Photos: Mysterious Ancient Tomb in Amphipolis

By Megan Gannon
published

Pebbled Art

Amphipolis mosaic

(Image credit: Greek Ministry of Culture)

The mosaic is made up of pebbles colored white, black, gray, blue, red and yellow.

Abduction of Persephone

Persephone's abduction

(Image credit: Greek Ministry of Culture)

More digging revealed a third figure: Persephone. It's clear that this scene shows the goddess being taken into the underworld by Hades.

Missing Head Found

sphinx head

(Image credit: Greek Ministry of Culture)

The missing head of one of the sphinxes was discovered in the fourth chamber of the tomb. The marble head is quite intact (besides its broken nose).

Sphinx Hair

Sphinx hair

(Image credit: Greek Ministry of Culture)

The marble statue's wavy hair falls on its left side and has faint traces of paint.

Bones Found

The burial vault inside a tomb at Amphipolis.

(Image credit: Greek Ministry of Culture)

In a breakthrough find, the excavators uncovered pieces of bones inside a vault in the third chamber of the tomb in November. There were also fragments of glass (likely from decorations on the coffin) and metal nails scattered around the skeletal remains.

Secret Vault

Diagram of burial vault

(Image credit: Greek Ministry of Culture)

This diagram shows the location of the vault. Scientists will analyze the bone fragments to see if they can glean any information about who was buried in the tomb.

Megan Gannon
Live Science Contributor
Megan has been writing for Live Science and Space.com since 2012. Her interests range from archaeology to space exploration, and she has a bachelor's degree in English and art history from New York University. Megan spent two years as a reporter on the national desk at NewsCore. She has watched dinosaur auctions, witnessed rocket launches, licked ancient pottery sherds in Cyprus and flown in zero gravity. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.