Cleopatra's tomb found. Maybe.

[spqrblues]

If it wasn't Zahi Hawass touting it for the past year, I'd be a lot more excited about the news now flooding the airwaves about the possibility archaeologists have found Antonius & Cleopatra's tomb. We'll see. I'm nervous about Hawass getting his hands on the real site. I suppose we'll be seeing a crazy documentary with Hawass manhandling mummies soon, and an exhibition with a high admission price. Well, whatever it takes to keep the museums running.

Wish #1: That I could make that documentary. Hey, it'd still be an amazingly cool project.

Wish #2: That the news outlets would stop arguing about whether Cleopatra was pretty or not. Of course, that's the only measure of a woman's worth and the only reason why two of the most powerful men in the world of her day found her a worthy partner. Hawass, stop talking about the size of her nose.

Wish #3: I wish I'd become an archaeologist. I squandered my chances, so too late for me now. I'll waddle off to my day job, scribble some webcomics, and whine annoyingly about it.

Comments

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

Hawass has an Indiana Jones hat? That's news to me. I always thought it was, you know, just a hat. It never particularly made me think of Indy's.

[purvision.livejournal.com]

I echo your concern about Zahi Hawass. He and PT Barnum would have gotten along great.

I don't have a lot of hope there will be a real find undisturbed by graverobbers after 2040 years. And Antony is not likely to be in the same place anyway.

Still, it's a fun thought and the sort of thing that drives interest and encourages funding of digs.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_w_o_o_d_/]

I thought I'd heard that Cleopatra's mummy had been brought in France by Napoleon ? And lost, or burned, later in history ? Or is that a legend ?

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Wish #2: That the news outlets would stop arguing about whether Cleopatra was pretty or not. Of course, that's the only measure of a woman's worth and the only reason why two of the most powerful men in the world of her day found her a worthy partner. Hawass, stop talking about the size of her nose.

Standards of beauty change fairly quickly. What was considered beautiful even 50 years ago (Marilyn Monroe) is considered fat and blowsy by today's standards. They are even trying to "thin down" the Ruben's models.

Maybe someday they will again start touting beauty as that which a person draws from within rather than that which is exposed to all and sundry.

[ndgmtlcd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they should stop talking about her nose and draw it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Asterixcover-6.jpg

Uderzo and Goscinny knew how to do things.

[xanath.livejournal.com]

Wish #2: That the news outlets would stop arguing about whether Cleopatra was pretty or not. Of course, that's the only measure of a woman's worth and the only reason why two of the most powerful men in the world of her day found her a worthy partner. Hawass, stop talking about the size of her nose.

You may remember the comic-book-like documentary on Nefertiti that aired on the Discovery channel a few years back. Zawass went after the young American archeologist who claimed to have found Nefertiti's mummy as just a publicity hound. It wasn't until I read up on Hawass's PR methods that I realized that not only was the pot calling the kettle black, the pot was blind to begin with. Yeesh.

As for Cleopatra, I was always amazed by the fact that she spoke several languages fluently, kept both Caesar and Antony intensely interested in her, and held the Romans at bay to, literally, the bitter end. And her suicide always makes me smile. She couldn't have told Octavian to stuff it better than if she'd died making a particularly pungent gesture.

So . . . pompous showman discovers ancient queen's tomb. I don't know if I'm the only one dreading the rush of bad documentaries (complete with cartoonish "re-enactments") and even worse movies. I'll be over here clinging to my Claudette Colbert version of Cleopatra, thanks.

Cleo's tomb

[(Anonymous)]

Oh god yes. I'm an Egyptologist and what really rankles is that, whenever there's an interesting discovery of some sort, Zawass steals the spotlight. A colleague of mine had to endure a news team at his site between seasons, when he wasn't there - and, sure, it all belongs to Egypt and the SCA has the right to access all sites, but it's just rude to intrude on someone's excavation when he's not there and not even inform him of it. Plus, it's always "Zawass's team" here, "Zawass's team" there, even though he can't possibly be at all the sites he is supposedly excavating at the same time. Not mentioning the people actually overseeing the excavations is not only rude, it's doing Egyptian Egyptology a great disfavour, because you have the feeling Zawass is the only Egyptian scholar there is.
On the other hand, let's not forget the good he does - Egypt is finally getting the much-needed site museums that will allow people to view the objects near the context they were found in.

As for #2 - Caesar and Anthony obviously found her captivating enough to risk their political carreers for. That's something, ain't it?

-- BTW, sorry I'm anonymous. I don't want to join LiveJournal because I have enough going on in my life right now, but this entry hit a nerve. Keep up SPQR Blues, Klio, and don't worry. You probably have better pay than the average archaeologist ;) --