Just a few minutes after the official announcements of the tomb castes, the famous archaeologist Dorothy King expressed her initial thoughts on twitter.

According the archaeologist cremation was the norm in Macedonia (eg Vergina) historical sources give two bodies embalmed to go home: Alexander III and Hephaestion…

Dorothy King among other explains that Hephaestion died before Alexander, and Alexander ordered his body returned to Macedonia in an elaborate funerary cortege to be buried in a magnificent tomb there. Also we know that Alexander ordered a cult to Hephaestion, she said and added that if the bones are male, they are most likely to be those of someone like Hephaestion.

The importance of the person or people for whom the tomb was built is emphasized by the size “The burial complex on the hill castes was a public project, built using the largest amount used marble ever used in Macedonia.” Continuing the idea that it could only have been a state project for a royal ruler: “Therefore, this monument is a unique and original synthesis of diverse characteristics. It is an extremely precise construction, the cost of which is obviously unlikely to have been taken by an individual”, said Ms King.

Further she comments on the findings by expressing that this is probably the most exciting find. Although carved marble sarcophagi as at Sidon are beautiful, the more expensive versions would be wooden inset with glass and bone or ivory and gilded: