Is that you, Arsenoe?

One archaeologist thinks she has found the remains of Cleopatra's younger half-sister.

Article at newobserver.com

Archaeologist: Bones found in Turkey are probably those of Cleopatra's half-sister

Published: February 24, 2013

 

By John Bordsen

Long-buried bones and a missing monarch. Add some historical notoriety and modern technology and you have a heck of a captivating, science-driven story.

Just this month, it was announced that bones found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, belonged to King Richard III. DNA evidence, according to the lead archaeologist at the excavation, proved this “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

For Hilke Thur, a Vienna-based archaeologist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a similar quest awaits empirical closure. The locale is more exotic – western Turkey – and the evidence is much more difficult to analyze: The bones in question are a bit more than 2,000 years old.

She will cover this and other aspects of her work in a March 1 lecture at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh.

The title: “Who Murdered Cleopatra’s Sister? And Other Tales from Ephesus.”

In a recent interview, Thur discussed…

What took her to Ephesus
“I’m an architect as well as an archaeologist, and Ephesus – a large and important city on the coast of Asia Minor centuries before it became part of the Roman Empire – has long been one of the biggest archaeological sites. It is the main excavation of the Austrian Archaeological Institute.

“I was a student when I started working there in 1975, and have based a great deal of my career around the site. From 1997 to 2005, I was assistant director of the Ephesus excavations.

“An English engineer directed the first archaeological digs there in 1869, but since 1895, only Austrian-led projects have permission to do that, though Turks sometimes have excavations. I’d like to add that it’s quite an international team there, with researchers from all over the world.

“My specialty is interpreting buildings and monuments. The excavations of one monument, The Octagon, began in 1904. In 1926, a grave chamber was found inside The Octagon. The skeleton inside it has been interpreted to be that of a young woman about age 20.”

What thickened the plot

“When I was working with the architecture of The Octagon and the building next to it, it wasn’t known whose skeleton was inside. Then I found some ancient writers telling us that in the year 41 B.C., Arsinoe IV – the half-sister of Cleopatra – was murdered in Ephesus by Cleopatra and her Roman lover, Marc Antony. Because the building is dated by its type and decoration to the second half of the first century B.C., this fits quite well.

“I put the pieces of the puzzle together.”

The eight-sided clues

“In antiquity, ordinary people were not buried within the city. That privilege was only for special people – those with an aristocratic background, or people who did special things for their city. So the body must have belonged to a special person. Also, the skeleton was of a woman.

“Then there is the shape of the building. While The Octagon exists only as ruins today, its pieces have been photographed. The images were digitized and ‘virtually rebuilt’ on a computer. The shape of the building, an imperial grave monument [how do we know it is an imperial grave monument?], resembles the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The lighthouse, destroyed centuries ago, was built at Alexandria, on the Egyptian coast, by the Ptolemy dynasty from which Cleopatra and Arsinoe IV were descended.

“The center portion of the lighthouse tower was octagonal, which was quite unusual at the time.”

Forensic evidence

“The site of The Octagon has a grave chamber. It was opened in 1926, but the opening was very small, and no one entered it until later on.

“The skull had been removed for tests; it disappeared in Germany during World War II. But there are photos of the skull, and notes written down by those who examined it.

“In 1985, the back side of the chamber became accessible, and I re-found the skeleton – the bones were in two niches. The body was removed and examined. The bones were found to be those of a woman younger than 20 – 15 or 16, perhaps.

“The revised age was used for arguments against my theory of the body belonging to Arsinoe IV, but those arguments didn’t find anything to disprove my theory.

“This academic questioning is normal. It happens. It’s a kind of jealousy.”

What would prove her theory

“They tried to make a DNA test, but testing didn’t work well because the skeleton had been moved and the bones had been held by a lot of people. It didn’t bring the results we hoped to find. [What results did it bring?]

“I don’t know if there are possibilities to do more of this testing. Forensic material is not my field.

“One of my colleagues on the project told me two years ago there currently is no other method to really determine more. But he thinks there may be new methods developing. There is hope.”  

**************************************************************************A fascinating story!  Here is a little more about the Octogon at Ephesus and the Princess Arsinoe IV (lots of information online about this interesting tomb, but not much more about Arsinoe IV.  Historians do not even know when she was born.  Guess the Ptolemys did not keep good birth records): The Octogon, Tomb of the Ptolemaic Arsinoe IV  (a site that appears to be a tourist promotion for the city of Ephesus).  Note the last sentence at of this article:  in 41 BC, at Cleopatra's instigation, Mark Antony ordered her executed on the steps of the temple. She was given an honorable funeral and a modest tomb.  I couldn't help but notice the contrast between the description of the tomb by the archaeologist who has spent so many years studying it (an imperial grave monument) and the description quoted above (a modest tomb).  Of course, I suppose one does not necessarily refute the other; after all, the tomb could have been imperial but modest at the same time, right? 

 The photo above is of a reconstruction of the Octogon at Ephesus from the Ephesus Museum in Vienna, Austria, taken from Harvard University's library online service.   And from Tynedalehouse.com, a long article discussing the pros and cons for views taken over the years that the remains in question are, or are not, those of Arsinoe IV, which also provides further background information on Arsinoe IV.  Fascinating reading! 

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/24/2697973/archaeologist-says-bones-found.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/24/2697973/archaeologist-says-bones-found.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/24/2697973/archaeologist-says-bones-found.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy

Cleopatra's Taking In Milwaukee!

Queen Cleo is coming to town big time, starting on October 14th, at the Milwaukee Public Museum.  Yes, folks, the people who saved our beloved institution from the brink of bankruptcy (there were even secret talks at one point about selling some of the collections to get money to keep going for a few more weeks!  SACRILEGE!)  and have turned it around big time, are bringing the citizens of Milwaukee and environs another block-buster special exhibition!

Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt

Black granite Ptolemaic sculpture
of a queen.  Could this be Cleopatra VII?

The world of Cleopatra VII, lost to the sea and sand for nearly 2,000 years, will surface in Milwaukee on October 14, 2011 when Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt opens its doors. The Milwaukee Public Museum will be the third stop on the exhibition’s world tour.

Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt features nearly 150 artifacts from Cleopatra’s time and helps visitors experience the present-day search for the elusive queen, which extends from the sands of Egypt to the depths of the Bay of Aboukir near Alexandria.

The exhibition is organized by National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International, with cooperation from the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM).

Check out this photo slideshow from Pulitzer Prize winning Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel online. 

Cleopatra Exhibit Statue Uncased At Milwaukee Public Museum

Exhibit Opens Oct. 14

POSTED: 3:04 pm CDT September 21, 2011
UPDATED: 5:12 pm CDT September 21, 2011

MILWAUKEE -- A large piece in the Milwaukee Public Museum's upcoming exhibit was uncased Wednesday. [photo]  Check out the slideshow from WISN Television, Milwaukee. 

The museum is getting ready for an exhibit called "Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt."

WISN 12 News cameras were there Wednesday as a 5-ton statue of a king from Cleopatra's era was uncrated.

The enormous weight was a big issue when the museum was planning the show.

"First, we had to have structural engineers come in and tell us whether we could actually put the weight onto the exhibit floor," said Ellen Censky of the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The exhibit will have 150 artifacts in all.

The Cleopatra exhibit opens at the Milwaukee Public Museum on Oct. 14 and runs through April.

For more information about the exhibit or to order tickets, go to www.mpm.edu/cleopatra.

When you're Queen of Egypt, the world is not enough...

Cleo is Coming to Milwaukee!

Not so long ago, the Milwaukee Public Museum was on the brink of bankruptcy, after a prior Chief Financial Officer (or whatever his title was), used ENDOWMENT funds to shore up his loser ideas without the permission or knowledge of the Board, depleting the Endowment as well as leaving the museum several million dollars in the hole -- well, it was a huge scandal and involved all kinds of recriminations and a law suit or two. 
Those were dark days.  There were horrifying reports in the press of parts of the MPM collection possibly being sold off to pay creditors, and even reports of shutting down MPM permanently and selling off its entire collection of artefacts!  After months of nothing but bad news and seemingly endless new scandalous revelations of the malfeasance of the people who had run MPM, an institution dating back nearly as far as the founding of the city of Milwaukee, a deal was worked out with the museum's creditors and Milwaukee County chipped in some funds and a financial guarantee, that allowed MPM to obtain refinancing of its debt and interim financing to run a bare-bones operation until it, hopefully, could get back on its financial feet. 

