DAILY MAIL ARCAHEOLOGIST KATHLENE MARTINEZ HAS BEEN SEARCHING FOR CLEOPATRA'S TOMB FOR 20 TWENTY YEARS MAKES SIGNIFICANT FIND MARBLE STATUE AND GOLD COINS 9 DECEMBER 2024 TAPOSIRIS MAGMA

ARCHAEOLOGIST MAKES SIGNIFICANT FIND

Please use our A-Z to navigate this site or return HOME

DAILY MAIL 9 DECEMBER 2024

An archaeologist on a quest to find the long-lost tomb of Cleopatra VII has made a 'significant' discovery at a site believe to be queen's final resting place.

Kathleen Martinez, who has been searching for the tomb for nearly 20 years, uncovered a statue that may depict the true face of the queen who ruled 51 to 30 BC.

The white marble statue, which is just the head, features the likeness of a woman with a small nose, pouty lips and the hair braided around the head.

Martinez and her team also found 337 coins bearing the image of Cleopatra, along with an assortment of pottery, oil lamps, figurines and other artifacts at the Temple of Taposiris Magna.

The expert has long believed the queen's tomb has been hiding somewhere in the temple's ruins, which sit atop a 4,281-foot-long tunnel 43 feet underground.

Martinez believes Cleopatra's body was moved from the palace through the tunnel and buried at a secret location.

However, other archaeologists have suggested that the statue depicts another royal woman.

Critics of Martinez have also slammed her theory of the queen's burial, saying Cleopatra was laid to rest in the city of Alexandria, not 25 miles outside of it. [This subject is so important, we need to explore every avenue, taking advantage of and supporting the enthusiasm of all those who care enough to want to sift through the sands of time]

This is another 'significant finding,' according to Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has said that discoveries at Taposiris Magna are crucial for improving experts' understanding of the architectural, cultural and ceremonial practices of the time.

In addition to the potential statue of Cleopatra, Martinez and her team also unearthed a limestone bust of a king adorned with the Nemes, the ceremonial headdress of the pharaohs.

Martinez led a team of Egyptian and Dominican archaeologists for this dig, conducted in collaboration with the National University Pedro Henríquez Ureña,

The researchers discovered foundation deposits beneath the southern wall of the temple's outer enclosure, according to a statement.

Anyone who has ever carved a face at this scale will know how difficult it is to get the features just right. Not only that, but it is doubtful that Cleopatra will have sat to be carved. Hence, the sculptor will most likely have created the art from memory.

The female statue was the most significant finding, some experts have questioned whether it actually depicts Cleopatra, as Martinez believes.

Others have pointed out differences in facial features between the statue and the ancient Queen, suggesting that it may depict a princess instead.

But this artifact isn't the only discovery that bears Cleopatra's resemblance.

Martinez and her team also found more than 300 coins, many of which are decorated with her image.

Other notable findings include a scarab-shaped amulet inscribed with the phrase 'The justice of Ra has shone,' a bronze ring dedicated to the goddess Hathor and ancient burial sites.

The researchers discovered a large cemetery containing 20 burial chambers, and a tomb with three chambers beneath the Taposiris Magna lighthouse.

Martinez discovered the tunnel in 2022, which was said to resemble the Tunnel of Eupalinos on the Greek island of Samos – revered as one of the most important engineering achievements of the Classical world.

Martinez told Heritage Key in 2022: 'If there's a one per cent chance that the last queen of Egypt could be buried there, it is my duty to search for her.

In our story the Baron Heinrich Richtohofen, John Storm and Hal, the AI onboard the Elizabeth Swann, all agree that Cleopatra is entombed underwater in her former Palace at Alexandria , or at a special mausoleum at Thonis-Heracleion. It seems we are not alone in this belief. For sure, the work at Taposiris Magna is helping to build a picture of life under Cleopatra, when hundreds of coins with her image and other artifacts, confirm her as a revered ruler of her time. We hope the scientific community will not mind us bending history a little, in the interests of promoting archaeology and marine biology as essential sciences - generating a reliable data base - of the natural world and man's ascendancy.

'This is the first time that any archeologist has found tunnels, passages underground [and] inside the enclosure walls of the temple, so we have changed forever what they know about the architecture.'

The archaeologist believes that, after Mark Antony killed himself following his defeat to Caesar Augustus, also known as Octavian, Cleopatra put detailed plans in place for them both to be buried there, in echoes of the myth.

In addition, the mission found the remains of a Greek temple dating back to the fourth century BC. It was destroyed between the second century BC and the beginning of the AD era.

That temple is connected to a complex underground tunnel system that stretches from Lake Mariout to the Mediterranean Sea.

Analysis of ceramic fragments uncovered by the dig also confirmed that the construction of the Taposiris Magna temple dates to the 1st century BC.

The temple's name means 'great tomb of Osiris,' suggesting it was dedicated to the god Osiris and his queen - the goddess Isis - who Cleopatra was believed to be a reincarnation of.

Today, Taposiris Magna is in ruins because the Egyptian coastline was battered by earthquakes over the centuries, causing parts of the temple to collapse and sink into the sea.

The site has been excavated multiple times, with the first dig dispatched by Napoleon in the early 19th century.

Martinez first began investigating the site in 2005, as she believes that Cleopatra may have been laid to rest there after her suicide in 30 BC.

She thinks that Cleopatra’s death was a ceremonial act - part of a ritual apotheosis, or the shedding of her mortal body to ascend to the states of a goddess.

If that were true, she would have been buried in a temple, most likely a temple erected in the name of Iris.

Over the last 20 years, Martinez has made numerous discoveries that strengthen experts' understanding of the Ptolemaic period, including skeletal remains, but she still has not found the ancient queen's tomb.