Sunday, March 15, 2009

Arsinoe IV was probably of mixed race ?


Some archaelogists and forensic experts believe they have identified the skeleton of Cleopatra’s younger sister called Arsinoe.

Arsinoe murdered more than 2,000 years ago on the orders of the Egyptian queen. The remains of Princess Arsinoe, put to death in 41BC on the orders of Cleopatra and her Roman lover Mark Antony to eliminate her as a rival, are the first relics of the Ptolemaic dynasty to be identified.

The breakthrough, by an Austrian team, has provided pointers to Cleopatra’s true ethnicity. Scholars have long debated whether she was Greek like her ancestor the original Ptolemy, a Macedonian general who was made ruler of Egypt by Alexander the Great, or whether she was north African. Austrian Academy of Sciences claim that evidence obtained by studying the dimensions of Arsinoe’s skull shows she had some of the characteristics of white Europeans, ancient Egyptians and black Africans, indicating that Cleopatra was probably of mixed race, too.

They were daughters of Ptolemy XII by different wives.

Dont confuse the most known previous Arsinoe I and II that were born in Macedonia in 305 and 316 BC. Arsinoe IV was the youngest daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, sister of Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII, and one of the last rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt. When their father died, he left Ptolemy and Cleopatra as joint rulers of Egypt, but Ptolemy soon dethroned Cleopatra and forced her to flee Alexandria.

2 comments:

  1. Hi, i am an italian student of archaeology, actually I'm workinkg on my examination papers wich focus on "macedonian and illyric hellenistic fortifications". if you are interested I can send you some abstracts, once i have finished. your blog is very interestig! keep on with this work!

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  2. Thanks Marco for your kind words. I am interesting as regards your abstacts.
    My e-mail is: gasp1986@yahoo.gr

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