Ancient gold treasure puzzles Greek archaeologists

A PRICELESS gold wreath has been unearthed in an ancient city in northern Greece, buried with human bones in a large copper vase that workers initially took for a landmine.

The University of Thessaloniki has said that the astonishing discovery was made during its excavations this week in the ruins of ancient Aigai. The city was the first capital of ancient Macedonia, where King Philip II — father of Alexander the Great — was assassinated.

Gold wreaths are rare and were buried with ancient nobles or royalty. But the find is also highly unusual as the artifacts appear to have been removed from a grave and, for reasons that are unclear, reburied in the city’s marketplace near the theatre where Philip was stabbed to death.

“This happened quite soon after the original burial; it’s not that a grave robber took it centuries later and hid it with the intention of coming back,” excavator Chryssoula Saatsoglou-Paliadeli told AP. “It probably belonged to a high-ranking person.”

The “impressively large” copper vessel contained a cylindrical golden jar with a lid, with the gold wreath of oak leaves and the bones inside.

“The young workman who saw it was astounded and shouted ‘landmine!’” the university statement said.

Saatsoglou-Paliadeli, a professor at the university, said the find probably dates to the 4th century BC, during which Philip and Alexander reigned.

In a royal cemetery at Vergina, just west of Aigai, archaeologists discovered a wealth of gold and silver treasure in 1977. One of the opulent graves, which contained a large gold wreath of oak leaves, is generally accepted to have belonged to Philip II. The location of Alexander’s tomb is one of the great mysteries of archaeology.

Aigai flourished in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, before falling to the Romans in 168 BC.