Alexander The Great

Don't talk to strangers. Unless you're on an airplane, where weapons are in short supply, and you can learn something interesting. I'm on a flight to Dallas right now, and as usual, my seat-partner peered over onto my computer and asked me if I spoke Arabic (I was watching a video about Gaddafi artifacts). When I explained that I was an antique dealer, he mentioned Alexander The Great's tomb, and how beautiful it was.

A quick Google search at 32,000 feet somewhere over Yuma revealed that his tomb is not in fact discovered, though it seems to be the holy grail of archaeologists worldwide. An article in Archaeology provides some great background on searches for the tomb, and another article for National Geographic reveals that although nobody's found the tomb, they did find what is now considered to be the final resting place of ... Alexander's half-brother. Besides being a very random side-note to history, his half-brother had the privilege of being buried with two artifacts that have to be among the top-ten archaeological finds of, well, archaeology. That's alexander's crown, shield and scepter. The frustrating thing is, I can't find a picture online of these treasures. Until then, I'll have to make-do with staring at this coin, which shows Alexander holding the scepter.