Powerful queen

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Cleopatra: The Story of the Queen of Egypt

cleopatra was born in 69 bc

in the city of alexandria founded by

alexander the great

situated in the nile delta cleopatra was

an important queen of ancient

egypt and her name continues to this day

she is one of the best known women in

the history of mankind throughout her life she stood as a

strategist determined very intelligent cunning

and owner of a gigantic fortune once

the greek philosopher plutarch wrote the following about her the contact with her presence if we lived with her

was irresistible the egyptian ruler fascinated many people

in her time to this day she continues to enchant

many her life trajectory is widely studied

researched and debated in order to understand her greatness

there are some interesting facts

in a temple dedicated to the goddess

venus at the request of the roman leader julius caesar

who was cleopatra's lover a golden

statue of the egyptian queen was built

there are records that this monument was seen and venerated at the site

until at least the 2nd century a.d curiously

cleopatra was even venerated as a true goddess more precisely as a new goddess isis one of the most important deities of ancient egypt

she was also identified as aphrodite

greek goddess whose attributes are similar to those of isis cleopatra also had refined intelligence she received a remarkable education together with the other children of royalty she was educated in the palace where she lived

cleopatra was able to speak seven or eight languages

which greatly facilitated her agreements

and political stratagems. she was reportedly the first person in her family to speak the egyptian

language without interpreters in addition she

succeeded in studying philosophy

and rhetoric from an early age. she learned oratory

which she knew how to use in a very intelligent way speaking with the correct posture appropriate gestures

and a soft voice with regard to her vast knowledge

it should be remembered that cleopatra

lived in alexandria a cultural center in antiquity with the famous library of alexandria full of many literary works in an unprecedented structure these local circumstances

were very important and influential in the cultural formation of the egyptian her achievements made her the lover of two of the most famous roman generals of her time julius caesar and mark anthony as is often the case with historical figures much information about the life of this remarkable woman has been distorted over time today we can find the image of cleopatra stamped on the most varied objects and her names known by many people although not by everyone what she was like in reality

in fact these physical representations of the figure of the queen usually consist of one of the many distorted points in her story regarding the queen's look plutarch wrote the following words she wasn't so unique that there were no

comparison or that we couldn't look at her without

being touched we can also get an idea of

how she was physicall through various coins that were created and circulated at the time when cleopatra lived These objects are the most reliable sources for us to imagine what she looked like there are also some bus sculpted over time that apparently represent the queen

when we see the coins we noticed the protrusion of the nose and chin in fact the philosopher pascal wrote if

