Skull Linked to Cleopatra’s Half-Sister Is Not What It Seems

For decades, scholars have believed that a skeleton discovered by archaeologists in the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesos in 1929 belonged to Cleopatra’s half-sister, Arsinoe IV. However, recent analysis reveals the remains actually belonged to a young boy, overturning the long-held speculation.

Researchers in Austria have identified the individual unearthed almost a century ago as an adolescent boy who suffered from developmental issues. The analysis, detailed in a January 10 study in the journal Scientific Reports, finally puts to rest speculation that the skeleton may have belonged to Arsinoe IV.

Cleopatra VII, the final active ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemaic Kingdom, was celebrated for her political skill and strategic alliances that influenced the ancient Mediterranean world. Her younger half-sister and rival for the throne, Arsinoe IV, was ultimately executed on Cleopatra’s orders as part of her effort to consolidate power.

In 1929, a team, including Austrian archaeologist Josef Keil, uncovered a sarcophagus in the remains of the “Octagon,” an impressive burial chamber with possible Egyptian-inspired architectural elements built on the main street of the ancient Greek city of Ephesos, in modern-day Turkey. The archaeologists found a complete skeleton, and Keil took its skull.

Keil suggested that the burial had belonged to an important individual, likely a young woman. Over two decades later, Josef Weninger, head of the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Vienna, agreed with this assessment. Then, in 1982, archaeologists conducting excavations uncovered parts of the remaining skeleton in different areas of the burial chamber.

In the following decade, the Octagon’s suspected Egyptian influence, it’s prominent position within the ancient city, and the fact that Arsinoe was allegedly assassinated in Ephesos around 41 BCE for rebelling against Cleopatra, led to speculation that the skeleton belonged to the pharaoh’s ill-fated sister.

We now know that it did not. The recent interdisciplinary team, led by Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna, digitalized the cranium using micro-computer tomography (a 3D imaging technique that uses X-rays) before conducting anthropological analyses that led them to conclude that the individual had been a boy between the ages of 11 and 14, potentially hailing from the Italian peninsula or the island of Sardinia.

He clearly suffered from developmental disorders, including a deformed cranium and an underdeveloped upper jaw. These conditions would have caused serious chewing problems, which researchers deduced from the unusual wear on his two surviving teeth. The researchers are still unsure what could have caused the growth disorders.

Interestingly, however, the remains were dated to between 205 and 36 BCE, which does overlap with Arsinoe’s presumed lifetime. Genetic tests also confirmed that the cranium matched with the rest of the skeleton discovered in the burial chamber in the 1980s, from which the team had samples.

“In repeated tests, the skull and femur both clearly showed the presence of a Y chromosome—in other words, a male,” Weber said in a University of Vienna statement. The researchers speculate that the boy may have been a Roman living in Ephesos.

While scientists are still not sure who, exactly, this boy was, they know it certainly wasn’t Cleopatra’s rebellious sister—which means that the search for the real Arsinoe IV is still on.