Queen Nefertiti of Egypt

queens of the world queen nefertiti of egypt [Music] nefertiti was queen at the height of the ancient egyptian empire's wealth and power she and her husband began a religious revolution and built a new capital city and nefertiti rose to the level of ko pharaoh one of the few female rulers in egypt's history but much about her life remains shrouded in mystery her most famous image this pristinely preserved bust is a tantalizing glimpse at the life of one of the ancient world's great queens nefertiti was born over 3000 years ago around 1370 bc she lived in the 18th dynasty during egypt's new kingdom the era in which the egyptian empire was at its height ruling much of the nile river valley and expanding north to canaan and syria this was a thousand years after the construction of the pyramids and a thousand years before queen cleopatra ruled during the roman empire like much about this ancient kingdom nefertiti's parentage is a mystery that has been lost to time there are three main theories one she may have been the daughter of aei a prominent egyptian court official who later became pharaoh two she may have been princess tadukipa of the northern kingdom of matani tadu kipa was the daughter of king tushrat the powerful pharaoh amun hotep iii of egypt fell in love with her after smelling her hair but shortly after his new bride arrived in egypt amun hotep iii died and this foreign princess was remarried to his son the new pharaoh amun hotep iv egyptian pharaohs had multiple consorts and it is theorized that two of aman hotep the fourth's known wives tadukipa and nefertiti may have been the same person tadukipa may have been given a new name upon her second marriage nefertiti which means the beautiful woman has come hints at a foreign origin the third theory of the queen's origins is that she was actually the daughter of pharaoh amenhotep iii and was therefore the sister of her husband amun hotep iv marriages between close relatives even siblings were a common practice among the ancient egyptian royals who wanted to keep their sacred bloodlines pure whatever her origins and prior relationship to amenhotep iv nefertiti married the pharaoh when she was 15 years old and became his great royal wife and queen the couple seemed to have been inseparable and very much in love she was referred to as the great king's wife his beloved amenhotep built many new temples and palaces in the capital city of thebes he dedicated the mansion of binbin to nefertiti and the structure is filled with images depicting the king and queen together and with their children it was unusual for a pharaoh and his queen to be portrayed in art in such intimate family scenes the pair are even seen kissing each other an unusually romantic depiction indeed the couple had six children all daughters mara tatan mika tatan anks in a moon neferneferaten tasharet neferneferrar and setopinre the king and queen rejected the polytheistic religion of the people and worshiped only one god the sun disk aten amun hotep whose name honored the ancient god amen changed his name to akhenaten meaning aten is satisfied and nefertiti adopted the moniker neferneferaten nefertiti which means beautiful are the beauties of aten a beautiful woman has come but beyond faith promoting the new religion also bolstered their own power religion was the backbone of the egyptian government and economy temples were used to collect and store the nation's wealth in both grains and goods thus the priests held a great deal of power but in the new religion only the pharaoh and the royal family had direct access to the god attend the common people had to worship through their king so the powerful and wealthy priests were cut out akhenaten and nefertiti were the high priest and priestess of the cult of aten they formed a divine triad king queen and god and they were worshiped as gods on earth nefertiti's femininity and sexuality were emphasized in art she was frequently depicted with an exaggerated female form draped in fine linen gowns and in the company of her six daughters affirming her place as a living fertility goddess but the old priests and the people of thebes were not easily converted to the new faith dissenters were punished and many worshipped in secret and lived in fear akhenaten wanted a fresh start so he built a new capital city named akhenatun or horizon of aten to avoid confusion with king akhenaten the city of akhenatun is referred to by archaeologists as amarna the king selected an uninhabited valley for the site of his new metropolis along the eastern horizon there was a natural gap in the desert cliff face from which the sun was seen to rise akhenaten and nefertiti built their tomb there so that the people would see the life-giving sun rising from them for all eternity the city was built quickly thanks to the innovation of smaller uniform blocks known as toletots which were much more efficient than the massive irregular stones egyptians had been using for centuries many large open-air temples dedicated to the sun god were erected and the king and queen built for themselves a grand royal palace in the center of the city nefertiti had far greater power than most egyptian queens as the pharaoh's