Social media is abuzz with speculation about the excavations taking place at the burial mound at Amphipolis. Monitor, the group that tracks social media, found that from August 10 to August 20 there were 55,000 mentions of “Amphipolis“. Attention climaxed on August 13 with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ visit to the tomb with over 6,000 posts dedicated to his tour around the ancient site.

53% of references took place on Twitter with blogs and Facebook posts following. The topic was most popular with people in the 36-50 age group (43%) followed by the 21-35 age bracket (40%).

“Alexander the Great” was mentioned over 22,000 times.

Many of the posts also referred to other popular current affairs issues and were spiked with humor:

* “The tomb of Amphipolis is the Sifis the Crocodile of archaeology”
* “They’ll find that one-of-a-kind Thessaloniki station after 2,000 years and think it was a tomb. Go figure!”
* “They found the license plates of Hatzigiannis Ferrari buried at Amphipolis”
” “The Tomb at Amphipolis is 1,962 sq meters. Ground floor and first floor, in a construction that is over 100 years old, with over 2 facades (circular, you see), it isn’t for farm use. With the lower area cost, ENFIA amounts to 2,400 euros. If we add the fact that the tenant hasn’t declared a tax statement for many years and with the additional tax amounts and fines I think that Alexander the Great can get off the hook with five hundred thousand euros (the amount is greater but the courts may give him a tax break)”
“If it is a Greek tomb , there wouldn’t be sphinx guards but sheepdogs. It’s probably an Egyptian tycoon buried there.”
* “Officials of the Ministry of Culture and Religion deny that the excavation #amfipolis will take place at the same pace as political announcements – at least to be in time for TIF (Thessaloniki International Trade Fair).”

Some commenters even linked the grave to the burial tomb of PAOK football team…

At least we know its Greek, say some –