Ongoing excavations in northern Greece are shedding light on the early years and education of Alexander the Great—and the teachings of his mentor, Aristotle. In a recent statement, Greek officials announced that archaeologists working at the historical site of the royal gymnasium of Mieza have uncovered ornate, mosaic-decorated halls that may have formed part of Alexander’s school.
The recent discoveries are the latest in a three-year-long project to peel back the layers of Mieza, where scholars say Aristotle taught a teenage Alexander, Guillermo Carvajal reports for La Brújula Verde. Previous excavations revealed that the 30-acre gymnasium complex housed a palaestra, or wrestling ring; a stadium; arcades; and a xystus, a covered, 200-meter-long running track where athletes could train regardless of the weather. However, this newest dig may be the most revealing yet, offering insight into the specifics of Alexander the Great’s education.
In the first century C.E., Plutarch wrote in his biography The Life of Alexander that Alexander’s father, the ruling king Philip II, had a school built for his son and other nobles in the Macedonian town of Mieza. Although the complex is called a gymnasium, the ancient Greeks used these buildings for much more than just physical training, Live Science’s Owen Jarus writes. A team of archaeologists led by Angeliki Kottaridi, director emerita of antiquities with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, has uncovered a large area called the Didaskaleion, or “place of teaching,” where students learned using styluses and stone desks, according to La Brújula Verde.
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