Has the mystery of Alexander the Great's tomb finally been solved?
Illustration of Ancient Alexandria by Ubisoft Entertainment SA, 2017
This story starts a few months ago, when I got an email from British author, historian, and all-around Alexander the Great expert Andrew Chugg. Andrew joined me on my podcast back in 2017 to discuss his controversial and fascinating theory that Alexander the Great’s tomb had been relabeled that of Saint Mark, a key figure in the Christian religion.
If true, this would mean that the famous Macedonian’s remains were not located somewhere in Egypt, as had generally been assumed, but rather beneath Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy.
I also wrote an in-depth article explaining Andrew’s theory: Is the Catholic Church hiding the body of Alexander the Great?
The story goes like this. After Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE, his body ended up in Alexandria, Egypt, a city he had founded. This is where famous leaders like Julius and Augustus Caesar, Cleopatra, and Caligula came to pay their respects. All of this is firmly established in the historical record.
However, references to Alexander the Great’s tomb in Alexandria dry up by 390 CE, just before Roman Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Empire and banned all non-Christian worship in 391 CE. This is also when we get the first references to the existence of a tomb of Saint Mark in Alexandria.
This strange coincidence is what led Andrew Chugg to speculate that these tombs may actually be one and the same. It may sound far fetched at first, but it makes more sense when you take into account the political and religious context of the time. Alexander the Great had achieved a god-like status for many in the ancient world and this did not align favorably with the ban of pagan worship across the empire.
Later, in 828 CE, the tomb in question (either of Alexander or Saint Mark) was plundered by Venetian merchants and the remains were transported back to Venice. The remains, or “relics” as they’re sometimes called, were then kept sealed in Saint Mark’s Basilica, where the Catholic Church claims they still exist to this day.
Up until recently, Chugg’s clever, if speculative, theory that these remains were actually those of Alexander all along had been based primarily on circumstantial evidence. But all of that appears to have changed last year, when he visited Venice to get a closer look at a curious limestone block (pictured below) that was found in the foundation of Saint Mark’s Basilica.
The Star-Shield Block, showing Macedonian symbols, at Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice. (Image: Andrew Chugg)
This piece of stone, referred to as the Star-Shield Block, found near the alleged remains of either Saint Mark or Alexander, has long been one of the strongest pieces of corroborating evidence in Chugg’s favor.
It features multiple symbols closely associated with ancient Macedon, including a long spear (called a sarissa) and a sun with eight points. This connection to Alexander’s homeland and family dynasty was independently confirmed by another Greek history scholar in 1998.
The existence of a stone with Macedonian symbols dating back to around the 3rd century BCE certainly makes Chugg’s theory more interesting, but in order to validate it he needed to find a more direct connection to Alexander. So he took detailed measurements of the block during a private tour of the Basilica last summer and his findings may well prove to be the smoking gun that he and so many others have been searching for in the mystery of Alexander’s lost tomb.
The details here get somewhat technical, but the quick summary is that the dimensions of the Star-Shield Block make it uniquely suited to have been used as an outer casing on an Egyptian sarcophagus that has long been rumored to have been used to hold Alexander’s remains In Egypt.
This particular sarcophagus was originally made for Pharaoh Nectanebo II (who ruled Egypt from 360–342 BC), but was left unused when the Pharaoh fled Egypt shortly before Alexander’s body was brought there by Ptolemy. Given the sudden need for a suitably grand tomb and the availability of this royal sarcophagus, it’s reasonable to think Ptolemy and the Egyptians would have used it to hold Alexander’s remains.
Furthermore, Nectanebo II appears as Alexander’s father in the Alexander Romance, a legendary account of Alexander’s conquests that was popular in ancient and medieval times. The speculation is that this fictional connection between the two developed because Alexander’s remains were kept and seen in a sarcophagus originally designed and decorated for Nectanebo II. According to Chugg, this particular story in the Alexander Romance originated around that time in ancient Alexandria.
There were also seemingly out-of-place statues depicting Homer and other Greek figures found outside the temple site in Memphis that is believed to be the original home of this sarcophagus. Given that we know Alexander’s first Egyptian tomb was also in Memphis, it stands to reason that this sarcophagus was the one most likely to have held Alexander’s remains.
It is in drawing a strong connection between these two pieces of evidence - the Star-Shield Block and the Egyptian sarcophagus associated with Alexander’s tomb - that Chugg has made a major breakthrough.