Many long-term employees, people who had dedicated their lives to MPM and spent their entire careers there as curators, artists and assistants, were fired due to massive cut-backs in operating funds.  A former county executive of Waukesha County, Dan Findley, was brought onboard to run the Museum.  Findley wasn't an academic; he was a politician and administrator used to making tough decisions and he brought those skills to the fore in helping bring MPM out of the darkness. A whole host of behind-the-scenes movers and shakers in Milwaukee and environs came together to save the museum.  Read one account.  They, together with Findley and a new fund-raising team put in place literally saved the MPM from a Titanic-like fate!  Kudos to them.  Milwaukee was spared the ignominy of having to auction off the contents of its 150 year old natural history museum and sinking into the ranks of disdained poop-noodle town.

Findley has since moved on but not before bringing several block-buster exhibits to the MPM that helped turn it around financially as well as attracting huge attendance, breaking records, and putting MPM back on the map of world-class museums. 

Recent blockbuster exhibits have included the Titanic artifacts, Bodyworks, Pearls, and Mummies of the World. 

And now, Cleo is coming to town!  Too bad the tickets are so expensive.  When Mr. Don and I attended the incredible record-breaking exhibit "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt" in 2004, the tickets were priced almost 50% less, and the exhibit was coordinated with Egypt-oriented films at the IMAX Theatre and a lecture series featuring notables such as Emily Teeter from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.  I fear the high ticket-prices will cut down on attendance.  The ongoing Great Recession has hit Milwaukee and surrounding areas hard.  Milwaukeeans are known to be frugal with their money in the best of times!  Not even one discount day a week - or a month - available to county residents?  What are they thinking?

Reported at JSOnline:

Big Cleopatra exhibit to rule at Milwaukee Public Museum
By Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel
July 12, 2011

Merely entitled "Statue of a Queen."
Could this be the last Queen of Egypt?

The legend of history's most famous temptress sweeps into Milwaukee Oct. 14, when the Milwaukee Public Museum hosts a new international exhibition: "Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt."

The traveling exhibit will feature 150 artifacts associated with the famed Cleopatra VII, the queen who lived from 69 B.C. to 30 B.C. and earned a permanent place in history by becoming the lover of two Roman leaders: Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

All the artifacts in "The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt" are on exhibit in the United States for the first time, and the Milwaukee stop will be the show's last in the U.S. before going overseas. More than a half-million visitors saw "Cleopatra" in Philadelphia and Cincinnati, according to John Norman, president of Arts and Exhibitions International, the show's producing company.

Visitors to the exhibit will be transported to Cleopatra's Egypt through a series of galleries displaying golden jewelry, ancient tools and armor, religious relics, statues and everyday items.

Artifacts include two 16-foot-tall, 5-ton stone statues of a pharaoh and his queen that once flanked the entrance to an ancient temple. An original papyrus document in the show is thought to have been handwritten by Cleopatra.

Many of the artifacts were recently discovered on land and underwater during two ongoing expeditions led by Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, who is known to American audiences from his appearances in such TV documentaries as "Chasing Mummies."

Some of the items were uncovered during Hawass' current search for Cleopatra's tomb near Alexandria.

French archaeologist Franck Goddio recovered many of the items during extensive underwater expeditions that uncovered Cleopatra's royal palace.

Part of the exhibit will give visitors a sense of experiencing underwater archaeology through theatrical lighting and sound effects.

"We get to tell an ancient story through modern technology," Norman said.

The show looks at the queen's legend - did she actually die of an asp bite? - and explores her image in pop culture from Shakespeare to Liz Taylor. The exhibit also tackles one of history's enduring questions: "Was Cleopatra really the sexiest woman who ever lived?"

"A short video at the beginning of the exhibit will give everyone enough information to enter Cleopatra's world, and, yes, we'll cover all her love interests," Norman said.

The exhibit's free audio tour is delivered by a voice representing "Cleo" herself. "We had a voice talent with a Greek accent portraying Cleopatra on the audio. Cleopatra was actually of Greek heritage and we wanted to be authentic," Norman said.

The exhibit also will examine just why this queen lost her throne.

"Cleopatra is one of the most enigmatic figures in history, and this exhibition does a wonderful job of exploring who she really was, and depicting the political upheaval that shaped her life," said Jay Williams, Milwaukee Public Museum president.

Tickets for the exhibit go on sale starting Tuesday online at www.mpm.edu or at (414) 223-4676 or (888) 700-9069.

Ticket prices for adults are $27.50 Mondays through Thursdays and $29.50 Fridays through Sundays; for seniors (60 and older), students and teens (13-17), $23.50 Mondays through Thursdays and $25.50 Fridays through Sundays; for children (3 to 12 years old), $19 Mondays through Thursdays, $20 Fridays through Sundays.

"Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt" was organized by the National Geographic Society and Arts and Exhibitions International in cooperation with the Supreme Council and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology.

The exhibit's presenting sponsor is M&I Bank, now part of BMO Financial Group.

The Perennial Allure of the Last Queen of Egypt

I've lost count of the number of articles I've posted here about Cleopatra.  Here is another to add to the collection, finely written, from The Wall Street Journal - yep, WSJ!

OCTOBER 23, 2010
Still Under Cleopatra's Spell
The Romans were the first, but hardly the last, to be unnerved by female ambition, authority and allure.
By STACY SCHIFF


The Death of Cleopatra, by Guido Cagnacci, 1658.
Note 17th c. style throne, costumes and hairdos!

 How is it possible that Cleopatra continues to enchant, 2,000 years after her sensational death? It helps that, with her suicide in 30 B.C., she brought down two worlds; with her went both the 400-year-old Roman Republic and the Hellenistic age. Egypt would not recover its autonomy until the 20th century.

Shakespeare and G.B. Shaw lent a hand in her immortality, of course, as did Cleopatra's eloquent Roman critics. She endures for reasons beyond the fame and talent of her chroniclers, however; the issues that she raised continue to fluster and fascinate. Nothing enthralls us so much as excessive good fortune and devastating catastrophe. As ever, we lurch uneasily between indulgence and restraint. Sex and power still combust in spectacular ways.

And we remain unnerved by female ambition, accomplishment and authority. The wise woman mutes her voice in order to maintain her political or corporate constituency. She is often cast all the same as a scheming harridan or a threatening seductress. Her clothing budget attracts uncommon scrutiny, by definition either too large or too small. If she is not overly sexual, she is suspiciously sexless.

For reasons that remain murky, Julius Caesar invited Cleopatra to Rome in 46 B.C. Though her fortune had dwindled from that of her forebears—she was the last of the Ptolemies, the Greek dynasty that ruled in Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great—she remained the richest person in the Mediterranean world. A decade earlier, her father had traveled about Rome on the shoulders of eight men and with an escort of 100 swordsmen. He distributed lavish gifts left and right. There is little reason to believe that Cleopatra did things differently. The pageantry unsettled, as will a convoy of Maybachs in Paris today.

In the late republic, that outsized wealth impugned her morals. To wax eloquent about someone's embossed silver, sumptuous carpets or marble statuary was to indict him. In the Roman view, Cleopatra quite literally possessed an embarrassment of riches. This meant that every evil in the profligacy family attached itself to her. Well before she became the sorceress of legend—a reckless, careless destroyer of men—Cleopatra was suspect as a reckless, careless destroyer of wealth. Even if she never melted a pearl in vinegar, as legend has it, she could well afford to do so.

Cleopatra's fortune derived from Egypt's inexhaustible natural resources. Her kingdom was miraculously, effortlessly fecund, the most productive agricultural land in the Mediterranean. Its crops appeared to plant and water themselves. Those harvests—and Egypt's absolutist government—accounted for the Ptolemaic fortune. Very little grew in or left Egypt without in some way enriching the royal coffers. And Cleopatra controlled the greatest grain supply in the ancient world. Rome stood at her mercy. She could single-handedly feed that city. She could equally well starve it if she cared to.

Wealth and culture also happened to share an address in Cleopatra's lifetime. Compared to Alexandria, Rome qualified as a provincial backwater. It was still the kind of place where a stray dog might deposit a human hand under the breakfast table, where an ox could burst into the dining room. Alexandria remained the fashion capital, the center of learning, the seat of culture. If you wanted a secretary, a tutor or a doctor, you wanted one trained in Egypt. And if you wanted a bookstore, you dearly hoped to find yourself in Alexandria.

By contrast, it was difficult to get a decent copy of anything in Rome, which nursed a healthy inferiority complex as a result. Gulping down his envy with a chaser of contempt, a Roman found himself less awed than offended by Egypt. He wrote off extravagance as detrimental to body and mind, sounding like no one so much as Mark Twain, resisting the siren call of Europe many centuries later. Staring an advanced civilization straight in the face, the Roman dismissed it as either barbarism or decadence.

Egypt confounded as well for its exoticism. Nothing so much proved the point as the perceived femininity of the East, that beguiling, voluptuous realm of languor and luxury. There was something subversive about a land that exported a female goddess—the Isis temples in Rome were notorious spots for assignations—and a female pharaoh.

