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

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. 322 + 2016 = 2338. Your quibble holds but not your logic.

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.