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...asking him to intervene to "clean up the historical debris" left by the previous U.S. administration's policy on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). According to those signing the letter -- including widely read authors on ancient Greece and Alexander like Paul Cartledge, Steven H. Rutledge and Robin Lane Fox -- Skopje's claims to a Macedonian descent of its Slavic population and its "misappropriation" of Alexander the Great as the country's national hero are a "subversion of history"... An initiative begun by Stephen G. Miller, Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, the website was continuing to collect the signatures of scholars in support of the letter, with the original 200 having grown to a list of 237 by May 25.

The usurpation of the real history of Macedonia (as in Greece) is a fascinating political study. For example the sixteen point star is a historical reference to the ancient gods and the season. each point being a god and each quarter being assigned to a season. The skopians have relegated the meaning of the very specific sixteen point star into "just a solar symbol.

It also get mired in revisionist history and pay back politics. Colin Powell promised he would "get back" at the Greeks for their opposition to the Annan plan to reunify cyprus. (for those in rio linda, it would have sanctioned the occupation of land by an invading force. think california)

The bones may be dead but the politics of the region are alive and well in the new cold war.