Where-is-the-tomb-of-Nefertiti- - Al-Ahram Weekly
Glenn Meyer
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/13066/17/Where-is-the-tomb-of-Nefertiti-.aspx
With the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, history was made once, changing humanity’s understanding of its roots and altering the life of the mind forever. Will history be made once again with the discovery of Nefertiti’s tomb this year?
Where is the tomb of Nefertiti?
By Zahi Hawass
The recent theory regarding the tomb of the ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti should be welcomed by the scientific community. But it requires very careful evaluation, writes Egyptologist Zahi Hawass
British Egyptologist
Nicholas Reeves recently published an article entitled
“The Burial of Nefertiti?” in which he postulates that the
tomb of the ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti is hidden
behind the walls of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley
of the Kings.
Reeves bases his theory on his analysis of 3D scans of the
tomb of Tutankhamun that were published online by Factum
Arte, the company that created the full-scale replica of
the tomb. In images of the north and west walls of the
tomb, Reeves focuses on lines and shadows that suggest to
him plastered-over doorways leading to hidden rooms. He
proposes that these chambers belong to the tomb of Queen
Nefertiti, whom many believe changed her name to
Smenkhkare and ruled Egypt as a king after the death of
her husband Akhenaten.
Of all the Egyptian queens, Nefertiti is the most famous.
She disappeared during the last years of her husband’s
reign, with just a single inscription, dated to year 16,
known after year 12 of the reign. Most of us believe that
she changed her name and ruled herself after Akhenaten’s
death, but her tomb has never been found. Its location is
one of ancient Egypt’s greatest mysteries.
If we look at the scenes on the walls of Tutankhamun’s
burial chamber, behind which, according to Reeves, lies
Nefertiti’s tomb, we can see that most of the original
scenes in the burial chamber survive today. One wall, the
south, fell victim to British Egyptologist Howard Carter’s
excavation team, which damaged part of the decoration when
it breached the wall from the antechamber. Later, when the
time came to remove the shrine that surrounded the boy
king’s sarcophagus, the south wall had to be completely
removed, but steps were taken to save the remaining
paintings and move them to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The ancient workmen had covered the walls in a thick layer
of mortar to receive the paint in this room, the only one
in the tomb to be decorated. The painters who decorated
the chamber drew most of the figures based on a grid of 20
squares. This was a convention held over from
Amarna-period art, and before and after this time Egyptian
artists used an 18-square grid. The 20-square grid
resulted in figures that were short-legged and also
noticeably soft looking — another lingering Amarna
influence — on a yellow-painted background to resemble not
only old papyrus but also gold, the colour of divine
flesh.
Carter worked in the tomb for ten years. I am sure he
looked everywhere to see if the walls were solid or if
there was something hidden behind them. I also think that
he removed the plaster from the five niches that held the
original magic bricks. That would have indicated if there
was anything behind the walls, because the plaster would
have been removed. Photographer Harry Burton took
photographs of this, which anyone can examine now, and
they were also examined by Carter.
What did Reeves see in the shadows, lines, and cracks of
the wall that led him to his theory?
First, unusual shapes can be seen by any individual who
looks at a 3D scan of a decorated wall. In the temple
scenes of the tomb of Seti I at Abydos, for example,
someone imagined they could see an airplane. Moreover,
although the existence of a tomb inside a tomb is known
from the 19th Dynasty, we do not have any examples of
tombs like this from the 18th Dynasty. In the 19th
Dynasty, the tomb was made inside a tomb for the king
himself, perhaps because the workers were trying to hide
his actual burial, or perhaps for ritual reasons. Why
would Tutankhamun be buried inside Nefertiti’s tomb? She
was not even his mother. Reeves has not presented enough
convincing evidence to the effect that there are hidden
chambers beyond the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The west wall of the tomb, behind which Reeves thinks is
one chamber of the tomb of Nefertiti, contains a scene
from the “Amduat,” the book of the Netherworld. There is a
scene of Khepri, the sun in the form of a scarab beetle,
on a boat flanked by figures of Osiris and 12 baboons.
These were drawn closer to the traditional, non-Amarna
18-square grid.
Now we come to the scene on the north wall of the tomb,
also part of Reeves’s theory. The scene shows Ay, formerly
Tutankhamun’s vizier and now his successor, performs the
very ancient ritual known as the “opening of the mouth” on
the dead king’s mummy, here represented as Tutankhamun in
the form of the God Osiris. Reeves suggests that this
scene originally showed Tutankhamun performing this ritual
for Nefertiti. But if this was the case, then what should
we say about the inscriptions over the heads of Ay and
Tutankhamun, and why don’t we see any traces of the name
of Nefertiti?
Additionally, this scene should not be in the tomb of
Tutankhamun, but in the tomb of Nefertiti, if Reeves is
right. Finally, what do we do about Ay, who ruled and came
to the throne after Tutankhamun? Why can we not find him
in the tomb?
Its hard to believe that Nefertiti was buried in the
Valley of the Kings, because she completely supported
Akhenaten, and the priests of Amun would never have
allowed her burial in the valley. Nefertiti was active
during Akhenaten’s reign, accompanying her husband when he
made offerings to Aten, serving in effect as the high
priestess of Aten. The high priestess of Aten could not
have been buried in the precinct of Amun. Though
Akhenaten’s body was later moved to KV 55 in the Valley of
the Kings, his original tomb was the royal tomb at Amarna.
It is odd that Reeves should use a quotation from Omm
Seti, saying that Nefertiti was buried in the Valley of
the Kings, but I do like what he said in one of his
newspaper interviews. “If I am wrong, I am wrong,” he
said. “But if I am right, this is potentially the biggest
archaeological discovery ever made.” I think he is right —
this would be an extraordinary discovery, if he is right.
But now we have another question: What should we do now?
In my opinion, Reeves is one of the leading experts on the
Valley of the Kings, with many publications on the subject
to prove it. Thus, if he says something about the valley,
we all, as Egyptologists, have to respect it. I do respect
him as a person, and I also respect his scholarship.
However, I once rejected a theory of Reeves and proved
that he was not right.
Explaining an anomaly: The tomb of Tutankhamun was
originally built to house the mummy of King Ay, but the
sudden death of the boy king led the ancient Egyptians to
bury him inside Ay’s tomb instead as the tomb dedicated to
the boy king was not yet completed. That is why Ay is
shown in the scene on the northern wall making the
opening-mouth ritual on Tutankhamun’s mummy.
What proves this is the fact that the artisan who
decorated Tutankhamun and Ay’s tombs is the same, since
the scenes show the same style of drawing. Neferiti is not
Tutankhamun’s mother because there is no evidence that
confirms this. Nefertiti had six daughters by Akhenaten,
and these are shown in all the official scenes at Tel
Al-Amarna.
Regarding this new theory, I think the Ministry of
Antiquities should announce that we respect Reeves’s
theory and thank him for his ideas. Five scholars should
be appointed to go to the Valley of the Kings with Reeves
and the data from the 3D scans and should examine the
theory in situ inside the tomb. If, and only if, the
scholars determine that the theory has merit, then the
next step should be to use sophisticated radar equipment
to see what is behind the two walls. If the radar shows an
anomaly, it could be a room, but it also could be nothing,
and I do not think the permanent committee will approve
drilling working to look for Reeves’s rooms.