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Appendix 12: “FAIR OF FACE” –

THE ‘NEFERTITI RECONSTRUCTION’ EXPOSED

A Discovery Channel ‘reconstruction’ of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti shows her to be a colored woman – despite written records dating from her time specifically describing her as ‘fair of face’ and the famous bust of the queen showing her as an unmistakably white woman.

The Discovery Channel special on Queen Nefertiti, featured on their website at http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/nefertiti/nefertiti.html is factual and of value right up until the point where it shows the reconstruction of the mummy in question. Then it suddenly gives the mummy a dark skin and puffed up lips – despite the records of Nefertiti, not to mention the famous bust of the queen, showing no such features.

Compare the Discovery’ Channel’s “reconstruction” below left, with the actual bust of Nefertiti, right:

Left: Nefertiti as Discovery Channel would have her in 2003 AD; and right, Nefertiti as Egyptians sculptured her in circa 1340 BC.

The Nefertiti bust portrait, from Ancient Egypt's 18th Dynasty, was created sometime between 1348 and 1336 B.C. and now resides in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Agyptisches Museum. (http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/amp/e/s.html)

It was found in the studio of its sculptor, Tuthmose, at the then-capital city, Akhetaten, also known as El-Amarna.

It is worth noting that some images of Nefertiti are grossly distorted, as was the style of El-Amarna and Akhenaton, her husband, who was known as the heretic king. Hence, there are depictions of Nefertiti which show her as alongside. Portraits such as this are however obviously artistic distortions, as no person could actually have a skull shape such as this!

There is therefore no reason to conclude otherwise that Nefertiti did resemble her lifelike portraits, of which there are many:

“FAIR OF FACE” – HOW NEFERTITI WAS DESCRIBED DURING HER LIFE

Although little remains of El-Amarna’s buildings, Egyptologists are fortunate in that the boundary stelae of Akhenaten have largely survived. Among the oldest recorded statements at the foundation of a city, the stelae are rock inscriptions in the cliffs around El-Amarna.

There are two groups of stelae:

1. stelae X, M, K on the northern and southern ends of the cliffs east of the city, on the east bank of the river; and

2. Eleven more stelae, the best preserved being stela S.

It is Stela S, located at the southeastern corner of El-Amarna, which is of interest, as it contains the following inscription:

(Source: The Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten (Studies in Egyptology) by William J. Murnane, Charles C., III Van Siclen, publisher: Kegan Paul; (August 1993); ISBN: 0710304641)

Thus even contemporary Egyptian descriptions of Nefertiti state quite clearly that she was light skinned, and not dark skinned, as Discovery Channel would have their audience believe.

THE MUMMY

So where did Discovery channel get their dark skinned Nefertiti picture? Certainly not from the mummy itself:

A clue is to be had in an article which appeared in the Nottingham Evening Post newspaper (http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=66056&

command=displayContent&sourceNode=65583&contentPK=6704187)

Entitled “Is it the face of mystery Egyptian queen?” The Nottingham Post revealed that Dr Damian Schofield, from the University of Nottingham, and Martin Evison, a forensic anthropologist from Sheffield University, were responsible for reconstructing the face from digital X-rays of the skull.

This they seemed to do quite well, revealing a doliocraniac (“long”) skull and facial shape well in line with the Nefertiti bust, and with the mummy in question.

Then however, comes the interesting part: according to an article in the USA Today newspaper, (http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2003-08-12-nefertiti-usat_x.htm) entitled “Could this be the profile of a queen?”, the “skin texture, eye color, (AND) lips” were added by an anonymous “graphic designer.”

Graphic designer indeed! Obviously one who has never seen the original Nefertiti bust, nor who has ever heard of the description of Nefertiti on the El-Amarna stela.

Herein also lies the answer to the puffed up lips of the Discovery Channel reconstruction: the mummy itself is, as can be seen above, conveniently damaged  around the mouth, hence the "graphic designer's" liberty in creating the distinctly un-Nefertiti lips.

The ‘reconstructed’ bust of Nefertiti is another particularly poor attempt by Afro-centrists to try and claim Egyptian civilization as their own – and is easily debunked.

Appendices

Main Contents Page

All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999.

Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden.

Dear Reader: This complete book has been hosted free-of-charge to all users on the Internet since 1999, at private expense, with never any charge being asked. As a result, the hit rate on this site has steadily grown, to the point where it now routinely has more than 1,5 million hits per month. The bandwidth usage costs have now become enormous, but are all still borne privately.

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