Queen Nefertiti: Her name means “the beautiful [or youthful] woman has come.” In ancient times, when the scene was complete, Nefertiti would have been seen with her husband, the pharaoh Akhenaten. King Akhenaten and Nefertiti are best known for leading a religious transformation. They tried to change Egyptian religious practice from the worship of multiple gods to the worship of one deity only—Aten, the disc of the sun. They moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to Amarna and dedicated it to Aten to show their devotion. At some time during her husband’s reign, Nefertiti was made core gent, the pharaoh’s equal. Proof of this is seen on other reliefs that show her the same size as the pharaoh.
Nefertiti was the wife of the pharaoh Akhenaton. Akhenaton was an Egyptian pharaoh who reigned Egypt from 1353 to 1336 BC. Nefertiti supported her husband's revolution in the Egyptian religion. Which was the religion that celebrated the power of the sun disk Aten and the sun god Aton.
Nefertiti is best known for her portrait bust, found at Tell el- Amarna. Which was the main province in the country. Nefertiti had six daughters. Two of them had later became queens of Egypt. At around the 12th year of Akhenaton's reign Nefertiti probably retired after losing favor from Akhenaton, if not she must have died. Some of Nefertiti's things were found in a place in Amarna.
Nefertiti is standing with her arms raised offering a bouquet of lotus flowers to a god whose multiple arms and hands reach out to accept the gift. Who do you think the god could be? What might the many hands symbolize?
Nefertiti jumps out at us from history thanks to this sculpture, which was found in the abandoned Amarna workshop of the sculptor Tuthmosis by German archaeologists in 1912. She stood out in her time for her power as well as her beauty. Ancient carvings show images of Nefetiti killing traditional Egyptian enemies. Usually, only pharaohs were shown in this powerful and aggressive pose. Nefertiti was Akhenaten’s most important wife, and the mother of six daughters. Historians aren’t sure if she or another of Akhenaten’s wives was the mother of King Tut. This statue is now in Germany inside one of the most famous museum in the world.
King Akhenaten, his beautiful wife Nefertiti, and his probable son Tutankhamun were all part of this dynasty (dynasty 18). During this time one of the most dramatic changes in Egypt took place: Akhenaten built a new city as a capital, Amarna, for a god named the Aten, and outlawed all other gods. The Amarna period, sometimes called “The Amarna Experiment,” resulted in some of the bestknown art, tombs, writing and records of ancient Egypt. That is why, even though the period was only around 30 years long, it is one of the most famous in Egyptian history.
In fact Akhenaten focused in his religion ideas and didn't care of the foreign affairs like traded or the power of Egypt in Asia.
Questions and Facts about Nefertiti:
Did Mutnodjmet really exist?
Yes, Mutnodjmet really existed, as did Nefertiti, Queen Tiye, Akhenaten, Vizier Ay, Lady Kiya, General Horemheb, General Nakhtmin... Suffice it to say that almost every character in the book was based on an historical personage.
While the main historical events are accurate, such as Ay’s rise to power, Akhenaten’s obsession with Aten, the dream of Amarna, and Nefertiti’s unparalleled influence at court, liberties were taken with personalities, names and minor historical events. For instance, no one can be certain how Mutnodjmet felt about her sister’s vision of an Egypt without the Amun Priests, but in an image of her found in Amarna she is standing off to one side, her arms down while everyone else is enthusiastically embracing Aten. In a period where art attempted to portray reality for the first time, I found this significant. And while Nefertiti did have six daughters with Akhenaten, she never, so far as we know, produced twins the way she did in the novel. Historical uncertainties revolve as well around the questions of whether Amunhotep the Younger ever had a co-regency with his father, or whether Nefertiti ever did rule on her own. These are questions that can only be answered by conjecture, and I went with what seemed most plausible given the historical evidence.
