June-August 2013

RECONNECT Volume 1, Issue 2

www.ancientegyptamania.com CONTENTS - One hundred years

by Ijhoma As the world celebrates the

centenary year of ’s discovery of the bust

of the ancient Egyptian Queen • NEFERTITI- One hundred years th by Ijhoma. Page 1 - 4 Nefertiti , 18 Dynasty ( found during excavations on the site of • Queen Nefertiti-Curriculum Vitae the Royal Sculptor Thutmoses Page 1. workshop in Tell- during 1912.) “Reconnect” takes a look • A review of the “In the Light of back at the history associated with Amarna” Exhibition in the Neues this feminist icon who to date has Museum, become the most famous female by Lindsay Hartley Page 5-6 image to have emerged from within the ancient world. • Nefertiti: ’s Beloved For example why was the German By Brijit Reed archaeological team allowed to Page 7 take the Bust of Nefertiti out of

• Bibliography Page 8 Egypt? What was Adolf Hitler’s involvement? Is the bust of Nefertiti real or is it a fake, which “Nefertiti, Mistress of Happiness, endowed with favors at was created in the image of the hearing whose voice the King rejoices, the Chief Wife of the archaeologist Ludwig Borchadt’s King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands - wife “Mimi”? Nefertiti, May she live forever and always” Continued“Nefertiti” by Page Alice 2 X Zhang

“Nefertiti” by alicxz using watercolours and digital post-processing http://alicexz.deviantart.com/art/Nefertiti - Curriculum Vitae 328111296 Queen Nefertiti The ’s Apartments The Northern Palace El-Amarna Date of Birth: c.1370BC Country of Origin;

PERSONAL DETAILS Throne name: Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti th Period: 18 Dynasty Title: The Great Royal Wife Religion:

Parents: Unknown Husband: Pharaoh Children: (6 daughters) ; ; Ankhesenpaaten; Neferneferure; Mother In-Law: The Royal Consort Queen Father In-Law: Amenhotep 111 Stepson:

CAREER OBJECTIVES Courtesy of To continue to support the Royal family, the City of PERSONAL STATEMENT www.hieroglyphsmatter.com Akhetaten and to promote the Cult of the , the Experienced in temple rites,, administrative and Living One”. To be a loving mother, a loyal and family duties, organizing and hosting events and successful Consort to my husband and to be a setting up and attending meetings. Excellent victorious ancient World Ambassador on behalf of problem solving and communication skills. the citizens of Amarna. Accustomed to working long hours.

June – August 2013 www.ancientegyptamania.com RECONNECT. 2

NEFERTITI- One hundred years

Continued:by Ijhoma A eulogy written on the Egyptian history records. Pharaoh akhenaten At around 14 years of age walls within the Temple of Although her husband Nefertiti (The beautiful one Karnak proclaimed Queen Pharaoh Akhenaten made a has come) became the Chief Nefertiti as written declaration upon Royal wife of Amenhotep “The Heiress, Great of one of the Amarna boundary stelae, declaring 1V who was later to become favors, Possessed of charm, known as the heretic Pharaoh exuding happiness, Mistress that “a tomb would be Akhenaten. Then, after of Sweetness beloved one prepared for the Great several years of marriage she soothing the Kings heart in Kings wife Nefertiti in the followed her husband from his house, soft spoken in all, Eastern hills of Amarna”. the Royal palaces in the Mistress of Upper and To date the mummy of Queen Nefertiti has never n ancient Egyptian capital of Lower Egypt, Great King’s Thebes (modern day Luxor) wife, whom he loves, Lady of been found. to take up residence in their the Two Lands, . Ironically, although very newly built city of Nefernefruaten-Nefertiti, little is known about Queen Akhetaten, (The Horizon of May she live forever and Nefertiti when she was the Aten) in Amarna. always”. alive. Since her death she The new city, which was In a further acts of has become one of the most located on the east bank of admiration for his wife, written and talked about the River Nile, was a virgin Akhenaten was said to have ancient female celebrities site that was dedicated to the commissioned his royal on our planet. cult of the Aten, a religion craftsmen to carve the image Continued on Page 3 whose monotheistic god the of Nefertiti with her arms sun disc/rays was believed to opened out on each of the speak directly through the four corners of his red royal couple, who in turn granite sarcophagus, acted as intermediaries thereby, ensuring that his “ The beautiful one between the Aten and their divine wife would provide who has come” loyal subjects. protection for him and his During their marriage remains when he was Nefertiti gave her husband travelling to the afterlife. six daughters, Meritaten, This action was in place of Meketaten, Neferneferuaten, the normal royal funerary Neferneferure, Setepenre and tradition, which would have Akhhesenpaaten who later provided Akhenaton’s went on to marry her step- sarcophagus with the carved son, the young Pharaoh images of the four female Tutankhamun . deities, Isis, Nepthy’s, Continued page 3 Over the years some of the Selket and . artwork that has been There is no doubt that these discovered in Amarna has examples of Nefertiti’s revealed scenes of Nefertiti grandeur, and suggested and her husband Akhenaten divinity reflected the high Images of stamps courtesy of standing side by side level of love and adoration http://golowesstamps.com reenacting high profile that her husband held for her temple rituals. There are also during their life together. images of Nefertiti depicted However, sadly, to date, performing temple rites on nothing is know about her own, as well as scenes of Queen Nefertiti after year her smiting a foreign enemy 16, and just like her husband before their god, the Aten. most of the evidence about Images, which suggest to her that has been be found historians that Queen upon artifacts and Nefertiti was given monumental buildings has unprecedented powers by revealed that attempts were Pharaoh Akhenaten. made to erase her name and image from the ancient es Commission that are available for inspection (and are reproduced on the inside back cover of each issue of our free newsletter, Horizon and on our web site www.amarnatrust.com) June- August 2013 www.ancientegyptamania.com RECONNECT. 3

