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The Eye Injury of King Philip II and the Skeletal Evidence from the Royal Tomb II at VerginAuthor(s): Antonis BartsiokasSource: Science, New Series, Vol. 288, No. 5465 (Apr. 21, 2000), pp. 511-514Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3075009
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REPORTS
tography was used for all points of facial
anatomy at issue (Figs. 1 through4). This
method provided the proper magnification,often termed"natural ize"(1:1) among pho-
tographers; hat is, that obtained between a
microscope lens and a normal camera lens.
As a result, the whole structureunderstudywas included n the photograph, nd the nec-
essarydepthof field was obtained.Here, for
instance, hemagnificationobtained n Fig. 1,with a Minolta 700si camera and a macro
lens, is X4. It could have been much more if
needed. FujichromeSensia film rated at 100
was used at an f-stop of 32 and a shutter
speed of 1/60 s in all close-up pictures.This
method is simple, fast, and portable,but it
requires ome skill in photography.Withmi-
croscopy, it is difficult to obtain such a low
magnificationwith sucha high depthof field.
I examined the male skeleton from Royal
Tomb II in the laboratoriesof the Vergina
ArchaeologicalMuseum in 1998. The bones
were in excellent condition because they
were consolidatedand restoredquitesatisfac-
torily (wherever hat was possible) by Xiroti-ris before 1981 (4).
The bone pathologyof the male skeleton
is crucial as to the identificationof the occu-
pant of Royal Tomb II, because it is histori-
cally known that Philip II, being a warrior,suffered many wounds (5); whereas Arrhi-
daeus, being unwarlike,suffered none (1, 6).These wounds of PhilipIIwouldundoubtedlyhave left their mark on his skeleton. For in-
stance,his rightclavicle was shatteredwith a
lance in 345 or 344 B.C., a wound to his right
femurwas nearly ataland eft PhilipII lame3
years before his death, and anotherwound
maimedhis arm 5). The mostimportantf his
wounds s theblindingwoundPhilip I sufferedto his right eye froman arrowat the siege of
Methone n 354 B.C., 18 yearsbefore he was
assassinatedn 336 B.C. (5).In a thorough nvestigation, ncludingthe
use of radiographyand histology, Xirotiris
andLangenscheidt ound no evidence of any
postcranial njuries,only slight degenerative
changes(4) thatwere apparentlyhe effect of
osteoarthritis. Similarly, Prag and Neave
agreethat there is no evidence of anyfresh or
healed damage to the postcranial skeleton
(7), an observation hat is confirmedhere as
well. The only woundpreviously reportedon
the skeleton of the male occupantof RoyalTombII was an eye injury o the skull (6, 8).
This injuryhas become the hallmarkof theidentificationof the male occupantof RoyalTomb II as Philip II (7) and has led to a
famous reconstruction f his face showing a
scar over his right eye (8). Theoriginalreportfound no morphologicalor radiographic vi-
dence of any injury to the skull that was
consistent with the severe eye wound suf-
feredby Philip II (4). It was concluded that
the hypothesis that Philip II and his wife
Cleopatrawere the occupantsof RoyalTomb
II was supported only by the age and sex
determinations f the human remains(4). In
view of the similarbiological ages of Arrhi-
daeus and his wife Eurydice,the age deter-
minations are no longer conclusive for theidentification of the occupants of Royal
Tomb II(2, 6). Others 6), however, reported
that there is a "notch"on the superiormargin
of the right orbit, supposedly made by the
arrow hatinjuredPhilipII (Figs. 1 and2). It
was also reported hat there is a "pimple"of
bone close to where the supraorbitalnerve
would havepassed; his was citedas evidence
of healingafter the injury 6) (Figs. 1 and2).Inthisway, thealleged eye injury o the skull
(8) providedthe identificationfor the occu-
pantsof Royal Tomb II (5).I studiedthe anatomyof the rightorbit of
the male skull of RoyalTomb II (Figs. 1 and
2) by means of macrophotography.As seenin Figs. 1 and 2 of the right orbit,the "pim-
ple" anatomically correspondsto the bony
protuberanceof the supraorbitalnotch and
therefore does not constitute evidence of
bone remodeling or callus formation. This
bony protuberances even less pronounced
than those of many recent nonpathologicskulls (9). There is some surfacerougheningover thebonyprotuberance, ut there is more