Today, some of these questions could be answered by a firm identification of the Amarna mummies. Although much of Kiya’s funerary equipment was found in her son Tutankhamun’s tomb, little to nothing remains that was Akhenaten’s or Nefertiti’s. How old was Nefertiti when she died? What killed Tiye? Dr. Joann Fletcher contends that a cache of mummies found in tomb KV55 are the bodies of Nefertiti and the Dowager Queen. If so, they were stunning beauties even in death.
Some historians mentioned that Nefertiti had been captivedand and prison in a Northern Palace in the end of Akhenaten' reign, Is that true?
No. This belief was predicated upon an inscription on the Northern Palace which archaeologists believed read “Nefertiti.” The name had been removed from the palace while Nefertiti was still alive and replaced with the name of Princess Meritaten. If Princess Meritaten had truly removed her mother’s name from the palace, it would indeed seem to indicate a daughter taking the place of her mother. However, the inscription was later discovered to actually read “Kiya.” After Kiya’s death Nefertiti and her daughter set out to erase the existence of Nefertiti’s only real rival. Unfortunately, many internet sites haven’t bothered to update their information, so the erroneous theory of Nefertiti having been banished persists.
Is it true that Akhenaten had Marfan’s syndrome?
There is absolutely no anthropological or DNA evidence to suggest this was the case. Those who believe that Akhenaten had Marfan Syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by unusually long limbs and curvature of the spine, do so simply because some of his statues show a man with long arms and an elongated head. It is essential to remember, however, that Akhenaten purposefully changed the artistic style which all of his predecessors had used, creating a new style known today as Amarna Art. For as many images as there are of Akhenaten with a long, leonine face and feminine hips, there are just as many images from when he was a child displaying none of these startling features. During the Amarna period, all of Akhenaten’s family begins to appear with long arms, elongated heads and large hips, even Nefertiti. It is highly unlikely that the entire royal family had this connective tissue disorder, particularly in light of Nefertiti’s bust which resides in Berlin and shows none of the characteristics that those with Marfan Syndrome typically display.
Nefertiti ever ruled as Pharaoh, Is that true?
This depends on which Egyptologist you ask and what camp they fall into. Amunhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, and when Nefertiti became co-regent with her husband she changed her name to Ankhkheperura-Neferneferuaten. It is not beyond the limits of plausibility, then, to imagine that Nefertiti later became Pharaoh Ankhkheperura-Smenkhkara, who ruled briefly after Akhenaten’s death. A beautiful gold figurine in Tutankhamun’s tomb depicts a female Pharaoh (not a queen) walking atop an ebony leopard. Egyptologists have dated the figure back to Akhenaten’s reign, which means there is only one possibility of who this feminine ruler of Egypt could be: Nefertiti. There is also evidence of foreign correspondence during Pharaoh Ankhkheperura-Smenkhkara’s time that points to Egypt’s Pharaoh being Nefertiti. If you want more information about this, I suggest checking out the work of Dr. Joann Fletcher, who wrote The Search for Nefertiti: The True Story of an Amazing Discovery and whose work was featured on the Discovery Channel. Dr. Fletcher stirred up quite the controversy with this book and her announcement that she discovered the body of Nefertiti.
Dating as far back as 1500 BCE, palaces were more comfortable than you or I might imagine given that it was 3,500 years ago. The wealthy shaved with copper razors and bathrooms were discovered in Amarna equipped with toilet seats that matched the limestone sink bowls. Royal women regularly applied face cream, eye shadow and lipstick. Women had elaborate containers for their makeup, and very wealthy women carried handheld mirrors made of polished brass the way women carry purses today.
If Nefertiti ruled on her own, then who would have been her queen?
Just as Hatshepsut made herself Pharaoh and her daughter queen, Nefertiti would have named her eldest daughter Meritaten as her consort. Surprising though this may seem, rulers of Egypt searched for balance, the feminine with the masculine, and in religious ceremonies it was necessary to have a female part which Pharaoh, as a “man,” couldn’t play.
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