Youngest daughter of Ptolemy VII, adversary of her sister Cleopatra until her death, hostage of the Romans exposed during Caesar’s triumph in 46 BC. BC, Arsinoe IV led what could be called an intense life. Unfortunately for her, her life was as short as it was extraordinary: she died in her mid-twenties, executed on the orders of her sister and Mark Antony, even though she had been granted residence at the temple of Artemis. At least that’s what the historical accounts relate. This temple, also named Artemision, was considered the fourth wonder of the ancient world and was located in the ancient city of Ephesus, in what is now Türkiye.
It was located at the end of a sacred road, rue des Curètes, where there were many buildings, including a funerary building that archaeologists nicknamed the Octagon, because of its shape. It was there, in 1929, that the Austrian archaeologist Josef Keil discovered a sarcophagus filled with water. Inside, he found a skull which he decided to take with him in his suitcase – that was how it was at the time – to carry out detailed analyses, and came to the conclusion that it was of the skull of a high-born person, over 20 years old. Cleopatra’s sister, for example?
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During the following decades, the research of Keil but also of his colleagues made it possible to learn a little more about the skull and the remains of the skeleton, discovered in a neighboring burial chamber in 1982. The hypotheses multiplied during the 1990s and , quickly, the idea of a major historical personality like Arsinoe IV took hold, fueled by the geographical and historical context of the discovery.
Yes but…
Since 2022, a multidisciplinary team from the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna has been studying the skull and skeletal remains using modern technologies, and new answers have been provided, invalidating the “Arsinoe” hypothesis. Geneticists, orthodontists, archaeologists and dating specialists used the X-ray microtomography method to recreate a 3D model of the skull slice by slice, in high resolution. Small samples were also taken to research the age as well as the genetic profile of the mystery guest.
The data collected showed that these remains dated from 36 to 205 BC – which may correspond to the period when Arsinoe IV lived. Furthermore, the skull and the remains found in the 1980s do indeed correspond to the same person. However, “the skull and femur clearly showed the presence of a Y chromosome”explains Gerhard Weber, Austrian paleoanthropologist and lead author of the recently published study, in a press release. In other words, he is a man.
Morphological analyzes show that this individual would have been between 11 and 14 years old at the time of his death. The boy reportedly suffered serious developmental problems, including premature fusion of a cranial suture that deformed his head. Researchers believe he may have suffered from Treacher Collins syndrome or a significant vitamin D deficiency. Who was the boy? Where is Arsinoe IV located? Was she actually buried in the ancient city of Ephesus? The quest continues.