rougheningon the left orbit. Similarly, the
"notch" s identifiedwithwhat is anatomical
ly termed he frontalnotch(Figs. 1and2) and
bears no evidence of healingor callus forma-
tion as would be expectedin a notch madebyan arrowhead.The evidence provided here
regardingthe right orbit may explain thediscrepancy n which the famousreconstruc
tion of the eye scar (8) shows a nick in the
right eyebrow (presumablymade by the de-
scendingarrow)running n direction rom the
upperleft to the lower right (/), whereasthe
small ivoryhead of King PhilipII usedby the
advocates of a Philip II identification(1)shows the brow nick running n the oppositedirection(\). It has been suggestedthat there
is an abnormalasymmetrybetween the two
orbitsof the frontalbone that is caused main-
ly by the notch (6). However,a fracture ine
thatrunsparallel o thesupraorbitalmarginof
the left orbit shows that the bone was lifted
up during cremation, so as to create thisseeming asymmetry (Fig. 4). Regardlessof
the cremation ffects, it is not unusual o have
a supraorbital otch on the rightorbit and a
supraorbitaloramen on the left orbit of the
same skull, resulting n a normalasymmetrybetween the two orbits(10).
It has been reportedthat the male skull
presentsa facial asymmetry hat is the result
of the arrow wound that removed Philip's
right eye (11). Since there is no skeletal
evidence of such an arrow wound, as has
been shown here, it follows that there is no
facial asymmetry at least causedby such an
arrow wound) either. Besides, there is no
reasonwhy such a facial wound would resultin such an extensive bone remodelingthat
would change the whole symmetry of the
face. At the most, it would cause a bone
reaction to a possible infection. But no such
infection is evidencedby the skull.Therehas
also been mentionof a "healed fracture"6,
-ag. 1 (tlet). Ine rigntoroitaimarginortne maleoccupantor KoyaTombIIat Vergina frontalview).The left arrowshows the bonyprotuberancef the supraorbitalotch,and he rightarrow howsthefrontal notch. No evidence of healingor callus formationcan beobserved. Fig. 2 (right).The rightorbitalmarginof the maleoccupantof RoyalTombIIat Vergina internal iew).The left arrowshows the bony protuberancef the supraorbitalotch,andthe righarrow shows the frontal notch. No evidence of healingor callusformation an be observed.
21 APRIL 000 VOL288 SCIENCEwww.sciencemag.org12
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7) at the zygomaticomaxillary uture caused
by the arrow, which after hitting the eye"struck he cheekboneat thejoin betweenthe
maxilla and the zygomaxillare with such
forcethat it caused the suture o openand the
two bones to move out of alignment.A small
piece of bone was knockedaway in the inci-
dent" (7). Again, there is no evidence of
healing at this suture (Fig. 3), because the
trabecularbone is stillexposed, apparentlyfrom a crack made during cremation. If it
were healed,no trabecularwould be exposedbecause 18 years had passed between the
wound and Philip's II death. The suggestedantemortem racture n this area is an artifact
of the skull reconstruction(12). What the
skull shows is bone distortionowing partly o
cremationandpartly o a poorreconstruction
of the facial skeleton. In other words, we
conclude that the "healed fracture" s an ar-
tifact of whatever these bones sufferedpost-mortem.Similarly,the reportedgross asym-
metrybetween the lateral walls of the rightand left maxillarysinuses (7, 13) is a resultof
this poorreconstructionFig. 3). A fragmentof thejugal crest was brokenoff, apparently
duringcremation,and thenbadlyreconstruct-
ed so as to give the impressionof asymmetry.The presence of "osteophytes" 13) (appar-
ently meaning exostosis) andalveolarresorp-tion on the rightside of the alveolarprocess
(11, 13) as a result of possible periodontaldisease is too limited (4) to account for the
seeming asymmetry. Regardingthe state of
preservationn the area of the "nick," here s
no differencebetween whatXirotiris n 1981,
Musgrave n 1983, and myself in 1998 stud-
ied, as can be seen from thephotographs hey
produced 4, 6). Thus,the materialexamined
by Musgraveand myself was not less com-plete or in any way downgraded ince Xiroti-
ris reconstructedt, refuting any suggestionthatdifferingthingswere examined.
