with Medusa’s head—repeated in gold foil on the breastplate—and a
procession of wild animals. The drinking set shows taste, sophistication,
and intriguing intellectual preoccupations; there was a bronzehydria,a
shallow-footed washing basin, a silver kylixwith a gold foiltondo,
showing Bellerophon killing the chimaera; a silverpatera, and two very
rare items, a silver strainer and a silver spoon. Among the ceramic items
was a redfigurehydria, showing a domestic scene with eight women, one
of whom sits in the centre playing a lyre.^40
The liberal use of sheet gold, whether as foil attachments for textiles,
decorated plaques on the neck, chest, or mouth of the deceased; as
covering for limbs; or as face masks, has emerged as a specific regional
custom in the northern Aegean, with examples from Aiani, Sindos,
Aigeai, and at related dynastic burial grounds such as Trebenishte, near
Lake Ochrid.^41 In lowland Macedonia and in Thrace, these customs were
not restricted to a narrow ruling élite, but, as the evidence from Arch-
ondiko shows, were accorded to a broader range of individuals. Variable
wealth or status was expressed in the range of additional goods, while the
gold strips and sheets proclaimed the social and symbolic prominence of
the incumbents. In other words, social status did not always match
economic capacity.^42 The herdsmen with golden leaves included priests
and priestesses, educators, trainers, and administrators.
The graves at Archondiko were organized in family groups, judging by
the combinations of adults and immature individuals, sometimes con-
gregating around a central grave. Further analysis will help to show how
the ranks identified by male inventories compare with familial graves.
The quantities of gold found in later sixth- andfifth-centurybcburials
did not continue on the same scale in later periods. Over the course of the
fifth centurybc, gold was becoming available as a commodity and its
symbolic value diminished as a result. The contents of monumental
tombs built in the fourth centurybcand later, seem to distinguish
individuals more readily on the basis of wealth than of social status.^43
Nevertheless, the theme of the afterlife, and the status of the deceased in
this metaphysical state, continued to be the chief preoccupation of those
who designed these tombs.^44
(^40) Kisyov 2005, 16–59 and pls I–XVIII.
(^41) Theodossiev 1998; Archibald 1998, 167–76 (mortuary customs); 172–3 andfigs 6.10–
6.11 (gold sheets); 252–9; 318–35, catalogue of metallic vessels; Chrysostomou and
Chrysostomou 2007, 128 42 – 9.
See e.g. Borisova 2005, 131 andfig. 7 (three gold sheet appliqués, associated with a few
pots, from the rubble-built cairn, from one of 17 tumuli investigated near Kalugerovo, Sofia
district, between 1988 and 1993).
(^43) Guimier-Sorbets and Morizot 2006. (^44) Hatzopoulos 2006.
316 Continuity and commemoration