December 26-2014
Details on the identity of the skeleton found in a massive tomb dating from the era of Alexander the Great in Greece are to be revealed in January, the Culture Ministry said last Friday.
Earlier revelations were promised for November. The ministry did not say what was causing the delay.
“The result of macroscopic study of the bone tissue identifying gender, age and height will be announced in January,” the ministry said in a statement.
The discovery early in November of the skeleton inside the huge fourth century BCE structure—the largest tomb ever unearthed in Greece—added to the excitement over the excavation, which had made global headlines in the summer.
The tomb, measuring 500 meters (a third of a mile) in circumference and dug into a 30-meter (100-foot) high hill in Amphipolis, northern Greece, contains sculptures of sphinxes and caryatids, intricate mosaics and coins featuring the face of Alexander the Great.
There has been widespread speculation over who was buried there: from Roxana, Alexander’s Persian wife, to Olympias, the king’s mother, to one of his generals. The ministry on Friday dismissed as “unfounded” claims on Greek websites that the skeleton belongs to a 54-year-old woman, and is therefore likely to be Olympias.