In a previous article that appeared on France 24, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, stated that the director of the Egyptian antiquities department would be coming to Cairo on December 8, 2009, to present his evidence that the famous bust of Nefertiti had been removed from Egypt via “proper channels” (Source).

The iconic statue was brought to Germany in the early days of the Twentieth Century by archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt.  But since 1930 Egypt has insisted the acquisition violated the rules in place at the time, which required that singularly unique artifacts were to remain in Egypt.  Hawass insists that Egypt is in possession of evidence that Borchardt knowingly and illegally removed the bust by deception. 

According to The Peninsula, the director of the Egyptian Papyrus Collection will represent Berlin’s Neues Museum at the December 20 summit.  Dr. Hawass will speak for Egypt.  “The only thing we are going to discuss is whether the director has any legal papers to show that the bust of Nefertiti left Egypt legally,” Hawass said. “All evidence that I collected till now shows the bust of Nefertiti left Egypt illegally” (Source).

The Bust of Nefertiti—still stirring hearts after all these years (Photo by RinzeWind)

The bust of Nefertiti was moved from the Altes Museum to the newly-restored Neues Museum on September 4, 2009, and has been on public display since October 17.  Dietrich Wildung, director of Berlin’s Egyptian Museum, had originally dug in his heels regarding the issue of repatriation, but Hawass’ recent success with forcing the Louvre to return five sections of a wall removed from the tomb of Tetaki (TT15) seems to have everyone in the mood to discuss their options again.

Ultimately the entire argument may prove to be moot.  Wildung claims that the artifact is too delicate to risk moving to Cairo, and regardless of who may have legal claims to it, the statue’s safety must be the primary concern.  It would seem that the logical first step would be to have a neutral third party of experts evaluate the condition of Nefertiti and determine whether or not she is safe to travel.  But having a decision before Hawass is allowed to present his evidence might rob Egypt of an opportunity to strike a moral victory, if not actually bring the queen home.

See also:

• The Nefertiti Summit: Will the Evidence Finally be Revealed?
• Nefertiti, the Life and Death of King Tut, and KV64: The October Checklist
• The Year of Nefertiti: Will Zahi Hawass’ Final Year at the SCA be a Last Dance with a Queen?

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2009.  All rights reserved. 

Photographs “la belle est venue” by Audinou and “Berlin 053” by RinzeWind are used in accordance with this Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. 

When I interviewed Dr. Zahi Hawass on August 7, 2009, for Heritage Key  I asked him about the famous bust of Nefertiti.  Previous statements had indicated that the Egyptian position was that the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt had used “unethical tactics” to acquire the statue.  At that time Hawass stated that the evidence was being collected and that he would reveal it when he wrote a letter to the museum in Berlin demanding her return to Egypt.

But Germany, who has had possession of the bust since shortly after her discovery by Borchardt in 1913, and where she has been on display since 1923, considers the queen to be a part of their own “cultural heritage.”  In an article that appeared in the August 20-26, 2009, online issue of Al-Ahram, Queen of Egypt’s heart, Wildung made it clear that Germany had no plans to relinquish the artifact.

“We could never be certain that she would arrive in good health,” Wildung told Al-Ahram.  “The bust, which is made of limestone and thick layers of plaster, is very sensitive to vibration, shock, and any change of temperature, and is too fragile to travel.”

But travel she has.  According to ABC News, Nefertiti Bust Moved to New Berlin Home, the bust of Nefertiti was moved on Sunday, September 4^th, “with the greatest care” from the Altes Museum to the recently restored Neues Museum, where she will go on public display on October 17, 2009.  Granted, the Neues is just next door to the Altes, but it does raise the question of why an equal amount of care could not be exercised for a trip to Cairo.

A depiction of the Neues Museum circa 1862. It was destroyed during WWII but has been recently restored and will reopen October 17, 2009. From a lithograph by Eduard Gaertner.

According to an article appearing last week in Ria Novosti, Egyptian archaeologists to search for Cleopatra tomb, Hawass is supposed to send his letter demanding Nefertiti back this week.  Given that she has just settled into her new “permanent home,” and that Hawass will be retiring from his position with the Supreme Council of Antiquities in less than a year, one is tempted to see his efforts with the bust of Nefertiti as purely symbolic.  Dr. Hawass, no doubt, would protest that notion, and in his defense, Hawass is credited for having repatriated over six thousand artifacts for Egypt in the last seven years.