cleopatra's nose had been smaller the whole face of the world would have been different taking into account this comic phrase and noticing the features that the powerful egyptian woman has in the coins we can conclude that perhaps she was notvas extraordinarily beautiful as the cinema showed us but one thing is certain her conquest and way of being surpassed any hollywood representation et's see now why cleopatra belonged to the ptolemaic dynasty which was in power for three long centuries their rule was marked by many marriages and murders among the family members this imposing dynasty was born after the death of the mighty alexander the great king of macedonia with his death his empire was divided among his generals an ancestor of cleopatra ptolemy the first soder was among them who initiated the ptolemy's dynasty after starting to rule the magnificent city of alexandria an unparalleled cultural center of ancient egypt in view of this geonological tree it is important to remember that the powerful cleopatra referred to cleopatra vii six other cleopatra preceded her in her family lineage in alexandria the queen lived in a luxurious palace full of wealthiness and beautiful ornaments the palace was huge and spacious with more than 100 rooms and a stunning external landscape there were breathtaking gardens decorated with beautiful statues and fountains. This fantastic palace was constantly enlarged with successive generations of ptolemy and figure the site became the most luxurious palace in the mediterranean. Cleopatra darter otolamy xii grew up in this reality .She had two sisters berenice iv and arsone iv and two brothers ptolemy xiii and ptolemy xiv when her mother died berenice iv settled in power but her period as ruler was short and the young woman was killed by her own father it is important to underline again that the lineage of the ptolemies had as one of its main characteristics the murders later arsoni iv was exiled by julius caesar and later executed by mark anthony at the behest of his own sister cleopatra the fate of ptolemy xiv was no different cleopatra began to rule egypt at the age of 17 after the death of her father according to tradition she married his brother ptolemy xiii who at the time was only 13 years old sometime after cleopatra became the queen of egypt her brother and husband ptolemy xiii began to take an interest in ruling the country without the intervention of his sister pothanus akilos and theodotus of kios three important advisors to the young king agreed with this idea to persuade the young man to break with cleopatra and remove her from power the queen during her government wanted to maintain political ties with italy in a showcase of her strategic skills her goal was to strengthen friendship with the romans who could be important allies in the event of a civil war in Egyptypt her main ally would be general Pompeii leader of one of the most traditional roman families these diplomatic maneuvers led to cleopatra being accused of treason for deceiving her brother at the age of 21 the young ruler was forced to leave alexandria and went into exile in Syriaa where she assembled an army the young egyptian king and his three advisors decided to go in search to the queen to prevent her alexandria at all costs however during their search they learned of the unexpected news pompey who rivaled the great julius caesar was on his way to egyptian lands he thought he would be welcomed by the pharaoh himself.since he had been a great friend of his father pompey the great was a very skilled general throughout his life he conquered countless nations in Africa asia and europe after suffering a defeat in greece the fearful pompey fled to egypt in search of refuge after a disastrous defeat in greece against his enemy julius Caesar a conflict divided the roman empire between pompey and julius Caesar this conflict became known as caesar's civil war upon learning that pompey intended to disembark in the country the egyptian partisans reflected helping the old acquaintance pompey was a risk because it could be interpreted as a declaration of war on julius caesar who commanded a very powerful war machine moreover ptolemy and his allies believed that pompey could go help cleopatra regain her place in royalty and trouble had to be avoided but Pompey had been a great friend of the father of the couple who ruled egypt therefore

If they did not help him he could break ties with the country making egypt an enemy of rome theodotus and the two other councillors achillesand pothonus reflected on the matter it was a difficult decision and the consequences could be risky but eventually as the three counselors struggled to find the solution theodotus with a smile looked at his companions and said the dead do not bite the choice had been made to break up with pompey and establish an alliance with julius caesar as pompey approached alexandria he felt he would be welcomed by the Egyptians but there was already a trap set up against the roman pretending that they would welcome him

Lamicably but as soon as pompey arrived on egyptian soil he was brutally beheaded a few days later julius caesar arrived in alexandria to seek out his adversary the egyptians showed him pompey's head and caesar was shocked by the violence despite being his enemy caesar respected Pompey Lion caesar's orders ptolemy's advisor was executed caesar with his army went to the royal palace where he settled and informed himself that he would like to see the king and the queen it is important to remember that ptolemy the 18th was prepared to face his sister's army when he was informed of julius caesar's arrival he headed for his palace and Cleopatra how could she return if she had abandoned Alexandria and if her brother and faithful guardians wanted her away from the city she was in danger and she knew that she could not be seen then the queen had a rather unusual idea in order to meet julius caesar she created a plan and to put into practice had the help of a sicilian supplier named apollo Doris they entered a boat where the queen was hidden sailing the nile river for eight days when they approached alexandria cleopatra still with the help of Apollo Doris entered a papayas made sack the queen's accomplice tied the big sack with a leather rope and carefully entered the palace leaving the sack in julius caesar's room we don't know exactly what the roman's reaction was when he found Cleopatra but the egyptian woman conquered him immediately

with caesar by his side everything would be easier

the opportunity to get rid of his brother and rule according to his interests was finally within her reach with pompey's assassination julius caesar had a very negative opinion a