In Egypt, on the other hand, competence regularly trumped gender. Cleopatra followed to the throne a sister who had briefly succeeded in deposing their father. She could look to any number of female forebears who had built temples, raised fleets, waged military campaigns. And she came of age in a country that entertained a singular definition of women's roles. They inherited equally and held property independently. They enjoyed the right to divorce and to be supported after a divorce. Romans marveled that in Egypt female children were not left to die. A Roman was obligated to raise only his first-born daughter. Egyptian women loaned money and operated barges, initiated lawsuits and hired flute players. They enjoyed rights women would not again enjoy for another 2,000 years.

Not only was a Roman woman without political or legal rights, she was often without a personal name. Caesar had two sisters, both named Julia. A good woman was an inconspicuous woman, something that rather defied Cleopatra's training. As ever, what kept a woman pure was the drudge's life, of which Juvenal supplied the traditional formula: "Hard work, short sleep, hands chafed and hardened" from housework. For the Romans, a world ruled by a woman was a world turned upside down; like the north-flowing Nile itself, it reversed the course of nature. Female authority was in Rome a meaningless concept. This posed a problem for an Egyptian sovereign.

Cleopatra spoke many languages, flattery perhaps most fluently. Though famed for her charm and her powers of persuasion, she did not always temper her style. She was an autocrat who very much sounded the part. Few resented her tone as deeply as her Judaean neighbor, Herod the Great; the relationship between the two sovereigns proceeded by mutual betrayals. Complicating their dealings was each ruler's friendship with Rome, the western superpower intent on maintaining peace between them. (Herod owed his crown in part to Roman fears of Cleopatra; he balanced power in a volatile corner of the world.) Cleopatra conspired to separate Herod from their mutual Roman friends. In turn, he proposed her assassination. All would be so much simpler, argued the Judaean king, if his henchmen simply eliminated the pesky Egyptian queen.

What else to do with a clever woman who could not be subjugated by the usual means? Cleopatra's relationship with Mark Antony was the longest of her life, but that with Octavian, the future Caesar Augustus, would prove the more enduring. She allowed him to recycle the oldest trope: The allergy to the powerful woman was even sturdier than that to monarchy or to the impure, inferior East. Octavian delivered up the tabloid version of an Egyptian queen, insatiable, treacherous and decadent. To prepare the ground for Actium, the battle that would decide the future of Rome and at which Octavian would defeat Antony and Cleopatra, he needed a worthy opponent. He wisely oversold the enemy.

In Octavian's version, Cleopatra assumed the role of the "wild queen," lusting after Rome and plotting its destruction. For his one-time ally Antony to have succumbed to something other than a fellow Roman, she had to be a disarming seductress. Her powers had to be exaggerated because—for one man's political purposes—she needed to have reduced another to abject slavery. And as ever, the easiest way to disarm a capable woman was to sexualize her. Herod did the same, expounding in the course of Cleopatra's Jerusalem visit on her shameless behavior. Blushingly, he swore that she had forced herself upon him. As everyone knew, such was her wont. (She was at the time hugely pregnant with Mark Antony's child.)

The divide between the civilized, virtuous West and the tyrannical, dissolute East began in part with Rome and its Egyptian problem. Cleopatra emerged as stand-in for her occult, alchemical land, the intoxicating address of sex and excess. She wielded power shrewdly and easily, making her that rarest of things: a woman who—working from an original script—discomfited the very male precincts of traditional authority. Two thousand years later, those tensions and anxieties have not relaxed their hold.

—Stacy Schiff is the author of "Cleopatra: A Life," which will be published next month. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for her biography of Vera Nabokov.

And - here is a review of Schiff's "Cleopatra: A Life" from Newsweek, October 21, 2010.

Cleopatra Continues to Fascinate

Zahi Hawass has an artricle as does Stacy Conradt at Mental Floss.  Enjoy! 

The Quick 10:  Cleopatra

I Still Dream of Cleopatra

Cleopatra Drank a Pearl and Won a Bet

I debated whether to put this here because I thought the story is hokey, but what the heck, she was a queen, the last Queen of Egypt.  I got a real kick out of this 17th century depiction of Cleopatra dissolving the pearl in a glass of vinegar.  All of the people are wearing 17th century style clothes!

From Discovery News
How Cleopatra Won Her Bet
Cleopatra and Marc Antony settled a wager more than 2,000 years ago. Now, a researcher believes she figured out how the Egyptian queen won the bet.
By Rossella Lorenzi
Tue Aug 3, 2010 07:00 AM ET

Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, might have indeed drunk a pearl cocktail in a gulp, an experimental study has concluded.

Legend has it that, in order to show her wealth and power, Cleopatra VII (69 B.C. - 30 B.C.) made a bet with her lover -- the Roman leader Marc Antony -- that she could spend 10 million sesterces on one meal.
"She ordered the second course to be served. In accordance with previous instructions, the servants placed in front of her only a single vessel containing vinegar. ... She took one earring off, and dropped the pearl in the vinegar, and when it was wasted away, swallowed it," Roman naturalist and philosopher Pliny the Elder (23 - 79 A.D.) wrote in his Natural History.

Indeed, the pearl was not just any pearl. Pliny called it "the largest in the whole of history," a "remarkable and truly unique work of nature" worth 10 million sesterces.

Although the account was considered credible in antiquity, modern scholars have dismissed the story as fiction.

Giving ancient sources the benefit of the doubt, classicist Prudence Jones of Montclair State University in New Jersey experimented with vinegar and a five-carat pearl to find out whether the acetic acid concentration is sufficient to dissolve calcium carbonate.

Rest of article.

Review: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt

Hmmmm....  Well, as 'Sis always says, sex sells - see below.

"Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt" through Jan. 2 at The Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St., Philadelphia; 215-448-1200; fi.edu. Adult tickets $26.50 Monday-Thursday, $29.50 Friday-Sunday. Kids 11 and under $19.50 daily.

Cleopatra gets the royal treatment in Philadephia exhibit
By Ray Mark Rinaldi
The Denver Post
Posted: 07/24/2010 12:22:59 AM MDT
Updated: 07/24/2010 12:24:19 AM MDT

The Berlin Cleopatra, controversial sculpture - is it -
or is it not - her?

PHILADELPHIA — In Cleopatra's world, King Tut is so yesteryear.

Sure, Tut was an ancient wonder, a boyish monarch who ruled the center of civilization and assembled one of the showiest burial plots on the planet.

But Cleopatra was a modern woman, relatively speaking, with a more contemporary lure. Strong, smart and assertive, she broke the mold for a queen of her day. Yes, it all ended tragically, but until then she lived the kind of life — the clothes, the power, the famous boy toys — that plays perfectly to today's celebrity-awed world.

That siren image is at the center of "Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt," which premiered at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia last month and continues there through Jan. 2. The exhibit is a dramatic, multimedia journey back in time, weaving together the lore of this larger-than-life historical figure with tales of the daring, present-day archaeologists who search endlessly for the artifacts of her time.

Anyone who toured Tut's riches on their recent travels across the United States (the exhibit "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs" is currently at the Denver Art Museum) will recognize this theatrical style of resurrecting the Egyptian empire. It is produced by the same team, led by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.

And if Tut's mix of films, graphics and real treasures, set to evocative music, lighting and narration, thrilled you, a journey to this family-friendly city for the new Cleopatra fest is likely to do the same.

The shows have distinct personalities, partly because Cleopatra lived 69-30 B.C., a dozen or so centuries after Tut, and historians know more about her. The last pharaoh of Egypt, she lived in a time that mirrored the great days of the Roman Empire, and she mingled with leaders from around the globe.

There's also the fact that there was no great find of Cleopatra's tomb to mirror the focus of the Tut exhibit. While "Tutankhamun's" centerpiece is the actual objects buried with him, Cleopatra relies on relics from the time period that reference her. The exhibition's great headless stature of an Egyptian queen of the day — and it is a beautiful, graceful piece of art rather than simple artifact — may or may not be Cleo.

Milton Berle camps it up as Cleo in 1962 televisonn special.

Seductive swinger

But the real difference is the way the exhibition in Philadelphia exploits gender. It celebrates the queen's "charm and brilliance" and touts her ability to "captivate" Julius Caesar and, later, Mark Antony. She is a woman who "captured the hearts" of the rich and powerful.

The fact that she was a cunning queen who ruled assuredly is surely in there, but the main takeaway is that Cleo was a seductive swinger who used her spunk and wiles to make her way. Part of that is because of the exhibition's inclusion of Hollywood movies — don't miss the clip of Elizabeth Taylor and other stars halfway through; the suicide scenes rock — and also to the sexy voice of "Cleo," accented and alluring, that plays on the audio narration that comes with the entrance fee.

There's more to it, of course. Visitors learn plenty about the final days of the doomed Ptolemaic dynasty. The artifacts, of bronze and diorite, reveal a time of surprising craftsmanship and sleek style. It's all impressive, from the giant stone deities to the elegant jewelry to the everyday ladles and pitchers to the frightful armaments that kept Alexandria mighty and prosperous for centuries.

