The choreographers of light solar architecture and the shadow through an old Macedonian tomb

The independent scientist based in Athens, Demetrius Savvids, has shown in Amphipolis, in the north of Greece, where the Kastas monument rises in sculpted marble levels, sunlight seems to have been attracted to the heart of the timed tomb with winter solstice.

There was a time when humans paid a lot of attention to the heavens. When the movement of stars and play of light through the seasons had a great meaning and a mystery. Ancient architects often set stone to the rhythm of celestial events.

The Sanctuaries of Millennia in Nemrud Dağ, Nabataean Petra, the island temples of Apollo and the Pantheon of Rome always testify to the designers who followed the sunlight with an astonishing precision and inspired the current generation of cultural astronomers.

Previous studies have proposed that solar events were architectural coded to strengthen ritual meaning or divine association. Researchers use tools such as GIS, photogrammetry and 3D reconstructions to map sunlight through sacred spaces. These past efforts have provided evocative visualizations apparently planned by ancient manufacturers, but still lacked quantitative rigor necessary to test intentionality with precision.

In 2014, archaeologists discovered the Macedonian monument from Kastas to Amphipolis in the north of Greece. Built around 300 BCE, the structure includes marble dromos leading to four vaulted rooms, each marked by its own guards: headless sphinxes on the threshold, caryatids (marble pillars carved in female figures) standing halfway and a mosaic of persepphone removed in the sub-world of the tomb.

Solar patterns have once immersed the Macedonian rule. The Vergina sun, stamped on royal pieces, symbolized the God of the Helios sun. Herodotus recorded myths connecting the Argead dynasty to a solar offspring. While little was published on the solar influence of sacred Macedonian structures, Kastas offers one of the rare chances of wondering if this rich solar theology has left an imprint on the orientations of walls, beams and funeral chambers.

In the study, “Illuminating the Kastas Monument Enigma: A Computational Analysis of Solar Architectural Interaction”, published in Nexus Network JournalSavids has developed a method to quantify solar alignments all year round in the Kastas monument.

The drawings on the field and the satellite georeference place the Marble Dutch tomb in Amphipolis, in the north of Greece, oriented at around 208 ° 38 ′ and enclosing four vaulted chambers under a 30 m high mound discovered in 2014.

Savids built a high resolution sketchup model, carried it in Blender and Stellarium, and associated it with a personalized Python code which calculates the solar altitude and the azimut for the conditions of 300 ECB.

Simulations reveal a 70 -minute light well on December 21 which sweeps from the door to the sphinx to bathe the arrival of the burial, while the caryatid bundle projects a companion shadow on this same stone cover. The luminous path follows the monument’s symmetry axis, forming a direct alignment between two key coordinates – just under the arc apex and at the top of the landfill.

Comparable but shorter visits to sunlight occur at the end of August, at the end of October, at the end of January, in mid-February, mapping a luminous pilgrimage through Mosaické floors and carved thresholds.

Sensitivity analysis has shown that even small variations in the solar angle or architectural position have moved the alignment in a measurable way. A change of ± 1 ° of the azimut moved the shadow of about 23 centimeters; A offset of ± 1 ° of the elevation changed it by a full meter.

Position changes of only 10 centimeters in the original point of the sun caused a difference in a day of alignment synchronization. A vertical discrepancy of 80 cm in the light opening would move the three-meter and forty-day target of winter and forty days, referring to the architects who finely set their masonry to align with astronomical timing.

A key conclusion highlighted the absence of a characteristic sensitive to solar in the third room, where the Persephone mosaic is damaged. Based on symmetry and architectural proportions, Savids proposed a hypothetical missing element, perhaps a statue, which could have finished the solar sequence. Digital reconstruction has placed this element on a pedestal directly aligned with incoming light.

Savvids concludes that the second phase of construction of Kastas probably reused an anterior tomb in a theater of seasonal light, intertwining the Persephones-Cybele myths with royal propaganda.

As a computer workflow is often necessary during the exploration of ruins, the Savids method offers archaeologists a new way of testing the hypotheses of sky architecture on the sites of the world.

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