SEARCH FOR TOMBS OF ANCIENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19943, 30 October 1934, Page 7

SEARCH FOR TOMBS OF ANCIENTS

HOWARD CARTER’S BOLD SCHEME NEW EXPLORATIONS IN VALLEY OF KINGS United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyrignt LONDON, October 27. Mr Howard Carter, the discoverer of Tutankhamen’s tomb is going to Egypt to search for the tomb of Tutankhamen’s queen, believed to have been buried in 1300 8.C., near her husband, in the Valley of Kings. Mr Carter says that several tombs of ancient queens are known to exist in a special portion of the Valley of Kings. If found they may yield treasures rivalling those taken from Tutankhamen’s grave. It probably will take months of research to discover the position. He adds that there is little chance of finding Cleopatra's tomb, which for ages has been the dream of archaeologists. There were eight Egyptian Queens named Cleopatra, but the only authentic proof of that of the famous Queen associated with Mark Anthony existed is small. Legends about her have grown so amazingly, that it is no longer possible to distinguish history from imagination. Cleopatra was the regular name of the Queens of Egypt in the Ptolemaic dynasty after Cleopatra, daughter of Seleucid Antiochus the Great, wife of Ptolemy V., Epiphanes. The bestknown Cleopatra was a daughter of Ptolemy XIII, Auletes, bom in 69 or 68 B.C. At the age of 17 she became Queen of Egypt and reigned jointly with her younger brother, Ptolemy Dionysus, whose wife, in accordance with Egyptian custom, she was to become. A few years afterwards, deprived of all Royal authority, she withdrew into Syria and made preparations to recover her rights by force of arms. At this juncture Julius Caesar followed Pompey into Egypt. The personal fascinations of Cleopatra induced him to undertake a war on her behalf, in which Ptolemy lost his life and she was replaced on the throne in conjunction with another younger brother, of whom, however, she soon rid herself by poison. In Rome she lived openly with Caesar as his mistress, until his assassination, when, aware of her unpopularity, she returned at once to Egypt. Subsequently she became the ally and mistress of Mark Antony, an alliance which was highly distasteful to Rome and Octavian declared war upon them and defeated them at Actium. Cleopatra took flight and escaped to Alexandria, where Antony joined her. Having no prospect of ultimate success, she accepted the proposal of Octavian that she should assassinate Antony and enticed him to join her in a mausoleum which she had built in order that “they might die together.” Antony committed suicide In the mistaken belief that she had already done so, but Octavian refused to yield to the charms of Cleopatra, who put an end to her life by applying an asp to her bosom, according to the common tradition, in her thirtyninth year, August 29, 30 B.C. With her ended the dynasty of the Ptolemies, and Egypt was made a Roman province. The life of Antony by Plutarch is the main authority for the story of his association with Cleopatra and it is upon this work that Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” is based.