Vergina is a modern town in Greece and the location of the ancient capital of the Macedonians, callted Aigeai. Occupied beginning in the early Bronze Age, Vergina had its heyday during the Archaic and Classic periods of the 7th through 4th centuries BC. The site is best known for several royal tombs, where the preservation of arms and mail has provided a glimpse into Bronze Age warfare.
Tomb II at Vergina is a barrel vault tomb, believed by some scholars to belong to Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, who died in 336 BC. Barrel vault tombs are square or rectangular in shape with an antechamber and an intervening door. The entrance is usually a marble door carved to look like wood, and framed with a door post and lintel, and a walled sloping ramp led to the ground surface. Barrel vaults in Macedonia date between the mid-4th and mid-2nd century BC. re a type of tomb used by the Persians, beginning in the 4th millennium BC, and it was thought that it was Alexander who copied the style and brought it to Greece. But additional research led scholars to the conclusion that such a style could and did develop prior to Alexander's conquests in Asia, although probably because of earlier connections to Persia.
Excavations at Vergina have been conducted by L. Heuzey, K. Rhomaios and Manolis Andronikos.
Sources
Chilidis, Konstantinos 2008 New knowledge versus consensus – a critical note on their relationship based on the debate concerning the use of barrel-vaults in Macedonian tombs. European Journal of Archaeology 11(1):75–103.
