This small head of a queen is thought to have been created in
the early part of the reign of the Macedonian Greek Ptolemies
and is believed to depict Arsinoe II (278–270 B.C.), sister/wife
of Ptolemy II, one of a line of religiously and politically
important Ptolemaic queens.Arsinoe II is shown in a style that
is closely related to that of Dynasty 30, the last of the
traditional Egyptian pharaonic dynasties. Indeed, the early
Ptolemies made great efforts to show themselves as the
inheritors of the pharaohs who had preceded them. At the same
time, other motivations led to the creation of other types of
royal images. Strongly Hellenistic images (2002.66), relate
these rulers to the other Hellenistic kingdoms ruled by
Alexander's successors around the Mediterranean. Other images
depict the Ptolemaic rulers with mixed Egyptian and Hellenistic
or particularly Ptolemaic elements (20.2.21).