The surrounding personalities charm, as well. There's first and foremost Dr. Zahi Hawass, the charismatic modern-day explorer who has become the face of Egypt's quest for its own past, searching for Cleopatra's tomb on land. His co-star is French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio, who leads the search for Ptolemaic treasures in the coastal sea where the great cities of their day have been submerged by tidal shifts. Both men excel at bringing out the drama of their work.

It's tough to share billing with the most famous woman in history, but these guys, because of their great exploits, make it happen, grounding a fantastical trip to a queen's land in present-day realities.

************************************************************************

This person does not recommend visiting the exhibit at all:
Review of ‘Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt’ at the Franklin Institute
by Andrew Bull on July 25, 2010
in Art, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Art & Museums

Did Cleopatra Drug Herself to Death?

Unbelievable! Yet another article about THE Cleopatra, that is, Cleopatra VIII of the Ptolemy family.  The last legit Queen of Egypt. Why do I get the feeling that Cleo would blend in quite seamlessley with today's "It" people?  Too bad Cleo isn't getting residuals...

From Discovery News online
Cleopatra Killed by Drug Cocktail?
Legends allege that the last queen of Egypt died from a snakebite. But a new study could rewrite history.

By Rossella Lorenzi
Thu Jul 1, 2010 08:07 AM ET

Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, died from swallowing a lethal drug cocktail and not from a snake bite, a new study claims.

According to Christoph Schäfer, a German historian and professor at the University of Trier, the legendary beauty queen was unlikely to have committed suicide by letting an asp -- an Egyptian cobra -- sink into her flesh.

"There was no cobra in Cleopatra's death," Schäfer told Discovery News.

The author of a best-selling book in Germany, "Cleopatra," Schäfer searched historic writings for evidence to disprove the 2,000-year-old asp legend. His findings are to be featured on the German channel ZDF as part of a program on Cleopatra. [How much $$$ did he make?]

"The Roman historian Cassius Dio, writing about 200 years after Cleopatra's demise, stated that she died a quiet and pain-free death, which is not compatible with a cobra bite. Indeed, the snake's venom would have caused a painful and disfiguring death," Schäfer said.

According to German toxicologist Dietrich Mebs, a poison specialist taking part in the study, the symptoms occurring after an asp bite are very unpleasant, and include vomiting, diarrhea and respiratory failure.

"Death may occur within 45 minutes, but it may also be longer with painful edema at the bite site. At the end, the dead body does not look very nice with vomit, diarrhea, a swollen bite site," Mebs told Discovery News.

Ancient texts also record that Cleopatra's two handmaidens died with her -- something very unlikely if she had died of a snake bite, said Schäfer.

The Queen of the Nile committed suicide in August 30 B.C. at the age of 39, following the example of her lover, the Roman leader Marc Antony, who killed himself after losing the Battle of Actium.

At that time, temperatures in Egypt would have been so high that "it was almost impossible for a snake to stay still enough to bite," Schäfer said.

"The main problem with any snakebite are the unpredictable effects, because the venom of the snakes is highly variable. The amount they spent for the bite may be too low. Why taking a risk even to survive with such unpleasant symptoms?" Mebs said.

According to the researchers, who traveled to Alexandria where they consulted ancient medical texts, a plant poison mixture which is easily dosed and whose effects are very predictable could have worked much better.

"Ancient papyri show that the Egyptians knew about poisons, and one papyrus says Cleopatra actually tested them," Schaefer said.

Schaefer and Mebs believe that Cleopatra chose a drug cocktail made of opium, aconitum (also known as wolfsbane) and hemlock, a highly poisonous plant from the parsley family that is believed to have been used to poison Socrates.

The drug cocktail, Schäfer claims, was known at the time to cause a rather painless death within a few hours.

"Cleopatra reportedly carried out many toxicological experiments, an imitation of Mithradates VI. In her quest for the most peaceful and painless way to die, she would have observed the deaths of many condemned prisoners by many different poisons and combinations, including snakebite," Adrienne Mayor, author of the Mithridates biography "The Poison King," told Discovery News.

"In my opinion, Cleopatra would have taken a high dose of opium as a sedative and then succumb to a cobra bite within a half hour," Mayor said. "She would be sedated and calm, feeling no pain, as the cobra venom slows her respiration, and she breathes her last and dies."

According to Alain Touwaide, an international authority on medicinal plants of antiquity at the Smithsonian Institution and the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions in Washington , D.C., the drug cocktail would have technically worked well.

"A mixture of opium, aconitum and hemlock would have been a very intelligent combination. Opium and hemlock would have contributed to a painless death, easing the action of aconite, believed in antiquity to have deadly effects on the gastro-intestinal system. However, it wasn't common at all to mix vegetable poisons at Cleopatra's time," Touwaide told Discovery News.

"Cleopatra is a constant source of legends and theories, and is often credited with the writing of treatises on poisons, cosmetics and medicines," Touwaide said. "I believe finding her body and applying forensic methods of analysis would be the only way to solve the mystery of her death."

*****************************************************************

Well, if anyone can come up with the body of THE Cleopatra, I'll fall off my bar stool in a dead faint.  Darlings, do you really think the Roman barbarians of the day, particularly Octavian, who became Augustus Caesar (enough said), would have let Queen Cleopatra's body lie in state sacrosanct forever inside a tomb in Egypt?  Oh please! 

I have no doubt that after she died Cleopatra's remains were ruthlessly hunted down by the Romans, her body stripped of her queenly adornments and then either fed to the crocodiles or burned until there was nothing left, not even ashes.

Fnding Cleopatra VII's body is the ultimate Pipe Dream!  It does not exist.  All the baloney Zahi Hawass is feeding people about finding Cleopatra's "tomb" in Alexandria is just so much bullshit!  Shame on you, Dr. Hawass, for pretending to believe such nonsense in the name of generating yet more tourist dollars for Egypt.

Cleopatra Exhibit Now in Philadelphia

From The Philadelphia Inquirer Online

Posted on Sun, May. 30, 2010
The Last Queen of Egypt
An exhibit opening Saturday at the Franklin Institute has about 150 artifacts and focuses on the search for discoveries about the life of Cleopatra.
By Christopher Yasiejko

The two red granite statues, each more than 16 feet tall, entered the Franklin Institute one recent morning through soaring glass loading doors on the second floor. The great figure of a king went first, resting in a crate atop a metal pallet lifted by a crane. Soon he would stand beside an Egyptian queen, also from Cleopatra's Ptolemaic era - two monumental artifacts of her mysterious world.

A rigging crew and several Egyptians - present whenever their country's antiquities are in transit - worked quietly, pulling the statues inside, unpacking them, standing them upright.

It was a difficult, delicate task, but far simpler than it had been to retrieve the figures from the murky depths off the coast of Alexandria, where an excavation of mythical proportions continues to provide context for the enigmatic Cleopatra, last pharoah of Egypt before it became a Roman province in 30 B.C.

The sights and sounds of the underwater project, along with those of corresponding land excavations, are featured in "Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt," which opens Saturday and runs through Jan. 2, 2011. The 18,000-square-foot exhibition, which will travel to four other North American cities, includes about 150 artifacts ranging in size from coins to massive statues and weighing a total of 30 tons.

Arts and Exhibitions International organized the 2007 Tutankhamun show that drew more than 1.3 million visitors to the Franklin Institute. AEI chose to debut "Cleopatra" here because of that success and the institute's science focus: This is not a gallery show but a look at the process that has led to contemporary discoveries and, some believe, to the cusp of one of archaeology's most sought-after finds, the tomb of Cleopatra and her lover, Mark Antony.

Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and familiar to viewers of documentaries about ancient Egypt, said the show was the first to focus on the search for the pair.

He and Kathleen Martinez, a Dominican archaeologist, five years ago began excavating inside the temple Taposiris Magna in Abusir, west of Alexandria. Among their finds was a foundation deposit that revealed the temple was built in the time of Ptolemy IV, one of 14 said to have contained a piece of the body of Osiris, god of the underworld.

Inside was a small temple dedicated to Osiris' wife, Isis, which Hawass says was built when Cleopatra ruled.

David Silverman is the curator in charge of the Egyptian collection at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which has paired with the Franklin Institute for this exhibition and is offering a self-guided tour, "Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt." He said despite the tremendous amount that has been written about Cleopatra, little is known of her from material culture.

"The problem about the material that was written about her is it was written later . . .," says Silverman, whose first graduate student was Hawass. "Some parts are fairly negative, some of it is inaccurate, and then all of a sudden, a lot of it winds up being very romantic, and through rose-colored glasses."

Underwater archaeology, he said, requires a tremendous amount of conservation, some of which must be done before the artifacts - especially the porous ones - emerge from the sea.

