Cleopatra Tomb Update
There’s a lengthy Global Arab Network (and other sites) story kicking around about the dig at Tabusiris Magna … nothing really new other than we get the name of the site director: Dr Said Altalhawy. Perhaps more importantly, we also get (in the concluding paragraph) this: The site is now closed for the summer, and [...]
From Sword to Asp
One of the ongoing problems I have with this whole ‘tomb of Cleopatra’ thing is the assumption — it appears — that not just Cleopatra but also Antony will be found in Egyptian-style sarcophagi, all mummied up. But as with Arsinoe, I’m still not sure of what the burial practices of the Ptolemies were. Consider [...]
rogueclassicism Review: Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer
Editor’s note: you might want to read our previous thoughts on this program/claim/issue (made prior to viewing, obviously): Cleopatra, Arsinoe, and the Implications As a sort of followup to all the hype about this program, I thought it might be useful to provide a reviewish sort of thing of this program since it has appeared [...]
Cleopatra Trailer Fest
While poking around YouTube for assorted items this past week, it came to my attention that I could put a little minifilm festival of Cleopatra movie trailers together here to start our weekend blogging off … so, in chronological order: The 1934 DeMille version starring Claudette Colbert: Possibly the worst ever … the 1945 version [...]
Cleo’s ‘Tomb’ ~ Further Thoughts
This one’s starting to bother me, even though I’ve now seen the ‘mask’ being identified with varying degrees of certainty as ‘possibly’ Marcus Antonius. A correspondent sends in a nice video from the site (from a German version of Reuters; the video is in English), which I can’t embed, so here’s the link. What I [...]
Cleo’s Tomb Update: the Anthony Photo
This just in as I’m putting together Explorator … Reuters has entered the ‘Cleopatra’s Tomb’ hype with an article that includes an interesting slide show, among which is: … presumably the alabaster Cleopatra, the coins, and — most importantly — the mask I’ve been curious about for over a year. Here’s another photo with the [...]
Cleopatra’s Tomb Again!!
Okay … this is a long-developing story. Last year — almost to the day — Zahi Hawass was all excited about some major underground tomb at Tabusiris Magna; it seemed to be building on something announced a couple of years before that. A month later, we were pretty much getting the same story. Then we [...]
From the Horatii to Cleopatra
Here’s an interesting bit of synchronicity … my spiders picked up a piece in the Independent which is about Giotto’s Lamentation of Christ … the incipit, however, is rather more in the purview of this blog: There is also anachronism in viewing. We can’t help looking at pictures through our own later eyes. We see [...]
Michael Jackson’s Cleopatra
Here’s something I didn’t know … this well-known (to Classicists, anyway) painting of Cleopatra’s death by D. Pauvert: … is currently owned by the monogloved-one. Somehow I always thought MJ would have some ‘connection’ to Cleo … whatever the case, he’s putting this one up for auction. Market News: Michael Jackson’s painting of Cleopatra (Telegraph)
Cleopatra, Arsinoe, and the Implications
Just before bed last night I was deluged with bloggables, chief among which was a report in numerous newspapers about tests having been done on the bones of someone believed to be Arsinoe, Cleopatra’s murdered sister. This one presents numerous difficulties and the press might be jumping the gun (once again), although it is clear [...]
Unsubmerging Alexandria
We’ve heard about this one before and it’s back (coincidentally, so is the piece which is below this one). Excerpts from a piece in the Guardian: Some of the world’s most exciting sunken treasures could soon be on view after Egypt confirmed plans to build a giant underwater museum in the Mediterranean. But as preparation [...]
