Coins and utensils
A number of treasures were concealed in graves dating from the Classical and early Hellenistic period (480-280 BC), a time when the custom of leaving a coin with the deceased for Charon took hold. Most of the 56 graves (22 of men, 29 of women, and five which could not be determined) contained coins (of Amyntas III, Phillip II, Alexander the Great, Dimitrios I, Cassander and Lyssimachus). The women were wearing earrings, rings, gilded bronze wreaths, amulets, and chitons decorated with arched brooches. Swords, one or two lances and occasionally scrapers (strigils) like those used by athletes were found in the men’s tombs. The bronze utensils found in four male tombs show that burial customs were similar to those revealed by tombs at Derveni, Vergina, Pydna, Stavroupoli in Thessaloniki and Nikisiani in Kavala. Two of the utensils – one with the head of Athena and the other with the head of a wild boar – are rare finds, showing that Macedonia was an important metalworking center in antiquity, explained Chrysostomou. Among the ornate vases were red-figure pelikai used to hold perfume, skyphoi or drinking cups, oinochoai or wine-pourers, pyxides used to store cosmetics, and a rare lekythos flask from Attica with two scenes in relief (Poseidon on horseback and Heracles in combat with a winged giant, and the goddess Athens fighting a giant).
