Two caryatids found at the Amphipolis burial monument in Macedonia

The Ministry of Culture in Greece has announced another spectacular find at the Amphipolis burial monument in Macedonia – two caryatids of exquisite beauty, carved from thasian marble with traces of blue and red paint. Caryatids were found when a team of archaeologists led by Katerina Peristeri removed sandy soil in front of a sealing wall and found the two female sculptures stood between two marble pillars supporting a beam. The Ministry said that the presence of the caryatids supports the view that this is an “outstanding monument of particular importance.”

A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ‘karyatides’ translates to "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town of Peloponnese. Karyai had ....

Amphipolis tomb entrance gradually revealed

The archaeological excavation at Kasta Tumulus in Ancient Amphipolis continues steadily, said the Culture Ministry in an announcement on Sunday.
According to the announcement "ten more stones, part of the seventh and eighth row of the sealing wall were removed with three more remaining of the eleven-row stone wall.
The adornment of the next part of the entrance of the tomb was......

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Robin Lane Fox as regards ancient Macedonia and FYROM name issue

The lasting legacy of Alexander the Great in Afghanistan

Pr. Johannes Engels as regards the ancient Macedonian language

Source: " Companion to Ancient Macedonia", page 95

FYROM Statues: From ethno-cultural nationalism to National Chauvinism

With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the ruling ideology of Marxism-Leninism was replaced by different ideological forces. One of them was nationalism. In FYROM, gradually and with the "withdrawal" of the Socialists in the various state power positions, the far right through the VMRO began to take their places. So we have from the late 90's a gradual transformation of rampant ethno-cultural nationalism, into an explosion of national chauvinism (see Andrew Heynwood, political ideologies, 2007).

The extreme nationalist hysteria that exists on these days between the Slavmacedonians, because of the erection of two statues (one is giant) at the center of Skopje is a typical example. The far-right Prime Minister Gruevski, continuing the "antiquisation policy" of the Slavic population, made the next step and the Slavmacedonism enfold the "national chauvinism".

National chauvinism breeds from a feeling of intense, even hysterical nationalist enthusiasm. The individual as a separate, rational being is swept away on a tide of patriotic emotion, expressed in the desire for aggression, expansion and war. The right-wing French nationalist Charles Maurras (1868-1952) called such intense patriotism “integral nationalism”: individuals and independent groups lose their identity within an all-powerful 'nation', which has an existence and meaning beyond the life of any single individual. (Heynwood:165) Such militant nationalism is often accompanied by...