Ptolemy cleopatra used the death of his former ally to her advantage the queen convinced caesar that she was the right person for the throne of egypt the queen of egypt and julius caesar entered a loving relationship caesar's decision to support cleopatra angered Ptolemy who declared war on julius Caesar the roman general was at a numerical disadvantage and took a defensive position this event became known as the siege of Alexandria caesar and his men fought hard to defend their position waiting for reinforcements when his allies arrived caesar defeated ptolemy's army at the battle of the nile the young pharaoh drowned in the river with julius caesar the queen had a son named ptolemy caesar historically and popularly known as cesarean caesar's support was crucial to the consolidation of cleopatra's power in egypt the roman general returned to rome and cleopatra reigned over egypt everything seemed to go according to plan but a huge turnaround would eventually happen cleopatra had consolidated her power on throne of egypt and under her administration egypt prospered and the city of alexandria experienced a cultural boom financed by the queen cleopatra organized an expedition to rome in the city she stayed at julius caesar's mansion

the egyptian queen took her son cesarean in the voyage the fruit of her union with the roman general julius caesar was at the height of his power and as the leader of his nation made several political and social reforms he also organized the triumph in his own honor the parade of caesar had the presence of arizony cleopatra's sister displayed as a prisoner symbol of rome's victory over the egyptians caesar introduced the city to the egyptian queen but at the time rome did not yet have the glory that brought it into history it was not yet comparable to alexandria the capital of ptolemaic egypt caesar's relationship with the foreigner was frowned upon by the roman elite there were a lot of rumors and lies about the couple caesar was named dictator in perpetuity and had an unrivaled power the roman senators were left without much of their influence and feared losing their remaining power so they conspired against caesar's life in 44 bc julius caesar was murdered by roman politicians in a senate session chaos engulfed rome general mark anthony caesar's right-hand man pursued the conspirators in a public square he read caesar's will where his son with Cleopatra was not among the heirs in his will caesar indicated his nephew octavius as his success rome was no longer a safe place for the egyptian queen and she returned to her kingdom meanwhile octavius and mark anthony led their armies in the persecution of the men who betrayed caesar there was a remarkable encounter between Cleopatra and marc anthony in the year 41 he sent a messenger to alexandria through this man he called the queen for a meeting in tarsus a city located in present-day turkey the egyptian queen arrived at the agreed place boat the ship had a stern made of gold its oars were made of silver and the sails were purple the navigation was accompanied by music fife liar and flute were played the queen beautiful and ornated was freshened up by her servants and the boat had a wonderful smell the entire population left her duties to follow Cleopatratra's triumphal arrival mark anthony fell in love with her immediately still in 41 bc Cleopatraatra invited the mighty mark anthony to visit Alexandriadria however after spending some time in the egyptian city and getting involved with the queen the roman left and the two continued to exchange correspondence the couple only met again after a long time

but before that reunion something happened in 40 bc cleopatra gave birth to twins recognized by mark anthony himself as their heirs the children were called helios a Greek origin which means sun and selena which means moon during the absence of the roman where he was separated from the egyptian queen he even resumed his relationship with his wife fulvia in rome although he could not forget Cleopatra fulvia eventually died which may have made things easier and made it possible for marc anthony to finally join cleopatra once again but octavius julie caesar's nephew did not want that to happen he suggested that his sister octavia should marry the roman general that happened and they had three kids in two years mark anthony after caesar's death became consul general later his power was divided between him octavius and lepidus a political association known as the second triumvirate lepidus distanced himself from political life which led to a dispute between octavius and mark antony the power in rome was divided between the two caesar's nephew ruled the west while mark anthony managed the eastern provinces although he was married and even against octavius's will the romance between mark anthony and cleopatra was not over they met again in the city of antioch where they made their union official the romance between the two was thriving and they both seemed in love in Alexandria the couple had many parties and banquets where they displayed their sovereignty however the roman was forced to leave Egypt after an attack by the parthians in syria and asia minor the inhabitants of the parthian empire in agent persia octavius reproved this union and was frustrated by the relationship between the roman and the mighty egyptian in part this was due to his sister octavia who ended up rejected by mark antony and also for fear of losing part of the roman empire to the couple a new civil war broke out in rome between the supporters of marc anthony and the defenders of octavius the battle of actium happened in 31 bc in a region in Greece where both faced each other cleopatra accompanied her husband as he headed towards the long battle but when the defeat of marc anthony was already visible she returned to egypt quietly announcing a false triumph octavius achieved a decisive victory in the naval battle of actium and this victory marked the end of the roman republic and the beginning of the imperial period however his opponents eventually discovered the truth while cleopatra tried to maintain her position and conquer allies she did everything she could so tha together with marc anthony they could rise again but he after defeat was no longer the same person octavia said he would forgive cleopatra if she killed her lover ignoring the proposal the egyptian queen continued to try to motivate her husband while she tried to discover together

