Archeologists have unearthed a trove of artifacts on the Taposiris Magna temple complicated close to Alexandria, Egypt, the place some researchers consider the tomb of Cleopatra VII is situated.
Among the many findings reported by Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, who has been digging on the website since 2005 searching for Cleopatra VII’s tomb, had been 337 historic cash bearing the queen’s face, a marble statue, and ceremonial vessels from between the third and 1st century, often called the Ptolemaic Period.
The findings had been made by Martinez in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo and introduced by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities earlier this month.
A view of artifacts reported to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities by Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez.
Martinez advised PBS she believes that Cleopatra, the final ruler of Egypt earlier than the Roman conquest in 30 BCE, is buried within the temple complicated. Beforehand, different theories pointed to Alexandria because the resting place for the queen. The archaeologist reported that the white marble head present in Taposiris Magna depicts the face of Cleopatra, however some archaeologists disagree, citing marked discrepancies between the artifact and different recognized portraits of the queen. Different discoveries included oil lamps, beauty containers, catacombs from the 4th century, and an unspecified tomb.
In keeping with some legends, Cleopatra died by suicide by inducing a venomous snake chunk in 30 BCE alongside her lover, the Roman common Marc Antony.
Harvard Affiliate Professor of Classics Irene Soto Marín advised Hyperallergic that Cleopatra might have taken her personal life to flee being paraded by way of Rome as a spoil of battle. However the location of the queen’s burial website stays a thriller, as do the tombs of all of the rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the longest and richest Egyptian dynasty, Marín mentioned.
Whereas Marín isn’t certain why these tombs haven’t been uncovered, she speculated that the lacking graves are in all probability all collectively and underwater. Taposiris Magna occurs to be on the coast and elements of Historic Alexandria at the moment are underwater.
Notably notable to Marín, who’s writing a guide on Historic Egyptian coinage, are the 337 cash found by Martinez’s group. An unspecified variety of the cash comprise minted side-profile portraits of Cleopatra VII, in response to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Marín mentioned the queen’s face seen on these cash would have been her official portrait.
Viewing images of the cash, Marín mentioned the artifacts bearing the facet profile of Cleopatra look like tetradrachms, that are produced from silver. Throughout Cleopatra’s rule, Marín mentioned, Cleopatra elevated the minting of bronze and silver cash in a “mini monetary reform.”
“They are coins that were minted in a period where Cleopatra was allowing the monetary system to recover from earlier periods where there was a lower output of coinage,” Marín mentioned. After Egypt turned a Roman state, Romans allowed Egypt to retain its foreign money, she mentioned, which means they continued to flow into after the queen’s dying.
Marín famous that the picture minted on the cash is an “official” portrait of Cleopatra.
“This is the most seen image of any emperor or any queen in antiquity,” Marín mentioned. “The only place where a regular ‘Joe Schmo’ would see that image of their ruler … everyone saw coins.”
The picture of Cleopatra on the cash has a sharper nostril than that of the just lately unearthed marble determine, which to Marín signifies that the latter shouldn’t be a portrait of the queen. If the sculpture was meant to depict Cleopatra, she mentioned, artists would have in all probability modeled it after her official portrait. Nonetheless, the marble head is sporting a royal diadem headdress, she famous, suggesting the likeness of another Hellenistic queen.
Well-known for her amorous affairs with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, Cleopatra’s life “had all the makings of a Hollywood story,” which fuels curiosity in discovering her tomb, Marín mentioned.
Cleopatra, Marín mentioned, minted cash as a part of what she described as a “mini economic reform.”
However Marín mentioned she is most excited concerning the hoard of cash from the latest dig and different frequent objects that will have been utilized by the native inhabitants, like lamps.
“How did that 99% of the population of Egypt live, and not the 1%?” Marín mentioned. “I find it more exciting when we learn more about the regular people … so I hope that archeology moves towards explor[ing] the people who are not as easily represented in antiquity.”