Nefertiti: The Mysterious Beauty of Ancient Egypt (Part 1)

Nefertiti, The Beauty that had baffled the historians for ages

Whenever we talk about women of the ancient world, the first name that comes to our mind is inevitably “Nefertiti”. Certainly no other women of antiquity could be more famous that this Egyptian Queen who was claimed to possess unsurpassed beauty (of course, we mustn’t forget our Helen of Troy and Cleopatra!). Despite her undoubted universal fame, our knowledge of Nefertiti, on the contrary, is ironically scant. How much do we really know about her? Well, we do know she was the royal wife of the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten. But as for her birth, her life at court and her death, we have but meagre details. Indeed, Nefertiti is a figure who was constantly bedeviled by that shadow of mystery that has vexed and perplexed Egyptologists. Her mummy was never found or identified! In a way, this mystery, far from lessening the people’s fascination for her, only serves to give her a more alluring, charming and mystical aura that forever immortalises her name.

An artwork believed to depict Akhenaten and Nefertiti
or Smenkhare and Merytaten

Nefertiti’s beginning was as obscure as her later life towards the end of her husband’s reign. Her parents were never truly identified. They may have been of noble or common birth, and may not have been Egyptians! Some suggested that she was a daughter of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, thereby making her Akhenaten’s sibling. However, given she was not referred to as the King’s Daughter, this is extremely unlikely. Another hypothesis is that she was a descendant of Ahmose-Nefertari, the first Queen of the 18^th Dynasty but not directly in line to the throne. Another theory is that she was the daughter of Ay, the Vizier who later became Pharaoh. This is because in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, AY referred to himself as the “Father of the God”, who was in turn referred to as Nefertiti’s sister. Whatever the truth may be, we will never know for certain.  

  

Her name has also posed a problem. Nefertiti means the “The Beautiful One is Here”, which may suggest foreign birth. Her other possible is "Nefernefruaten", suggesting that she acted as the co-regent of Akhenaten under this throne name, though this again was never proven.

Nefertiti and Akhenaten

Nefertiti and Akhenaten had six daughters: Merytaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten (wife of Tutankhamen), Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. It was Akhenaten’s lesser Queen, Kiya, who provided her husband with a male heir, Tutankhamen. Evidence suggested that Nefertiti was greatly loved and favoured by Akhenaten. She was accorded great political and religious influence which rivaled that of Akhenaten himself. Akhenaten was regularly depicted showing affection for Nefertiti and his daughters in artwork from the Amarna period, something which was never before experimented in Egyptian art. In one inscription, Akhenaten was found to describe his beloved Queen as:

"the Mistress of Happiness, Endowed with Favors, at hearing whose voice the King rejoices, the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands, Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, May she live for Ever and Always".

Nefertiti and one of her daughters

Given her influential position within the Kingdom, she was generally credited with authoring the religious revolution carried out by her husband. While perhaps a mere outlandish exaggeration, there was no doubt she was vital to this new religious scheme as the feminine aspect of Aten. Together with her husband, the couple acted as a bridge connection their Kingdom with the new Sun God through which Aten’s power could be fully channeled. She was regularly portrayed taking part in daily worship and offering to Aten alongside Akhenaten, and replaced Isis, Nephthys, Selket (Serqet) and Neith on the four corners of Akhenaten's sarcophagus. This again demonstrated the magnitude and extent of her power and influence as a divine being on Earth. Interestingly, Nefertiti was also depicted smiting Egypt’s enemies in battle, a role traditionally reserved for the Pharaoh only. This is a piece of evidence that shows she may have acted as co-regent with Akhenaten.

Despite her enormous influence, Nefertiti mysteriously vanished from history around the twelfth year of her husband’s reign. Whatever happened next would have generations of historians baffled and caused controversy among them for a few decades.

To be continued….

The Mystery of Amarna Art

Akhenaten and his family - note the bizarre quality of their figure
which is almost  alien-like

The revolution carried out by Akhenaten was not confined to the area of religion alone. Indeed, noticeable change also occurred to the Egyptian art, which may serve to reflect Akhenaten’s religious disposition. The new artistic style adopted by the heretic Pharaoh nevertheless appeared somewhat bizarre and…to put it bluntly…otherworldly.

Ancient Egyptian art was generally formal and often depicted its subject matters in an idealised way with many layers of meaning. It was in other words very traditional, with its closely-observed guidelines and formality when people are portrayed. Nonetheless, despite the idealisation, individuals are not devoid of their facial characteristics altogether. One such example is Ramesses II’s recognisable nose.