On the deck of the Princess Duda, anchored off Alexandria above the sunken island on which Cleopatra's palace stood, the French diver and archaeologist Franck Goddio said in a phone interview Tuesday that the excavation was far from finished. He estimated that the project has revealed less than 1 percent of the submerged artifacts.

Goddio - who began the project in 1991, electronically mapped the site from 1992 to 1996, then began excavating - values the context his work is helping paint of the queen's life and times. But the discovery of statues and parts thereof often comes piecemeal.

One morning last week, visibility underwater reached five feet. That, he said, "is very good for us" - typical visibility is seldom more than three feet, enough to spot a sculpted arm or elbow jutting from the sediment, which in some places covers the site to a depth of about 10 feet.

"You just see part of this artifact, and you discover it little by little," he said. "It's only by drawings on the surface" - and photography, and sophisticated mapping tools - "that we start to see what is there."

The island is believed to have slid into the Bay of Aboukir in the fourth century A.D., when an earthquake sent a tsunami crashing through the city. Goddio's crew has found two buildings there: the remains of Cleopatra's palace and a small temple devoted to Isis.

On Monday, Goddio found a foot-tall bronze statuette on the site of the Isis temple. His team continues to find elements of Cleopatra's era, and even the smallest provide context; depictions of gods reveal the periods during which the artifacts were created.

"It's not a static museum exhibition," Dennis Wint, the Franklin Institute's president and chief executive said of "Cleopatra." "It's an exhibition that is going to emphasize the process of exploration and discovery."

The work of Hawass and his crew is represented in the show's terrestrial portions. Inside the main entrance of the temple Taposiris Magna, they found many pieces of sphinx statues, which he said could mean the entrance was lined with "an avenue of sphinxes." Twenty-two coins were found, emblazoned with the face and name of Cleopatra.

("I think the reason why people think Cleopatra was ugly is because she was depicted with a big nose on the coins," Hawass said. "But you cannot really know . . . . I do not think Cleopatra was ugly at all because the lady captured the hearts of the two most powerful people on earth, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.")

Outside the temple, a large Ptolemaic cemetery was unearthed. Some of its many mummies were gilded, and all their heads were turned toward the temple, which Hawass said could mean an important person, or persons, were buried inside.

He didn't venture to estimate when the team might discover the tomb itself, but said the excavation project itself was significant: While many have searched for the tomb of Alexander the Great in Alexandria and Siwa, no one has looked for the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.

"We know that Cleopatra built a palace and tomb . . . but both of these are now underwater in the harbor of Alexandria," he said. "We know from ancient writers that Cleopatra was never buried in her tomb. This is why we have turned our focus to the Isis temple . . .. If they were buried inside the temple, they would be symbolic of the husband and wife, Isis and Osiris, buried together."

Hawass' favorite piece, which he found inside the temple, is an alabaster head of Cleopatra. "When I held the head in my hand," he said, "I felt the magic of the queen, and I imagined what it would feel like if we found the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony."

Mark Lach, designer of the hugely successful Tut exhibition and creative director of "Cleopatra," calls the current show's content "far richer."

"There's not a lot to know about Tut," he said, who "probably would've been an insignificant king lost to the pages of history if it wasn't for the discovery. We know a lot more about Cleopatra. We also don't know a lot about Cleopatra. We know who she is through movies and pop culture, but what's the real backstory? Well, what's amazing about the discoveries that Franck has made, this gives you her world."

Visitors will start with a 4½-minute introductory video. The screen then will rise to reveal a statue of Isis, considered to have been the archetypal mother of Egypt.

That's where the audio tour, featuring an actress speaking as Cleopatra, begins. It's free, the first time either Arts and Exhibitions International or the Franklin has included it within the ticket prices, which range from $19.50 to $29.50 for daytime entry.

A glass-floored walkway takes visitors through a room that includes artifacts underfoot, video projections of divers and the sounds of their communication. More than a dozen original videos were produced for the exhibit.

And though multimedia elements loom large in the show, an ancient papyrus document in a glass case reveals as much, detailing an exchange of wheat for wine to benefit an aide of Mark Antony's.

At the bottom is a note Cleopatra is thought to have scribbled. It says, in translated Greek, "Make it happen."

Book Reviews: Two Powerful Women

Empress of Rome
Review by Elizabeth Speller

Published: May 10 2010 06:15 | Last updated: May 10 2010 06:15

Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia, by Matthew Dennison, Quercus Books £20, 320 pages, FT Bookshop price: £16

As the credits rolled at the start of the televised version of Robert Graves’ I, Claudius, largely based on Suetonius’s Twelve Caesars, a snake glided across mosaic imperial portraits. That the snake represented Livia, wife of the emperor Augustus, was made apparent by her central role in all that followed: seduction, plots, infanticide, matricide, and simple non-familial slaughter. Now Matthew Dennison’s rich and compelling account challenges the accepted version of Augustus’s wife as the viper in the nest.

Read review.

Book Review: Cleopatra: A Biography by Duane W. Roller
by Elinor Teele
May 10th, 2010 at 11:01 am

Demythifying Cleopatra

Pity Duane W. Roller, author of Cleopatra: A Biography. I can just imagine the initial conversation at the Oxford University Press:

“We want you to write a biography of Cleopatra, sensuous queen of the Egyptians, famed figure of ancient history.”

“Excellent, as Professor Emeritus of Greek and Latin at The Ohio State University, I’d be thrilled to delve into a world of intrigue and shifting political sands.”

“Good. But no sex, please, we’re British.”

Read review.

Cleopatra Back in the News

A new authoritative biography of the last Queen of Egypt. Review from The New York Times.

As I Am Egypt’s Queen
By TRACY LEE SIMMONS
Published: April 1, 2010

The name Cleopatra calls up cheap flashes of Hollywood glitz, a diva in jewels, not a regal eminence invested with the power to drive armies. Those who think they know anything about her at all can do little more than recall some nebulous fame as a beautiful, cunning seductress of mighty men in togas. She’s more the stuff of fable for us than a real person who inhabited her own square of time and space. But inhabit one she did, and with a good deal more intelligence, élan and tact than exercised by most of her male allies and enemies in the Roman world. (Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, bronze coin from Alexandria with ­Cleopatra’s portrait, 51-30 B.C.)

The name Cleopatra calls up cheap flashes of Hollywood glitz, a diva in jewels, not a regal eminence invested with the power to drive armies. Those who think they know anything about her at all can do little more than recall some nebulous fame as a beautiful, cunning seductress of mighty men in togas. She’s more the stuff of fable for us than a real person who inhabited her own square of time and space. But inhabit one she did, and with a good deal more intelligence, élan and tact than exercised by most of her male allies and enemies in the Roman world.

CLEOPATRA
A Biography
By Duane W. Roller
252 pp. Oxford University Press.$24.95

It is that real woman, Cleopatra VII of Egypt (69-30 B.C.), who is explored in Duane W. Roller’s biography. And while Cleopatra’s role in the grand drama of the fall of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Empire might not have been utterly central, history couldn’t have rolled out quite as it did without her. (Computer-generated image of Cleopatra, December 2008)

In Cleopatra’s case, the word ‘biography’ strikes a strange modern note, suggesting the existence of more historical information about her than we in fact have to draw from. But as a historian, classical scholar and archaeologist, Roller brings the full apparatus of what we do know to bear — a tricky task given how Cleopatra’s reputation was officially propa­gandized into oblivion after her defeat and death. The result is an authoritative, amply footnoted yet brisk account not only of her life but also of its rich backdrop, featuring a cast extending backward through almost three centuries of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII, though harried by civil turmoil, worked to reinvigorate fading intellectual life in the great scholarly city of Alexandria, a cause which his daughter, uncommonly well educated even for a woman from a royal household, carried on when she ascended the throne in 51 B.C. for what could have been an enlightened reign. (Roller emphasizes Cleopatra’s achievements as a scholar, linguist, diplomat, and even naval commander — a welcome corrective to the popular conception of her as merely a schemer of royal blood with ­alluring advantages.)

Strife broke out with a faction supporting her brother over sovereignty, though, and it wasn’t until Julius Caesar arrived in 48 and applied his leverage that she took undisputed power. Then, too, began the chain of events that molded her legend — the murder of Pompey by her brother and her ingratiating alliance with Caesar; the son she claimed was his; her presence in Rome when he was assassinated; her intricate intrigues, private and otherwise, with Marcus Antonius and the twins she bore him; her joint defeat with Antonius at the hands of Octavian in the Battle of Actium; her suicide. Little wonder she was taken up by poets, painters and Elizabeth Taylor.

