When Martinez and a team of excavators began probing the ground in , she was focused less on the ultimate prize of Cleopatra's tomb than on simply finding sufficient evidence to sustain her theory that Taposiris Magna might be the place to look. She hoped to demonstrate that the temple was among the most sacred of its day, that it was dedicated to the worship of Osiris and Isis, and that tunnels had been dug underneath the enclosure walls. Within the first year, she was rewarded by the discovery of a shaft and several underground chambers and tunnels.
During the season the Egyptian-Dominican team found three small foundation deposits in the northwest corner of the Osiris temple, just inches from where the Hungarian expedition had stopped digging. The deposits conclusively linked the Osiris temple to the reign of Ptolemy IV, who ruled a century and a half before Cleopatra. In , further supporting the view that the site was very important to the Greeks of ancient Egypt, the excavators found a skeleton of a pregnant woman who had died in childbirth.
The tiny bones of the unborn baby lay between the skeleton's hips. Her jaw was distended, suggesting her agony, and her right hand was clutching a small white marble bust of Alexander the Great. In six years Taposiris Magna has become one of Egypt's most active archaeology sites. More than a thousand objects have been recovered, of them considered significant: pottery, coins, gold jewelry, the broken heads of statues probably smashed by early Christians.
An important discovery was a large cemetery outside the temple walls, suggesting that the subjects of a monarch wished to be buried near royal remains. Yet the tomb of Cleopatra still hovers out of reach, like a tantalizing mirage, and the theory of who is buried at Taposiris Magna still rests more on educated speculation than on facts. Might not Cleopatra's reign have unraveled too quickly for her to build such a secret tomb?
A fantastic story, like a horse with wings, flies in the face of the principle of parsimony. But it's a long hard haul from not-yet-proved to disproved. Critics of Martinez's theory point out that it is rare in archaeology for someone to announce they are going to find something and then actually find it. All the evidence is that she was buried with her ancestors. The material associated with her at Taposiris Magna is not meaningful because material associated with her can be found in many places in Egypt.
If Cleopatra's tomb is ever found, the archaeological sensation would be rivaled only by Howard Carter's unearthing of the tomb of King Tut in But will finding her tomb, not to say her body itself, deepen our portrait of the last Egyptian pharaoh? On one hand, how could it not? In the last hundred years about the only new addition to the archaeological record is what scholars believe is a fragment of Cleopatra's handwriting: a scrap of papyrus granting a tax exemption to a Roman citizen in Egypt in 33 B.
On the other hand, maybe finding her tomb would diminish what Shakespeare called "her infinite variety. No other figure from antiquity seems so versatile in her ambiguities, so modern in her contradictions. It was lunch hour at the dig site, and the workers had gone to eat in the shade. We were sitting on top of the temple pylon in the radiance of noon, staring out at the sea beyond. There was a feeling of stillness in the air, an inkling of eternity, as if the old Egyptian gods were about—Re, who ruled over the earth, sky, and the underworld, and Isis, who saved Osiris by tricking Re into revealing his secret name.
The search for Cleopatra has come at no small cost to Martinez. She gave up her thriving law practice in Santo Domingo and poured much of her savings into her quest. She moved to an apartment in Alexandria, where she has begun studying Arabic.
But it's not an easy life, far from her family and friends. During the revolution earlier this year, she was confronted by a group of aggressive men as she worked at the excavation site.
For now, work at the site is on hold. She hopes to return in the fall. All rights reserved. This story appears in the July issue of National Geographic magazine. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London Love them or hate them, there's no denying their growing numbers have added an explosion of color to the city's streets. India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big.
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But will they invade your privacy? Go Further. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth. At the site of the temple altar, where priests once made offerings to the gods, a treasure trove of coins minted during her reign bearing the name of the queen and her depiction was also discovered.
After working on the site for over ten years, he admits that no firm evidence has been found that Cleopatra was buried there. At the same time, however, the possibility cannot be excluded that the tomb in ancient times was destroyed or sacked, or that it is now somehow not incorporated under modern Alexandria.
Alexander himself, although dead in Babylon, was buried in Alexandria, the city that bore his name. Furthermore, the mummies found on the site seem to be associated with religious figures of high social status and not with members of the royal family. Your email address will not be published.
If Cleopatra's tomb and those of the other Ptolemaic rulers were constructed in Alexandria, they would likely now be underwater or buried beneath modern-day development, Walker said.
Martinez has suspected Cleopatra might be buried at Taposiris Magna because Cleopatra identified with the goddess Isis who "was both sister and wife of the god of the dead, Osiris," said Glenn Godenho, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool who hosted a recent documentary on Martinez's work. Related: Bones with names: Long-dead bodies archaeologists have identified. But after more than 10 years of work at Taposiris Magna, archaeologists have not found Cleopatra's tomb and most of the scholars that Live Science talked to are skeptical that it is there.
So far this has drawn a blank" in terms of trying to find Cleopatra's tomb, said Godenho. Another problem is that the burials at Taposiris Magna seem to be of religious figures rather than royalty. Additionally many of the scholars that Live Science talked to noted that historical texts indicate that Cleopatra's mausoleum is located within Alexandria whereas Taposiris Magna is located 31 miles from the city. Recently, Martinez's team has been excavating a necropolis located at Taposiris Magna.
This definitely makes for [interesting] TV, but suggesting that people at this site are crowding around [Cleopatra's tomb] specifically is a tough argument to make," Godenho said, referring to other Egyptian burials "crowding around" her tomb.
She has been portrayed at times as a sinister seductress, a "sex kitten" and a "fast woman," as the documentary shows. Lively debate has even been devoted to whether she was attractive. Martinez says the ancient ruler was misunderstood, and most of what we knew about her came from the Romans, who considered her a rival.
An opposing regime could not be a reliable source on her life and legacy. Cleopatra was queen at 18 years old, spoke nine languages, studied politics, economics and mathematics. At 21, she was in the Sinai desert, raising an army and plotting her return to the throne. Her brilliant manoeuvres won personal and strategic alliances with Caesar and Antony, changing the course of history.
She wasn't even Egyptian — she was a descendent of Macedonians known as the Ptolemies. She was highly educated and sophisticated, says Okasha El Daly, honorary senior research associate at University College London. Martinez's team has been digging for 14 years.
She's unearthed exciting artifacts linked to Cleopatra at Taposiris Magna, an ancient temple outside of Alexandria, Egypt. Cleopatra may be resting there.
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