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Nefertiti - Queen of Akhenaten the heretic pharaoh.
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Nefertit - Queen of Akhenaten the heretic pharaohiNefertiti was the wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), and mother-in-law of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Her name roughly translates to "the beautiful one is come". She also shares her name with a type of elongated gold bead that she was often portrayed as wearing, known as "nefer" beads. She was made famous by her bust, now in Berlin's Egyptian Museum. The bust was attributed to the sculptor Djhutmose, and was found in his workshop at Amarna. |
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Nefertiti's parentage is not known, but it has been conjectured that she may have been a daughter of later Pharaoh Ay and his wife Tey.
Nefertiti and Akenaten had six known daughters. This is a list with suggested years of birth:
Meritaten - year 2 (1348 BC)
Meketaten - year 3 (1347 BC)
Ankhesenpaaten, later queen of Tutankhamun
- year 4 (1346 BC)
Neferneferuaten Tasherit - year 6 (1344 BC)
Neferneferure - year 9 (1341 BC)
Setepenre - year 11 (1339 BC)
In year 4 of his reign (1346 BC) Amenhotep IV started his famous worship of Aten and began construction of a new capital, Akhetaten, at what is known today as Amarna. In year 5 of his reign (1345 BC), Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten as evidence of his new worship. In year 7 of his reign (1343 BC) the capital was moved from Thebes to Amarna, though construction of the city seems to have continued for two more years (till 1341 BC). The new city was dedicated to the royal couple's new religion. Nefertiti's famous bust is also thought to have been created around this year.
In year 14 of Akhenaten's reign (1336 BC), Nefertiti vanishes from the historical record, and there is no word of her after that date.
Her disappearance coincides with the rise of co-ruler Smenkhkare to the throne and the mention of Akhenaten's new Queen Kiya. Both Smenkhkare and Akhenaten died in 1334 BC/1333 BC. Akhenaten died after at least 29 years of life, and seventeen years of reign. Smenkhkare had been his co-ruler for four years. Some theories identify Nefertiti with Smenkhkare.
As Nefertiti's tomb was never completed and no mummy was ever found, the location of Nefertiti's body has long been a subject of curiosity and speculation.
On June 9, 2003, archaeologist Joann Fletcher, a specialist in ancient hair, from the University of York in England, announced that Nefertiti's mummy may have been one found in the famous cache of mummies in tomb KV35 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Ms. Fletcher led an expedition, funded by the Discovery Channel, that examined what is believed to have been Nefertiti's mummy.
The mummy was damaged in a way that suggested the body had been desecrated either at the time of death or shortly after. Mummification techniques suggested an eighteenth dynasty royal mummy. Among the most suggestive features are the age of the body, the presence of embedded nefer beads, the fact that the arm had been buried in the position reserved for pharaohs and had been snapped off by vandals and replaced with another arm in a normal position, and a wig of a rare style worn by Nefertiti.
On June 12, 2003, Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, dismissed the claim, citing insufficient evidence.
Agatha
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