Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 2,000-year-old granite statue of a Ptolemaic-era king near what is believed to be the tomb of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra.
A statement from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities says the headless statue was discovered at the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of the coastal city of Alexandria.
The ancient Egyptian temple is believed to be the burial site of Cleopatra and her lover, Mark Antony.
The head of the Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, says the statue could belong to King Ptolemy IV. Hawass says it represents the traditional shape of an ancient Egyptian king wearing a collar and kilt.
The archeology team, led by Hawass and Dominican archeologist Kathleen Martinez, has spent the last five years trying to locate Cleopatra and Mark Antony's final resting place. The Egyptian queen and her lover supposedly committed suicide after their defeat at the battle of Actium.
The archeologists say they also have discovered the original entrance to the temple of Taposiris Magna on its western side. They say there is evidence the entrance to the temple was lined with a series of sphinx statues similar to those of the pharaonic era.
via Archaeologists in Egypt Find Ptolemaic King Statue.
How do they know it is not a fake? Could modern artists make things like this and create false antiquities?
3 comments:
I'm sure the archeologists used several of the dating techniques available to them before issuing a press release (if, for no other reason, their professional reputations are at stake). It's not like they're guessing.
How do you date stone? See this example of a past Egyptian statue forgery.
No, they may not date the stone itself, although I think there are methods of doing that. They usually date it by checking out the strata and/or the conditions within which the object lies - such as carbon deposits. For sure they check out if the site has been disturbed in the past. The way the object is made is also important, because it must relate to other objects made at what is presumed to be the same time. There's a lot of techniques used that cross-check their dating of the object.
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