A second monument, much smaller than the one already discovered on the Kasta Hill in Amphipolis, is believed to exist on the west side of the hill. The geophysical survey carried out by the Applied Geophysics Lab of the Aristotle University of Macedonia revealed a structure two metres deep.

As the director of the Lab Grigoris Tsokas told ANA-MPA [Athens News Agency – Macedonian Press Agency] in the margins of his speech entitled “How buried antiquities are being located: The secrets of the Kasta Hill in Amphipolis”, “targets” have been detected on the west side of the monument which have to be examined through excavation.

“We have a three-dimensional representation of the distribution of resistance, where we see there is something there. We guess it is a second monument, much smaller than the one found, at a depth of about two metres, which has to be investigated,” Mr. Tsokas explained.

He also added that on the Kasta Hill, which has been fully investigated through geophysical survey, a buried valley has been found, i.e. “a ravine on the NE side, which has been covered by a man-made embankment and has to be excavated.”

“The geophysical study of the Kasta Hill was commissioned to our laboratory in 2014 and the university has funded the research in full. We have already explored the hill and we are now processing the data, which is difficult because of the volume. We have also found some additional data which should be confirmed by excavation. This is why we are trying to find the funds to continue” the professor pointed out. “In addition,” he continued, “we have dated a piece of coal found in the foundations and it turned out that the monument was built around 300 BC, plus or minus 30 years.”

Grigoris Tsakos referred more generally to the current scientific efforts of the Lab, which have produced innovative approaches in significant archaeological matters, as locating burial monuments in the interior of mounds. During the last 30 years the Lab has conducted surveys in Vergina, Dion, Akropolis, Marathon and 50 sites in foreign countries, such as Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Italy and Russia.

“The Lab has produced innovative technology for locating and mapping lost antiquities,” Mr. Tsakos said. In Thessaloniki, for instance, the Lab conducts surveys underneath the foundations of the Church of Panagia Chalkeon, in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities, “because, according to the founding inscription on the door, it was built in an ‘unholy place’, which means that a church had already existed there”, while surveys are also being conducted at the walls of the Heptapyrgion (Thessaloniki), in order to find out whether they have been affected by humidity.