However, towards the end of Amenhotep III’s reign and throughout the reign of Akhenaten, a new flowing artistic style developed. While often described as “naturalistic”, it is also extremely stylised in its depiction of human figures. Yet again in a clean break with the past traditions, Akhenaten had himself portrayed with a bizarre elongated skull, wide hips, tall and thin legs, a pendulous breast and a round belly. One may question how such peculiar portrayal does any justice to the dignity of a Pharaoh, who was himself an embodiment of god. Supposed one says that such strange portrayal may reflect Akhenaten’s often-cited deformity, he is not the only person portrayed in such a manner. Nefertiti, his Queen, and his daughters were likewise portrayed with elongated skull. Ahkenaten’s Chief Sculptor Bek was also depicted with pendulous breasts and a noticeable stomach. The Chief Sculptor has told us on a stele that he was instructed by the Pharaoh himself to represent what he saw, which indeed suggested that Akhenaten did possess his rather bizarre body figure.    

Such portrayal of the Pharaoh with a bizarre figure is not surprising given we knew about Akhenaten’s deformity. However, why was Akhenaten’s family, especially his Queen the beautiful Nefertiti, portrayed also in a similar manner? As far as we know, she never had any deformity. All we know is that during the Armarna period, the Pharaoh and his family were depicted according to slightly different artistic conventions as follows:

·     At the beginning of his reign – the Pharaoh was depicted with a standard body shape. This may be because he did not yet have a chance to develop his own artistic form, or the disease had not yet begun to afflict the Pharaoh.

·     Later in his reign – Under Bek, the Pharaoh began to be depicted with feminine curves, heavy thighs and belly, half –closed eyes, full lips and long face and neck.

·       At the end of his reign – Under Thutmose (who took over Bek as the Chief Sculptor), the Pharaoh was depicted with a more normal shape, but with an elongated skull still. It is Thuthmose who created the more beautiful artworks depicting the royal family, including the famous burst of Nefertiti

It remains a mystery to this day whether the idiosyncratic art from was stylistic or realistic, and if stylistic, what was its purpose.  It may be that the art was developed as a reverence for the natural world created and governed by the all-powerful sun Aten.

Aten: The Visible Sun (Beloved of Akhenaten)

Akhenaten’s abandonment of the old God Amun, who had been worshipped as the Supreme Deity for successive generations of Pharaohs before him, may have been motivated by a major pragmatic reason. Aten is the visible sun, Amun is mysterious and enigmatic. Whereas the cult of Amun was maintained by rites performed by priests often in great secrecy inside the dark enclosures of the temples inaccessible by the public, the temple of Aten in Akhenaten’s new capital Akhetaten lay exposed to the sun and the full power of the Sun God himself.

But was Aten the new god invented by Akhenaten as a new target of his idolatry? Did it represent a complete break away from the tradition of old? No, Aten was actually an obscure aspect of the Sun God worshipped as early as the Old Kingdom. It was not at all a mere invention and in fact assisted Akhenaten in his attempt to reconnect with the remnant of Egypt’s ancient religion dating back possibly to the time of Narmer himself.       

Temple of Aten at Akhetaten

The word “Aten” was associated with the traditional name for the sun-disc, hence the name of the God Aten. Aten's origins are unclear and he may have been a provincial Sun God worshipped in small villages near Heliopolis. In the coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom, the word “Aten” represents the sun disc, and in the famous Middle-Kingdom Story of Sinuhe, Amenemhat I is described as soaring into the sky to be united with Aten the Creator. Indeed, Aten has been called the creator of man and the nurturing spirit of the world. In the Book of the Dead, Aten is called on by the deceased, "Hail, Aten, thou lord of beams of light, when thou shinest, all faces live." During the New Kingdom, Aten was considered to constitute an aspect of the composite deity Ra-Amun-Horus, with Ra representing the daytime sun, Amun the sun in the underworld, and Horus the sunrise…

Akhenaten in the form of a Sphinx worshipping Aten

And then Akhenaten came along and swept away all the gods, and proclaimed Aten the Visible Sun to be the sole deity. The sun worship was taken a stage further and, according to some theories put forward, may have been based on the scientific observation that the sun’s energy is the ultimate source of all life. Akhenaten’s new religion was initially best described as a henotheistic religion, one being devoted to a single god while acknowledging the existence of other gods. However, it gradually developed into a proto-monotheistic system when the Pharaoh forbade the use of idols with the exception of a rayed solar disc. He made it clear that the image of Aten was the only representation of the God since the God transcended creation and thus should remain enigmatic and unrepresentable.  For this, Akhenaten was usually proclaimed the first monotheist.

Akhenaten’s deep veneration for the Visible Sun was demonstrated from a number of hymns to Aten composed during his reign, some even by himself. They describe the marvels of nature and proclaim the sun the absolute and universal lords of all things.

Despite being worshipped in the sunlight, the public was not permitted participation in the sacred rites to the Visible Sun. Only Akhenaten and his family could communicate with the God, as recorded in his Hymn to Aten where the Pharoah states “there is none who knows thee save thy son Akhenaten. Excluded from the worship, the people were unwilling to take up the new religion, and instead continued to worship the traditional gods in the private of their homes. That this is where Akhenaten has totally failed to instill in his people love in the new religion he painstakingly advocated and developed; his failure to advocate public participation.