attendants, as well as individuals serving.^56 Most of thefigures on the
frieze are clad in knee-length tunics and cloaks that reach below the
knees. The tunics are of various colours: white, brown, purple, bright red,
and blue. The colours used are of considerable interest in their own
right.^57 The cloaks show a similar range of colours. Although it may not
be realistic to imagine that the level of detail is entirely authentic, and
bearing in mind the scale of the frieze itself (0.34–0.35 m high for a
length of 3.75 m), the dress of thesefigures is designed with considerable
care. If we compare the outfits of the friezefigures with the pair of
cloaked soldiers ‘guarding’the entrance either side of the doorway,
then the care with which the friezefigures are depicted becomes even
more apparent. The two largefigures depict many of the same details of
dress as the smaller ones on the frieze. Their cloaks have a characteristic
design feature, with a broad vertical stripe at either end of what must be a
rectangular piece of cloth, dyed in a contrasting colour to the main body
of the garment, with a thin border in the same colour as the principal
one. The bottom corners of the cloak are weighted, so that the lower
edges drop straight down making the cloth less likely to obstruct
movement.
The eightfigures on the right-hand side of the frieze are soldiers, or
soldiers and their batmen or orderlies. They are armed with thesarissa,
Macedonian shields similar to those that appear on Antigonid coinage;
two wear helmets and four have thekausia, which can also be seen on the
heads of the two largerfigures below the frieze. Many of the features of
the frieze deserve attention in a discussion of furnishings. The couches
on which the six centralfigures recline, listening to the two woman
musicians, a kitharist and an aulos-player, are generously covered with
red, white, and blue textiles. There are somefine side-tables with legs in
the shape of feline limbs, and a magnificent sideboard, groaning with
gold-coloured and silver chargers, which would not disgrace thepiano
nobileof a Renaissancepalazzo.^58
The images on the friezes at Alexandrovo, Kazanluk, Sveshtari, and
other Thracian tombs can be analysed in a similar way. Where there are
morefigures for comparison, as at Alexandrovo and Kazanluk, periodi-
cities and distinctions in dress are also noticeable. As we shall see in
Chapter 8, this particular group of images from closely comparable
mortuary contexts gives a convincing impression of what the Macedo-
nian and Thracian landed élites also had in common in attitudes to
(^56) Tsimbidou-Avloniti 2005, 114–47, pls 27 and esp. 30–7.
(^57) See below and Ch. 7 for further discussion.
(^58) Tsimbidou-Avloniti 2005, 121, pls 33–34; Andrianou 2009, 61.
164 Thelongue duréein the north Aegean