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.

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 by a Dominican-Egyptian team.

Zahi Hawas is in the country to receive a decoration in the National Palace and a Doctorate degree from the Catholic University of Santo Domingo in the company of Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, who leads the team which searches for Cleopatra’s tomb.

“So far only 30 percent of archaeological artifacts and tombs have bee found,” Hawas said of the investigation in his country, despite the constant excavations by teams from around the world. “But with cameras we can now see what’s behind those magic walls.”

The Egyptian scholar said Egypt’s Government seeks to assure that the excavations are transparent and allow people around the world can observe the work. “We also use National Geographic so that everyone can see what we’re doing,” he said Wednesday morning in an interview on Telesistema Channel 11.

A Dominican’s dream

“I saw that it was a dream of Kathleen, I then realized that the place had to be important since no one would have built anything there unless it was for an important figure,” Mawas said.

Whereas Martinez, an attorney-turned-archaeologist who’s proud to proclaim that her work is part of a larger effort by a Dominican-Egyptian team, noted that she convinced the Supreme Council of Antiquities to let her look for Ptolemy’s Temple, near Alexandria, where she’s convinced she’ll come across one of Egypt’s most enduring secrets. “I know inside that I’m close to finding Cleopatra’s tomb.”

She said with Hawas’ support, she has found the largest mummy tomb uncovered so far and among the important sites found, she noted that of the Taposisirs Magna, or the temple of Osiris, and Isis, determined from the gathered evidence in Greek script, which she said reveal the link to Ptolemy

“I halted the Louvre museum’s excavations until they return five Egyptian paintings which they did, and so far 5,000 artifacts have been returned from around the world,” he said, adding that he’s also working for the return of five unique pieces, such as the Nefertiti bust and a Rosetta stone in London’s museum. “I’ve centered by demand on Nefertiti’s bust.”

Cleopatra live

The scholar also invited the hosts of the Telesistema program El Dia, Huchi Lora and Patricia Solano, to transmit the excavation live via Egyptian satellite “to see all the artifacts we’ve found,” whereas Lora invited the scholar to visit the country for a conference on January.

FWIW … Here’s our previous coverage:

• Search for Cleopatra’s Tomb to Resume (October 4, 2009)
• Cleopatra Tomb Update (July 28, 2009)
• Cleopatra’s Tomb Update (sort of) (July 7, 2009)
• Cleo’s ‘Tomb’ ~ Further Thoughts (April 19, 2009)
• Cleo’s Tomb Update: the Anthony Photo (ditto)
• Cleopatra’s Tomb Again!!

The last one there has links to previous coverage of this story (which features another non-archaeologist) …

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 Cleopatra, the seventh in the Ptolemy dynasty, and Mark Antony. These tombs might be located in the city of Taposiris Magna, 50 kilometers from Alexandria,” Zahi Hawas said at a news conference in Moscow.

Hawas, who is leading the expedition, said statues of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, coins bearing Cleopatra’s image and a large number of tombs had been found next to a temple where the couple might be buried.

“These necropolises on both sides of the temple in Taposiris Magna are important evidence that high representatives of the royal family were buried in the temple,” Hawas said.

He said his team would carry out their work in the middle of October, at which time they could find evidence to support their theory.

The archaeologist added that most Egyptian treasures have yet to be found, despite many years of excavations, as only 30% of sites have been explored.

“Seventy percent remain underground. The problem is that all these monuments are under buildings,” he said.

Hawas also said that Egyptian authorities would next week demand a Nefertiti bust from a Berlin museum as Cairo has proof the artifact was taken out of the country illegally.

The Nefertiti bust was discovered at the start of the 20th century by a German archeologist who took it to Berlin, where it has since remained.

… never have figured out why this Russian source always seems to get this particular story first …

• Egyptian archeologists to search for Cleopatra tomb