beloved and trusted advisor she wielded a great deal of influence in the government and in the new religion in art depicting akhenaten she is nearly always next to him in a position of prominence and in many scenes she is in the place that would typically be occupied by the king she is seen as smiting enemies and with prisoners of war decorating her throne and she is even shown wearing the crown of a king twelve years into akhenaten's reign a plague struck the kingdom the couple's daughter mika tatan died at the age of 13. likely three of their other daughters died as well at the same time queen nefertiti disappears from the record for years historians believed that she had perished along with her children the aftermath of the plague akhenaten appointed a co-regent not uncommon among pharaohs for decades egyptologists assumed that the co-regent must have been another man but had trouble explaining why akhenaten was depicted in art in an intimate embrace with his fellow pharaoh only recently did historians realize that this co-regent was actually queen nefertiti who had risen up to the position of co pharaoh she changed her name to neferneferaten cartouche's ovals encircling hieroglyphics depict royal names in ancient egypt a queen is represented by one cartouche while a pharaoh is represented by two we can see in this relief depicting akhenaten and nefertiti that the sculptor hastily added a fourth cartouche to make it clear that this is not a pharaoh and his queen but two pharaohs akhenaten died a year or two into nefertiti's co-regency between the ages of 35 and 40. his royal tomb at amarna contains two mirrored and equally grand chambers akhenaten was buried in one and the other never completed was intended for his beloved wife and co-regent nefertiti for many years historians theorized that akhenaten had suffered from marfan syndrome which may explain his somewhat unusual appearance in sculpture those with marfan syndrome tend towards tallness with a thin elongated face overgrown ribs a funnel chest a high curved and slightly cleft palate and large pelvis with enlarged thighs and spindly calves all features present in akhenaten statues some even went so far as to say that this disability was the reason the pharaoh relied so heavily on nefertiti and allowed her to become his co-regent however dna tests on akhenaten's mummy proved negative for marfan syndrome more recent theories argue that akhenaten's statues should be viewed through the lens of atenism akhenaten was made to look androgynous as a symbol of the androgyny of the god aten and maybe he trusted his wife because of her wisdom and ability and not because of his own disability after his death nefertiti continued to rule egypt as pharaoh now that akhenaten had gone and his religious fervor with him nefertiti played damage control with the many disenfranchised priests and indignant people who had chafed at the enforcement of the new aten religion she had the old gods and the followers of amun reinstated she also returned to the old capital of thebes which was a more strategic location from which to rule the empire and defend it from its enemies in the years following akhenaten's death many of his statues and sculptures were destroyed and his face smashed this was in retaliation for the heresy against amun and the old gods but nefertiti's image was spared by the people as a female ruler nefertiti's position was perilous egyptians expected it to be ruled by a king and all of nefertiti's children were daughters akhenaten's rightful male heir was the son of one of his lesser wives but pharaoh nefertiti was reluctant to hand over her power to her nine-year-old stepson she wrote to suppaluliuma the first king of the hittites in modern turkey my husband has died and i have no son they say about you that you have many sons you might give me one of your sons to become my husband i would not wish to take one of my subjects as a husband i am afraid the hittite king was shocked at the request as egyptian queens never married outside of the family but he did indeed send one of his sons prince zananza to marry the queen and bring the powerful egyptian empire under his influence the egyptian people saw nefertiti's attempt to marry a foreigner as the ultimate betrayal on his way to thebes to meet his new bride prince zenanza was assassinated soon after queen nefertiti disappeared for good most likely she died at about the age of 40. her stepson became pharaoh at the age of nine he continued nefertiti's work of reverting back to the old religion and changed his name from tutankhaten living image of aten to tutankhamun living image of amun as the result of generations of inbreeding he was a weak young man with many physical and mental ailments including a clubbed foot and scoliosis which forced him to walk with a cane he had necrosis or death of the bone tissue which would have been incredibly painful he had a cleft palate oversized incisors and a dramatic overbite which was characteristic of his family he married one of nefertiti's daughters his own half-sister anks and a moon who gave birth to two stillborn daughters their mummies were found buried in their father's tomb tutankhamun only ruled for nine years