Nefertiti: Egypt's Sun Queen - Softcover

Tyldesley, Joyce A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140258205 ISBN 13: 9780140258202

Publisher: Penguin Group USA Inc., 1998

Synopsis

Nefertiti (c.1350 BC) is widely known from the exquisite painted bust of her in the Berlin Museum. But beyond this image we know little about her. Wife of Akhenaten, the monotheistic pharaoh, adored by her family, blessed by the sun god, and worshipped by her people, Nefertiti suddenly and completely vanished from the record. Was she banished by her husband or raised to rule as his equal? Did she reign, under another name, in her own right? Could she have been the `eminence grise' behind the young Tutankhamun, her son-in-law? Tyldesley draws on archaeological, textual and artistic evidence in a detailed discussion of Nefertiti's life and times at the ephemeral and heretical Amarna court.

About this title

Review:

She was the beloved wife of "heretic king" Akhenaton, who defied ancient custom by practicing monotheism and by elevating Nefertiti far above the role of subservient consort previously played by Egyptian queens. Her image has ravished Western viewers ever since a magnificent limestone bust unearthed at the royal retreat of Amarna went on display in Berlin in 1924. But frustratingly few facts are known about this woman who lived more than three millennia ago. As she did in Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh, British archeologist Joyce Tyldesley makes a virtue of necessity by writing a book that is as much a cultural history as a biography. As Akhenaton swept away the plethora of old gods, dismaying many of his subjects, he needed a strong female figure to soften the abstract austerity of Aten, the sun deity; his beautiful queen was celebrated in official art and inscriptions that focused on the domestic life of the royal family. Tyldesley meticulously analyzes this iconography to evaluate Nefertiti's position in Egypt and her importance to her husband, who clearly cherished her beyond the demands of propriety or political necessity. The author cannot give readers a strong sense of Nefertiti's personality--the evidence simply isn't there--but she paints a wonderfully evocative picture of life at the civilized heart of the ancient world. --Wendy Smith

About the Author:

Joyce Tyldesley, holder of a doctorate from Oxford University, is Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics, and Oriental Studies at Liverpool University, England. She is the author of Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh and Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Group USA Inc.
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0140258205
• ISBN 13: 9780140258202
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256