I promised back on September 25^th with our October Checklist that this was going to be an exciting month!  Keep checking in with Em Hotep! for the latest.

Photographs ”Nefertiti berlin.jpg” by Zserghei, “Neues Museum Aegyptischer Hof.jpg” by ONAR are provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright by Keith Payne, 2009, all rights reserved.

Dr. Hawass has promised, hinted, and suggested that October 2009 is going to be a particularly active month.  Just for fun, let’s make a checklist…

Nefertiti’s Bust

Dr. Hawass has stated that the evidence that Ludwig Borchardt used “unethical tactics” to acquire the bust of Nefertiti for Germany will be publicly revealed this October when he writes to the Altes Museum in Berlin to request the iconic artifact be returned to Egypt.

Source:  Exclusive Interview: Dr Zahi Hawass in Indianapolis

Tutankhamun’s Paternity Tests

The results of DNA tests conducted on a mummified fetus recovered from Tut’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 will be announced.

Source:  The Sacramento Bee:  Spotlight on Exhibits

KV64

Dr. Hawass expressed at a lecture in Indianapolis on August 7^th, 2009, that a new tomb will hopefully be revealed by the all-Egyptian team in October. 

Source:  Lecture Review: Zahi Hawass’ Mysteries of King Tut Revealed

The Cause of Tutankhamun’s Death

The cause of Tutankhamun’s death would be revealed “in one month”.  This statement was made on August 7^th.  As it hasn’t occurred yet, hoping for this rather tantalizing tidbit to be delivered in October is not too unreasonable!

Source:  Lecture Review: Zahi Hawass’ Mysteries of King Tut Revealed

Zahi Reality TV

This is another one that might be a stretch, but it is in print, sort of.  Work is to begin “roughly October 2009” on a History Channel television show where Dr. Hawass will travel with a small team of students to a variety of sites in Egypt.

Source:  New TV show with Dr Zahi Hawass – Archaeologists Wanted

So there you have it—five things to look forward to in October!  I think that obviously KV64 and the DNA results are the most important for Egyptology, but the cause of Tut’s death and the repatriation of Nefertiti’s bust are far from insignificant. 

As for the TV show..  I don’t know.  Maybe if they spice it up a bit.  Each week our intrepid young Egyptologists should have to justify their worthiness, and the least convincing gets voted off the show.  At the end of the season the winner gets to keep Nefertiti’s bust.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2009.  All rights reserved.

But somehow Nefertiti seems to keep slipping back into the story.

When I interviewed Zahi Hawass for Heritage Key back in August (see Exclusive Interview: Dr Zahi Hawass in Indianapolis) a lot of interesting hints were tossed out for the curious.  It’s no secret that he will be retiring from the Supreme Council of Antiquities, but it’s also no surprise that Dr. Hawass’ influence will continue to be felt in Egyptology for years, probably decades.  After all, he is retiring his position, not his pick and shovel.

In the same interview Dr. Hawass revealed that he would not only continue writing, but that his work in the Valley of the Kings is far from over, so weep not for the Good Doctor just yet.  Zahi Hawass is like the Terminator—so long as there is a spark alive within him he will continue to dig.  But nonetheless, what will the last year at the helm of the SCA hold for Egyptology’s consummate showman?

There are the secret doors in the Great Pyramid, where he has hinted that a major breakthrough has already occurred (See Goings-on at Giza in Lecture Review: Zahi Hawass’ Mysteries of King Tut Revealed in my blog on Heritage Key).  No doubt the news will be exciting.  Personally, I think it would be wonderful, poetic, and kind of funny all at once if what he discovered was Jean-Pierre Houdin’s internal ramp, but you can expect more about that on Em Hotep! in coming weeks.  Stranger things have happened…

There is the restoration work taking place in the complex of Djoser and the tomb of Seti I, and practically everywhere in Thebes.  Historic mosques, even churches and synagogues, are benefitting from conservation efforts as well.  All important, to be certain, but not quite the sort of headline grabbers that get a National Geographic Explorer special.

