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Modern Description: Before 1902, a mound located near the western base of Mt. Akontion, directly across the plain from Chaironeia, had been associated with the grave of the Macedonians and regarded as marking the place of heaviest engagement on Philip's left flank. Soteriades, however, discovered stone tools and idols of clay and stone which indicated that the mound was prehistoric: it contained no trace of graves from the period of the battle of 338 B.c.'9 Satisfied that this mound was not the Macedonian polyandrion attested in Plutarch as being not far from the Kephissos river, Soteriades investigated a second mound, rising to a height of 23 feet above the plain, which is located two and one-fourth kilometers to the east of the first and due south of the village of Bisbardi. Earlier, it was thought that this mound belonged to the time of Sulla's cam paign. The excavation proved rather that it dated from the fourth century B.c. On the level of the plain a great funeral pyre had been erected. Com pletely charred or half-burnt logs could still be dis tinguished in the caked mass of ashes and bones. The height of the layer of ashes was 0.75 m. at the center. In addition to vases of the fourth century and two bronze Macedonian coins, Soteriades discovered extraordinarily long lance-heads (about 15 inches) which he identified as the Macedonian sarissas. These are now on exhibit in the Chairo neia museum. With Soteriades' establishment of this tumulus as the polyandrion of the Macedonians, it has seemed reasonable to all who have subsequently studied the battle that this mound marked the position of the Greek right, where the loss was presumabl greatest for the invaders. The only plausible explanation which has been offered for their anchoring their line at this part of the plain, south of that suggested in any previous study of the battle, would be to cover the passage to Levadeia and Thebes along two routes, that of the modern highway and that of the Kerata Pass. (Pritchett 1962, AJA 62.3) See John Ma, "Topographies of Commemoration
Wikidata ID: Q106387534

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