One of the most stunning and familiar objects from ancient Egypt is the bust of Nefertiti whose life is the subject of this book by Joyce Tyldesley. Because of the bust (now kept in Berlin), which portrays its subject as very beautiful, there has grown up a mythology about Nefertiti and the object of this book is to communicate what we actually know about the famous queen.
Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaton, an Egyptian king who walked away from the previous polytheistic religious traditions and started the worship of the sun as the sole deity. It was a change that didn’t last long after his death and as a result statues and records of the reign of Akhenaton and his queen were destroyed. This means that piecing together the life of the people at the time is difficult and there are many questions unanswered.
The author looks at the facts and what we can reasonably assume from them. It is possible that Nefertiti ruled jointly with her husband for a period. It is also possible that she died before her husband when she was still quite young because all the images and records we have for her stop suddenly. We don’t know much about her heritage or parents. Her body and burial items have never been found. The author argues that we may magnify the importance of Nefertiti purely because we have such a lovely image of her and that this may not mean that she was more important than other queens whose images have not been found.
I have a slight interest in ancient Egypt but a very basic knowledge. I still found this book accessible. I liked the way that the author examined her evidence and showed us the different possibilities. This is not a long book but I found it an interesting one.
Anne Is Reading 