The Who2 Blog

Is This Cleopatra’s Tomb… and Nose?

Archaeologists in may have found the Egyptian tomb of Cleopatra — buried, perhaps, next to her lover Marc Antony.

Which means we can once again argue about her nose:

The expedition also found 22 coins bearing Cleopatra’s image, which Dr. Hawass said showed an attractive face — debunking recent speculation on the queen’s renowned beauty. “The finds from Tabusiris reflect a charm… and indicate that Cleopatra was in no way unattractive,” Dr Hawass said in a statement.

British scholars threw cold water on the celebrity of Cleopatra’s beauty in 2007. Academics at the University of Newcastle argued that Cleopatra was a pointy-nosed, thin-lipped woman with a jutting jaw line — an assessment based on a Roman coin.

And

The coins, worn by age, show Cleopatra — whom Shakespeare portrayed as a tawny beauty who enthralled Anthony — to have been a robust woman with a large, hooked nose.

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