The unearthing of evidence pointing to the lost tomb of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at a 2,000-year-old temple in the Mediterranean has raised skepticism among some Egyptologists even before the first remains are raised.
"I don't see a compelling argument for why they should have been buried in this temple," said Renee Dreyfus, curator of ancient art at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco.
The argument is being touted by top Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who hosted a show-and-tell in Egypt last weekend of 22 coins, 10 mummies and a fragment of a mask with a cleft chin that may evoke Antony (or, if not, at least Richard Burton, the actor who played Antony in the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor epic, "Cleopatra"). The artifacts were discovered in the temple of the god Osiris, according to an Associated Press report.
"It's an interesting idea, but I reserve judgment until I can see that they've actually found the burial," said Dreyfus. "If they are buried there, we congratulate him. He is adding something that archaeologists have been looking for for generations."
Even if a burial site is found at the temple, Dreyfus will want to know, "Did they in fact find cinnamon in her tomb?" she said. "It has come down to us that in addition to great treasures, she also was buried with cinnamon, which was an exotic spice at that time." If there is no cinnamon, Dreyfus would guess that there is no Cleopatra either.
"It's important for archaeologists to dramatize and publicize their initial discoveries," J.J. Manning, professor of history and classics at Yale University, said. "But there is nowhere near any kind of evidence to show this is Antony and Cleopatra. I would be surprised if such a tomb would survive, given the politics of Roman history."
The temple is near the ancient seaside capital of Alexandria. This is where Cleopatra was born in 69 B.C. According to lore and the HBO series "Rome," she and her brother Ptolemy XIII inherited the throne in a job-sharing arrangement neither found satisfactory. First, he drove her from Egypt and into the arms of Julius Caesar in Rome. After Caesar was assassinated, she returned to Egypt and later had her brother killed so she would have the throne all to herself.
While in Rome, Antony had fallen for the Egyptian queen, and he followed her home and married her even though he already had a wife in Rome. Antony was part of the triumvirate that succeeded Caesar, and that arrangement didn't work any better than Cleopatra's throne-sharing with her brother. Antony and Caesar Augustus, another member of the triumvirate, went to war for control of the Roman Empire. Augustus won.
Cleopatra spread a rumor that she had committed suicide, hoping to throw off Augustus, who was out for blood. One person who bought the ruse was Antony. He fell on his sword. When she learned about Antony's suicide, Cleopatra, who had always been a seductress, induced a poisonous snake to bite her chest.
"If we have an intact tomb, then we can confirm the literary accounts, which are highly suspicious," said Manning.
In a story published in the Independent, a British newspaper, archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, who has been working at the site for three years, said the presumed burial site is deep underneath limestone, connected by a series of complex tunnels. Martinez called it "the most sacred temple of its time" and speculated that the lovers were "buried in a temple rather than a public tomb to protect them from the Romans." But in the same article, Egyptologist John Baines of Oxford University questioned why Augustus, who defeated Antony, would have chosen such a distinguished burial place.
"I don't see a particular connection between that site and Antony and Cleopatra," Baines said. Others question whether Augustus would have allowed them the dignity of any kind of burial.
"It's an old urban legend that Augustus had threatened to scatter their bones to the wind, so that nobody could make a mausoleum," said Bill Macdonald, creator of "Rome." Macdonald, who wrote the episode about Antony and Cleopatra, said it is plausible that aides to Cleopatra secreted the bodies away before Augustus could have them burned and scattered, which is how they ended up hidden in the temple.
"It was pretty chaotic there at the end," said Macdonald. "Anything is possible in the ancient world. These were devious people."