21 - 27 March 2002
Issue No.578
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 March 2002 Issue No.578 |
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Dreams can come true
How did the beautiful head of Queen Nefertiti leave Egypt? Is it legal for Germany to keep possession of this Egyptian treasure? I will explain its history, and leave it to you, the reader, to decide.
A German expedition under Ludwig Borchardt discovered the head of Queen Nefertiti while excavating at Tel Al-Amarna in 1925. It was found in an ancient sculptor's studio at the site, and if you want to see this incredible artefact today you must travel to the Berlin Museum. I did this. I went to Berlin, and I visited the museum with Dietrich Wilding, the director. When I looked at this beautiful head of Queen Nefertiti, wife of the heretic King Akhenaten -- the first king who believed in one god, and who saw the power of that god, the Aten, behind the sun -- I could see and feel the aura of mystery that surrounds the queen. The head of Nefertiti is beautifully coloured and has one eye; the other is blank. Nevertheless, the bust is breathtaking. Nefertiti, who featured prominently in what is known as Amarna Art, appears beside her husband on all his major monuments. Her parents are not known and, like her mother-in-law, Queen Tiye, she was probably of non-royal birth. Her name means, "The beautiful one is coming," but Nefertiti later changed her name to Nefer-Neferu- Aten, or "Beautiful is the beauty of the Aten." I imagined a day when we could view this beautiful head in Cairo's Egyptian Museum. How did we come to lose such a masterpiece?
According to Borchardt, who discovered the head at Tel Al-Amarna, he did not clean it. He left it covered with mud when he took it to the Egyptian Museum for the usual division of spoils from the excavation. At that time it was required by law for expeditions to take antiquities unearthed during their excavations to the then Antiquities Service, where a special committee supervised the division of monuments. The service, on that occasion, took the limestone statues of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and gave the head of the Queen Nefertiti to the expedition because it was made of gypsum ... or so they thought.
There were those who said that Borchardt had disguised the head, covering it with a layer of gypsum to ensure that the committee would not see its beauty, and would not realise that it was actually made of beautiful painted limestone. Egyptologist Wilding disclaimed this story. He said that the head of Nefertiti left Cairo legally and that the committee knew it was made of limestone.
Anyway, Borchardt went back to Germany and took the head of Nefertiti with him. Later, the Egyptian government made an attempt to have the bust returned, but when Hitler came to power he announced that Nefertiti was his beloved possession and that she would remain in Germany forever. In 1978, Mohamed Abdel-Qader became the chairman of the then Egyptian Antiquities Organisation and approached the German ambassador in Cairo with view to having it returned, but to no avail.
Museums all over the world house artefacts which, in my opinion, should be on show in Cairo. For example, a few weeks ago I went to London to give a lecture at the British Museum. Together with my friend Vivian Davies, head of the Egyptology Department at the museum, I stood in front of the Rosetta Stone. As I stood there, I wished that one day it could be returned to Cairo so that our children would be able to see it and stand in front of this important historical monument as we were doing. One of Napoleon's officers found the stone in the summer of 1799 near the Rosetta Branch of the Nile. The British took the stone from the French in 1802. This incredible monument is made of basalt, and the text is written in three scripts: classical Greek, Hieroglyphics, and Demotic. It is a decree written by Egyptian priests in 196BC honouring King Ptolemy V because he gave many privileges to the temples.
Another important artefact that I think should be brought home to Egypt is the statue of Ankh-khaf, discovered by George Reisner on the east side of the Great Pyramid. Some scholars believe that Ankh-khaf was the architect of the Great Pyramid. When we look at the head of the statue, currently on display at the Museum if Fine Arta in Boston, we can see the bone structure beneath. It is a masterpiece, and has no parallel in any museum in Egypt.
The last piece I would like to see in Egypt is the Zodiac discovered at the Temple of Dendera, and now exhibited in Paris. This is an astrological chart which mentions the positions of the planets as well as the lunar and solar eclipses.
Much as I would like to see these artefacts back in their motherland, I would settle for an agreement with the museums to exhibit the objects for a year at the Egyptian Museum. Then our children, and Egyptians who cannot travel abroad, would have a chance to see these marvellous objects that are part of our national heritage.
Imagine opening a newspaper and reading: "Nefertiti is back in Egypt."
A dream? Perhaps. But some dreams can come true.
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