Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1986 - 80

THE
The

FORUM
Missing

of Alexander
Mummy
by Frank L Holt

must have been one of life'smost
embarrassingmoments for the first
It imperialruler of Rome.The young
Octavian,after defeatingMarcAntonyand
Cleopatrafor controlof the Roman world,
had decidedto celebrateby stagingan
elaborate "media event" in Alexandria,
Egypt.Withalldue pomp and pageantrythe
mummifiedbody of Alexanderthe Great
wasbroughtbefore Octavian.The Roman
firsthonored the aged remainswith flowers
and a goldencrown.Then it happened:
as the future Augustus Caesar touched
the mummy'sgodlikeface, a piece of
Alexander'snose felloff.
Itwas a verytense moment, no doubt,
but both Octavianand Alexanderendured
the indignitywithouttoo much loss of face.
ForAlexander'smortal remains,the encounterwithOctavianwas merelyone of
manyadventuresin the mummy'slong and
colorfulhistory.For Alexanderthe Great,
eternalsleep has been a nightmare.
It all began when the young king
breathed his last at Babylonin 323 b.c.During his lifetimeAlexanderhad won a vast
empirestretchingfrom Albaniato India;
after his death his reputation burgeoned as
his generalsinvokedhis memoryand even
his imaginarypresence to justifytheir own
claimsto power.Alexander'smost familiar
relics- his throne, scepter,diadem, and
armor- were used to legitimizetheir tribunals,and their most importantmemento of all was Alexanderhimself.
Aftera treatment of what some sources
saywas honey and oil,Alexander'sbody lay
in state for nearlytwo years at Babylon
whilean elaborate funeralcarriagewas
prepared for the longjourney- to where?
Aegae,the ancient capitalof Alexander's
Macedonianhomeland,was the traditional
burialground for its monarchs,but it was
reported that the dyingking'slastwish had
been to be interred in the Libyandesert at
Siwah,a religiousshrine he much admired.
As it turned out, however,Alexander
ended up at neither place: his funeral
cortegewas hijackedand his body taken
to Memphisin Egyptfor burial.The engineer of this invasionof body snatcherswas
Ptolemyof Macedón,a boyhoodchum and
loyalservitorof Alexanderwhose claimto
the throne of Egyptwouldbe based on his
closerelationshipwiththe great ruler and
aboveall his possessionof the conqueror's
corpse.
But Alexanderwas stillnot allowedto
rest in peace. Afteran unsuccessfulattempt by some of his former commanders
to retrievethe mummyfrom Egyptit was
movedto a more elaboratetomb in Alexandria,where the Ptolemaicrulers of
Egyptcontinued to exploitthe mummyas
a source of popular attractionand political
prestige.Afterone king,short of cash, had
the nerve to swipeAlexander'sgolden sarcophagusand melt it down for coin, the
80

ARCHAEOLOGY

the

Great

mummywas moved to a less expensive
model, made of glass- apparentlythe one
in use when Octaviancame to town for
his touchingscene withAlexander'snose.
Alexander'smummy later disappeared
-probably amid the civilstrifeof late antiquitythat saw the destructionof many of
Alexandria'smonuments. "Whateverhappened to Alexander?"is a question that
has haunted a host of curious folksever
since.Shakespeare was puzzledenough to
raise the issue in Hamlet'sfamous graveyard speech: "Whymay not imagination
trace the noble dust of Alexandertillhe
find it stoppinga bunghole?"The Bard's
imaginaryrediscoveryof Alexander'sdust
was meant to be a commentaryon the mutabilityof man; other people, less philosophical,prefer to believethat Alexander's
bones are stillintact- somewhere.This
hope has inspiredsome unusual searches
since Shakespeare consideredthe subject.
The case of SteliosComoutsos is just
one example.This dreamy Greek waiter,
guided by somethinglikea secret mummy
map inheritedfrom his ancestors,sneaked
around Alexandriadiggingfor nearlya
decade in the 1960s undaunted by official
effortsto stop him. Some others have
claimedbetter luckin the continuingsearch
for Alexander'smummy,but recentlythe
mania was reallyturned into a mockery.
Here the storystrikesoff in a different
direction- with a pretended seriousness.
The storiesof Ptolemy,Octavianand Stelios
Comoutsos,with their hapless charm, are
certainlya historyof hocus-pocus;but to
call somethingeven silliera "science"is a
cruel hoax. Manyhave read and believed
Stephan A. Schwartz'sbook, The Alexandria Project (Dell,1983), whichdescribes
(as the cover explains)"AnExtraordinary
True Adventurein PsychicArchaeology,"
one that "led to the actual findingof Alexander's bones."Whileany "true adventure
in psychicarchaeology"would indeed be
extraordinary,some of the claimsin this
book are especiallyoutrageous.
In a long and often laughabletravelogue
that fewcould call a research expedition,
Schwartzand his psychicswent to Alexandria in search of Alexander'stomb.The
"remote sensors,"as the psychicsare called
in order to sound scientific,identifiedseveral locations,none of whichcould be
excavatedor otherwiseexploredfor confirmation.There was a good deal of this
convenientbad luck.Equipmentoften experienced "eerie failures";"interference"

(such as "intellectualstatic")closed down
"psychicsignals";psychicssuffered"double
exposures"of remote imagesat crucial
moments.
In addition to the gibberishand jargon of
pseudo-sciencethe book containsa fair
amount of old-fashionedmelodrama
straightfrom the mummymovies:"Athrill
of sensation brought me back,and made
me realizethat I had quit breathingand
that I was listeningto Helladescribethe
tomb of Alexanderthe Great."As it turned
out, Schwartzlearned on the basisof psychic "remote sensing"that the lost tomb
was likelylocated beneath the NebiDaniel
Mosquein Alexandria.And yet a popular
travelguide to Alexandriahas for decades
directed seekers of Alexander'stomb to the
NebiDanielMosque!
The book gets more bizarre,of course,
since Schwartzmust produce a body he
cannot excavate.Not to worry:some bones
are found in a bag in a desert monastery
that willdo just fine.To the monks,whose
skeletalcollectionwas short one skull,
the bag'sreal prizewas the bodyof John the
Baptist.Schwartz,undaunted, wonders
whether some of the bones might not belong to Alexander'smissingmummy!
A dear price is being paid for this kind of
foolery.Fundingand fanfareare givento
psychicsearches that borrowthe name but
seldomthe methods of seriousarchaeology
-at the expense of importantexpeditions
that mightbe made. Schwartzhas givenus
another unwantedskeletonin archaeology's
closet;the real Alexandereludes us still.
And if someone now should produce a better bag of bones- or even a body not
missingthe head, but onlya piece of the
nose- it wouldstillsmellfunny,wouldn'tit?

Frank L. Holt, AssistantProfessorof Ancient Historyat the Universityof Houston,
UniversityPark, TX,has publishedon Alexanders campaigns,HellenisticBactria,
Greek numismatics,and other subjects.
Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1986

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1986
