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Egypt Independent
20-05-2025
- General
- Egypt Independent
Is Queen Nefertiti's mummy about to be revealed?
International newspapers several years ago reported the discovery of Queen Nefertiti's mummy, citing an English researcher more interested in fame than science. Naturally, I opposed the publication of such sensational, unverified news. At the time, I challenged every piece of alleged evidence the English researcher presented. During our debates, I lacked scientific data on the purported Nefertiti mummy. However, after the English researcher examined this mummy using x-rays, I wasn't able to refute its results. The mummy that is claimed to be Queen Nefertiti, the wife of King Akhenaten, was first discovered in 1898 by French Egyptologist Victor Loret within a cache of mummies in Tomb #35 in the Valley of the Kings, which belonged to King Amenhotep II. Years after the cache of mummies in Amenhotep II's tomb was revealed, Howard Carter, renowned for discovering Tutankhamun's tomb, relocated nine identified mummies – including those of Kings Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III, and Merneptah (son of the famous Ramesses II) – to Cairo. The story behind these caches dates back to the 21st Dynasty. At the time, Amon's priests sought to protect the royal mummies from widespread tomb robberies. To do so, they moved the mummies from their original burial sites to nearby tombs, and then to various hidden caches. The most famous of these is undoubtedly the Deir el-Bahari cache, unearthed in 1881. Carter left three mummies inside Amenhotep II's tomb, the first of which he named the 'Elder Lady.' Through the Royal Mummies Study Project, which I've led for years, we later confirmed that the Elder Lady's mummy is indeed the famous Queen Tiye, wife of King Amenhotep III, known as the 'Pasha of Ancient Egypt's Pharaohs,' and the mother of King Akhenaten. Next to Queen Tiye's mummy lay another mummy of a young boy, whom I believe to be a son of King Amenhotep III who died young, leaving the throne to his brother Akhenaten. The third mummy, the subject of this article, was initially believed by the French Egyptologist Loret to be that of a young boy with a bald head, a missing right arm, and a crushed area below the face. This mummy, known as the 'Younger Lady,' is the one that is widely proclaimed to be Queen Nefertiti, the wife of King Akhenaten. She lived alongside her husband during their struggles against the priests of Amun, moved with him to Amarna, and bore him six daughters, one of whom married the famous boy king Tutankhamun. However, upon Queen Tiye's (Nefertiti's mother-in-law) arrival in Amarna, Nefertiti completely withdrew from public life, living separately from Akhenaten in her palace with her daughters. Scientists have never found the tomb or the mummy of the beautiful queen, yet her fame endures through her exquisite bust displayed in the Berlin Museum. The struggle between us and the museum regarding the return of the queen's head to her homeland, Egypt, continues. Under my leadership, we successfully established the first-of-its-kind Egyptian Project for the Study of Royal and Non-Royal Mummies. This ambitious project aims to create a comprehensive database and record of all mummies located in tombs and storage facilities. Furthermore, it involves studying royal mummies using the latest CT-Scan technology and establishing the only DNA laboratory in the world specifically dedicated to mummy studies. This lab was initially located in the basement of the Egyptian Museum before being transferred to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat. We initially used the CT scanner to uncover the secrets of the controversial 'Younger Lady' mummy, which had been popularized as Nefertiti's. However, our studies concluded that she had no connection to Queen Nefertiti. One of the arguments proposed in favor of this being Nefertiti was the mummy's right arm position. When the mummy was discovered, its right arm was missing, though two separate arms were found nearby: one straight and one bent. While scientists initially believed the straight arm belonged to the mummy, a later study, using mummy measurements and x-ray analysis, revealed that the bone density of the straight arm differed from the rest of the body. This led him to conclude that the bent arm was the correct one. If true, the woman would have one straight left arm extending along her body and a bent right arm across her chest. This specific arm positioning, one straight and one bent, was a tradition reserved for queens. However, this doesn't confirm her identity as Nefertiti, as many other ancient Egyptian queen mummies have yet to be identified. The next article will delve deeper into the true identity of the Younger Lady mummy, fully dispelling the long-held belief that she was Queen Nefertiti.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Depictions of Milky Way's River of Stars Found in Ancient Egyptian Art
