Royal makeover

Legendary beauty Nefertiti may have had wrinkles after all. Nevine El-Aref reviews the evidence

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Since it was discovered in 1912 by the German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt, the painted bust of Nefertiti, excavated from the studio of the sculptor Tuthmosis, has been an icon of female perfection. When it was exhibited to the public for the first time in 1923 it drew thousands of admirers who marvelled at the symmetrical features of Akhenaten's queen.

The bust shows a woman with a long neck, elegantly arched brows, high cheekbones, a slender nose and a smile drawn on her red lips. Recent CT scans carried out by a German team of researchers led by Alexander Huppertz, director of the Imaging Science Institute at Berlin's Charite Hospital and Medical School, however, indicate the royal image may well have been touched up. According to a report published last week in the monthly journal of the Radiology Society of North America, the Nefertiti bust has two faces, one on top of the other.

Huppertz's team has discovered that the stone core of the bust is a detailed sculpture of the queen. "The hypothesis was that the stone underneath was just a support," he says.

The differences between the faces, though slight -- creases at the corners of the mouth and a bump on the nose of the stone version -- have led Huppertz to suggest that the statue was altered on the express orders of someone when royal sculptors immortalised the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten 3,300 years ago.

The bust last underwent a CT scan in 1992. The primitive scanner used then only generated cross sections of the statue every 5mm, not enough detail, says Huppertz, to reveal the subtlety of the carving just one to two millimetres beneath the stucco.

John H. Taylor, of the British Museum in London, believes that while the scan raises interesting questions about why the features were adjusted the answers will probably remain elusive.

"One could deduce that the final version was considered in some way more acceptable than the hidden one, though caution is needed in attempting to explain the significance of these changes," Taylor told AP.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), describes the findings as good for science and for the preservation of such a bust.

"The research provided detailed information about the condition of the bust as well as showing its weak points, the areas where the stucco is vulnerable." He says he will ask Germany to send a detailed report about the CT scan to Egypt.

Hawass criticised the German authorities for not informing Egypt about the recent studies, insisting the bust is an Egyptian artefact even if it is in Berlin.

"Egypt is now looking for documents to show how the bust was removed from Egypt and will ask for its return if it is proved that the bust was illegally smuggled out of the country," says Hawass.

Realism was the preferred style during the Amarna era which, says Hawass, means the carving of Nefertiti replicates the queen's features. "If we painted the plain bust of Nefertiti on display now at the Egyptian Museum," he points out, "it would be very similar to the head in Berlin."