Roller tells his tale smoothly and accessibly. Scholarly digressions are consigned to helpful appendixes that Roller uses as small seminars for airing points of dispute, as a good many remain. What, for example, were the origins of Cleopatra’s mother? Was Cleopatra — the quintessentially vile foreigner according to Octavian’s propaganda — a Roman citizen? (Roller believes she was.) And he offers a digest of classical literary descriptions of the queen and a discussion of her iconography (including coin portraits, which are the only certain likenesses) to pinpoint those elements of her modern identity that only evidence from the period can prove or support.

The resulting portrait is that of a complex, many-sided figure, a potent Hellenistic ruler who could move the tillers of power as skillfully as any man, and one far and nobly removed from the “constructed icon” of popular imagination.

Looks Ain't Everything

A real "it" girl - Cleopatra!  I find it amazing that people are still debating about her looks!  Geez, get over it.  The lady had "it" - she didn't need to look like Elizabeth Taylor.

From The Smart Set Blog/Drexel University
Tony's Secret Cabinet
Miss Cleo
Just how attractive was Cleopatra anyway?
By Tony Perrottet

If Hollywood epics have taught us anything about the ancient world, it’s that Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt was drop-dead gorgeous. The original femme fatale has only been played by sultry screen goddesses — Claudette Colbert, Vivian Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor. But just how beautiful was she? According to the ancient biographer Plutarch, men were hypnotized not by Cleopatra’s looks but by her wit and charm: Her beauty was “not of the incomparable kind that would astonish everyone who saw her,” he wrote, “but her conversation was irresistibly fascinating, and her character utterly mesmerizing.” She certainly knew how to make a memorable entrance: To meet Mark Anthony on the modern-day coast of Turkey, she arrived in a luxurious gondola dressed as Aphrodite and reclining on a gold bed as naked slaves fanned her with feathers. (The ancients did not share our sense of privacy; the minions would have kept fanning while the couple made love). She also had a sense of humor, apparently switching with ease from erudite bon mots to the dirty barracks-room jokes favored by her soldier beaus. And she knew how to dress for any occasion: She and her raucous lover Mark Anthony were rumored to have had a riotous time slumming in disguise around the waterfront bars of Alexandria.

So what did Miss Personality look like? The problem is that, after her defeat and suicide by cobra-bite, the Romans destroyed almost all statues of her. Cleopatra’s profile on many surviving coins, which were minted in Egypt during her lifetime, is downright ugly: Most depict her with a long, hooked nose that today would make her an advertisement for cosmetic surgery. Combined with a scrawny neck, she has what one curator has called “the features of a bird of prey.” But these coins cannot be taken as serious portraits: Minted during Rome’s civil wars, they were deliberately stylized to show the queen as a fierce and terrifying conqueror-goddess, not a pin-up girl.

Luckily, we do have a single marble bust that is definitely accepted to be of Cleopatra, although the nose is missing. Displayed in the Vatican Museums of Rome, it shows her as a “young, fresh, willful woman” (as one historian eagerly puts it), with large eyes that would have been accentuated with lavish applications of kohl, and full sensual lips with the hint of a smile. Her hair is pulled back into a bun and tied with a headband or diadem. She is not as Egyptian-looking as Hollywood likes to depict — Cleopatra was of Greek ancestry, the last of a dynasty begun by one of Alexander the Great’s generals — but it bears out Plutarch’s verdict that she was attractive without being Venus de Milo.

And Cleopatra’s nose? Throughout most of Western history, a regal schnoz has been regarded as a sign of strong character; it may actually have been exaggerated on coins to show her imposing nature. In the 16th century, the mathematician Pascal would remark: “Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.” But he was actually admiring the queen’s forceful personality and intelligence, much as people might colloquially refer to impressive cojones today. • 8 March 2010

Is Cleopatra Really Buried Here?

Hmmm... Threshold to Cleopatra's mausoleum discovered off Alexandria coast • Threshold to massive door found off Alexandria • Queen's mausoleum part of sunken palace complex Helena Smith in Athens guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 December 2009 22.10 GMT They were one of the world's most famous couples, who lived lives of power and glory – but who spent their last hours in despair and confusion. Now, more than 2,000 years since Antony and Cleopatra walked the earth, historians believe they may finally have solved the riddle of their last hours together. A team of Greek marine archaeologists who have spent years conducting underwater excavations off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt have unearthed a giant granite threshold to a door that they believe was once the entrance to a magnificent mausoleum that Cleopatra VII, queen of the Egyptians, had built for herself shortly before her death. They believe the 15-tonne antiquity would have held a seven metre-high door so heavy that it would have prevented the queen from consoling her Roman lover before he died, reputedly in 30BC. "As soon as I saw it, I thought we are in the presence of a very special piece of a very special door," Harry Tzalas, the historian who heads the Greek mission, said. "There was no way that such a heavy piece, with fittings for double hinges and double doors, could have moved with the waves so there was no doubt in my mind that it belonged to the mausoleum. Like Macedonian tomb doors, when it closed, it closed for good." Tzalas believes the discovery of the threshold sheds new light on an element of the couple's dying hours which has long eluded historians. In the first century AD the Greek historian Plutarch wrote that Mark Antony, after being wrongly informed that Cleopatra had killed herself, had tried to take his own life. When the dying general expressed his wish to pass away alongside his mistress, who was hiding inside the mausoleum with her ladies-in-waiting, he was "hoisted with chains and ropes" to the building's upper floor so that he could be brought in to the building through a window. Plutarch wrote, "when closed the [mausoleum's] door mechanism could not open again". The discovery in the Mediterranean Sea of such huge pieces of masonry at the entrance to what is believed to be the mausoleum would explain the historian's line. Tzalas said: "For years, archaeologists have wondered what Plutarch, a very reliable historian, meant by that. And now, finally, I think we have the answer. "Allowing a dying man to be hoisted on ropes was not a very nice, or comforting thing to do, but Cleopatra couldn't do otherwise. She was there only with females and they simply couldn't open such a heavy door." The threshold, part of the sunken palace complex in which Cleopatra is believed to have died, was discovered recently at a depth of eight metres but only revealed this week. It has yet to be brought to the surface. The archaeologists have also recovered a nine-tonne granite block which they believe formed part of a portico belonging to the adjoining temple of Isis Lochias. "We believe it was part of the complex surrounding Cleopatra's palace," said Zahi Hawas, Egypt's top archaeologist. "This is an important part of Alexandria's history and brings us closer to knowing more about the ancient city." According to Plutarch, who based his accounts largely on eyewitness testimonies, Antony died within seconds of laying eyes on his beloved queen and mother of his children. Cleopatra, the most powerful woman of her day and Egypt's most fabled ruler, is believed to have taken her own life just days later, legend has it with the aid of an asp.

