Hello my tilscience family!! Especially my TikTok refugees, I am going THROUGH it with you my dear friends.
But guess what, I come bearing gifts from the archaeology world. We got some Cleopatra adjacent information, so let’s get on to it!
As a reminder, I am actively posting here on Substack, Instagram and YouTube all @tilscience. So this is certainly not goodbye, it’s actually a hello to way more ways of consuming my content and interacting with each other on a new scale!
Here we go…
This news just broke two days ago:
The skull of a person long believed to be Cleopatra’s half sister, Arsinoë IV, was reexamined using modern DNA analysis and was found to be the skull of a small boy instead! For nearly half a century, the world thought this skull was Arsinoë and now modern scientific methods have turned that theory on its head.
This just raises so many questions because archaeologists didn’t just think this skull was Arinsoe IV’s for no reason.
The very well preserved skull and partial skeleton was found in Ephesus Turkey buried in an elaborate sarcophagus in the Octagon, a royal burial chamber that architecturally emulates royal buildings in Alexandria Egypt, specifically Ptolemaic style architecture and artwork. The logical assumption at the time was that whoever was buried inside was of very high status, most likely royalty, of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Now, the story of Arsinoë and Cleopatra is a very interesting one. I can do a video or an entire Substack post (or perhaps podcast?) on that if y’all want it, but it’s believed that Cleopatra herself ordered the murder of her younger sister for challenging her throne.
Arsinoë took up arms against her sister and briefly ruled in rebellion before Julius Caesar struck her down and paraded her around in golden chains through Rome. Ultimately, Arsinoë managed to escape, but at that point Cleopatra exiled her for good measure to modern day Turkey, where she would spend the rest of her days at the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
That was until Cleopatra had her lover Mark Antony kill her half sister to secure her place as the sole queen. As a result, Arsinoë was assassinated in 41 BCE on the steps of the Temple of Artemis, her blood staining one of the wonders of the ancient world. She was only about 20 years old.
So, when a skull was unearthed in a royal chamber at the Octagon in Ephesus, archaeologists were certain the body was the ‘queen for a day’, Arsinoë IV.
But, who did the skull actually belong to if it wasn’t Arsinoë IV’s?
The research team used Micro-CT, which is this super cool non-destructive imaging technique that uses X-rays to create 3D images of an object, plus radiocarbon dating and a DNA analysis to conclusively determine that the skull belonged to a young boy between 11-14 years old with Italian or Sardinian origins.
What’s more is that the skull suggested the boy was not well. He had a significant genetic developmental disorder, possibly something called Treacher Collins Syndrome, a rare disease that affects facial development.
This leads to more questions like - how did this young boy end up in this royal tomb? Who was he? What’s even more interesting is that the analysis placed the remains between 205–36 BCE, which matches the timing of Arsinoë IV’s death in 41 BCE, but of course the remains aren’t hers
This is leaving researchers scratching their heads a bit, because the Octagon was a monument erected in memory of an important figure. They think it’s possible that it was built for someone else, “even someone currently unknown to history”.
Now more than 2000 years later after Arsinoë’s fateful death, the final resting place of Cleopatra’s half sister remains unknown, which is such a twist of fate knowing that the location of Cleopatra’s tomb is also a mystery.
Perhaps Dr. Kathleen Martinez can take on Arsinoë’s case next.
Let me know if you want me to cover Arsinoë and Cleopatra’s history next!
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