belong within this spectrum.^31 The images offer a wider set of references
and narratives, the most enduring of which are the eternal banquet and
the metaphysical hunt. Both images appear in Thrace, as in Macedonia,
and had an extended afterlife into imperial times, as thestelecommem-
orating Aulus Caprilius Timotheos, somatemporos at Amphipolis,
demonstrates.^32
BURIALS AND NORTHERN SOCIETIES
The most representative sample of Macedonian mortuary data comes
from the west cemetery of Archondiko, the site that preceded Pella. Of
330 burials subjected to preliminary analysis, 86 (or 26 per cent) dated
from the Early Iron Age. These were mainly pit graves, with some stone-
lined cists. The majority were inhumations, although there were also
some pot cremations. Most of the sampled graves belong to the Archaic
age (174 graves, or 53 per cent), with the remaining 70 (21 per cent)
dating from the Classical or early Hellenistic period.^33
The analysis published by Anastasia and Pavlos Chrysostomou, the
excavators of Archondiko, was specifically concerned with evidence of
ranking in the inventories of the archaic male burials. They interpreted
the choice of grave goods in this sample from the western cemetery as an
expression of the social status of the deceased. If we leave aside the ten
per cent of burials that were affected by later interventions, the
remaining tombs reflect clear differentiation along gender lines. Men’s
heads were arranged to face north or westwards, females east or south-
wards. The range of grave goods is as wide, if not wider, than those of
other known Macedonian cemeteries of the period. Men and women(^31) Hatzopoulos 2006 for a rationalization of the concepts; Galanakis (ed.) 2011, 152fig.
171 and cat. no. 169 (gold lip-shaped sheet from Aigeai, inscribed‘Philiste, to Persephone,
rejoice’; Edmonds 2011, 16–50: north Aegean examples are found in his Group D,lamellae
with Dionysos and Persephone: Amphipolis 320– 280 bc; Group E:lamellae-like mouth
pieces, with the‘chaire’-formula to Pluto and Persephone: Aghios Athanasios, third century
bc; Group F:lamellaeand mouth pieces with the deceased’s name only or the wordmystes
(Methone,c. 300 bc; Pella,c. 300 bc; Pydna,c. 336 – 300 bc; Europosc. 300 bc; Pellac. 300
bc; Dionc.300?bc); NB: *glass eyes also included; in principle all these tomb groups
contain some evidence of pretention, e.g. other gold, evidence of biers, ivory; bronze or clay
wreaths, 32 figurines; some glass vessels.
Ch. 3 and refs n.96; for another dimension of shared mystical traditions, namely to the
Great Gods of Samothrace, see Dimitrova 2008, 52–3, 59, 71–3, 94–121, 130–50, 242– 3
(initiates from Macedonia, Thrace, and the Hellespontine region).
(^33) Chrysostomou and Chrysostomou 2007.
Continuity and commemoration 313