Cleopatra and queens exhibition opens in town

"Previously unseen" exhibits from ancient Egypt are on display in a new exhibition in Barnsley.

Renowned Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher, who was born in the town, has designed and curated the exhibition, which is running at the Town Hall's Experience Barnsley museum.

Fletcher said capturing 5,000 years of history had been a challenge: "From the world's first named woman who was a queen of Egypt, to the mighty Cleopatra herself and that's 3,000 years, that's a mighty chunk, and then we've got the other 2,000 years of us looking back at Cleopatra and all the great women that inspired her."

Barnsley Council said the exhibition would run for the next 12 months.

A section of the display features memorabilia from the 1963 film about Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor.

A local authority spokesperson said despite Egypt being about 2,000 miles away, there were local links to the ancient civilisation - including coins minted by Cleopatra and Mark Antony found in Darfield, after being buried for safety almost 1,700 years ago.

Fletcher said the exhibition was: "A long continuum of powerful strong women, queens and female Pharaohs and the goddesses that inspired them."

She added: "Not only were these women so powerful, they were queens, some of them, up to 15 of them were female pharaohs. They did what their male counterparts did, but of course they had that special extra superpower, almost all of them were mothers."

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