Science: Where Alexander Began

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In ancient Macedonia, the boisterous city of Pella was a pulsing magnet for talent from all over Greece. Euripides went there to write and die; top artists and scholars abounded. King Philip II was a backwoods baron, but in Pella he could send his son to the finest of tutors, Aristotle himself. Out of Pella one spring day in 334 B.C. rode Aristotle's finished pupil—Alexander the Great, 22, the tough intellectual whose armies Hellenized most of the known world.

Until recently, the exact site of this onetime world capital was unknown. The Romans destroyed it in 168 B.C., and peasants later quarried it to build new homes. Covered by the black earth, Fella's granite ruins vanished from sight. Then last year Farmer Vassilios Stergiou, enlarging his cellar 24 miles northwest of Salonika, found some fragments of an Ionic column. Under relic-reverent Greek law, he called police, and government archaeologists quickly descended. Result: bull's-eye location of Pella. It spreads on a hillside that commands distant views of Mt. Olympus and Mt. Athos, has a road leading to the Aegean Sea. In this region, at Philippi, St. Paul first preached on European soil (one of Christianity's earliest foreign mission efforts) after obeying an appeal that came to him in a vision ("Come over into Macedonia and help us"—Acts 16: 9).

This week excavation again begins at Pella, after breaking off last spring. So far, not a single trial trench dug by a 100-man crew in a 2-sq.-mi. area has failed to yield results. Hundreds of seals and gold coins have turned up, some with Philip's image. Other finds: the biggest (3 ft. long) clay roof tiles ever known; interior-wall plasters in lavish purple, black, yellow, grey; bronze doornail heads more than 4 in. wide.

Richest discovery to date is the first structure uncovered in the center of town. It was probably not Pella's most important, but it was impressive—164 ft. wide, at least 300 ft. long. It has elaborate clay pipelines for fresh water and sewage, three large courtyards paved with ingenious patterns of blue and white pebbles. In the ruins of its rooms, floor mosaics show a craftsmanship advanced for the period, even if it was imported from sophisticated Athens. One 80-sq.-ft. composition portrays Dionysus, god of wine, gaily riding on a panther's back. Well-preserved materials: black and white pebbles with strips of lead, all beautifully handled.

If the first finds are any sign, the Pella lode seems rich for years to come. Current target is the Macedonian royal palace. When Pella is fully excavated, says Co-Director Photios Petsas, it will prove one of the chief incubators of Western man. "It should rank along with Athens, Rome and the Holy Land."