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still_one

(91,937 posts)
Thu May 26, 2016, 01:20 PM May 2016

Archaeologists discover Aristotle’s 2,400-year-old tomb in Macedonia

"Archaeologists believe they’ve found Aristotle’s tomb in central Macedonia.

A team of researchers say the 2,400-year-old tomb was excavated as part of a 20-year exploration of ancient Stagira, where the great philosopher was born in 384 BC, reported the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

The discovery will be formally announced Thursday at an international conference, the “Aristotle 2400 Years” World Congress, held in Thessaloniki.

Aristotle, who is regarded as the one of the most important thinkers in the history of Western Civilization, died in 322 BC at Chalcis, Evia, and was long believed to have been buried there.

However, archaeologists who are excavating Stagira are now certain the tomb they have found belonged to Aristotle, who ashes may have been transferred there, according to two literary sources.

The tomb is a mounded dome about 32 feet high, with a marble floor dated to the Hellenistic period, reported the Greek Reporter website — which published several photos taken at the site."

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/archaeologists-discover-aristotles-2400-year-old-tomb-in-macedonia/


Pretty amazing stuff. A lot his has gone down before us.............

13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Archaeologists discover Aristotle’s 2,400-year-old tomb in Macedonia (Original Post) still_one May 2016 OP
Wow - a great find leftynyc May 2016 #1
I agree. I love this stuff. still_one May 2016 #2
I love Greece leftynyc May 2016 #3
Wow, I hope I have the opportunity to see that sometime still_one May 2016 #4
I enjoy accurate archeology, the tomb could not have been that old. Jeffersons Ghost May 2016 #9
322 + 2016 = 2338. Your quibble holds but not your logic. Bernardo de La Paz May 2016 #12
Aristotle, Aristotle... wcmagumba May 2016 #5
Kick!!! still_one May 2016 #6
I always loved that song! elljay May 2016 #7
Great Minds Drink Alike! Martin Eden May 2016 #8
Aristotle’s 2,400-year-old tomb? Calling Geraldo!! KansDem May 2016 #10
"Aristotle played the taws upon the bottom of a king of kings..." Hekate May 2016 #11
This is fucking HUGE! Odin2005 May 2016 #13
 

leftynyc

(26,060 posts)
3. I love Greece
Thu May 26, 2016, 01:29 PM
May 2016

and the new Acropolis museum is awesome - lucite floors so you can see the digging going on underneath. It also give the British no more excuses not to give back the Elgin marbles. The Greeks (and also really, the Israeli's) have the most reverence for history I've ever seen.

Jeffersons Ghost

(15,235 posts)
9. I enjoy accurate archeology, the tomb could not have been that old.
Thu May 26, 2016, 01:58 PM
May 2016

Unless they left Aristotle's body above-ground, to rot for decades, the tomb was not as old as the date on the OP reports.
When he turned 17, he enrolled in Plato's Academy. In 338, he began tutoring Alexander the Great. In 335, Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where he spent most of the rest of his life studying, teaching and writing. Aristotle died in 322 B.C., after he left Athens and fled to Chalcis.

Bernardo de La Paz

(48,773 posts)
12. 322 + 2016 = 2338. Your quibble holds but not your logic.
Thu May 26, 2016, 04:06 PM
May 2016

Last edited Thu May 26, 2016, 05:41 PM - Edit history (1)

I think you might more charitably and to the point say you "enjoy accurate headline writing".

I doubt the archaeologists or the archaeology are at fault here. Further, there are at least a couple very plausible scenarios (conceivable because the article does not try to nail down every possible point and dot every i) that would make the headline quite accurate.

The article does agree that he died 322 BCE.

It could easily be that a tomb was constructed before his death for other purposes and/or other people, making the tomb actually 2400 years old, +/- 50 years for rounding off. This has happened many times in the past and happens today, for example when a wife might be buried in a tomb / mausoleum beside a husband or parent who died decades earlier.

It may have been hastily constructed (ref. the article) around 400 BC and then finished off with higher quality materials around 322 BC at the time of his death. Or finished off earlier and rededicated for Archimedes.

All the same, if the tomb was constructed before his death, "they" would not have had to leave his body above ground to rot because they could have put it in right away. Logically. Perhaps your arithmetic is faulty by 100 years so that your suggestion is backward.

wcmagumba

(2,871 posts)
5. Aristotle, Aristotle...
Thu May 26, 2016, 01:42 PM
May 2016

The Drinking Philosophers Song

Monty Python

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boosey beggar who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume Shoppenhauer and Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as schloshed as Schloegel.
There's nothin' Neitzche couldn't teach ya 'bout the raisin' of the wrist;
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed!

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, after half a pint of shard was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away, half a crate of whiskey every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle, Hobbes was fond of his dram.
And René Déscartes was a drunken fart, “I drink therefore I am.”
Yes Socrates, himself, is particularly missed: A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed!




elljay

(1,178 posts)
7. I always loved that song!
Thu May 26, 2016, 01:50 PM
May 2016

Monty Python was the most intelligent comedic group ever, still beloved by us nerds!

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