killed when their personal masters died. That is a clear enough message
from the faunal evidence above Tomb II at Vergina, and the incidence of
pet dogs as well as favourite horses in some Thracian tombs reinforces
the connection between owners and their particular animals. To modern
observers, such behaviour looks extravagant at best. These were not
animals that had come to the end of their useful lives.
Scholarly interest in the Argead kings has focused attention on the
most spectacular and exceptional monuments, particularly the barrel-
vaulted chamber tombs. The earliest of this form, at Aegeai at least,
appears to be the‘Tomb of Eurydike’, close to the so-called‘Rhomaios’
tomb with an Ionic façade (Fig. 8.5), dated by the excavators to the 340s
bc.^20 A recent review of painted tombs of all forms lists 25 of the barrel-
vaulted type, of which 13 have been identified at Aigeai alone, frequently
Fig. 8.5.Vergina, tomb with Ionic façade (c.300bc), known as‘Rhomaios’
Tomb’, after the archaeologist Konstantinos Rhomaios, whofirst investigated it
in 1937.
Ch. 4, above; Galanakis (ed.) 2011, 100fig. 88 and cat. no. 203 (miniature iron cart; further
examples are discussed below).
(^20) ‘Tomb of Eurydike’,c. 340 bc: Ginouvès and Hatzopoulos, eds, (1993), 156–61, and 161–
91 for the principal tombs at Vergina and Levkadia; Tsimbidou-Avloniti 2005, 175 no. 8, with
bibl.; Saatsoglou-Paliadeli 2011, 288–90; Drougou 2011, 252–6, on the cemeteries of Aigeai;
Kottaridi in Galanakis (ed.) 2011, 131–52; Andronikos 1987 is still fundamental for study of
the Great Tumulus; Hatzopoulos 2008b and Lane-Fox’s introductory chapter in Lane-Fox
2011 provide full discussions of the dating of Tomb II, with arguments in favour of an
identification of the occupants with Philip II and princess Meda (cf. also Archibald 1985);
favouring Philip III Arrhidaios and his wife Eurydike/Kynna: Borza and Palagia 2007. The
skeletal evidence points decisively to Philip II and Meda (Musgrave et al. 2010).
Continuity and commemoration 307