Kathleen Martinez turns her attention to the ruins of a building unearthed by a previous team of archaeologists. It’s thought this was a temple dedicated to the God Osiris, the god of the dead, the source of the temple’s name — Taposiris Magna. But just who built it remains a mystery.
Kathleen discovered the foundation deposits at Taposiris Magna, which indicates the first direct link between the temple site and Cleopatra’s family line.
I think if Kathleen Martinez were to find the tomb of Cleopatra intact... then it would be a discovery on a par with Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen.
As she continues her search, Kathleen turns her attention to the ruins of a building unearthed by a previous team of archaeologists.
It's thought this was a temple dedicated to the God Osiris, the god of the dead, the source of the temple's name--- TapOsiris Magna.
But just who built it remains a mystery.
There's very little left of the building, but just beneath the surface, Kathleen makes a major breakthrough... She discovers a set of rare and fragile tablets.
Well this is the magical moment.... You have to be very careful.
They are made of clay and semi-precious stones, like lapis lazuli, turquoise, and glass.
These stunning artifacts are known as foundation deposits.
It's incredibly important if you can to find that foundation deposit, because that's what gives you your information about when the temple was first built.
The writing is barely legible but Kathleen can just make it out.
We can see the inscriptions are not clear, they are written in Greek and it refers to 'Basileosus, Ptolomios' which means king Ptolemy.
The text reveals the foundation deposits were laid around 2200 years ago by Ptolemy IV, Cleopatra's great-great-great-grandfather.
It's the first direct link between the temple site and Cleopatra's family line.
