Stacy Schiff’s enthralling biography, “Cleopatra a Life,” has been a huge literary success and it proves the public’s enduring interest for this captivating personality. So why are we so fascinated? Probably because many gaps remain in our knowledge of her. Stacy Schiff acknowledges that little is known about Cleopatra and all the information about her is through second hand and third hand sources.
However, in the last 15 years, with the help of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, underwater sites have been excavated in Alexandria and in the Bay of Aboukir, recovering stunning artifacts that reveal Cleopatra’s lifestyle.
“Although I did not set out to search for Cleopatra, she surfaced in our excavations. Bronze coins bearing her face, ceramics and statuettes produced during her rule, and statues of Ptolemaic queens were all brought up from underwater.  Cleopatra’s royal palaces came to life before our eyes as we developed the first map of the ancient Alexandrian port based on the structures we analyzed underwater,” explains Goddio.
In a joint collaboration, both renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and archaeologist Goddio present Cleopatra in a new light through ancient items shown for the first time in a superbly illustrated book.
“Cleopatra: the Search for the Last Queen of Egypt” reveals a glimpse of her life through objects of diverse materials such as bronze, ceramics, potteries and various stones. All these items were submerged as a result of earthquakes and tsunamis recorded in ancient texts such as the tsunami that rocked Alexandria in 365 A.D.
“The whole earth was made to shake and shudder,” wrote the Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, as he described how ships were thrown a mile or two inland onto the roofs of houses in Alexandria.
The superb pieces of gold jewelry pictured in the book give us an idea of the luxuries Cleopatra surrounded herself with. The Roman poet described her palace as “a temple of luxury” with huge slabs of marble, agate and porphyry and onyx floors and ebony doorjambs.
There are also photographs of everyday items such as bowls, tumblers and beakers, basins, incense burners, lamps and scales made out of bronze and mortars and pestles made of granite and volcanic hard rock. We can imagine Cleopatra using one of these vessels to prepare her medicinal recipes for baldness (a mixture of burnt mice, burnt rag and burnt horses’ teeth) or for contraception (salt, mouse excrement, honey and resin).
One of the most exciting news is the likely prospect of discovering Cleopatra’s tomb. According to Kathleen Martinez’s new theory, Cleopatra and Marc Antony were buried together inside a temple at Taposiris Magna located some 45 kilometers from Alexandria close to an area known as Borg el Arab. Cleopatra chose Taposiris to prevent her enemies from destroying her remains. According to Hawass, a radar survey of Taposiris indicates three anomalies in the rock around a depth of 25 meters where one of these may contain the tomb of a famous ruler:
“One cannot help but envision Cleopatra’s tomb within that temple, and the tombs of so many of her former subjects surrounding her in a testament to her glory,” says Hawass.
As we come to the end of the book, we realize how biased and unfair history has been to the woman whose story is larger than life.
After reading Cassius Dio’s description of Cleopatra, we wonder if he is really talking about the same Cleopatra VII whose unflattering face with a hooked nose is shown on a bronze coin.
“She was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking; she also possessed a charming voice and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone,” wrote Dio.
New information about this captivating woman still lies hidden away in the waters and desert of Egypt. The search for her tomb currently taking place in Taposiris is filled with expectations. Such a discovery might hold the key to many unanswered questions and put an end to the myths surrounding Cleopatra. In the mean time, it has been said that Angelina Jolie will star in the Hollywood adaptation of Schiff’s book. The legend lives on…