with her personal physician a painless poison the queen was preparing for the worst the end the marc anthony was tragic while cleopatra tried to flee from octavius and his army who had already arrived in alexandria

the roman soldier received the news that his lover had died desperate he took his sword and wounded his own chest however the strike was not accurate and marc anthony did not die immediately while he was bleeding and suffering from the pain caused by the blow he was informed that cleopatra was still alive and managed to find the egyptian monarch his last breath happened in the arms of his lover when he reached his other half marc anthony had already lost a lot of blood and there was nothing that could save his life before dying however in the arms of his beloved Cleopatra he asked her to collaborate with his opponent octavius in order to save herself after this request the great roman mark anthony died cesarian caesar's heir sometime later was also killed by octavian at that time at funerals it was common for women to hurt themselves with punches and scratches accompanied by cries of pain and despair that's what cleopatra did in front of his late lover her injuries caused an infection and she received treatment on the orders of Octavius however the queen shaken by the death of her beloved mark Anthony and afraid of the future tried to resist the treatment so that she could die but octavius terrorized her with threats to her children cleopatra gave in and out of love for the heirs accepted the proper treatment until she crecovered her health cleopatra also had an impactful end it was one of the events that eternalized her in history the queen failed to escape her rival Octaviusvius who arrested her in alexandria but she resisted and would not surrender to the enemy going through the humiliation of being a prisoner and hostage of rome that would be too embarrassing for a woman like her as for her sons cesarean was murdered as was said and the others were taken to rome to be raised by octavia cleopatra was constantly watched over by order of octavius since she had attempted suicide twice after the death of marc anthony but octavius's plans didn't go as expected

the queen always cunning put an end to her own life before that she sent a letter to octavius in which she asked to be buried next to her late husband in relation to her death some sources say that she was voluntarily bitten by a serpent and died from the poison other sources and scholars affirm that cleopatra took some poison with these uncertainties her end is quite controversial some sources say cleopatra's personal physician had a great deal of knowledge about poisons besides the queen was always a strategist and effective person

