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Posted on 12/13/2024 4:00:42 PM PST by nickcarraway
Not everyone is convinced.
-Archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, who has been on the hunt for Cleopatra VII’s tomb for nearly 20 years, believes she’s found a bust that depicts the Egyptian queen.
-The claim has put some at odds with Martinez, as other experts say the bust looks nothing like Cleopatra.
-Along with the marble statue, the team also discovered 337 coins—some of which (less controversially) depict Cleopatra.
Lawyer-turned-archaeologist Kathleen Martinez has been on the hunt for Cleopatra VII’s tomb for nearly two decades. And now, she believes that she and her team have just unearthed a small marble bust of the Egyptian queen at the Taposiris Magna temple, west of Alexandria.
It’s not a done deal, though.
There’s no questioning the find’s existence—a small bust that can be held in one hand, carved out of white marble and depicting a female wearing a royal crown, according to a translated statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Who it depicts, though, is the question. While Martinez believes that the statue is a likeness of Queen Cleopatra VII, many other archaeologists see “the facial features of this statute being quite different from those of Queen Cleopatra, so it likely belongs to a princess,” the official statement reads.
“I looked at the bust carefully,” Zahi Hawass, a former Egyptian minister of antiquities not involved in the current excavation, told Live Science. He added he thinks the bust dates to after Cleopatra’s time. “It is not Cleopatra at all; it is Roman.”
Martinez, however, remains unshaken. She is known for her fascination with Cleopatra—whom she claims may have look significantly different than commonly held perceptions indicate—and has been on the search for the tomb of Cleopatra for nearly 20 years. Martinez has been at this particular temple site for more than a decade, believing that it may contain the location of Cleopatra’s tomb, which has never been discovered.
Cleopatra VII, according to Biography.com, was part of the Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt. During her reign, she forged political alliances and became romantically involved with Roman military leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. In 51 B.C., Ptolemy XII died, leaving the throne to 18-year-old Cleopatra and her brother, 10-year-old Ptolemy XIII. Likely, as was the custom of the day, the two married. Political turmoil and difficult economic times led to complications between the siblings, and Cleopatra eventually fled to Syria, assembled an army, and went into battle to reclaim her throne. She died in 30 B.C., and was one of antiquity’s most famous rulers.
The current effort at the temple—an excavation undertaken in cooperation with the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena and located near a deep tunnel system that stretches from Lake Marriot to the Mediterranean—focuses on the Taposiris Magna temple, which was founded around 280 B.C. Specifically, it focuses on an outer wall in what could be a foundation deposit, which is a group of items buried to mark the beginning of construction of a major project. Along with the female bust, the team found pieces of a statute of a king wearing a “nemes”—a striped headdress common for pharaohs—a set of weather-related pottery, oil lamps, limestone pots, bronze statues, a two-piece amulet engraved with the phrase “The justice of Ra has risen,” and a bronze ring dedicated to the fertility goddess Hathor. There were also 337 coins, many of which depict Cleopatra.
A collection of pottery dates the section of wall to the 1st century B.C.
The team also uncovered the remains of a Greek-era temple dating to the 4th century B.C., which was likely destroyed about two centuries later. Near this temple, archaeologists found at least 20 tombs and located human remains underwater below what was once an ancient lighthouse.
The hunt for Cleopatra continues.
Ping
If that bust is of Cleopatra, it’s not at all flattering.
I thought we already knew what Cleo looked like.
"Guards! Off with his head!!"
That schnoz gives Jimmy Durante a run for the money.
Claudette was first.
“Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have
Immortal longings in me.” /EnglishMajor
I’d tap that....Pharaoh a day or two...
Her beauty apparently lied in her personality. I don’t mean that sarcastically. She was just the kind of person that was enjoyable to be around.
I am avid lay follower of the time; certainly no expert. Still, I agree with the person in the article who says it looks Roman to me, not Egyptian
"Well... it's very impressive, yes, but we need to ask you a few questions about the statue."
I think her beauty was in her strength. Looks didn’t matter back then, strength and savy was of most importance. Margaret Thatcher wasn’t hot either... lol
“Her beauty apparently lied in her personality.”
Now I’m ashamed of my joke. Hanging head in shame.
Well Played, Vendome!
That’s what she said.
As an adult, I first saw her Saw in Butterfield 8...thought it was a crappy movie. Never thought much of her as Cleopatra either.
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