It should be noted that the direction of
REPORTS
the "notch" n the orbit is different from the
position of the supposed "healed fracture"
of the cheek; the "notch"goes straightintothe orbit, whereas the supposed "healed
fracture" s in a completely different level
and direction. The arrow could not have
knocked away a piece of bone from the
zygomaticomaxillary suture had it not first
struck the infraorbitalmargin, because theformer
is tucked under the latter.However,no evidence of such injury in the infraor-
bital marginexists. The suggested asymme-
try of the mandible (6, 7) is also the result
of cremation and not the result of congen-ital deformation or injury;the mandible, for
instance, is wider than the maxilla. Bone is
very pliable when on fire. Therefore,bones
in cremations may easily be deformed bythe weight of overlying items, such as burn-ing wood. Experiments in kilns and ovens
can be misleading [see, for example (7,
13)]. In such experiments, the bones are
placed on flat surfaces and remain rather
undistorted without the effect of any over-
lying weight.For various archaeological and histori-cal reasons (1, 6, 14), it is unlikely that
Arrhidaeuswas crematedsoon after death:
It has been suggested that afterArrhidaeus'
assassination and burial by Olympias in
317 B.C., Cassander exhumed, cremated,and reburied Arrhidaeus the following
year;thatis, about6 months after his death.
It seems that Cassanderdid that as a policyto establish his own legitimacy by honoringthe last king of the Argeads. So the critical
question that would determine the identityof the cremains is whether there is any wayof determining from the bones themselves
whether they were cremated with flesharound them or cremated dry (degreased)after the flesh had been decomposed byburial. Fortunately, forensic anthropologycan give the answer: Long bones cremated
dry are nearly intact in size and form and
show negligible warping; they assume a
light brown color and present infrequentand straighttransverse fractures(15). Longbones cremated fleshed are fragmentarywith markedwarping; they assume a white,
blue, and gray color and present frequentand parallel-sided transverse fractures thatare either curved (thumbnail) or serrated
(15) (it is not as yet clear what happens tothe flat bones). In flesh-covered bones, the
mechanical alterations mentioned above
occur because of the denaturationand con-traction of bone collagen at high tempera-tures (16). This produces many transverse
cracksperpendicular o the direction of the
collagen fibers (that is, the long axis of the
bone) and markedwarping as the collagencontractiondragsthe bone mineralalong. If
the bone is dry because of having been
buried in the ground, the collagen-apatitebonds weaken (17) and the collagen is
hydrolyzed into smaller peptide products
(18). Then, during cremation, the collagen
cannot drag the bone mineral along. As aresult, warping and transverse cracking in
dry bone are minimal and of differentkind.Inmechanical erms,the transverse racks
formed in a fleshed bone duringcremation
areperpendicularo the directionof the col-
lagen tensile forces, as when wedging a log.This results in curvedor serrated ransverse
fractures. n drybone, where the tensile forc-
es of thecollagenareweak and the transverse
forcespredominate,he transverse racks arethe result of a "tearing" henomenon; hatis,the shearingforces are perpendicularo the
directionof the crack.This resultsin straighttransverseor step fractures hat extend from
the margin of the longitudinal fracturesacross the bone. Sucha step fracture s shown
in Fig. 5.
As can be observed from the long bones
of the male skeleton,the preservationof the
Fig. 3 (left). The area of zygomaticomaxillaryutureshowing hes;*W\6s\r-es> si S,{ "nick,"hat is, the misalignment f bones owing to the fact that
- ;' \ S t~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ometfagerNtsuchenashejeuigaLc ebstbhown dere,re badly tuck:~!'~!:}:~ . t~,,. . , ~ ~~ together.No evidenceof injury an be observed. Fig.4 (right).
+-w>*Xe - j The left orbital marginof the male occupant(internalview).Theasymmetryobservedbetween the two orbits(6) is mainlya postmortemeffect:Thetop partof the bonewas liftedupduring remation.
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