Lacking its own distinctive enclosure, Tomb E lies to the south-west, on the same line as, but at a lower level than, Tomb B (Fig. 40, Plan 2). The burial chamber measures 3.35 m. long x 2.50 m. wide x 1.90 m. high internally. The inner surfaces of the walls are smooth and carefully plastered and display a purple band running all the way around the chamber at a height of 1.46 m. above the floor. Along the south-east side of the interior lies the funerary stele with its base and palmette finial, which have fallen in from above (Fig. 45). The stele is made of local limestone and painted decoration is visible on the palmette with its double volutes, which permit comparison with early Ionic steles of the early 5th century BC and attest to Ionic influences in Macedonia. The fallen stele with its base, together with the absence of sockets for a wooden beam, suggest that the tomb did not have a stone roof and was therefore covered with a mesh of pieces of wood and branches.
The excavation of the tomb has yielded a fragment of a Nolan amphora with a depiction of the goddess Athena, some interesting fragments of red-figure vase-painting, various terracotta figurines and some fragments of glass vessels, while from the area around the tomb two fragments of marble statues have been unearthed: a section of an arm bent at the elbow, with the forearm up to the wrist, and the bare sole of a foot, which must have belonged to the funerary monuments, and probably to pediments (Fig. 46).
To the west of Tomb E survive the two short sides of an enclosure constructed of small stone slabs (surviving dimensions 3.14 m. long x 2.20 m. wide), within which no other structure or pit-grave was found (Fig. 47, Plan 2). This fact suggests that the enclosure formed part of the base for the pedestal of a virtually intact marble lion (only the legs are missing) which had been deliberately buried just a short distance away, probably to prevent it from being stolen after the tomb was looted (Fig. 48). The lion is 1.20 m. long and dates from the early 5th century BC.
Dr Georgia Karamitrou – Mentesidi