If the Egyptians did indeed use the Nectanebo sarcophagus for Alexander, it would have made sense for them to adorn it with Macedonian symbols to cover the original design. According to Chugg’s calculations, the Star-Shield Block’s dimensions - both its height and projected width - make it an exact fit to have been used as the outer casing for this sarcophagus.
The diagrams below show the full dimensions of the Star-Shield Block and how it would have fit along the outside of the sarcophagus. You can find a more in-depth explanation in Chugg’s new book, The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great: Third Extended Edition.
Diagram by Andrew Chugg showing the original dimensions of the Block based on the length of the long spear depicted.
Diagram by Andrew Chugg showing how the Star-Shield Block fit perfectly around the Nectanebo II sarcophagus.
With this clear fit established, the next question is whether the Star-Shield Block would also fit other Egyptian sarcophagi. In other words, how rare is the match between the Star-Shield block and this specific sarcophagus?
Chugg asked himself the same question, so he analyzed a sample of other similar Egyptian sarcophagi from around the same time period. His result? That if a person were to select one of these sarcophagi at random, they would have no larger than a 1% chance of it matching.
“At 99% probability we have a conclusion that the Star-Shield Block in Venice is part of the outer casing for the Nectanebo sarcaphagus in the British Museum and that essentially proves the entire theory,” Chugg told me.
So what do other experts think of this potentially breakthrough discovery? Just a few months since Chugg’s findings, it’s still too early to gauge how other ancient historians and academics will react. However, Chugg told me that two well-known Egyptologists have already shown support for his theory by publishing these new findings in their journals.
The most interesting reaction thus far comes from the British Museum, where the Nectanebo sarcaphagus in currently on display: the curator’s comment for the sarcophagus was amended on the Museum’s website from “This object was incorrectly believed to be associated with Alexander the Great…” to simply “This object was believed to be associated with Alexander the Great when it entered the collection in 1803." It’s a small, yet meaningful, revision that could indicate the Museum has taken notice of Chugg’s findings.
So where does this mystery go from here? Will the Catholic Church finally allow experts to inspect the remains?
I posed those questions to Chugg when we discussed all of this in an episode of the Ancient Heroes podcast and he wasn’t optimistic that these breakthrough findings would lead the Church to act anytime soon. The Church works slowly as it is, and its leaders certainly aren’t in the business of helping contradict their own longstanding historical claims.
And while an inspection of the remains at the Basilica could lead to conclusive evidence in Chugg’s favor (Alexander’s identity could be established if damage to the bones matched the record of his specific injuries he sustained in battle), a direct study of the remains would by no means guarantee a conclusion to this saga one way or another.
“The reason why it’s impossible to be so confident about the bones is that there are several instances in their history where a different body could have been swapped for the original one,” Chugg explains.
It is part of the Christian legend surrounding Saint Mark’s supposed remains that the original body was briefly lost in the late 11th century, then miraculously found again. One has to wonder whether this legend is somehow rooted in an actual historical blunder of some kind where the remains were lost and replaced with a substitute.
But despite a few loose ends, Chugg seems far more satisfied with where things currently stand than he did we first talked a few years ago. At that time, he admitted that his theory was far from proven. Although at the time he considered it the best explanation for what happened to Alexander’s tomb, he still rated its likelihood of being true at less than 50%.
Now, after establishing the definitive match between the Nectanebo sarcophagus and the Star-Shield Block, Chugg is all but certain than his theory is indeed the correct one and that Alexander’s remains were transported from Alexandria to Venice. Whether those remains survived at the Basilica to this day is an open question.
What is my take on all of this? I find Chugg’s theory to be more and more plausible with every piece of the puzzle he amazingly manages to fit together, although I wouldn’t put my own confidence quite as high as his just yet.
I’d like to see some analysis of the situation from other top historians and archeologists before making a final determination one way or the other. A comprehensive peer review is still needed.
But, in the meantime, I think it’s safe to say that Andrew Chugg has come closer to solving this ancient mystery than anyone else. After many years of analyzing the evidence and connecting far-flung dots, he may very well be on the precipice of making history.
You can listen to my conversation with Andrew Chugg about his breakthrough findings on the Ancient Heroes podcast, or watch on Youtube.
You’re welcome to join the conversation in the comment section below.