page_title: List of unsolved deaths
section_title: Before 1900
hierarchical_section_title: List of unsolved deaths / Unsolved deaths / Before 1900
caption_attribution_description: Tomb of a female stranger, Alexandria, Virginia
context_page_description: This list of unsolved deaths includes cases where:
  the cause of death could not be officially determined,
  the cause is known but the manner of death could not be determined, or
  different official investigations have come to different conclusions.
  Cases where there are unofficial alternative theories about deaths—the most common theory being that the death was a homicide—can be found under death conspiracy theories.
context_section_description: Zoroaster (77), also known as Zarathustra Zaraθuštra, Zarathushtra Spitama or Ashu Zarathushtra was an ancient Iranian-speaking spiritual leader who founded what is now known as Zoroastrianism who lived during 1500 BC – 1000 BC, and was said to have been able to perform miracles. There are different ideas to how he died one being stated by later Pahlavi sources like Shahnameh, claim that an obscure conflict with Tuiryas people led to his death, murdered by a karapan (a priest of the old religion) named Brādrēs, yet his exact death date and death cause remain uncertain.
  Cleopatra (39), the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, died on either 10 or 12 August 30 BC in Alexandria. According to popular belief, Cleopatra committed suicide by allowing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her. According to Greek and Roman historians, Cleopatra poisoned herself using either a toxic ointment or sharp implement such as a hairpin. Primary source accounts are derived mainly from the works of the ancient Roman historians Strabo, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio. Modern scholars debate the validity of ancient reports involving snakebites as the cause of death and whether she was murdered. Some academics hypothesize that her Roman political rival Octavian forced her to commit suicide in the manner of her choosing. The location of Cleopatra's tomb is unknown.
  The Younger Lady, who had lived during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt is the informal name given to a mummy whose death cause is unknown who was discovered in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV35 by archaeologist Victor Loret in 1898. Through recent DNA tests, this mummy has been identified as the mother of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, and a daughter of pharaoh Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. Early speculation was that this mummy was the remains of Queen Nefertiti, which was proven to be incorrect.
  Alexander the Great (32), died in 323 BC after a short illness. Exactly what the illness was is a subject of debate; however, it is known that he was a heavy drinker throughout his life.
  Orgetorix, 58 BC, who was a wealthy aristocrat among the Helvetii, a Celtic-speaking people residing in what is now Switzerland during the consulship of Julius Caesar of the Roman Republic was trying to seize Gaul, and for this was put on trial. After this his death cause is disputed.
  Apollonius of Tyana (100), 100 AD, a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Anatolia. It was said that he was able to disappear and immediately reappear in another place. The circumstances of his death remain a mystery.
  King William II of England (43–44), 1100, was killed by an arrow while hunting; it may not have been an accident.
  Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi (17–20), 1450–1700, also known as "The Canadian Iceman" is a naturally mummified body found by a group of hunters in 1999 in the Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in British Columbia, Canada. His death cause is unknown.
  Margaret Hanmer (49–50), 1420, was the wife of Owain Glyndŵr; her death was never recorded and her body was never found.
  Agnès Sorel (28), was a french woman who had committed adultery with King Charles VII of France having four daughters with him. Sorel died on 9 February 1450 from causes that are disputed.
  Regiomontanus (40), whose real name was "Johannes Müller von Königsberg"  was a astrologer, mathematician, and astronomer of the German Renaissance that was active in countries in Europe. He was thought to have died from the plague on 6 July 1476, but this unknown for sure.
  Princes in the Tower used to refer to Edward V, King of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York who disappeared in the summer of 1483. In 1674, workmen at the Tower dug up a wooden box containing two small human skeletons. The bones were found in a box under the staircase in the Tower of London. The bones were widely accepted at the time as those of the princes, but this has not been proven and is far from certain. King Charles II had the bones buried in Westminster Abbey, where they remain.
  Arthur, Prince of Wales (15), who was the eldest son of El
caption: Headstone of the Female Stranger
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