Irene Soto Marín, ISAW Alumna, featured in Hyperallergic Article about Recent Excavation in Egypt

Irene Soto Marín, an Assistant Professor of Classics at Harvard University and a 2018 alumna of ISAW, provides valuable insights into the significance of recent discoveries in the search for Cleopatra’s tomb. As an expert in Ancient Egyptian coinage, Irene highlights the importance of the coins that were found at the site.

An article in Hyperallergic discusses how archaeologists have made groundbreaking discoveries at the Taposiris Magna temple complex near Alexandria, Egypt. The excavation, led by Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, has uncovered 337 ancient coins, a marble statue, and numerous ceremonial vessels from the Ptolemaic Era. Irene noted that the image minted on the coins is an “official” portrait of Cleopatra.

Irene emphasizes, “They are coins that were minted in a period where Cleopatra was allowing the monetary system to recover from earlier periods where there was a lower output of coinage.”

For more details on these discoveries, you can read the full article here.