- "...the teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle" - first paragraph, and I can already see where this is going
- The monument was discovered over 20 years ago, but couldn't be fully excavated at the time due to lack of funding.
- There have been no osteological finds.
- There have been no identifying inscriptions found.
- The monument's location in the city seems to be the primary indicator of its purpose.
- There's criticism that the "findings" (what are they again?) were presented at a philosophical conference rather than an archaeological one.
- Via the Guardian: "A team of independent archaeologists with no connection to a particular school or department have been working at the site." - how exactly does that work in Greece??
I'm all in favor of news about the Classical world piquing the interest of non-Classicists and the public, and for discoveries to be made open in a timely manner. But it just seems sloppy to create a maelstrom of English-language media sources that say very little, perpetuate rumor, and fuel the fires of nationalism (because really, this, like the Kasta Tomb, is part and parcel of the never-ending discussion of FYROM and what constitutes "Macedonian" and "Greek" identities).
Enough already. Show us the evidence. Publish properly and publish carefully.
ETA: rogueclassicism has done a nice job of summing up the news sources so far, with similar skepticism.
ETA, redux: I excavated Sismanidis' abstract from the conference website, and Kristina Killgrove has written a good Forbes article that quotes me - thanks!