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MSNBC Cleopatra may not have been ancient Egypt's only female pharaoh Queen Arsinoe II, a woman who competed in and won Olympic events, came first, some 200 years earlier, according to a new study into a unique Egyptian crown. 
After analyzing details and symbols of the crown worn by Arsinoë and reinterpreting Egyptian reliefs, Swedish researchers are questioning Egypt's traditional male-dominated royal line. They suggest that Queen Arsinoë II (316-270 B.C.) was the first female pharaoh belonging to Ptolemy's family - the dynasty that ruled Egypt for some 300 years until the Roman conquest of 30 B.C. While researchers largely agree on Arsinoë's prominence - she was deified during her lifetime and honored for 200 years after her death - the new study suggests she was in fact an Egyptian pharaoh with a role similar to the more famous Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII. One of the great women of the ancient world, Arsinoë was the daughter of Ptolemy I (366 283 B.C.), a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great who later became ruler of Egypt and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty to which Cleopatra belonged. With a life marked by dynastic murders, intrigue, sex and greed, Arsinoë may have been the most outstanding of Cleopatra's female predecessors. "She was no ordinary woman. She fought in battles, and even participated in the Olympics, where she won three events for harnessed horses," Maria Nilsson, from the University of Gothenburg, told Discovery News. Married at the age of 16 to Lysimachus of Thrace, a 60-year-old general of Ptolemy I, Arsinoë earned great wealth and honors during her time in Greece. When, 18 years later, Lysimachus died, she married her half-brother, Ptolemy Keraunus. The marriage then ended abruptly after Keraunus killed two of Arsinoë's three sons. Arsinoë then returned to Egypt and married her brother King Ptolemy II, her junior by eight years. A crown, which has never been found, but is depicted on statues and carved stone reliefs, was created especially for her. Nilsson analyzed 158 Egyptian relief scenes dating from Arsinoë's lifetime to Emperor Trajan, spanning about 400 years, studying every detail of the crown, including hieroglyphic titles and relief scenes. She found that the crown differed from the usual Egyptian royal headdress such as the khepresh (or blue crown), the white crown, the red crown, the double crown, the double feather plume and atef (or ostrich feather) crown.
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