wall of the mysterious mound.
The mysterious tomb at AMPHIPOLIS was unsealed in northern Greece 18 months ago.
Dated to between 325 BC ... two years before Alexander the Great's death ... and 300 BC, the tomb is located in Amphipolis, east of Thessaloniki, and is billed as the largest of its kind in the Greek world, measuring more than 1,600 feet in circumference.
According to study author Andrew Chugg, a missing Π, or pi, clearly discards a theory linking the burial to HEPHAESTION, Alexander the Great's beloved friend and general.
Chugg argues that the blocks, originally cut for monuments to Hephaistion on Alexander's order, were simply re-used to build the massive tomb a few years after the Macedonian king's death.
Last October, head archaeologist Katerina Peristeri said three inscriptians indicated HEPHAESTION was the individual originally commemorated by the mysterious monument.
"Chances are that this is a funerary heroon (hero worship shrine) dedicated to Hephaestion," Peristeri said.
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