Macedonian Tomb of Jugdment

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Macedonian Tomb of Jugdment

The Macedonian Tomb of Judgment, also known as the Great Tomb of Lefkadia is one of the most important and best-preserved Macedonian tombs discovered so far in Macedonia, Greece. Built of conchitic limestone, is also the largest Macedonian tomb yet being discovered. The tomb is dated to the last quarter of the fourth century BC and its name derives from the painted representation of the judgement of the dead. It lies with other similar funerary monuments along the road connecting the ancient town of Mieza with Pela, the capital of the Macedonian Kingdom. The Tomb was discovered during road works and excavated by Fotis Petsas between 1954 and 1964. Both the ante-chamber and the façade had already suffered severely damaged since antiquity. In 1998 the tomb was re-excavated and restored by L. Stephani and is now protected in enclosed structure and artificially lit for viewing. Finds from that excavation are housed in the Archaeological Museum of Veria.

The monument is a typical double-chambered Macedonian tomb with barrel-vaulted ceilings, buried under a tumulus 1.50 meters high and 10 meters in diameter. The tomb has a particularly imposing facade where the lower and upper storeys are Doric and Ionic respectively. The façade is over eight and a half meters high and almost eight and a half meters wide and is divided into two Attic storeys, a feature not found elsewhere in Macedonian Hellenistic architecture. The lower storey is decorated in the Doric order and the intercolumniations are divided into upper and lower panels with four figures (the deceased, Hermes, Aiakos and Rhadamanthys) painted on the walls. The architrave above, is surmounted by twelve triglyphs and eleven metopes that are decorated with depictions of the Centauromachy. Above this, a division between the lower and upper storeys is made by a stuccoed relief depicting horsemen fighting infantrymen. The upper storey is adorned with six fluted Ionic half columns with the intercolumniations featuring a total of seven false windows carved in relief from marble to imitate wood. Traces of relief decoration are also noticeable in the tympanum of the pediment. The ante-chamber has not been fully excavated and does not appear to have any painted decoration. The interior of the burial chamber however with its ornate architectural features, recalls the houses at Pella and Delos. It has a vaulted ceiling and the walls are painted deep blue, red and white. The architectural members are decorated with painted Ionic kymatia, rosettes and bands. Because the tomb hasn’t been exposed to daylight since its modern discovery, the colorful painted surfaces are still bright and vivid although understandably damaged by their years underground.