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Why has Nefertiti become a myth?

2023-07-31 11:46:57Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

 

Why has Nefertiti become a myth?
Nefertiti

 

Nefertiti is considered one of the most powerful women of antiquity and one of its most beautiful. Today the Queen of the Nile is in a Berlin museum and the puzzles about her continue.

Nefertiti looks proud and unapproachable, looking away. Not much is known about this woman who lived in Ancient Egypt about 3,500 years ago. Her name means: Beauty has arrived. But it is not known whether she was tall or short, whether she was tough, generous or conceited. All these data remain hidden in history. There are no eyewitness accounts of her from that period and no papyrus tells about her life. Only a few ancient artifacts and inscriptions provide details about the mysterious Nefertiti.

What is known is that at a young age, perhaps between the ages of 12 and 15, she became the wife of Pharaoh Amenophis IV. He is called the heretical pharaoh because he removed belief in many gods and allowed only the God of Light, Aten, who is presented as a radiant solar disk. He also changed his name from Amenophis to Akhenaten (one who serves Aten) and Nefertiti's name to Neferneferuaton ("Beautiful is the beauty of Aten"). She assumed the title of "Great Royal Consort and took an equal place at her husband's side," says Olivia Zorn, deputy director of Berlin's Egyptian Museum, which is part of the New Museum. They formed a triad with the god Aten, a trinity. Aton, Akhenaten and Nefertiti were almost a governing unit," she tells Deutsche Wellen.

A new city for the god Aten

About 1,350 years before Christ the ruling couple left the capital Thebes and created within a short time the city of 50 thousand inhabitants, Ahet-Aton ("Aton's Horizon") where they also placed their royal residence. It is located in a valley protected by steep cliffs, the Amarna Plateau.

For his god Akhenaten also created a temple: Gem-Pa-Aton ("Found is Aton"). But with monotheism ordered from above, the royal couple made many enemies. Thousands of clergy had nothing to do anymore. In the 17th year of his reign, Akhenaton passed away. It is not known what happened to Nefertiti, Zorn says. Maybe after his death she may have ruled for a period of time by herself bearing the name "Semenhkare", but she may have died before him.

Why has Nefertiti become a myth?
A relief - Pharaoh Ehaton and Nefertiti honor the god Aten

"Most Vital Egyptian Works"

Clarity in history begins again in the next dynasty of pharaohs, in the period when the legendary Tutankhamun came to power. He and his advisers allowed belief in the old gods again. The works erected by Akhenaten in honor of the Aten were destroyed from the foundations and used as building stones. Even the new capital Ahet-Aton was destroyed, and if no one had heard of Nefertiti, then the German architect and Egyptologist, Ludwig Borchardt, would not have gone to Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century to look for traces of the mysterious city that was located in Amarna.

At the behest of Emperor Wilhelm II, he sought objects for the Royal Museum in Berlin. On December 6, 1912, Ludwig Borchardt and his team of diggers came across the workshop of a sculptor who may have worked in the royal court 1,300 years before Christ. Among the excavated soil, they found several busts, including one with a dark blue helmet crown. The ears of the torso were beaten, the eyes were surrounded by coal. The pupil of the left eye was missing, otherwise the object had survived completely.

Borchardt was very enthusiastic: "We had in our hands the most vital Egyptian work," he writes. Life size bust of the Queen, 47cm high, exquisitely crafted. It's not worth describing. He must be seen."

Nefertiti's crown hood was a common headdress in ancient Egypt, as were voluminous wigs. There is a good chance that the queen's head under the hood was shaved brick. Given the heavy covering on the head, shearing was more practical, and did not allow lice to attach. Did she also have make-up powder, to highlight her beauty? "Make-up in today's sense did not exist at that time, explains Olivia Zorn. "But women used to paint their eyes by making this beautiful line over the eyelid. Which also had an antiseptic effect, because it stopped bacteria from entering the eye, infecting it and causing vision loss."

