Scholar: Nefertiti Was an Aging Beauty

Sept. 5, 2006 — Nefertiti, one of the ancient world's legendary beauties, may have had wrinkles and bags under her eyes, according to a new investigation into the famous bust bearing her likeness.

Since its discovery in 1912 at Tel-El-Amarna in what used to be the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose, the 3,300-year-old painted limestone bust has become an international symbol of beauty.

Showing a woman with a long neck, elegantly arched brows, high cheekbones, a slender nose and an enigmatic smile played about red lips, the bust has established Nefertiti as one of the most beautiful faces of antiquity.

But on closer inspection, visible wrinkles run down her slender neck, and puffy bags circle her eyes, says Dietrich Wildung, director of Berlin's Egyptian museum. Wildung shared his observations on Sunday during a meeting on Egyptian collections in Italy's Tuscan town of Montepulciano.

"We discovered that Nefertiti shows some signs of her age. Now she is even more fascinating," Wildung said.

Wildung discovered the features of aging as he considered using a different kind of lighting for the statue's new display at Berlin's Altes Museum.

The finding was supported by a CT scan carried on the 19-inch bust in July. The test confirmed that the sculptor added gypsum around Nefertiti's eyes and cheeks.

According to Wildung, this proves that the artist remodelled the statue in an attempt to reach perfection.

"Most likely, the bust was meant to serve as a model for the official portrait. This explains why the eye on the left side is missing. The artist simply wanted to show his pupils how to make the internal part of the eye," Wildung said.

Little is known about Nefertiti, the "Great Royal Wife" of the renegade pharaoh Akhenaton, who ruled from 1353-1336 B.C. in the Amarna period.

Along with her "heretic" husband, accused of overthrowing the pantheon of the gods to worship the sun god Aton, Nefertiti vanished as if she had never been.

Efforts to erase the new monotheistic religion left no records about her. Indeed, before the discovery of her celebrated bust, only scholars would have recognized her name.

"This is a very important finding. It destroys the myth of Nefertiti as the icon of youthful beauty and reveals a new, fascinating woman in her mature beauty," Egyptologist Francesco Tiradritti, the organizer of the Tuscan meeting, told Discovery News.

According to Tiradritti, the fact that the discovery was made by adopting new lighting should teach an important lesson to museum curators worldwide.

"Egyptian art should not be displayed as something mysterious, under heavy light and dark arrangements. On the contrary, full lighting should be adopted to show even the smallest detail. This is what the Egyptians wanted for their artworks," Tiradritti said.