NEFERTITI - One hundred years

continued

With funding secured by several hours of bartering the James Simon, a German artifacts were shared out and entrepreneur, philanthropist everyone was happy and went and patron of the arts, their separate ways. Ludwig Borchadt and a On their return to Germany the team of fellow bust of Nefertiti was said to have archaeologists from the been handed over to the German Orient Association archeologist’s team’s financier James Simon who exhibited the travelled to Amarna in the modern Egyptian province of bust of Nefertiti in his residence Minya to excavate the until October 1913 when he then abandoned city of Akhetaten “Ludwig Borchadt and team of handed it over along with the the home of Pharaoh archaeologists from the German Orient other finds from Amarna to the Akhenaten, and Queen Association” Berlin Museum on permanent Nefertiti. loan. Apparently, several days th before the museum’s exhibition On the 6 December 1912 ______during their excavation of there was a change of heart and the bust of Queen Nefertiti was the studio of the Royal removed. Sculptor Thutmoses, Excerpts from Borchadt personal In his book “Le Buste de Borchadt and his team diary suggest that he might have Nefertiti – une Imposture de discovered a cache of realised the significance of this particular artifact immediately l'Egyptologie? (The Bust of unfinished sculptured pieces, Nefertiti – a Fraud in because of the shape of the crown, which had been buried for ?” Henri Stierlin a thousands of years and which he had always associated with Queen Nefertiti. In his journal Swiss historian has suggested protected by the hot dry that the bust of Queen Nefertiti he wrote “Suddenly we had in our sands. was a fake, which Borchadt hands the most alive artwork, you Amongst the pieces of created to test ancient Egyptian cannot describe it with words, you that the German paint pigment. He also went on team was said to have must see it”. What happened next to say that when the bust, which discovered was the famous is surrounded by mystery and was displayed in Borchadt’s bust of Queen Nefertiti that intrigue and is still the question that residence was admired by a is now housed in the Nues is being asked in academic circles Prussian Prince, Johan Georg, Museum in Berlin. to this very day. “Did Borchadt and Borchadt did not want to cause The bust, which contained his team illegally remove the bust his A list guest any no markings, royal cartouche of Nefertiti out of Egypt or did the embarrassment so he pretended or hieroglyphic symbols was Germans obtain it fair and square? to the Prince that the bust was in described as being 50cm in During the period that Borchadt fact a genuine ancient Egyptian height and made of a and his team where excavating in artifact. limestone core that was Amarna, in accordance with the Radiological tests carried out by coated with gysum plaster. rules laid down by the Egyptian the Berlin Charite Hospital suggest that the bust is c.3000 The right eye of Nefertiti government, all finds where years old, and they also revealed was made of crystal and had divided up between the Egyptian a hidden carved face in the been attached using black Antiquities Department and the archaeological teams 50-50. On statue’s core. Henri Sterlin coloured wax. However, the argued that although the left eye had not been this occasion the German team were said to have showed the pigments could be carbon dated completed. Miraculously, it would be harder to determine except for minor damage to designated member of the Department of Egyptian the age of the Queen Nefertiti her right ear and headdress, bust because it was made of Antiquities, Gustave Lefebvre all the bust of Nefertiti was stone and had been covered in the pieces they had discovered declared a masterpiece. plaster. from their dig and after Continued on Page 4