Bit of Isis Temple Raised from Alexandria Sea Bed

Monument lifted from Cleopatra's underwater city By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer Katarina Kratovac, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 17, 9:39 pm ET ALEXANDRIA, Egypt – Archaeologists on Thursday hoisted a 9-ton temple pylon from the waters of the Mediterranean that was part of the palace complex of the fabled Cleopatra before it became submerged for centuries in the harbor of Alexandria. The pylon, which once stood at the entrance to a temple of Isis, is to be the centerpiece of an ambitious underwater museum planned by Egypt to showcase the sunken city, believed to have been toppled into the sea by earthquakes in the 4th century. Divers and underwater archaeologists used a giant crane and ropes to lift the 9-ton, 7.4-foot-tall pylon, covered with muck and seaweed, out of the murky waters. It was deposited ashore as Egypt's top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, and other officials watched. The pylon was part of a sprawling palace from which the Ptolemaic dynasty ruled Egypt and where 1st Century B.C. Queen Cleopatra wooed the Roman general Marc Antony before they both committed suicide after their defeat by Augustus Caesar. The temple dedicated to Isis, a pharaonic goddess of fertility and magic, is at least 2,050 years old, but archaeologists believe it's likely much older. The pylon was cut from a single slab of red granite quarried in Aswan, some 700 miles (more than 1,100 kilometers) to the south, officials said. "The cult of Isis was so powerful, it's no wonder Cleopatra chose to make her living quarters next to the temple," said coastal geoarchaeologist Jean-Daniel Stanley of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Egyptian authorities hope that eventually the pylon will become a part of the underwater museum, an ambitious attempt to draw tourists to the country's northern coast, often overshadowed by the grand pharaonic temples of Luxor in the south, the Giza pyramids outside Cairo and the beaches of the Red Sea. They are hoping the allure of Alexandria, founded in 331 B.C. by Alexander the Great, can also be a draw. Cleopatra's palace and other buildings and monuments now lie strewn on the seabed in the harbor of Alexandria, the second largest city of Egypt. Since 1994, archaeologists have been exploring the ruins, one of the richest underwater excavations in the Mediterranean, with some 6,000 artifacts. Another 20,000 objects are scattered off other parts of Alexandria's coast, said Ibrahim Darwish, head of the city's underwater archaeology department. In recent years, excavators have discovered dozens of sphinxes in the harbor, along with pieces of what is believed to be the Alexandria Lighthouse, or Pharos, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The pylon is the first major artifact extracted from the harbor since 2002, when authorities banned further removal of major artifacts from the sea for fear it would damage them. "The tower is unique among Alexandria's antiquities. We believe it was part of the complex surrounding Cleopatra's palace," Hawass said, as the crane gently placed the pylon on the harbor bank. "This is an important part of Alexandria's history and it brings us closer to knowing more about the ancient city." Hawass has already launched another high-profile dig connected to Cleopatra. In April, he said he hopes to find the long-lost tomb of Antony and Cleopatra — and that he believes it may be inside a temple of Osiris located about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Alexandria. The pylon extracted Thursday was discovered by a Greek expedition in 1998. Retrieving it was a laborious process: For weeks, divers cleaned it of mud and scum, then they dragged it across the sea floor for three days to bring it closer to the harbor's edge for Thursday's extraction. A truck stood by to ferry the pylon to a freshwater tank, where it will lie for six months until all the salt, which acts as a preservative underwater but damages it once exposed, is dissolved. Still in its planning stages, the underwater museum would allow visitors to walk through underwater tunnels for close-up views of sunken artifacts, and it may even include a submarine on rails. A collaboration between Egypt and UNESCO, the museum would cost at least $140 million, said Darwish. The above-water section would feature sail-shaped structures that would complement the architecture of the harbor and have the city's corniche seabank in the backdrop, with the splendid Alexandria Library on the other end of the bay, Darwish said. "To me, the greatest draw would be that visitors would be able to see these amazing objects in their natural surrounding, not out of context on some museum shelf," said Stanley, who has carried out excavations around Alexandria but is not involved in the underwater dig. Speaking to The Associated Press by phone from Washington, Stanley cautioned that the dangers to such a museum would be twofold — from storms, which in wintertime have been known to sink ships in Alexandria's harbor, and from earthquakes. Egypt and UNESCO are still studying the feasibility of building such an underwater museum. No one knows where the money would come from, but there is hope construction could start as early as late 2010. "If the study shows it's possible, this could become a magical place, both above and underwater," Hawass said. "If you can smell the sea here, you can smell the history." Darwish, one of seven Egyptian archaeologists who are also qualified divers, said the country has had to rely on foreign expertise, mostly French and Greek, for diving archaeology expeditions around Alexandria. That will change, he says, as the Alexandria university educates more underwater archaeologists. A temporary downtown museum will house the Isis pylon extracted Thursday and some 200 other objects removed from the sea here in the last decade.

Edmonia Lewis: Great 19th Century Female Sculpter

(Image source)

Through an email inquiry I received earlier today about the Kleopatra statue we mentioned and photographed in our July, 2008 Goddesschess anniversary vacation tour of the Milwaukee Shriners' Temple (scroll down to about mid page to see two photos of Kleopatra), I got curious about plaster of paris statues (I believa the Kleopatra statue we saw at the Shriners' Temple was made out of plaster of paris) and did some research, which led me to this article at the Smithsonian Magazine from 1996.

I was not aware of this Native American/African American female sculpter who made her mark in the 1860's and 1870's in Europe. Among her most famous works - the Death of Cleopatra, first exhibited in 1876.

When I googled a photo of the sculpture, I was stunned by its power and beauty.

Both the artist and the sculpture have amazing stories!

The Object at Hand, by Steven May, Smithsonian magazine, September 1996

Website devoted to Edmonia Lewis

There are several images of  "The Death of Cleopatra" online. A review of those images will reveal intricate and delicate details of the artist's vision.

Looking for the Queen in Alexandria

Nope, this is not an article about the lovely Chess Queen and current Women's World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk :) This is about CLEOPATRA! (Image from this story at the Daily Mail Online, December 16, 2008) Article from the Global Arab Network: Alexandria - Looking for the Queen Edward Lewis Sunday, 26 July 2009 23:43 An archaeological mission taking place outside Alexandria could uncover the final resting place of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. As Edward Lewis reports, finding the tombs of history’s famous lovers could restore the reputation of ‘first city of the civilised world’ Exploring Alexandria’s past sometimes feels like a who’s who of ancient history. Starting with its founder, Alexander the Great, in 331BC and going on to include – among others – Ptolemy, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra and the Roman emperor Augustus, the city was once the second largest and most influential in the Mediterranean, enjoying cultural diversity, enormous wealth and an unrivalled intellectual tradition. Within its boundaries it could boast the Pharos Lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), the Great Library and the tomb of Alexander the Great, in addition to numerous other exquisite sacred and public structures. The Roman historian Diodorus of Sicily described it as “the first city of the civilised world”. Today, the “Bride of the Mediterranean” (Arous el Bahr), as the city is affectionately known by Egyptians, gives little impression of the scale and splendour it once possessed. It lives in the shadows of Luxor, Aswan and Cairo, repeatedly a bystander as Egypt’s antique history has been unearthed. With the exception of some stunning recent underwater discoveries, archaeology has been obstructed by natural and man-made elements, including earthquakes, a rising water table and rapid urban development. But now, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities has released details of a mission taking place just outside Alexandria that could mark a remarkable change of fortunes for the city’s mute archaeological record. The Egyptian/Dominican Republic team aims to find the royal tombs of the Ptolemies – the Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt between 305BC and 30BC – including those of two of history’s most famous lovers, Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Goddess, queen, lover – Cleopatra has been immortalised through the works of historians (both ancient and contemporary), playwrights and film directors. The last of the Ptolemys, Cleopatra dedicated her life to retaining autonomy for Egypt while postponing the inevitable submission to Rome. Her love affairs and marriages, to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, split the Roman Empire. Finding her tomb would place Alexandria on the archaeological map and rival anything previously discovered in Egypt. According to the Greek historian Plutarch, Mark Antony and Cleopatra were buried together in Egypt. Although neither a description of the tomb nor its location is recorded, according to Dr Said Altalhawy, the site director, and Dr Kathleen Martinez, the head of the mission, Taposiris Magna is a probable candidate. Situated on a spit of land between the Mediterranean and Lake Mariout some 45km west of Alexandria, Taposiris Magna was renowned in antiquity for its temple, founded in the third century BC and dedicated to the cult of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld, and his wife Isis. The name means the “great house of Osiris”. “This is undoubtedly a funerary temple. It is a grand temple, a temple that linked the dead to another world,” explains Dr Altalhawy. “This is not a common archaeological site; it is a very important one.” Today, Taposiris Magna has been left behind as the surrounding area undergoes dramatic change. Vast Lego-like resorts line the coast. On the roadside near the temple, vendors sell watermelons, oblivious to the potential of what lies nearby. There are no signs or paths to the complex. Without specific directions or a knowledgeable driver, you could easily miss it. Yet it is precisely this isolation that has ensured Taposiris Magna’s preservation. After the modest archaeological discoveries of downtown Alexandria, the temple of Osiris is an impressive sight. Within its towering white brick walls, several structures are identifiable, ranging from Ptolemaic chambers to Byzantine chapels. Heads of columns lie on the temple floor and an intricate water system of narrow channels surround a small sacred lake. Scattered everywhere are the unmistakable shapes of amphora bases or handles sticking out of the sand alongside countless shards of sun-bleached pottery. “Everywhere we work, everywhere we dig we find something,” Dr Altalhawy says. One of the team’s most important discoveries is a temple dedicated to Isis, the Egyptian deity with whom Cleopatra is closely associated. That devotion to both Osiris and Isis is found within the same complex is, according to Dr Martinez, an example of “religious symbolism and a sacred union between Osiris and Isis; Osiris as Mark Antony and Isis as herself.” They also found coins depicting Cleopatra’s profile, further support, according to Dr Martinez, for the link between Goddess and queen. “After we saw Cleopatra’s face we knew the coins were important because we found them in the shrine of Isis where offerings to the gods were made.” Equally significant was a series of tunnels and chambers underneath the temple floor, which Dr Martinez strongly believes are tombs associated with a ruling elite. “We believe that it is inside the temple that we have the biggest possibility of finding a royal tomb. We have found a complex of tunnels and more than 10 chambers and shafts, some 25-30 metres deep that I believe will lead us to royalty.” Other striking finds include a fragment of a mask incorporating a cleft chin that bears a striking resemblance to Mark Antony, the head of a queen (thought to be that of Cleopatra) and a headless Ptolemaic statue. “Nothing we have found to date suggests this complex was an ordinary temple. They didn’t choose this area by chance,” adds Dr Altalhawy. Taposiris Magna, despite its size and obvious importance, was not even located in the regional capital. “We asked ourselves why is this temple here and not in the capital? It must have had an important function to be so isolated.” Whether or not the tombs of Cleopatra and Mark Antony are found, Taposiris Magna has yielded some remarkable discoveries, most significantly, a vast cemetery, some three kilometres square, that Dr Altalhawy believes is one of the biggest ancient cemeteries found in Egypt. Five metres under the topsoil, a tomb has been unveiled, the skeletons lying in the same position in which they were placed thousands of years ago. Each shaft is shared by a number of bones, some with their heads and feet missing, cut off by grave robbers eager to get hold of the valuable necklaces and anklets worn by the deceased. Surrounding the main chambers are shallow sarcophagi-shaped graves, no doubt created for the workers of the families who were often buried close to their masters. Most striking of all are two Ptolemaic mummies that lie side by side in a deep separate chamber. These mummies, and several others found, were once gilded, not only demonstrating the wealth of the occupants but also the importance of Osiris’s temple and its environs. This cemetery is similar to those at Giza and further south in Luxor, further suggesting that the complex houses royal tombs. “All the clues we have found leave me to the belief it is the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony,” enthuses Dr Martinez. The site is now closed for the summer, and the team will have to wait until at least January before they can continue the search for the resting place of Alexandria’s most venerated daughter. Global Arab Network This report appears in the National MAGAZINE, Copyright of Abu Dhabi Media Company.

