Archaeology: Nefertiti Found?

Given the spectacular manner in which Queen Nefertiti lived, you would think she would have equally spectacular accommodations in death. She and her Pharaoh husband lived on the breezy east bank of the Nile in a palace stuffed with throne rooms, pools and spacious courtyards. She was both queen and goddess, serving as a high priest at religious ceremonies and standing by her husband at the Window of Appearances. Yet the culture whose pyramids, mummies and dazzling burial chambers set the ancient standards for funerary grandeur appears to have forgotten Nefertiti. The glamorous young queen died more than 3,300 years ago, and sometime thereafter her body and all the accoutrements of her entombment disappeared without a trace.

Until, perhaps, now. A team of archaeologists, radiologists and scholars returned from Egypt earlier this year with what they claim are compelling clues that a stripped and mutilated mummy, first discovered in a side chamber of a royal Egyptian tomb more than 100 years ago, is the lost Nefertiti. The new expedition, funded by the Discovery Channel, will be chronicled in a TV special to be broadcast on Aug. 17. But much of the scientists' new evidence was shown to TIME last week. It is by no means conclusive--much of it is merely circumstantial. However, it may be as close as anyone has come to the queen in a long time.

From the beginning of her moment in the public eye, Nefertiti had a star quality that transcended her epoch. Her swan neck, flawless face and curvaceous figure seem to justify her name, which means "the beautiful one is come." Her parents are unknown, although some scholars believe her father eventually became Tutankhamen's vizier (a sort of prime minister) and then ascended the throne himself. Nefertiti was chosen as principal wife of young Amenhotep IV, who became Pharaoh in about 1350 B.C. At the time of her marriage, she may have been no older than 12.

The reign of Amenhotep shook things up in Egypt. The priesthood surrounding Egypt's traditional polytheistic religion had accumulated enormous power. Rather than try to wrest it from the priests, the young king simply pulled their religion out from under them. He abolished the polytheistic system and replaced it with a religion based on the worship of Aten, the sun god. The Pharaoh even changed his name to Akhenaten--or "one who serves Aten." This undoubtedly made him a despised figure among the orthodox, a hostility that spilled over to his queen who, if ancient reliefs are to be believed, also wielded enormous power. "She is literally hand in hand with Akhenaten at religious ceremonies and state occasions," says Egyptologist Rita Freed of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

Things apparently got dicey for Nefertiti sometime after the 12th year of Akhenaten's 17-year reign. She vanished from the historical record about that time. She may have died or, Egyptologists speculate, may have served as co-regent with her husband and after his death, as Pharaoh herself. If so, she ruled under a different name and only briefly, until Tutankhamen took over.