Joyce A. Tyldesley attempts to unravel the many mysteries surrounding Nefertiti by looking at archaeological evidence, religious and mortuary art, and architecture from the late 18th dynasty. While we don’t know where Nefertiti came from, what happened to her when she suddenly disappeared, when or where she died, or what happened to her corpse, we know much about other major figures in her life.
Nefertiti : Egypt's Sun Queen
Joyce Tyldesley
New York: Viking; 1998.
232 pages
ISBN 0670869988
In Nefertiti, Joyce A. Tyldesley attempts to unravel the many mysteries surrounding Nefertiti by looking at archaeological evidence, religious and mortuary art, and architecture from the late 18th dynasty. While we don’t know where Nefertiti came from, what happened to her when she suddenly disappeared, when or where she died, or what happened to her corpse, we know much about other major figures in her life.
Rich and powerful, the pharaohs, from Nefertiti’s husband’s grandfather (Thutmosis IV) forward, broke traditions, engaged in conspicuous building programs, and inaugurated novel fashions, including the pleated kilt (to which Christine El Mahdy in a similar biography of Tutankhamen attributes the appearance of Akhenaten’s pot belly), full makeup, and heavy wigs.
The pharaohs’ choices for Kings’ Great Wives (what we think of as queen) were a little out of the ordinary. Thutmosis IV married a daughter of the king of Mitanni. Amenhotep III married Tiy, the daughter of a non-royal couple, Yuya and Thuya.
Joyce Tyldesley
New York: Viking; 1998.
232 pages
ISBN 0670869988
In Nefertiti, Joyce A. Tyldesley attempts to unravel the many mysteries surrounding Nefertiti by looking at archaeological evidence, religious and mortuary art, and architecture from the late 18th dynasty. While we don’t know where Nefertiti came from, what happened to her when she suddenly disappeared, when or where she died, or what happened to her corpse, we know much about other major figures in her life.
Rich and powerful, the pharaohs, from Nefertiti’s husband’s grandfather (Thutmosis IV) forward, broke traditions, engaged in conspicuous building programs, and inaugurated novel fashions, including the pleated kilt (to which Christine El Mahdy in a similar biography of Tutankhamen attributes the appearance of Akhenaten’s pot belly), full makeup, and heavy wigs.
The pharaohs’ choices for Kings’ Great Wives (what we think of as queen) were a little out of the ordinary. Thutmosis IV married a daughter of the king of Mitanni. Amenhotep III married Tiy, the daughter of a non-royal couple, Yuya and Thuya.
When Amenhotep III’s heir, Thutmosis died, Amenhotep IV succeeded his father to the throne. He then married and made King’s Great Wife, Nefertiti. We don't know who her parents were but they may have been a wealthy, Egyptian, non-royal family.
Amenhotep IV, the husband of Nefertiti, made a far more dramatic break with recent tradition when he, reverting to an Old Kingdom solar theology, adopted Aten as his one god. (This should probably not be referred to as monotheism, but henotheism, because the king did not deny the existence of other gods.) He then changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect his change in divine allegiance. Possibly to consecrate new area to the new (old) god, Akhenaten moved his capital to “The Horizon of the Aten” (Akhetaten) -- what we call Amarna. Aten was an asexual creator deity, the father of Akhenaten and all mankind. Tyldesley says Akhenaten made himself, Nefertiti, and Aten into a divine triad, and used the cult of the sun god to enhance the cult of the king.
Nefertiti’s name means “a beautiful woman has come.
Amenhotep IV, the husband of Nefertiti, made a far more dramatic break with recent tradition when he, reverting to an Old Kingdom solar theology, adopted Aten as his one god. (This should probably not be referred to as monotheism, but henotheism, because the king did not deny the existence of other gods.) He then changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect his change in divine allegiance. Possibly to consecrate new area to the new (old) god, Akhenaten moved his capital to “The Horizon of the Aten” (Akhetaten) -- what we call Amarna. Aten was an asexual creator deity, the father of Akhenaten and all mankind. Tyldesley says Akhenaten made himself, Nefertiti, and Aten into a divine triad, and used the cult of the sun god to enhance the cult of the king.
Nefertiti’s name means “a beautiful woman has come.
” Judging from the famous Berlin bust discovered in 1912, the name was well-deserved, but not all the artwork depicting the royal family shows her with the same grace. The art of the New Kingdom was freer than that of earlier periods. Tyldesley says portraits of the pharaohs became more realistic. Akhenaten’s father was the first pharaoh depicted as fat and frail at the end of his reign. Nefertiti was portrayed with the bodily changes accompanying childbirth and age. However, in many of the portraits of the royal family, it is all but impossible to distinguish Nefertiti from her husband without knowing what clues to look for.
