Nefertiti’s Eyes

Nefertiti was one of the most famous women of all ancient Egypt. She was the wife of Akhenaten. Her name means “the beautiful woman has come.” Her bust can be seen in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. Not much is known about her. She appeared with Akhenaten during his fourth year at el-Amarna, which was Akhenaten’s new city.

One peculiar characteristic of Nefertiti’s famous bust is the shape of her eye. In an article published in Archaeology, Earl L. Ertman wrote:

One of the earliest appearances of Nefertiti’s unusual eye shape is on a stela showing the royal family. Found at Amarna and now in Berlin, it is dated by an inscription to before years 8 through 12 of Akhenaten’s reign, or around 1350 B.C. On the stela, however, Akhenaten’s eye shape is “normal” and resembles those seen on sculptures of him in Thebes, but Nefertiti’s is not. So this stela may show a real, physical condition.

It could be that Nefertiti had an epicanthic fold, a piece of skin from the upper eyelid covering the inner edge of the eye. This feature is found not just in people of East Asian descent, but also in individuals with a number of different syndromes--groups of symptoms characteristic of an abnormality--some of which are genetically based. Some syndromes are debilitating, others less so, and still others are passed only from mothers to daughters.

The article on Nefertiti’s eye was published in the March-April issue of Archaeology and it is available free online.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tag: Akhenaten, Amarna Age, King Tut, Nefertiti

Queen Nefertiti and the War Between Egypt and Germany

Photo: Queen Nefertiti



Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, said that if Germany does not return the bust of Queen Nefertiti, there will be a war between Egypt and Germany.

The following is an excerpt of the news report published in The New Zealand Herald:

More than 3000 years after her reign as queen to a mysterious pharaoh, Nefertiti has sparked a row between Egypt, which wants her bust returned for an exhibition, and Germany, which is refusing to let it leave Berlin, where it is the city's greatest treasure.

The painted limestone sculpture of the great queen is one of the most famous depictions of beauty and female power, showing a woman with exquisite features in the prime of life.

After lying in sand on the banks of the Nile for more than three millennia, the life-size bust was brought back into daylight in 1912 by a German archaeologist, Ludwig Borchardt

"I really want it back," Egyptian chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass told the Egyptian Parliament last week.

"If Germany refuses the loan request, we will never again organise exhibitions of antiquities in Germany ... it will be a scientific war."

Read the news report here.

Nefertiti ruled Egypt with her husband in the 14th century BC. Nefertiti was the wife of Amenhotep IV, Pharaoh of Egypt. Amenhotep changed his name Akhenaten in honor of the god Aten during his religious reform which established the worship of the sun god as the only official religion in Egypt. This religious reform occurred in a historical period called the Amarna Age.

Nefertiti was stepmother of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut. Her name means “The Beautiful One Has Arrived.” The bust was discovered at the ruins of Amarna in Egypt, by a German archaeologist, Ludwig Borchardt, in December 1912.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, King Tut, Nefertiti