Nefertiti versus an altar figure

Borchard brought the bust of Nefertiti to Berlin, helped financially by the German Society of Orientalists, which also financed his mission to Egypt. According to the rules of the time, all ancient finds were divided equally between Egypt and the country from which the excavations were made. Borchardt represented the German Kingdom.

Gaston Maspero, director of the antiquities service run by the French, tasked his associate Gustave Lefebvre with sorting out the antiquities found. One side received, among other things, the bust of Nefertiti, the other an altarpiece showing the royal couple Akhenaten and Nefertiti together with three of their children.

Since the Cairo Museum did not own any altarpiece until then, it was decided that the altarpiece and not the bust should remain in Cairo. Borchardt was then accused of presenting the bust in a dark setting so as not to arouse Lefebvre's interest.

Nefertiti corresponds to the modern ideal of beauty

And so the beautiful Egyptian made her way to Berlin, where she was presented to the public for the first time in 1924, causing a real boom for Nefertiti. She was reflected on the covers of illustrated magazines and became an advertising icon for cosmetics, perfumes and jewelry, but also beer, coffee and cigarettes. Covered by desert sand for thousands of years, Nefrotete once again became an idol of admiration, perhaps like when she was alive.

"From the beginning of the 20th century she had the same beauty ideals of today's modern times with the prominent cheekbones and the face with fine features," says Zorn. And adds: "Of course today you can't say for sure if this was the ideal of beauty even 3,500 years ago."

Why has Nefertiti become a myth?
German Ludwig Borchart brought Nefertiti to Berlin - view from the documentary "Nefertiti - Whose Beauty Belongs?"

The secrets of Nefertiti's bust

The colored bust is not the only image of Nefertiti found. Ancient objects show her in religious ceremonies hand in hand with Akhenaten or as a caring mother with her six daughters. There are also other statues: They all show the subjective image of the artist, i.e. what he thought was beautiful, or he realized what the King or senior courtiers told him. But do they show the real Nofrete?”

Inside the bust is a plaster core, on which the sculptor has modeled Nefertiti's face. Based on computer tomography done in 2007, it is known that the queen was much weaker and that she had many wrinkles. "On top of them, the artist has placed a thin layer of plaster that works almost like the base of a modern make-up that covers the different levels of the skin, says Zorn.

But Nefertiti was not one-eyed. Olivia Zorn speculates as to why the bust is missing an eye: “it is a model, which means it was used by the artist to create other busts of the queen. He may not have laid eyes on it, to try different materials on it, she explains.

The problem with the authentic nose 

To make an accurate reconstruction of Nefertiti's real face, her mummy would be necessary. But to date, Nefertiti's mummy has not been clearly identified, although there have been rudiments from time to time, Zorn says. Even if the mummy can one day be accurately identified, uncertainties will continue to exist. The mummies are of course reduced. They consist only of bones and skin, and the most difficult part of reconstructing a face is usually the nose.

Of course, there are scientists who can say exactly how much flesh was under that skin. But accurately reconstructing a nose is impossible with the possibilities that exist today. However, surely any mummy can be made into a Nefertiti, as long as it is possible to be influenced by the bust of Nefertiti during the work, i.e. the image in your head. But this is no longer an objective reconstruction.

What Nefertiti really looked like 3,500 years after her death cannot be said. And thanks to her bust, she remains in people's heads as an extraordinary beauty.

Why has Nefertiti become a myth?

Whose bust is it?

Egypt wants to "repatriate" the country's most famous ambassador, but Berlin does not think so. There is absolutely no right of restitution. The legal basis is clear, says the deputy director of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, because the bust was given by contract 100 years ago to the German Egyptologist, Ludwig Borchardt.

Seen with today's eyes, the question arises whether Egypt had the right to speak at that time, because the country was under British colonial rule and the authorities dealing with antiquity were under French direction.

But Olivia Zorn immediately adds an argument to bolster her claim: the bust is no longer able to travel for preservation reasons. If we start her on the trip, then there is a risk that she will never return to health. And I think that nobody wants that.

Therefore, Nefertiti will continue to stay in Berlin./ DW

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