In his program "A year and a time" on News24/7 at 88.6, Thanasis Krekoukias is preparing this week a tribute to the Greek archaeologist who made one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.
The reason for Professor Manolis Andronikos, who identified the tomb of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
In Vergina, a town in the prefecture of Imimathia, which is built on the site of the ancient Aige, the capital of the ancient Macedonian state, on November 8, 1977, M. Andronikos identified a complex of royal Macedonian tombs, among which was the Assylitos tomb of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, who was also known as Tomb II of the Great Tomba, i.e. the hill that belonged to the cemetery of the ancient city.
The funeral of King Philip II dates to 336 BC. and it was the most magnificent funeral ceremony that Greece has known in historical times.
Inside a monumental funeral home, lying on an elaborate golden ivory bed, with the weighty gold crown of oak on his head, the king passed to his eternal abode.
"The only difficulty we encountered was that by the time we lifted the cover, we could clearly see the contents and we had to be able to keep our cool and continue our work, even though our eyes were dazzled by what we were seeing and the our heart was going to break with emotion," the professor writes characteristically in the book "The Chronicle of Vergina", published by the Educational Foundation of the National Bank.
And he adds:"I can bring to my consciousness quite clearly the reaction I experienced as I said to myself:"If the suspicion you have, that the tomb belongs to Philip, is true - and the golden urn was coming to strengthen the correctness of this suspicion - you held the urn with his bones in your hands. It is incredible and terrible such a thought, which seems completely unreal." I think I have never experienced such a disturbance in my life, nor will I ever experience it again."