June – August 2013 www.ancientegyptamania.com RECONNECT. 4

NEFERTITI- One hundred years Continued

Adding fuel to the fire, in his There is no doubt that the image of the book “Missing Link in bust known as the Amarna Queen Archaeology” the German Nefertiti has become the most famous author and historian Edrogan ancient female image in the world. We Ercivan suggested that not also have to acknowledge that whether only was the bust of Nefertiti a or not it is an original or a fake, the fake, it was also made in the existence of Borchadt’s Nefertiti bust image of Borchadt’s wife has helped to promote the City of Mimi. Who apparently was the Amarna, their god the Aten, Nefertiti model. and her family and her husband, the heretic Akhenaten. In fact the Nues Museum in Berlin has stated that the Queen Nefertit bust attracts over 500,000 visitors to their museum every year. Adolf Hitler No one can deny that the bust is unique www.conservapedia.com in style and unlike any piece that has been discovered in Amarna or anywhere suggested that bust of Queen else in ancient Egypt to date. However Nefertiti could come back to the question we need to ask ourselves is Egypt in return for political “Did Borchadt discover a limestone bust alliances. Unfortunately for the of Nefertiti at the studio site of Egyptians, Adolf Hitler Thutmoses, and “Did he cover the bust stepped in and was adamant with gypsum plaster to deceive the that the bust was not going to Egyptian government and to smuggle it be returned and said that the out of the country. Furthermore, when Ludwig Borchadt’s and his wife Mimi. Nefertiti bust was “a unique (www.bucktmarkt.de) Borchadt return to Germany “Did his master piece, an ornament, a colleague paint an image on the gypsum true treasure” and that it would plastered bust to test ancient Egyptian have pride and place in a pigment and lastly “Was this image Ludwig Borchadt kept the bust museum in Germany. modeled by Borchadt’s wife, Mimi? of Queen Nefertiti on display In August 2011 the German at home in his living room for magazine, Der Spiegel 100 years later, the mystery lives the next 11 years and has contained a report that stated on………. Written by Ijhoma BA, BSC (Hons) never produced an official the following “The German academic archaeological Oriental Association have (Bibliography page 8) report about his findings discovered a 1924 document regarding the famous artifact. claiming that Ludwig In 1924 he handed over the Borchadt, the discoverer of the bust to the Berlin Museum to Nefertiti bust, used a trick to be exhibited with the other smuggle the bust to Germany” pieces that his team had and they went on to say that brought back from Amarna. “the document was written by Once the news reached the an eyewitness who claimed Egyptian Government that this that Borchadt intentionally prized possession was on disguised the bust by covering display, the Egyptian the stone core with a layer of antiquities Department gypsum. Apparently once demanded that the German Borchadt had completed the Government returned the bust, covering up the bust; it was and cries of deceit and cover wrapped in some cloth and up started to circulate placed in a box in a dimply lit In 1933, after the Nazi party room where it was kept when came into power in Germany, the Egyptian official was Hitler’s right hand man dividing up the spoils. Queen Nefertiti – The scan reveals where the original Hermann Goering (Field Apparently the eye witness limestone underneath the polished stucco showed Marshal and Commander in creases near Nefertiti's mouth, less prominent suggested that when the cheekbones and a bump in her nose. Chief of the German Air official saw the gypsum plaster Force) approached King (Photography courtesy of the Radiological Society of North bust he was unaware that it had America) www.examiner.com Fouad 1 of Egypt and a stone core.

. June-August 2013 www.ancientegyptamania.com RECONNECT.5

A review of the “In the Light of Amarna” Exhibition in the , Berlin

Celebrating 100 years since the discovery of the bust of Queen Nefertiti by Lindsay Hartley