most likely she prepared her death in advance finally even though the most famous version is the one that states that cleopatra died while being deliberately bitten by a serpent it's more likely she ingested some lethal poison which did not cause major discomfort at the time of her death she was found on top of a couch dressed in beautiful garments people claimed that she had a serene expression she died nine days after the death of her lover her funeral was solemn and elegant worthy of an egyptian queen her request to be buried next to marc anthony was respected after the death of the powerful monarch egypt became a roman province it was the end of the hegemony of the ptolemaic dynasty in egypt cleopatra's story is fascinating many of her female ancestors important egyptian rulers along with their husbands curiously egyptian women at that time had more freedom than women from other civilizations cleopatra did not play a secondary role in this lineage of women rulers and was a renowned figure her life journey was particularly hectic and impressive in many ways firstly the Ptolemaic lineage which is impressive due to the number of murders among the family members themselves this habit indeed was inherited by cleopatra but regardless of these murders the ptolemaic government was very important to egypt and cleopatra had major responsibilities and had to make important decisions throughout as ruler of egypt she had admirers and rivals she was skillful proactive and extremely influential she was a rare special quite determined woman she always had strategies to achieve all her goals cleopatra marveled everyone because of her great knowledge and also because of her differentiated intelligence the profile of the egyptian queen with all these qualities allow her to conquer two of the most legendary characters in our history the powerful julius caesar and mark Anthony and as time went by cleopatra's figure was often misrepresented and the egyptian woman was seen with prejudice at times it seems that her entire life path and conquest boiled down to having seduced these two romans but this view of the queen's life is simplistic since she has had great political achievements in any case the legendary egyptian queen has become a source of inspiration for some of the greatest artists in history among them the painter michelangelo william Shakespeare in their hands the ruler became an illustrious piece of art as we learn more about her story we realize it's not by chance that cleopatra has fascinated so many people in her time and continues to captivate so many others in this day and age.