The glorious river of stars, interwoven with dark dust, that makes up the plane of the Milky Way in the night sky may have been hiding in plain sight in art from ancient Egypt. Some depictions of the goddess of the sky, Nut, that appear on the sides of elaborate coffins actually contain stylized interpretations of the galactic plane. That's according to an analysis of hundreds of coffins, conducted by astrophysicist Or Graur of the University of Portsmouth in the UK. These depictions, he argues, are so detailed that they include the thick, sinuous rope of dust threaded through the stream of stars that pours across the night sky. The goddess Nut is one of the oldest in the ancient Egyptian pantheon, ruling over the sky and all things in it. She is often depicted as a naked woman, her body daubed with cosmic objects such as stars and Suns, protectively arched like the sky itself over figures on the ground below. In a paper published in April 2024, Graur proposed, based on a study of ancient texts, that the ancient Egyptians may have seen the plane of the Milky Way as a manifestation or representation of Nut. Now, he has followed up his hypothesis by studying the available artwork. The goddess makes frequent appearances in funerary art, since one of her charges was the protection of the dead as they journeyed into the afterlife, so Graur made a study of depictions of Nut as painted on coffin elements up to around 4,600 years ago. Mostly, the goddess appears either bare or covered with stars. Then, the coffin of a woman who lived during the 21st Dynasty, between 1077 and 943 BCE, yielded a promising feature. Her name was Nesitaudjatakhet, a singer devoted to Mut and Amun-Re, and the painting of Nut on the outside of her coffin included a long, thick, undulating line down the length of the goddess's body, stars painted on either side. "I think that the undulating curve represents the Milky Way and could be a representation of the Great Rift – the dark band of dust that cuts through the Milky Way's bright band of diffused light. Comparing this depiction with a photograph of the Milky Way shows the stark similarity," Graur says. It's not the only painting of Nut he found that has this feature, but it does seem to be quite rare. He identified just four other instances where Nut's body was accompanied or marked by a long, wiggly line, and none of those was a coffin. In the tombs of Ramesses IV, VI, and IX, Nut appears twice, representing day and night, with an undulating line separating her two back-to-back depictions. This rarity, Graur says, suggests that Nut and the Milky Way are not synonymous. "I did not see a similar undulating curve in any of the other cosmological representations of Nut and it is my view that the rarity of this curve reinforces the conclusion I reached in a study of ancient texts last year, which is that although there is a connection between Nut and the Milky Way, the two are not one and the same," he explains. "Nut is not a representation of the Milky Way. Instead, the Milky Way, along with the Sun and the stars, is one more celestial phenomenon that can decorate Nut's body in her role as the sky." The finding highlights how much we don't know about the complex interaction between ancient Egyptian spirituality and science, and how their deities are depicted and why. It also illuminates the value of interdisciplinary research, and the new insights that can be brought with new perspectives. Finally, Graur urges, it emphasizes the importance of access to resources. "The catalogs assembled here underline the importance of fully digitizing museum catalogs and providing free access to them through public-facing websites," he writes. "I am deeply grateful to those museums that have already made their collections accessible in this manner and I urge other museums (and the governments and private foundations that fund them) to create similar digital collections." His analysis has been published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. Dawn's Second Look Reveals Vesta Could Be Part of a Lost World Huge, Invisible Cloud Discovered Just 300 Light-Years From The Solar System This Eerie Crack of Darkness in The Sky Is Hiding a Glittering Secret
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
New skeletons challenge assumptions about ancient Egypt
(NewsNation) — New skeletons hidden in Egyptian pyramids are raising questions about long-standing assumptions regarding the role of pyramids in ancient Egyptian culture. Skeletons discovered at Tombos in northern Sudan included signs of strenuous physical activity, suggesting they didn't live the life of rich and privileged nobility. That is a departure from the traditional assumption that being entombed in a pyramid was an honor reserved for wealthy pharaohs. Canadian airline cancels flights to Tennessee Experts say the skeletons show that workers who would have likely been of low status were laid to rest in the structures along with those from the noble classes. Tombos became an important colonial hub after Egypt conquered Nubia around 1500 BCE. The population was thought to consist mostly of scribes, professionals and craftspeople. The area is also home to at least five mud-brick pyramids that contain human remains. The largest pyramid complex is that of Siamun, the sixth pharaoh of Egypt in the 21st Dynasty. Skeletons found in the area include those of people who did little physical activity as well as others who were far more active. Community hosting a second birthday for 6-year-old who was lifted by tornado That led scientists to conclude the active individuals were non-elites. One theory is that Egyptians may have believed that laying workers to rest with nobility would allow the former to continue to serve in the afterlife. They have, however, ruled out the idea of human sacrifice saying that there was no evidence for such behavior by the time Tombos was under Egyptian control. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
