Cultural Exchanges between Macedonia and Thrace in the Fourth and Third Centuries BC

Abstract

In the second half of the fourth and the first half of the third century B.C. elite burials in Macedonia and Thrace consisted of chamber tombs furnished with wooden or stone couches, vessels for eating and drinking, weapons, clothes, and jewels. Chamber tombs were usually covered with mounds and were accessible via built corridors. Macedonian tombs, however, were built underground while Thracian tombs were at ground level or higher. The Thracians preferred beehive tombs and corbel vault roofs, whereas Macedonian tombs were covered with the barrel vault, which was probably invented in Macedonia. The barrel vaults of Macedonian tombs were disguised behind elaborate architectural façades, but Thracian tombs generally lacked façades. The higher echelons of the Macedonian army complemented their defensive armor with iron pectorals carrying silver gilt decoration which were manufactured in Thrace or imitated Thracian models. After Philip II’s conquest of the Odrysian kingdom, the Macedonians introduced a burial ritual which involved transport amphorae, inspired by Thracian practice. The builders of Thracian tombs occasionally imitated the marble doors of Macedonian tombs. The drinking sets found in Thracian tombs have their closest parallels in Macedonia. The influence of Macedonian chamber tombs can be detected, among others, in the Naip tomb in southeastern Thrace and in a number of chamber tombs with barrel vaults in the Getic kingdom. The Sveshtari tomb, attributed to one of the rulers of the Getai, includes a wall-painting showing the ruler on horseback, wearing a ram’s horn over his right ear in imitation of Alexander the Great on the coinage of Lysimachos. This represents the pinnacle of Macedonian influence on the culture of Thrace.