QUEEN NEFERTITI

# Nefertiti: The Mysterious Fate Of Egypt's Lost Queen she is a truly enigmatic figure from the ancient world some view her as a Trailblazer others as a traitor to her religion a woman who is increasingly identified by Scholars as a pharaoh in her own right married to religious zealot and stepmother to Egypt's most famous pharaoh it's the iconic nether the material and textual evidence relating to her life has been the subject of study for more than 150 years and yet the truth surrounding Nefertiti remains one of ancient Egypt's great Mysteries unlike many rulers of the New Kingdom such as seti the first and Ramses II was expertly mummified remains allow us to learn about their lives and their deaths Nefertiti's mummy has eluded egyptologists many theories exist regarding her ultimate fate while numerous conspiracy theories swirl online what which should we believe and which are even plausible now filmmaker and egyptologist Curtis Ryan Woodside has teamed up with many of the leading experts in his search for Netflix in order to determine whether hamami has already been fired or whether her body has even survived the past three and a half Millennia we want to encourage the real Queen Nefertiti to stand up I made 21 beads actually a strong Contender for Nefertiti there have been lots of attempts to try and deny that LE fatigue could be the mother of the Moon well if we have a mummy what can we actually learn from it and it's likely that the mummies of thousands of Royal Figures were lost to history where is Nefertiti it is a question on the lips of many egyptologists discover the past with exclusive history documentaries from history hit and uncover the secrets of some of the most famous people and events in history delve into the history of the Ancients with history hits exclusive offering of documentaries explore with us the enchanting Temple of Karnak or take a deep dive into the fascinating pre-history of Scotland we also aim to bring you the stories and legends that shaped our world through our award-winning podcast Network sign up now for a free trial and odyssey fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code Odyssey at checkout has the mummy of Nefertiti already been fired the lead Contender for this identification has for many years but a mummy found an 18th Dynasty tomb in the Valley of the Kings known to archaeologists as kv-35 this mysterious mummy was not the tomb's original owner rather she was most likely placed there some years after her original burial in order to protect her from looting this mummy was found in the side chamber of the Tomb alongside an older woman and a young man the older lady has been identified through DNA testing of a lock of hair from Tutankhamun's tomb she is Queen T the grandmother of Tutankhamun and the mother of Nefertiti's husband akhana we found that the mummy known as elder lady this mummy people said she could be Queen tea because there is a hair found in the tube of King Tut in a box they took the sample of this hair and they analyzed that with the hair of this lady and they sit there matching but also this one will never confirm that this could be Queen tea and tea were able to find out that she is the daughter this elder lady she's the daughter of yuya and tuya and the wife of the Third the identification of Queen T amongst this cache of three mummies has led many scholars to suspect that the other two mummies were members of a close family in Consequence the mummy of the younger lady has been thought to be with elusive Nefertiti was the re burial of Nefertiti with family members would make sense DNA samples taken from the younger lady would appear to prove otherwise Professor Aiden Dodson of Bristol university has studied the younger lady in some detail whilst writing his book Nefertiti Queen and Pharaoh published in he has his own thoughts on who this woman may be one of the key questions of course about Nefertiti is what happened to her mummy and this is very much tied in with the question about the identity of a mummy found in 1898 in the Tomb of Ammon hotep II known generally as the younger woman or the younger lady however when the a number of mummies were DNA tested and the results published in 2010 and all this rather changed the results as published um said that the younger lady was not only the mother of the dark hamoon but was his mother by a brother sister marriage now this presents a number of problems because neither of the known wives of McNaughton um Nefertiti and Kia are royal sisters and if they were that would certainly be included in there in their titulary and also that there is no sister of akinaten recorded as his wife at the time when you'd expect to find um being born and there are also other sources at Amana where if there were a third Queen you would actually expect to find some kind of mention thank you the same DNA signature in tatankham which would appear to come from a brother system marriage from his parents is also to be found if you have three generations of first cousin marriages involved but amongst the um suggestions um has been that Nefertiti was the daughter of I and that I was a son of yuya and therefore a brother of Queen tea also going back a couple of generations there are other suggestions which would fit again again with first cousin marriages the only thing to make this work genealogically for the younger lady to be Nefertiti and also the mother of is for her mother to have been a sister of Ammon hotep III now there is no trace of a wife of I with that background so on that basis one can produce a credible um Family Tree which would make the younger woman first cousin result of series of first cousin marriages of Akinator and most likely I think Nefertiti there have been lots of attempts to try and deny that Nefertiti could be the um that's only on the basis that she's only going to show with daughters but that ignores the history of Egypt up until that point where kings and queens only ever show with daughters sons are never shown as part of a family group so to almost art to ask for moon to appear in these procession of daughters you find on so many of akananda's monuments is really to ask for something which shouldn't actually exist up until that point in Egyptian issues only under the Rama side that you find mass representations of Royal Sons and daughters so on that basis I think a reasonable case can be made for the younger lady being Nefertiti and simultaneous mother the age of the body has been estimated at between 25 and 35 aging of ancient bodies of that kind of age is notoriously problematic but between 25 and 35 actually works quite nicely for Nefertiti because she presumably will have married a shektene when she was in early to mid teens say and then she has a career of the 17 years of her husband's Reign Plus at least three years following on from that as female King at Neff and afro art one thing the identification of this mummy with Nefertiti does however is says something about the way her life ended because the body has very very serious facial