before dying at nineteen of malaria which was exacerbated by his many genetic health problems following his death queen aung san and moon married royal advisor ai who then became pharaoh ai was one of the possible fathers of nefertiti so if that theory is correct then angs and emoon married her own grandfather aung sin and moon died shortly after the marriage but before ie could ascend the throne he was required to prepare a proper royal burial for his predecessor tutankhamun funeral preparations had not yet begun for the boy king because he died so young and this was no small task he had only 70 days to do it in the traditional time it took to perform the mummification rituals on the dead pharaoh creating the appropriately opulent cache of gold and bejeweled coffins and burial objects would take ages so ai plundered the tombs of the unpopular pharaoh akhenaten and his queen nefertiti he took their beautiful funerary objects and even their coffins out of their tomb in amarna where they had planned to spend eternity under the rising sun he moved them to the valley of the kings just outside of thieves the traditional burial place of pharaohs since howard carter discovered king tutankhamun's tomb in 1923 it has been learned that about 80 percent of the vast treasures held within were originally created for others and quickly refashioned to instead honor the boy king several sculptures had been created for nefertiti and show wide hips and breasts two of the four coffins in which he was buried had been made for nefertiti but her name had been wiped out and his name added in even king tutankhamun's famous gold mask shows evidence of tampering behind the ears a joint can be seen where the original face was removed and a new face added on akhenaten's mummy along with the mummy of his mother queen t and other family members were moved to thebes along with all of their treasures these bodies were buried in a separate chamber with a handful of treasures left over from the grand burial of tutankhamun the tomb known as kv-55 was discovered in 1907 by theodore davis in the centuries since the discovery the mummies have been studied by forensic anthropologists and later by dna experts one of the mummies has been confirmed to be that of akhenaten the father of tutankhamun akhenaten's sarcophagus had been desecrated shortly after his burial and most of the gold mask removed even his mummy was smashed with a rock another mummy called the younger lady was identified via dna as tutankhamun's mother it has been theorized that this body may have been that of nefertiti though most egyptologists argue that the younger lady was a lesser wife of the pharaoh nefertiti's mummy and burial chamber have yet to be confirmed or discovered though archaeologists are eager to do so and have many theories about its possible location the regal dazzling and world famous bust of nefertiti was discovered in 1912 by german archaeologists excavating in the private villas of amarna there in a sculptor's workshop they found the amazingly preserved likeness lying upside down and buried under three millennia of sand it was identified as nefertiti because of the distinct crown she wears which queen nefertiti made famous during her time in amarna the quartz which once formed the bust's left eye is missing leading to wild speculation that the real queen was blind in one eye or even that the sculptor tatmosis removed it because he was in love with her and she refused to acknowledge him but more likely the eye fell out when the workshop fell to ruin and was overtaken by the desert the bust was taken to germany and displayed in the berlin museum shortly thereafter the egyptian government began asking for the return of this priceless treasure but they were ignored adolf hitler said i will never relinquish the head of the queen adding what the german people have they keep to this day the bust remains in the neues museum in berlin where directors continue to deny egyptian requests to return this key piece of history the bust has become one of egypt's most famous icons and one of the most replicated works of art from the ancient world the hauntingly lifelike rendering of this 3000 year old queen looks as though she could open her lips and tell us her life story solving all the mysteries historians have dedicated lifetimes to uncovering if you enjoyed this video please like subscribe comment your thoughts and check out my other royal history videos if you really want to help please consider supporting me on patreon a link is in the description thank you for watching

Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 490,034

Keywords: history, game of thrones, documentary, royal family, nobility, royalty, the crown, british history, england, scandal, royal wedding, historic costumes, queen, Feminism, Feminist, queens of the world, european royalty, queens of europe, womens history, women in history, badass women in history, nefertiti, queen nefertiti, Tutankhamun, king tut, howard carter, egyptian history, ancient egypt, egyptian mummies, mummy, king tutankhamun, pharaoh nefertiti, pharaoh Akhetaten, Amenhotep IV

Id: UIYY0qVCdBw

Length: 18min 27sec (1107 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2021