The Hunt for Cleopatra's Tomb

Isis sent me this information: Egypt to search 3 sites for Cleopatra's tomb By REBECCA SANTANA – April 15, 2009 CAIRO (AP) — Archaeologists next week will begin excavating three sites in Egypt near the Mediterranean Sea that may contain the tombs of doomed lovers, Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. ******************************************************************************* They're pretty sure they found Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe (well, maybe), now they're going after Cleopatra. Ach - can't they just let these women rest in peace?

Cleopatra's Sister Found - Rebuttal by Mary Beard

My previous post on the subject. From The Times On Line A Don's Life Mary Beard March 16, 2009 The skeleton of Cleopatra's sister? Steady on. There were enthusiastic reports this weekend that archaeologists had found the skeleton of the younger sister of Queen Cleopatra -- and that the bones suggested that Cleopatra herself was not ethnically Greek or Macedonian (as most people have assumed), but of mixed race, at least part African. The woman's name was Arsinoe , and she was put to death as a potentially dangerous rival in Ephesus in 41 BC, on the orders of Cleopatra and Antony. The skeleton in question was found in a large tomb there, now known as the Octagon (on the right). The argument is that the shape of the skull shows that she had African blood. So Cleopatra too was part African. Does it all add up? Well, no, sorry -- it's not quite so simple. The facts are something like this. First, Arsinoe was indeed supposed to have been murdered on the steps of the temple of Diana in Ephesus, and the Octagon (which was found in the 1920s) is a rather grand tomb which can be dated stylistically to the first century BC. But there is nothing more than that to link the tomb and the princess. There is no surviving name on the tomb and the claims that the shape was meant to evoke the shape of the lighthouse of Alexandria (and so hint at an Egyptian occupant) don't add up for me. Second, the skeleton itself doesn't survive intact. The crucial skull, on which the ethnic arguments are based, was lost in the second world war. The new conclusions (including a mock up of Arsinoe's face) rely on the measurements of the skull left by the first excavators. The remaining bones are said to be those of a 15-18 year old; Arsinoe may well have been in her mid-20s when she died. Third, we don't actually know that Cleopatra and Arsinoe were full sisters. Their father was King Ptolemy, but they may well have had different mothers. In that case, the ethnic argument goes largely out of the window. The truth is that the BBC has a documentary coming up in a week's time, Cleopatra: portrait of a killer, and this 'scoop' is effectively a trailer for it. I don't blame the archaeologists -- after all, think of what was made of my 'discovery' of last week. For a similar line on this story, I now see that you should take a look at Rogue Classicism.

Confirmed: The Body of Cleopatra's Sister

Is this the face of Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsinoe? She looks neither Egyptian nor black African to me - she looks like the Latina down the street. From The Sunday Times March 15, 2009 Found: the sister Cleopatra killed Forensic experts believe they have identified the skeleton of the queen’s younger sister, murdered over 2,000 years ago Daniel Foggo ARCHEOLOGISTS and forensic experts believe they have identified the skeleton of Cleopatra’s younger sister, murdered more than 2,000 years ago on the orders of the Egyptian queen. The remains of Princess Arsinöe, put to death in 41BC on the orders of Cleopatra and her Roman lover Mark Antony to eliminate her as a rival, are the first relics of the Ptolemaic dynasty to be identified. The breakthrough, by an Austrian team, has provided pointers to Cleopatra’s true ethnicity. Scholars have long debated whether she was Greek or Macedonian like her ancestor the original Ptolemy, a Macedonian general who was made ruler of Egypt by Alexander the Great, or whether she was north African. Evidence obtained by studying the dimensions of Arsinöe’s skull shows she had some of the characteristics of white Europeans, ancient Egyptians and black Africans, indicating that Cleopatra was probably of mixed race, too. They were daughters of Ptolemy XII by different wives. [So the scientists deduce that Cleopatra was of "mixed race" whatever that means these days, ha! - based on her sister's skeleton? Oh please!] The results vindicate the theories of Hilke Thür of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who has long claimed that the skeleton was Arsinöe. She described the discovery of Arsinöe’s ethnicity as “a real sensation which leads to a new insight on Cleopatra’s family”. [Why is Cleopatra's "ethnicity" a "real sensation"???] Fellow experts are now convinced [are they?]. Günther Hölbl, an authority on the Ptolemies, said the identification of the skeleton was “a great discovery”. The forensic evidence was obtained by a team working under the auspices of the Austrian Archeological Institute, which is set to detail its findings at an anthropological convention in the United States later this month. The story of the discovery will also be the subject of a tele-vision documentary, Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer, to be shown on BBC1 at 9pm next Monday. [Ahhhh, now the real truth comes out about this sensationalist news story - it's all about publicity for this television "special." Geez!] The institute’s breakthrough came about after it set out to examine Thür’s belief that an octagonal tomb in the remains of the Roman city of Ephesus contained the body of Arsinöe. According to Roman texts the city, in what is now Turkey, is where Arsinöe was banished after being defeated in a power struggle against Cleopatra and her then lover, Julius Caesar. Arsinöe was said to have been murdered after Cleopatra, now with Mark Antony following Caesar’s death, ordered the Roman general to have her younger sibling killed to prevent any future attempts on the Egyptian throne. [So, we don't even know for sure if Cleopatra was guilty of ordering the murder of her sister? Easy enough to blame her instead of Antony - or someone else looking to implicate Cleopatra and ruin her reputation with a rumor campaign... And yet what is the name of the upcoming t.v. special: Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer (of her own sister, tsk tsk). How low-life can the producers get? Must have studied out of the book of Stalin.] The distinctive tomb was first opened in 1926 by archeologists who found a sarcophagus inside containing a skeleton. They removed the skull, which was examined and measured; but it was lost in the upheaval of the second world war. [????] In the early 1990s Thür reentered the tomb and found the headless skeleton, which she believed to be of a young woman. Clues, such as the unusual octagonal shape of the tomb, which echoed that of the lighthouse of Alexandria with which Arsinöe was associated, convinced Thür the body was that of Cleopatra’s sister. Her theory was considered credible by many historians, and in an attempt to resolve the issue the Austrian Archeological Institute asked the Medical University of Vienna to appoint a specialist to examine the remains. Fabian Kanz, an anthropologist, was sceptical when he began this task two years ago. “We tried to exclude her from being Arsinöe,” he said. “We used all the methods we have to find anything that can say, ‘Okay, this can’t be Arsinöe because of this and this’.” After using carbon dating, which dated the skeleton from 200BC-20BC, Kanz, who had examined more than 500 other skeletons taken from the ruins of Ephesus, found Thür’s theory gained credibility. He said he was certain the bones were female and placed the age of the woman at 15-18. Although Arsinöe’s date of birth is not known, she was certainly younger than Cleopatra, who was about 27 at the time of her sister’s demise. The lack of any sign of illness or malnutrition also indicated a sudden death, said Kanz. Evidence of the skeleton’s north African ethnicity provided the final clue. Caroline Wilkinson, a forensic anthropologist, reconstructed the missing skull based on measurements taken in the 1920s. Using computer technology it was possible to create a facial impression of what Arsinöe might have looked like. [She reconstructs the skull based on measurements of a missing skull that we have no idea were actually accurate, and from there she "reconstructs" a face. Some people accuse Goddesschess of being "out there" with our theories about the origins of chess, but we haven't tried any stunts like this one!] “It has got this long head shape,” said Wilkinson. “That’s something you see quite frequently in ancient Egyptians and black Africans. It could suggest a mixture of ancestry.” Hmmmm, does this mean those recently discovered "elongated skulls" found in Siberia are a mixture of ancient Egyptians and black Africans, too???