numbers of military equipment in inland Thracian tombs may well have
been animated by similar protocols, based on age classes. Like the male
burials at Archondiko, it is possible to discern distinctions based on the
presence of a pair of spearheads; or spearheads, a sword, and body
armour; or some combination of these. The fact that such burials are
widely distributed in space does not detract from the grammar of
mortuary practice that these graves evidently display.^46 Women’s graves,
like men’s, also show traces of a mortuary grammar, although no sys-
tematic study has yet been attempted. It is in mortuary habits and
practices of consumption that we see the closest cultural similarities
between Macedonian and Thracian societies, and where the economic
rationale for linking the two kingdoms is clearest. Tomb construction
was perhaps the most resource-intensive activity, requiring scores of
individuals for the preparation of terrain, materials, and building; but
the spectrum of activities involved in mortuary procedure, including the
hunting of sacrificial animals; processions to the burial site; the crema-
tion of the human remains, along with grave goods; or the inhumation of
the body on a bier or funerary bed; the disposal of further artefacts, and
the consumption of funerary meals, were elaborate and time-consuming
procedures.
The consumption of imported plate and pottery has attracted much
scholarly attention. From an economic point of view, the truly exotic
items deserve at least equal value. The amber beads found in Tomb
262 at Archondiko can be matched at Aigeai.^47 Andrew Sherratt’s
insistence on the ‘big picture’ of ancient exchange, incorporating
continental Europe as well as the Mediterranean, has been vindicated.
Amber has been discovered at many Aegean sanctuary sites,^48 but, as
we have seen earlier, it is also found in inland Thrace, which shows
that overland routes from the Baltic to southern Europe must have
been operating in this period.^49 The story of the Hyperborean maidens,
(^46) Archibald 1998, 151–76, 240–59.
(^47) Galanakis (ed.) 2011, 109fig. 101 and cat. no. 414 (Aiani cemetery, gravec. 470 – 60
bc); it is not clear why Kottaridi believes the necklace must have travelled via the Po valley
to Macedonia (ibid. 110).
(^48) Kilian-Dirlmeier 2002, 73–5,‘Gegenstände aus Bernstein’(= 750– 575 bc), 75fig. 7
and p. 274–5,‘Liste 133’(Olympia, Sparta, Perachora, Pherai, Idaian Cave, Psykro, Arkades,
Lindos; Phana, Chios; Emborio, Chios; Delos, Artemision; Siphnos; Ithaka; Ephesos,
Artemision). The Philia examples resemble those from Ithaka, Perachora, and Chios,
made of a porous mass, which sometimes shows a reddish pigment at the centre. The
author does not speculate on routes or networks; however, she does provide a pie-chart,
p. 225, and discussion pp. 223–9, on native and external votives. Baltic amber plays a
modest part, less than 25 per cent, but more than one eighth of votives are‘Balkan’objects.
(^49) Nikolova 2008; see above, Ch. 4, n.125.
318 Continuity and commemoration