Let’s not forget the forensic mummy studies.  In the Lecture at Clowes Hall that preceded the interview, Dr. Hawass let drop that he would be revealing sometime in September exactly what caused the death of Tutankhamun.  That’s pretty exciting. 

Then there are the DNA studies…

One of Dr. Hawass’ most exciting projects has been the genetic mapping of the Eighteenth Dynasty.  This is important because there are a lot of anonymous New Kingdom mummies, and hidden somewhere within the pile are such luminaries as Tutankhamun’s parents, Queen Tiye, and yes, Nefertiti.

Another fact Dr. Hawass mentioned in the above lecture is that a second lab has confirmed that Tutankhamun is the father of one of the fetuses recovered from his tomb, and that both studies have been submitted for peer review.  If it turns out that Tut is the father, then cross analysis will also identify the mother, Ankhesenamun, who happens to be the daughter of Nefertiti.

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Hawass revealed in an article on Al-Ahram Weekly On-Line (“Dig Days:  The Search for Queen Mutnodjmet”) that a genetic profile was to be constructed for Queen Mutnodjmet, as soon as they could relocate her missing mummy.  He goes on to say that this would bring us closer to identifying Queen Nefertiti, who happens to be Mutnodjmet’s sister  is thought by some, including Dr. Hawass, to be Mutnojmet’s sister.  For the full story, see my blog entry at Heritage Key, Queen Mutnodjmet: Another Branch in Tutankhamun’s Genetic Line Found (and Lost)?

This is called triangulation.  I am no Dominick Dunne, may he rest in peace, but identifying Queen Nefertiti through both Ankhesenamun and Mutnodjmet [given that they are sisters--Ed.] seems to make a pretty solid case.  So assuming final confirmation of Tut’s paternity and the subsequent cross analysis of the fetus, and assuming the AWOL Queen Mutnodjmet makes a show, we may have the positive identification of Nefertiti’s mummy some time this year.

If I may again refer to the August 7^th lecture at Indianapolis, Dr. Hawass stated that he hopes to reveal a “new tomb” in October.  He then states later that he hopes to reveal the location of Nefertiti’s tomb this winter (2009/10).  To speculate on a connection here would be, well, speculation.  But it would not be unlike Dr. Hawass to announce the location of a new tomb one month, and then identify it several months later.  He is a master of suspense.

The smart money, however, is on the “October Surprise” being KV64, and I have to admit that I tend to agree.  That wouldn’t be a bad thing.  Getting both KV64 and Nefertiti’s tomb within months of each other would make my Christmas merry, and I’m a Buddhist.  But either way, Dr. Hawass did state explicitly that he hopes to reveal the location of Nefertiti’s tomb this winter, probably under a modern rest house just northeast of Seti I’s tomb.  So far that gives us the mummy and tomb of Nefertiti.

To refer again to the Heritage Key interview, one of the things I asked Dr. Hawass about was the repatriation of the bust of Nefertiti.  He responded that he would be writing a letter this October to the Altes Museum in Berlin requesting that the artifact be returned.  In another recent article in Al-Ahram Weekly (“Queen of Egypt’s Heart”) we learn that Germany is prepared for a fight, but so is the dauntless Dr. Hawass.  For more on this, see my blog entry at Heritage Key, The Bust of Nefertiti – A Century-Old Archaeological Detective Story Nearing an End?

Dr. Hawass mentioned in the interview that he has about ten (!) books coming out in the next year, eight of which he more or less identified.  That leaves two.  Who wants to bet one of them will be about Nefertiti?  Of course, I could be way off base with all of this, and Nefertiti may end up playing a bit part in Dr. Hawass’ Final Act with the Supreme Council of Antiquities.  And stockbrokers are hardly reliable these days.  But I stand by my advice—if you are investing in Egyptian personas this year, buy Nefertiti.  You’ll thank me.

Copyright 2009, all rights reserved.

Props go to Timothy Reid of The Egyptians for first blogging about the latest news in this on-going controversy.  After you check out his scoop, Nefertiti Please Come Home, hop over to Heritage Key where I blog about this as well under my daytime name, Keith Payne:  The Bust of Nefertiti – A Century-Old Archaeological Detective Story Nearing an End?

Zahi Hawass is going full court.  We’ll see how far he gets!

Photograph ”Nefertiti berlin.jpg” by Wiki user Zserghei, is provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license