The Secret History of Egyptian Ancient Beauty Queen & Modernism
Nefertiti has continued to capture our collective imagination throughout the ages. Yet no trace has been found of the legendary "beautiful one" who ruled across Egypt at her husband's side... until, possibly, now.
Nicholas
Reeves, a British archaeologist at the University of Arizona believes
he has found her resting place hidden in plain sight -- in the tomb of
Tutankhamun.
The bold new theory comes after extensive analysis of high resolution images published online last year by Factum Arte, a Madrid-based art restoration specialist who helped create a facsimile of King Tut's burial chamber in Luxor. In the scans, Reeves spotted cracks in the walls that could indicate two previously unrecognized "ghost" doorways lay behind.
Despite
relentless looters, the boy king's final resting place continues to be
one of Egypt's most prolific discoveries. Uncovered by Howard Carter in
1922, it remains the most intact tomb ever unearthed. And has been a
treasure trove for archaeologists, where close to 2,000 objects were
recovered.
In his paper on the possible find, Reeves theorizes that the size of Tutankhamun's tomb is "less than appropriate" for the final resting place of an Egyptian king. Instead he seems to solve the conundrum that has baffled archaeologists for years by explaining that its inadequate size and unusual layout is because it is an extension of an earlier tomb originally designed for a queen.
The academic also surmises that recycled equipment found in the burial chamber predates Tutankhamun's accession. He concludes the site was most likely intended for an Egyptian queen of the late Eighteenth Dynasty -- of which Reeves points out Nefertiti is the only woman to achieve such honors -- and repurposed upon Tutankhamun's
"At the time of Nefertiti's burial...
there had surely been no intention that Tutankhamun would in due course
occupy this same tomb. That thought would not occur until the king's
early and unexpected death a decade later," writes Reeves.
While the tomb of the ancient queen has long been thought to be lost, Reeves' theory has got Egyptologists buzzing.
"It's certainly tantalizing what Nicholas Reeves has suggested," says Toby Wilkinson, an Egyptologist at Cambridge University.
"If
we look at what we know: we're pretty certain there is an undiscovered
royal tomb of roughly the same period somewhere, because we have more
kings than we have tombs, so logic suggests that there's still a tomb to
be found."
In search of a lost queen
This isn't the first time a new lead has emerged in the hunt for Nefertiti.
In 2003, Joann Fletcher from
the University of York made waves when she announced that her team had
identified an anonymous mummy known as the "Younger Lady" uncovered in a
secret chamber inside a tomb in the Valley of the Kings as belonging to
the ancient queen.
She cited evidence of the presence of a Nubian wig favored during the
Amarna Period (when Nefertiti is thought to have lived), alongside
embalming analysis and examination of debris.
The theory -- which aired in a documentary on the Discovery Channel --
was soon disputed by Zahi Hawass, then secretary-general of the Egyptian
Supreme Council of Antiquities, who concluded the mummy was actually
that of a 15-year-old male.
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