- CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's
antiquities chief has dismissed a British Egyptologist's claim she may
have found the mummy of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, the stepmother of legendary
boy King Tutankhamen.
-
- Nefertiti, the wife and co-ruler with pharaoh Akhenaten,
has long been considered one of the most powerful women of ancient Egypt.
Her husband ruled from 1379 to 1362 BC.
-
- Joanne Fletcher, a mummification specialist from England's
University of York, announced Monday she thought one of three mummies found
in a tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings may have been that of Nefertiti.
-
- Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities,
dismissed the idea. "This mistake and these statements are not based
on sure facts or evidence," Hawass told Egypt's official Middle East
News Agency late Tuesday.
-
- Fletcher based her theory partly on the similarity between
the swan-like neck of one of the mummies and that of Nefertiti, whose likeness
was sculpted in a limestone bust now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.
-
- Hawass said the theory could not be based on a resemblance
between the mummy and artistic representations of the Amarna period in
which Nefertiti lived.
-
- "Art in the Amarna era was based on beautifying
the king or queen and not on reality or actual features," he was quoted
as saying.
-
- Fletcher found other physical links, including the impression
of a tight-fitting browband Nefertiti once wore, a double-pierced ear lobe
and shaved head.
-
- Nefertiti was one of only two of Egypt's royal women
believed to have worn two earrings in each ear.
-
- The tomb of Tutankhamen, a boy king who ruled Egypt in
the 14th century BC, was discovered in 1922 in one of Egyptology's most
famous finds. It was packed with artifacts that took almost 10 years to
remove from the site.
-
-
-
- Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
|
