Today’s Egypt and the Search for Cleopatra’s Tomb
Just came across this timely piece from Dominican Today: Dominican Republic’s own Egyptologist affirmed Friday that the turmoil in Egypt prevented setting up protection for the museum of antiquities for which bands of looters managed to cart off important pieces. Kathleen Martinez said the groups of looters which had formed amid the chaos even sacked [...]
Cleopatra Claim du Jour
My spiders bring me back piles of things which are claimed about Cleo … I’ve decided I might as well share them in the hopes someone might be able to point to a source. We’ll start the series off with this one (inter alia, of course): Just talking about lice makes most of us start [...]
Statues of Cleopatra
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while … an excerpt from a piece by Zahi Hawass in Asharq Al-Awsat: However what is strange is that there is not one statue of Queen Cleopatra, and thanks to historians we know that such statues did exist. However there is an image of Queen Cleopatra on [...]
Yet Another Cleo Biography
Image via Wikipedia From an interview in the New York Times: Gail Collins: Your new biography of Cleopatra is coming out this fall, right? I’m reading it, and I’m pretty sure that from now on, whenever I hear elected officials complain about the treachery of their opponents, I’m just going to say: “Ha! You should [...]
Cleopatra’s Pearl
Image via Wikipedia A very interesting item in USA Today (ultimately deriving from an article in Classical World!) is bouncing around the interwebs … we’ll preface it with this excerpt from Philemon Holland’s 1847 translation of Pliny’s Natural History (9.119-121) via Archive.org. The Latin is available, as always, via Lacus Curtius: There were two Pearls, [...]
Chasing Mummies: A Cleopatra Update?
Image via Wikipedia As I sit here rethinking my Ancient World on Television listings because there seem to be so few ‘new’ items worth watching coming out (more on this later) I wandered over to the History Channel’s website and they have a pile of preview videos from Zahi Hawass’ new series called Chasing Mummies. [...]
Death of Cleopatra Revisionism Followup
Image via Wikipedia Folks who are still interested in Christoph Schaefer’s theories regarding the death of Cleopatra might want to watch the German science show Abenteuer Wissen for more details (not sure how long the video will be up; I can’t seem to embed it here). The takes-too-long-and-is-too-painful theory works if you take the accounts [...]
Cleopatra’s Death: Another Theory
The incipit of a brief item in the Telegraph: The Queen of the Nile ended her life in 30BC and it has always been held that it was the bite of an asp – now called the Egyptian cobra – which caused her demise. Now Christoph Schaefer, German historian and professor at the University of [...]
Speaking of Cleo …
We might be on the verge of another ancient-popculch-hybrid type thingy … a couple of weeks ago, Donna Estes Antebi wrote in the Huffington Post (inter alia): The label Cougar conjures images not of women of merit and achievement, but of fountain-of-youth seeking desperation. “Cougars” are painted as wildcats armed with bottles of Botox, stiletto-stalking [...]
Cleopatra’s Tomb – Latest
An excerpt from an otherwise ‘standard’ piece from ABC: One of them is the last Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Legend has it that when the Romans entered Egypt in 30 BC and after losing the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra and her lover Mark Anthony took their own lives in order to avoid being captured by [...]
An Image of Cleopatra?
While killing some time this weekend, I was poking around the archives of the New York Times via Google and in the October 12, 1884 edition I found this very interesting excerpt in an Arts column: If you click on that, you’ll get the full image (I think) but the gist of it is the [...]
This Week in Cleopatra News
Most of the press coverage this week comprised of variations on an AP piece on Franck Goddio’s explorations of the underwater ruins of Alexandria, with a special focus on Cleopatra’s palace (to coincide with the exhibition in Philadelphia). Here’s the incipit of a representative item: Plunging into the waters off Alexandria Tuesday, divers explored the [...]
File This One Away for Future Reference
An excerpt from a feature on Zahi Hawass in Speigel … I don’t think comment is necessary …. Hawass reserves the right to announce all discoveries himself. Not everyone likes this. Some people feel that he is about as interested in serious research as Rapunzel was in having her hair cut. He boasted that there [...]
Citanda: Cleopatra Podcast Series: Day 1
Image via Wikipedia The Oxford University Press blog seems to be running a series of podcasts about Cleopatra over the next few days (?). In this first installment, we have an interviewish thing with Duane Roller, who, of course, has recently written a biography of our favourite Alexandrian. via Cleopatra Podcast Series: Day 1 | [...]
The Curse of Cleopatra?
Image via Wikipedia I’ve really got to stop reading email … every time I open it, it seems, there’s something about Cleopatra’s tomb and it’s presented in such a way that I feel I HAVE to respond to it. The latest comes from the venerable Al-Ahram, whose reporter seems (as will be made clear later) [...]
More Cleopatra Tomb Stuff
In my mailbox this a.m. is an interesting little piece from National Geographic which seems to be answering some of the questions I raised (again) a few days ago about the continuing claims about Taposiris Magna as the site for Tony and Cleo’s tomb (or mostly the latter, I suppose). The post is, ostensibly, about [...]
The Search for Cleopatra’s Tomb Redux
With a Cleopatra exhibition about to hit Philadelphia and plenty of hype to be associated with it (if it isn’t already), it seems like a good time to see what — if any — developments there have been in the search for Cleopatra’s tomb. To bring folks up to speed, after finds of statuary linked [...]
Citanda: The truth about Cleopatra
Article in Canada’s Maclean’s magazine … nothing really new here for most of us, but a good little summary: The truth about Cleopatra.
Citanda: Miss Cleo
Tony Perrottet ponders Cleo’s attractiveness in the Smart Set: The Smart Set: Miss Cleo – March 8, 2010.
Interview with Franck Goddio
Renowned archaeologist Franck Goddio talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky [below] about his efforts to recover artifacts from the ancient cities of Alexandria, Heracleion and Canopus, with special attention to discoveries related to Cleopatra and her reign. via Cleopatra’s Alexandria Treasures | Scientific American Podcast.
Citanda: Cleopatra and Egyptian Fashion in Film
Tove Hermanson: Cleopatra and Egyptian Fashion in Film | Huffington Post.
Podcast:Cleopatra’s Alexandria Treasures
Renowned archaeologist Franck Goddio talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky [below] about his efforts to recover artifacts from the ancient cities of Alexandria, Heracleion and Canopus, with special attention to discoveries related to Cleopatra and her reign. The exhibit Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt opens at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia [...]
Cradle Snatching Cleopatra?
hmmmmmmmmm, he grumbled, Marge Simpson-like: In a “cougars we love” photo essay, the Women on the Web internet site champions Cleopatra for cradle snatching her younger brothers Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV. via Long in tooth but sharp in claw | The Australian.
The Search for Cleopatra’s Tomb: Update
Here’s the latest semi-coherent press coverage from Dominican Today, presented in its entirety lest I forget to add it to the record: “That’s the mystery of the past, we’ve found doors as small as 20 by 20 centimeters which lead to great chambers,” revealed the Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, regarding the [...]
Search for Cleopatra’s Tomb to Resume
Just so you know … from RIA Novosti: Egyptian archeologists will carry out new explorations in October to search for the tombs of Cleopatra and her beloved Mark Antony, the head of Egypt’s Higher Council of Antiquities said on Monday. “One of the most important projects is to find the tombs of the famous pharaoh [...]
