On the edge of the Great Tumulus lay the ruins of Macedonian Tomb IV, a single-chamber monument apparently built in the 3rd century BC, perhaps to receive the remains of Antigonus Gonatas. This tomb, not protected by the massive earthen volumes of the Great Tumulus, was not only looted but also brutally quarried over the centuries. As a result, only traces of its walls and a few fragments of its columns and the superstructure of its façade were found in situ—yet these are sufficient to allow a reliable reconstruction of its original form. The four free-standing Doric columns form a rudimentary portico on the façade of the monument, constituting a unique and remarkable architectural feature, since in all other Macedonian tombs the columns are engaged as half-columns in the wall. The colonnade was crowned by the characteristic Doric architrave and a frieze with triglyphs and metopes; however, instead of a pediment, there was here—as in the tombs of Philip II and Alexander IV—an Ionic frieze. This is another distinctive feature, indicating that the builder of the monument consciously continues the architectural tradition of the neighboring royal tombs of the Great Tumulus, the memory of whose form must still have been vivid in his time.

http://odysseus.culture.gr/ Συντάκτης Αγγελική Κοτταρίδη, αρχαιολόγος