. The head of Queen Tiye by Brijit Read is also wonderful (and still so much smaller than you

expect). She still has that magnificent disapproving turned down mouth mother- in- law- from- hell expression. There was a model of the house of , with the find spot of the bust shown – in the house rather than one of the workshops. (It did make me smile. One wonders Overview how Mrs Thutmose felt We may think we are familiar with “You cannot describe it with about that. I know, I Nefertiti from photographs. She is words. You must see it." sums up know, it was a storeroom). more beautiful in real life. this exhibition. If you can, it is One particularly nice well worth a visit for Amarna Photography rarely captures the personal little piece was obsessives and Ancient Egypt largeness and sensuality of the iris an ivory blinker from novices alike. And it is now of the eye. The translucent stone Thutmose’s horse, which running until Sun 4 August. gives it an almost liquid reality, suddenly felt very There are three to four rooms in which, combined with rare colour, immediate. You could the Neues Museum, Nefertiti’s gives us some sense of being in the suddenly imagine him new home, de dicated to the presence of the living queen. patting the hot horse, controversial of admiring his splendid ancient Egyptian history, around blinkers and setting off for 3,300 years ago, where for a brief the palace. moment in time art and religion I had a moment of delight were revolutionised and then seeing the portrait head of preserved in the abandoned city. a very chubby king which Exhibits range from stunningly beautiful sculpt ure, to tiny little I hadn’t seen before, and faience rings and everyday pots. after a quick mental rundown of candidates Sometimes you experience . beauty so sublime that you forget realised it could really to breathe, and this happens not only be Amenhotep III. just once, but over and again in Too many banquets! Well this exhibition. worth looking out for.

See a little preview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?f eature=player_embedded&v=r0E Other highlights for me were v54koyX8 seeing a transcript of the recent Highlights graffito showing Nefertiti still The bust of Nefertiti never fails to be a queen in Year 16. to astonish with sheer beauty and There was an absolutely lovely craftsmanship, so she remains the princess face from Leiden. undoubted highlight of the And of course there is the exhibition. The North Dome plaster portrait of Akhenaten Room is a perfect setting where which I find to be almost on a she sits in splendid isolation. par with the Nefertiti bust for exquisiteness and execution

June -August2013 www.ancientegyptamania.com RECONNECT.6

A review of the “In the Light of Amarna” Exhibition in the Neues

Museum, Berlin Celebrating 100 years since the discovery of the bust of Queen Nefertiti continued

There is a very entertaining One of the canopic jar heads of display downstair s near the would have been the icing on shop of the impact of the an otherwise exceedingly good Nefertiti bust. I laughed out cake for me. loud at this one! Catalogue If you cannot go, or you can go and would like the perfect reminder, there is an excellent companion book and catalogue

All photographs courtesy of Nues Museum, Berlin

Downsides There were very few. which you can purchase here I was very disappointed not http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb to be able to take _sb_ss_c_0_22?url=search- Rating alias%3Dstripbooks&field- photographs. Some wonderful Amarna keywords=in+the+light+of+amarn period pieces were not in a&sprefix=in+the+light+of+amarn a%2Caps%2C200 the exhibition, but still in Well worth NOT buying whilst the other rooms of the you are there – it is very heavy to museum, so if you are a big lug back! Amarna fan, do not miss the By Lindsay Hartley MA perfect little wooden statue Practicalities of the King in wood and gilt The tickets are for a timed slot, so on level 1 and you will of you can purchase these in advance course love all the other online here ancient Egyptian exhibits in http://www.neues-museum.de/ to save the very long queues at the this museum. I suppose I had looked ticket booth in the courtyard in forward to more pieces from front of the Neues Museum. other museums but the As you enter the museum, the majority of the pieces were signing is less than ideal. Just go those from the old Egyptian up the main stairs to the next floor and prepare to be transported by Museum in Berlin where Nefertiti lived before. the perfect beauty of the Aten that is In the Light of Amarna

June-August 2013 www.ancientegyptamania.com RECONNECT.7

Nefertiti : Pharaoh’s Beloved By Brijit Reed

It is difficult to measure how Brijit Reed is the author of Heretic: Who was Nefertiti? She was The Life And Death of Akhenaten Queen, wife, mate, and mother. much influence she had, but from scenes portrayed in And Unbound (A Screenplay). With the same devotion Isis For more information, gave to Osiris, Nefertiti Amarna art, she was both deeply loved and valued by her visit her blog at http://brijitreed.com/ supported Akhenaten. There is or find her on Twitter @BrijitReed perhaps only one thing we can mate. Building and living in

