The Skeleton in the Vergina Tomb Is Not Philip II, Father of Alexander the Great, New Study Finds

A new study has cast serious doubt on one of the most widely held assumptions in Greek archaeology: that the remains discovered in the Great Tumulus at Vergina belong to Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. According to radiocarbon dating carried out by Dr. Yiannis Maniatis, research director at the Laboratory of Archaeometry at the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos,” the skeleton in question predates Philip’s death by several decades.

The remains, buried in the ancient city of Aigai (modern-day Vergina), were long thought to belong to Philip II. However, the new findings suggest they actually belonged to an unknown Macedonian king who died sometime between 388 and 356 BCE—well before Philip’s assassination in 336 BCE.

The identification of these tombs has long been a matter of debate among archaeologists. Since the discovery of the massive burial complex at Vergina, three main tombs—referred to as Tombs I, II, and III—have been proposed as the final resting places of Philip II, his half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus, and Alexander IV, the son of Alexander the Great. The location of Alexander the Great’s own tomb remains unknown.

Just last year, a study by Professor Antonios Bartsiokas of the Democritus University of Thrace claimed to have settled the debate once and for all, asserting that the tombs indeed contained the remains of Alexander IV, Philip III, and Philip II himself.

But Dr. Maniatis’s new research directly challenges that conclusion. Radiocarbon analysis shows that the male remains in Tomb I date to a period before 356 BCE, making it impossible for them to be Philip II’s. Further analysis revealed that the man died between the ages of 25 and 35—significantly younger than Philip, who was about 45 when he died.

Another major blow to the earlier identification is the presence of infant bones in the tomb, previously believed to belong to Philip’s child with Cleopatra. The study revealed that these remains actually come from at least six different infants.

What’s more, all of these infant bones date to the Roman period, between 150 and 130 BCE—over two centuries after the adults in the tomb were buried. Researchers believe Roman parents later interred their deceased children in the tomb, likely taking advantage of an opening left by Celtic grave robbers in the 3rd century BCE, which remained accessible into Roman times.

As a result, the research team concludes that the identification of the remains in Tomb I as Philip II, his wife Cleopatra, and their child is not scientifically supported. The true location of Philip II’s body, it appears, is still a mystery.