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Searching for Nefertiti
DISCOVERY CHANNEL recently released the digital facial reconstruction image of the mummy believed to be that of Nefertiti,the Egyptian ruler of the controversial Amarna period, wife and co-regent of the so called heretic pharoah Akhenaten of the late XVIIth dynasty, who ruled Egypt some 3,000 years ago.
Nefertiti and several of her six daughters achieved unusually high status during the reign of her husband and co-ruler, Akhenaten, during the 14th Century B.C. They were depicted prominently on royal buildings, and shown taking the leading role in religious ceremonies, including ritual executions - a duty once performed only by the pharaoh. Nefertiti may well have strongly influenced Akhenaten's support of the Aten religion and persecution of the traditional priesthood. And like her husband, Nefertiti's name was erased from the historical record and her likeness defaced after her death.
Discovery channel will present a two-hour special chronicling the expedition of Egyptologist Dr. Joann Fletcher, including the discovery of the mummy, and telling the compelling story of one of the greatest figures in Egyptian history besides the identification of the long-lost mummy of Nefertiti.
The channel funded Fletcher's expedition, which blended archaeology and state-of-the-art digital technology to locate and identify Nefertiti. The expedition will be featured for the first time in "Nefertiti Revealed" on Discovery Channel, September 7 at 19.00. The channel in association with a London based production company, Atlantic Productions, assembled a team of experts to create the facial reconstruction of the mummy. The team included Dr. Damian Schofield from the University of Nottingham, Dr. Martin Evison, from Sheffield University and a facial animator specialist from Aims Solution Ltd.
The first stage of the expedition took place in June 2002, when Dr. Fletcher, first visited the secret side chamber in tomb KV35 in Luxor's valley of the Kings, the ancient royal burial ground. An expert in mummification, specialising in the study of ancient Egyptian hair, Fletcher was drawn to the tomb by her identification of a forgotten Nubian style wig favoured by royal women in the XVIIth dynasty during the reign of Akhenaten. Dr. Fletcher's expedition is filmed as she examined the mummies, one of which bore a striking resemblance and swan-like neck comparable to the famed beauty Nefertiti, despite disfiguring post-mortem blows to her face.
During this expedition, Dr. Stephen Buckley conducted a visual inspection of the embalming methods and materials used on the three unnamed mummies, which placed them in Egypt's late ZVIIth dynasty - again the time of Nefertiti and the notorious Amarna period. Anthropologist Dr. Samia El-Merghani from the Egyptain museum in Cairo later confirmed these finding. Dr. Fletcher found other physical links to the late queen, including the clear impression of the tight-fitting brow-band she once wore, a double-pierced ear lobe, shaved head and physical damage echoing the attacks on her statues and other representations.
In February 2003, a team of scientists returned to KV35 and further studied the methods used to embalm the mummies, examined the mummies and discovered that the right arm is removed in one out of the three mummies, which is positioned in pharaonic style with its fingers still clutching a long-vanished royal sceptre. These experts also used cutting edge canon digital X-rays to examine the mummies on the spot. The evidence, including jewellery within the smashed-in chest cavity, appeared to confirm Dr. Fletcher's original assessment of the identity of one of the two adult female mummies. Known for little more than her profile, Nefertiti has been shrouded in mystery for more than 3,000 years.
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