KV35: Tales of a beautiful face?
Jan. 8th, 2004 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootThis post is likely to be long and rambling. There’s a lot tumbling around my mind this morning, as I try to work up the energy to go to my accountant. Last night was very interesting. I did a full moon ritual focusing on the aspect of Goddess commonly known as Freya, and all I can say is that I think she’s partial to peach schnappes. The rest of the night was spent watching channel 5, and cuddling up in the arms of my love. I went to sleep contented and intrigued, only to undergo strange sad nightmares about what I had been watching. They weren’t frightening dreams, just woeful ones, and I refuse to give them even virtual reality by describing them.
They were triggered, I think, by this programme on the subject of the mummy of Queen Nefertiti. I bumped into the programme by accident, but once it mentioned the Pharoah Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti and the desert city of Tel Al Armana, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. Years ago I worked with others on a Victorian Vampire freeform (‘The Feast of All Souls’) which specifically had some of this stuff in its background.
Now I see I should have developed it further. The drama to be dug out of this could have been magnificent, and I feel that a great opportunity was missed. It doesn’t matter now, but I won’t be haunted by tales of immortal hatred, especially in my sleep.
Here then, is the material I should have used, some of it from the programme, some of it stuff I knew before. I can’t imagine anyone finding this interesting except me, so out of courtesy, here comes the tag.
Nefertiti’s face is famous. There is a renowned bust of her which demonstrates the most perfect bone structure ever recorded anywhere. Down through the centuries people have stopped to look at her, some wondering if this Egyptian beauty was the legendary seductress Cleopatra VIII, lover of Mark Antony and Julius Caeser. In fact, that particular lady was not renowned for her beauty, but for the sound of her voice and the brilliance of her conversation. It was Cleo’s mind, not her face, that lured lovers to her.
Nefertiti is an image of beauty without other concepts intruding. In terms of the caucasian ideal, her face is as near as possible to perfection.
In tomb KV35, in the valley of the kings, lie three royal mummies, one thought to be the mother (grandmother? I can’t remember) of Akhenaten, one thought to be Tuthmosis, his brother, and a woman, unknown. They were all picked clean by grave robbers long ago, but the unknown woman, unlike the others, has been severely mutilated. Her right arm has been wrenched off, and her jaw has been smashed in. Near her mummy, a right arm has been found that seems to fit her. That right arm is crossed, the position of the fingers holding a sceptre: The sign of a dead pharaoh, not a pharoah’s wife. Her jaw being smashed in is a very serious mutilation, for it would mean that the soul of the deceased could not speak her name before the gods, could not breathe in the air of the otherworld. A terrible revenge, deliberated to be eternal and irrevocable.
The programme posits that this mummy is that of Nefertiti, and I am not going to chew over the evidence here, I am more interested in the story of Nefertiti.
She and her husband Akhenaten pharaoh of the late 18th Dynasty, ( some 3000 years ago) decided to overthrow the worship of the old gods of Egypt in favour of their own new god, the Aten, the power behind the sun.
Their main enemies were the rich and conservative priests of Amen Ra, based at the capital of Thebes. Akhenaten and his wife built a new city in the desert, Armana, dedicated to the Aten, power behind the sun.
They were high priest and priestess.
Nefertiti is shown by pharoah's side in all things. She rides her own chariot and she is shown smiting the enemies of the empire, a depiction saved only for pharaoh. Queen, pharaoh, priestess, neargoddess, she was the most powerful woman on earth.
The programme suggests that a reign of terror then ensued as the old gods were swept away, and that the prevalent images of a kindly pharaoh and his beautiful wife with their kids swarming all over them were just propaganda.
I do not agree with this. From what I saw in Egypt, I concur with the general historical consensus that the art of the period was far more realistic than that of other dynasties. Akhenaten is shown as benign, smiling, but he’s undoubtedly no beauty. Unlike other pharaohs, the emphasis is not on his perfection or his strength, or his supremacy, but on his smile.
His wife’s face and long elegant neck are clearly depicted, but so are her big thighs and bulging tummy and spindly legs. No, my subjective conclusion is that they really looked like that, that he was a man who wanted people to see his humanity, and she was astonishingly beautiful. If there was upheaval it was because Akhenaten had all the political nous of a moose.
There is a strange pathos in the thought that if the mutilated mummy is really hers, then Nefertiti’s image, an icon on so many Egyptian medallions, is harmed in the one place that matters, her own body.
What is it that is so loathsome about the crime of mutilating a dead beauty? Another Queen, Hatshepsut, suffered more, an almost complete damnatio memorae. But this is different, an unending testimony to the kind of hate that wants to smash your face in, to fuck you up forever. It made me shudder. It is one thing to defile the dead, another to deface the exquisite. And if the mummy is not Nefertiti’s? Not so bad then? Shallowboot!
The story goes like this: some kind of plague hits the new city and one of Nefertiti’s little daughters is killed by it. In the twelth year of Akhenaten’s reign, Nefertiti’s name is no longer recorded. She is replaced by a new consort called Smenkarnay (phonetic spelling I’m afraid) who shares the same, rare, middle name as her predecessor. Smenkarnay outlives Akhenaten, takes little Tutenkhamen and the other kids back to Thebes, rules as pharaoh and teaches the children the old ways. Smenkarnay also just disappears from the records. Tel Al Armana is deserted.
I can’t believe my research was so crap as to bimble around this without using it properly. Mind you, the Feast was groaning at the seams already. It needed curtailing, not expanding. Still, out of deference to a great drama, I am glad to have recorded this info, like a dutiful bard.
