Ancient Greek Masterpiece Painting at King Philip of Macedon’s Tomb Revived Digitally

The imposing, ancient wall painting that has been decorating the entrance of King Philip of Macedon’s tomb in Aegae, northern Greece for over two millennia comes back to life after a team of archaeologists and experts were able to digitally bring it back to its former glory.

In March 2023, the team studied the 4th century BC wall painting that depicts a hunting scene with an older and a younger man on horseback, possibly Phillip II and his son, Alexander the Great. It runs across the width of the facade of Philip’s tomb and is considered the biggest and most significant painting of the Classical era that has been discovered to date. Through the use of non-intrusive equipment, specialized analytical techniques and without ever touching the surface of the painting, the research team aimed to detect the pigment material and the technique that was followed during the painting and, possibly recognize image elements that due to the degeneration of the wall painting are not visible to the naked eye.

The ultimate goal of the ReVis project, as it’s called, is with the help of technology, artificial intelligence tools and artistic creation, to digitally reconstruct the wall painting in its natural dimensions while shedding light on how colors were used in ancient Greece. It also hopes to unveil more of the the artistic features and secrets of ancient Greek painting art of the 4th century BC.

The first, pilot studies of Philip tomb’s wall painting and its coloring took place a decade earlier. Before that, in 1979, Dr. Manolis Andronikos, the famed archaeologist who discovered the Vergina Royal Tombs in 1977, assigned archaeologist Giorgos Miltsakakis to precisely imprint the lines of the features figures on the frieze in a 1: scale. A few years later, with the limited means of that time, he created a colored restoration of the frieze in a 1:10 scale, with the use of enhanced color depictions.

The ReVis project will be presented during a scientific summit on April 5, 2025 called “The Aigai Hunt Frieze Revealed: An Interdisciplinary Investigation and Digital Reconstruction.”

The research is headed by Dr. Harikleia Mprekoulaki, who is the scientific director of the digital reconstruction of the wall painting and a researcher at the National Hellenic Research Foundation, which has funded the project. Visual artist Christos Simatos and painter Emmanouil Mpitsakis are also part of the team. This is the first complete and scientifically documented study of the wall painting at Aegae, implemented with the collaboration of the Greek Ministry of Culture, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Imathia and the National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos.”

The discovery of King Philip of Macedon’s tomb, decorated by the ancient wall painting

The discovery of the tomb of King Philip of Macedon, the King of Macedonia and father of Alexander the Great, in Vergina, represents one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the history of the world.

It was November 8, 1977 when archaeologist Dr. Manolis Andronikos, after almost 40 years of excavations in the area, found the priceless treasure — both literally and historically — in the village of Vergina in northern Greece.

Located just five meters below the earth, there was an intact pair of royal tombs from the fourth century BC which contained many objects of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as several wall frescoes.

But more importantly, there were two caskets of human bones, which Andronikos believed to be the remains of the parents of Alexander the Great, Philip II (382-336 BC) — who had conquered all of Greece — and his fourth wife Olympia.

Visitors to Vergina, the site where the burials were found, can see the treasures of the tombs firsthand.

“In any case, I thought, within the sarcophagus there must be a nice surprise. The only difficulty we encountered was that as we lifted the cover, we saw the content clearly and we had to be able to keep our composure and continue our work, just because our eyes were dazzled by what we saw and our hearts were about to leap out of our chests from emotion,” the archaeologist says.

“Inside the sarcophagus there was a golden shrine. On top of its cover there was an imposing relief star with sixteen rays, and a rosette in the center. With much care and more emotion, I lifted the cover with the star by grasping it from the two corners.

“We all expected to see in it the burnt bones of the dead. But what we saw opening it left us breathless, with teary eyes and filled with awe: indeed there were burnt bones in the urn,” Andronikos writes.

“The most unexpected sight was a golden wreath of leaves and acorns that was folded and placed on the bones. I never imagined such an inconceivable picture. I can bring to mind what I told myself: “If your suspicion that the tomb belongs to Philip is true — and the golden urn came to reinforce the truth of this suspicion — you kept in your hands the larnax with his bones.

“It is an unbelievable and terrifying thought that seems totally unreal. I think I have never experienced such excitement in my life, nor will I ever experience again,” the noted archaeologist recalled with emotion.