monumental tombs on the outskirts of Aigeai.^5 In these peri-urban or
suburban areas, the expansion of modern residential accommodation
and of rural pursuits has made it hard to identify whether the graves were
located on land that was designated in some way, by markers, to separate
it from other uses. The construction of earthen tumuli is itself a process
of marking off ground, and where the stages of construction can be
identified as coherent and consecutive acts, a funeral pyre formed the
initial event, succeeded by a burial and covering of earth, although
subsequent burials could be made by cutting into the fill. This is
the sequence documented, for example, at Prilep, near Karnobat, in a
mound containing early forms of the‘greyware’discussed in Chapter 4
(cf. Fig. 4.10).^6
The prevailing pattern of mortuary structures throughout the north-
ern Aegean area was of localized diversity. Even the highly distinctive
barrel-vaulted Macedonian tombs display a considerable diversity of
design, as well as a wide variety of subsidiary features. In inland Thrace,
every built tomb is conceptually and structurally unique, even though
some structural solutions or certain superficial features do recur. This
means that the ideas about how to build monumental tombs operated on
a different socio-economic model from those that determined the
exchange of portable commodities. The design of tombs was therefore
in all likelihood driven by a combination of available (or bespoke)
technological skills and locally sourced materials (although, as we shall
see below, the abstract concepts that tombs embodied are also difficult to
trace in terms of social networks). During the second half of the fourth
and early third centurybcin Thrace,fired bricks partially replaced stone
in areas like the Valley of the Roses, where suitable building stone was
less accessible. This wholly new construction technique seems to appear
independently of external stimuli, although comparable bricks were
being made in a small number of other Aegean locations around the
same time, including Olynthos.^7 Experimental evidence shows thatfired
bricks made to this specification have a high capacity to absorb moisture,
so make an excellent backing material for painted plaster. Everything
about the design and appearance of monumental tombs implies that the
architects were working at the cutting edge of contemporary building
(^5) Rural distributions of monumental tombs: Archibald 1998, 242–50 andfigs. 10.2, 10.4;
Sveshtari and Seuthopolis: Stoyanov 2000; 2002; 2006; Adjiyska Vodenitsa: Philippopolis:
Koleva et al. 2000; see below for Aigeai.
(^6) Georgieva and Momchilov 2003.
(^7) Gerding 2006, 354–6 andfigs. 1–2; there are unpublishedfired bricks at Adjiyska
Vodenitsa, from the city excavations, not from funerary contexts.
300 Continuity and commemoration