be certain of in regard to this their own city, they were even mysterious queen-- she was more than socially isolated-- beautiful. The bust discovered they were physically by German archaeologist, disconnected from all but the Ludwig Borchardt, in 1912, world they wanted to see. To was in the studio of sculptor, use a modern expression, they Thuthmose, lost to the world saw the world "through rose- for eons. It is elegant in its colored glasses. ". lines, its symmetry and vibrant Unfortunately, reality intruded color. If she were alive today, upon their fantasy world. her features would be welcome Wars, plague, political dissent, on the cover of any modern-day and other misfortune caught up fashion magazine. But for as with them. At some point, they much impact her appearance might have questioned their has on us, we still know very own values, speculating that little about who she was and they might have been wrong in what her motives were. That focusing solely on the one god, said, I propose that we imagine Aten, at the sacrifice of that the following might be everything else. Was there true: perhaps even a rift between Nefertiti followed Akhenaten them? Oftentimes afflictions for love. She was his closest and tragedies drive couples and confidante, his ally, supporter, families apart. Even if she did devotee, and equal all at once. begin to question everything, it She stood by his side and if the was too late. The damage was Amarna artwork was as done and none of their beliefs, Queen Nefertiti and her husband Pharaoh accurate as it suggests, she had ideas, feelings, policies, or Akhenaten tremendous power-- bestowed even their love was strong Courtesy of the Louvre Museum, Paris upon her by her husband, the enough to save them. But I'll Pharaoh. Let's assume that bet it was a heck of a ride while for Nefertiti at least, Akhenaten it lasted. One heck of a ride. was charismatic, that he was persuasive. He had the soul of a poet and an artist, and although they failed to garner real support from the Egyptian people, it seems that they lived within their own little bubble, their world being quite small in spite of the fact that they were responsible for a whole nation. Perhaps as she bolstered and supported Akhenaten's ideas, she developed those of her Nefertiti taking part in own, and in sharing them with divines temple rites with her her husband, they became part husband Akhenaten. of their ideology and policy. Courtesy of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

June - Augut 2013 www.ancientegyptamania.com RECONNECT.8

BIBILOGRAPHY http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7883102.stm?ad=1 http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/644/he1.htm http://www.berlin.de/en/events/2757808-2842498-in-the-light-of-amarna-100-years-of-the-.en.html http://www.reference.com/browse/nefertiti http://salempress.com/store/samples/great_lives_from_history_ancient_world/great_lives_from_history_ancient_world_n efertiti.htm http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/royaltomb.htm http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/nefertiti.htm http://www.aegyptisches -museum-berlin-verein.de/c53.php?sprache=en http://www.aegyptisches-museum-berlin-verein.de/c53.php?sprache=en http://openlibrary.org/search?language=ger&person_facet=Nefertiti+Queen+of+Egypt+%2814th+cent.+B.C%29 http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/borchardtl.htm http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1883142_1883129_1883119,00.html http://www.world-archaeology.com/news/100-years-of-nefertiti/attachment/der-deutsche-archaologe-ludwig-borchardt- sitzend-mit-besuchern-vor-der-ruinenstadt-tell-el-amarna/ http://madameguillotine.org.uk/2012/01/30/a-dread-and-terrible-queen-the-bust-of-nefertiti/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/may/07/nefertiti-bust-berlin-egypt-authenticity http://www.shangri-la.0catch.com/press/nefertiti.html http://www.history.com/topics/nefertiti http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-07/beauty-queen-nefertiti-in-spotlight-berlin-denies-tricks.html http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentPrint/9/0/346/Heritage/0/Nefertiti-How-deceit-won-a-beautiful-woman.aspx http://www.nofretete-geht-auf-reisen.de/echronol.htm

BOOKS Akhenaton King of Egypt by Cyril Aldred (Thames and Hudson, 1988) The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt by Dorothea Arnold (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996) of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamun by Rita Freed, Yvonne Markowitz and Sue D'Auria (eds) (Museum of Fine Arts, 1999) Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization by Barry Kemp (Routledge, 1989) Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt by Dominic Monserrat (Routledge, 2000) Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet by Nicholas Reeves (Thames and Hudson, 2001) Women in Ancient Egypt by G Robins (, 1993) The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People by Barry Kemp (Thames & Hudson, 2012) Le buste de Néfertiti: Une imposture de l'égyptologie? by Henri Stierlin (Infolio, Gollion, 2009) Missing Link der Archäologie. Verheimlichte Funde, gefälschte Museumsexponate und als Betrüger entlarvte Archäologen. by Erdoğan Ercivan (Kopp, Rottenburg 2009)

Web www.ancientegyptamania.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ancient.egyptamania Twitter ijhoma @egyptamania Email [email protected]

All copyrights reserved