Night old
Ashes cold
Story told
And there you have it.
They were triggered, I think, by this programme on the subject of the mummy of Queen Nefertiti. I bumped into the programme by accident, but once it mentioned the Pharoah Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti and the desert city of Tel Al Armana, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. Years ago I worked with others on a Victorian Vampire freeform (‘The Feast of All Souls’) which specifically had some of this stuff in its background.
Now I see I should have developed it further. The drama to be dug out of this could have been magnificent, and I feel that a great opportunity was missed. It doesn’t matter now, but I won’t be haunted by tales of immortal hatred, especially in my sleep.
Here then, is the material I should have used, some of it from the programme, some of it stuff I knew before. I can’t imagine anyone finding this interesting except me, so out of courtesy, here comes the tag.
Nefertiti’s face is famous. There is a renowned bust of her which demonstrates the most perfect bone structure ever recorded anywhere. Down through the centuries people have stopped to look at her, some wondering if this Egyptian beauty was the legendary seductress Cleopatra VIII, lover of Mark Antony and Julius Caeser. In fact, that particular lady was not renowned for her beauty, but for the sound of her voice and the brilliance of her conversation. It was Cleo’s mind, not her face, that lured lovers to her.
Nefertiti is an image of beauty without other concepts intruding. In terms of the caucasian ideal, her face is as near as possible to perfection.
In tomb KV35, in the valley of the kings, lie three royal mummies, one thought to be the mother (grandmother? I can’t remember) of Akhenaten, one thought to be Tuthmosis, his brother, and a woman, unknown. They were all picked clean by grave robbers long ago, but the unknown woman, unlike the others, has been severely mutilated. Her right arm has been wrenched off, and her jaw has been smashed in. Near her mummy, a right arm has been found that seems to fit her. That right arm is crossed, the position of the fingers holding a sceptre: The sign of a dead pharaoh, not a pharoah’s wife. Her jaw being smashed in is a very serious mutilation, for it would mean that the soul of the deceased could not speak her name before the gods, could not breathe in the air of the otherworld. A terrible revenge, deliberated to be eternal and irrevocable.
The programme posits that this mummy is that of Nefertiti, and I am not going to chew over the evidence here, I am more interested in the story of Nefertiti.
She and her husband Akhenaten pharaoh of the late 18th Dynasty, ( some 3000 years ago) decided to overthrow the worship of the old gods of Egypt in favour of their own new god, the Aten, the power behind the sun.
Their main enemies were the rich and conservative priests of Amen Ra, based at the capital of Thebes. Akhenaten and his wife built a new city in the desert, Armana, dedicated to the Aten, power behind the sun.
They were high priest and priestess.
Nefertiti is shown by pharoah's side in all things. She rides her own chariot and she is shown smiting the enemies of the empire, a depiction saved only for pharaoh. Queen, pharaoh, priestess, neargoddess, she was the most powerful woman on earth.
The programme suggests that a reign of terror then ensued as the old gods were swept away, and that the prevalent images of a kindly pharaoh and his beautiful wife with their kids swarming all over them were just propaganda.
I do not agree with this. From what I saw in Egypt, I concur with the general historical consensus that the art of the period was far more realistic than that of other dynasties. Akhenaten is shown as benign, smiling, but he’s undoubtedly no beauty. Unlike other pharaohs, the emphasis is not on his perfection or his strength, or his supremacy, but on his smile.
His wife’s face and long elegant neck are clearly depicted, but so are her big thighs and bulging tummy and spindly legs. No, my subjective conclusion is that they really looked like that, that he was a man who wanted people to see his humanity, and she was astonishingly beautiful. If there was upheaval it was because Akhenaten had all the political nous of a moose.
There is a strange pathos in the thought that if the mutilated mummy is really hers, then Nefertiti’s image, an icon on so many Egyptian medallions, is harmed in the one place that matters, her own body.
What is it that is so loathsome about the crime of mutilating a dead beauty? Another Queen, Hatshepsut, suffered more, an almost complete damnatio memorae. But this is different, an unending testimony to the kind of hate that wants to smash your face in, to fuck you up forever. It made me shudder. It is one thing to defile the dead, another to deface the exquisite. And if the mummy is not Nefertiti’s? Not so bad then? Shallowboot!
The story goes like this: some kind of plague hits the new city and one of Nefertiti’s little daughters is killed by it. In the twelth year of Akhenaten’s reign, Nefertiti’s name is no longer recorded. She is replaced by a new consort called Smenkarnay (phonetic spelling I’m afraid) who shares the same, rare, middle name as her predecessor. Smenkarnay outlives Akhenaten, takes little Tutenkhamen and the other kids back to Thebes, rules as pharaoh and teaches the children the old ways. Smenkarnay also just disappears from the records. Tel Al Armana is deserted.
I can’t believe my research was so crap as to bimble around this without using it properly. Mind you, the Feast was groaning at the seams already. It needed curtailing, not expanding. Still, out of deference to a great drama, I am glad to have recorded this info, like a dutiful bard.
Night old
Ashes cold
Story told
And there you have it.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-08 03:32 am (UTC)I think I may have seen the same programme a while ago on the discovery or history channel. I love eqyptian history/mythology and I guess that's where Melissa comes from :)
If I remember correctly the name of the female, that they now believe to be Nefertiti, had been defaced all over the tomb, no record of the name existed there and that should have been sufficient to prevent her ascension.
Ooh am all goosybumpy now :D
*hugs*
Wends
xx
no subject
Date: 2004-01-08 10:51 am (UTC)Still, hopefully, no nightmares tonight...
Hope you got your thunderstorm!