wounds thought to be caused by tomb robbers who hacked through rap who wrappings to get at the um the valuables but when the body was cat scanned a few years ago the analysis showed that there are fragments in the sinuses which wouldn't have been there if the body had been a dried husk when it was damaged that could only have got there if the body had been alive at the moment the wound was um infected that wound is so severe that it certainly would have caused massive hemorrhaging and probably deaths through blood loss or shock very very rapidly all of which would suggest that if say if this is correct identification of it and even if it isn't nepete it's still the mother of tadafa moon that she died a horrible death whether by accident design or disguised design as an accident so therefore this body is a fascinating one and throws up all sorts of interesting questions let's say I think one can make a good case for it to be Nefertiti although there is absolutely no sort of Smoking Gun and one can't say QED at this point in time with Scholars divided over the identity of the younger lady where does this leave the search for Nefertiti there have been other candidates over the years yet the majority have been eliminated as dating from wrong Dynasty or indeed due to the mummification processes employed not even a hailling from senior nobility this leaves just one remaining candidate from among the two otherwise unidentified female mummies gathered in an unfinished and undecorated tomb in the Valley of the kings I have my own thoughts on who the mummy of Nefertiti could be the two female mummies in kv-21 have not actually received much attention however in recent years egyptologists have started to take a closer look at these two mystery women Sophia Aziz an egyptologist and mummy expert has been investigating KB 21 with some interesting results the kv-21 mummies sadly have been through a really rough ordeal it's remarkable that they've survived at all the tomb itself was first discovered in by an extraordinary character of egyptology his name was Giovanni Belzoni an Italian man a great stature strength and intelligence he was known as an adventurer an Explorer and to some the father of modern egyptology he had an interest in Hydraulics and even thought about becoming a monk but he somehow ended up in Egypt discovering temples and tombs while getting involved in fist fights dodging bullies and competing with Rivals and when balcony discovered the tomb he was in reasonably good condition as were the two mummies within the tomb he even describes their hair as long and well preserved this however all changed when the term was rediscovered in 1989. but this time he was evident that the tomb had been flooded for a considerable length of time so both mummies would have been submerged in this water additionally some graffiti was discovered indicating that visitors had been in and out of the Tomb in fact even the mummy's hair was now missing probably taken as a souvenir now it's quite incredible that the two I'mmummies were still within the tomb and this could be because the tomb was undecorated it was uninscribed and there weren't any clues really to the identities of these two mummies so this could be the reason why they were just left there which is actually quite sad the way they were sort of discovered discarded forgotten about and then rediscovered now known as mummy 21A and 21b CT analysis was conducted and the City results are interesting so by now mummy 21A had actually lost her head and her body her was infuses she had postmodern fractures with some body parts missing she was the younger of the two mummy 21b was determined to be in her 40s although she did have a head intact right eye was missing her nose was missing but it was determined to have been small and narrow it also looked like her brain had not been extracted through the usual nasal root and her heart was no longer in her body but she did have resin soaked pads within her body cavity she also displayed signs of osteoarthritis which would be indicative of a woman in her 40s so you know it was difficult to really identify the mummies with the state of preservation we're looking at the age difference between them money 21A being in her 20s the other one being in her 40s it's quite possible they were mother and daughter and this this would reflect the fact that they were interred together as well and what's also interesting is that they had bent elbows and clenched fists which would indicate that they were both raw mummies foreign 2007 and 2009 molecular analysis conducted of a number of mummies from the New Kingdom Period this was to see if they were related now amongst these mummies was the famous Tutankhamun the two fetuses discovered in his tomb and mummy's 21A and 21b the technique used by the team was genetic fingerprinting which looks as short tandem repeats these are repeated sequences found within the non-curting region of DNA so these repeats vary between individuals so by comparing the repeats across a number of microsatellites is possible to work out whether or not people are related genetic fingerprinting is used in paternity maternity tests genetic disorder testing identifying unknown human remains and in crime scenes so if you've ever watched a crime scene investigation series you'll know that at the crimes in forensic evidence is gathered if DNA is successfully extracted they're free to find a match the problem with ancient DNA is that it tends to be heavily degraded and this is due to processes such as cortolysis after death when the body's own enzymes started Self-destruct and also the burial environment can also have an impact chemical physical process Sears can further degrade the DNA and of course microbial type so all of these factors can really have an impact on the DNA when the study was conducted and the results released this really left the academic field divided with those that thought it was possible to extract ancient DNA and those argued that is virtually impossible so the reason for this was that at that time extracting ancient DNA was still relatively new and there'd been some studies in which it was claimed they have successfully extracted DNA only to find out it was due to Modern contaminations yeah do you put it around here yeah so we can now do some pictures of her head the team however said that they took um precautions so they extracted the ancient DNA from deep within the bones thereby trying to rule out contamination also they are genotyped or the team that were involved in the study to rule ourcontamination he was argued that

were involved in the study to rule our would have been more suitable to extractmitochondrial DNA this is because mitochondrial DNA which is passed from the mother is just better preserved the nuclear DNA however the team did eventually publish the mitochondrial results as well but if we look at the data so mummy's 21A and 21p we know that is most likely the DNA would have been heavily degraded if we think about the environment that they were in being submerged in water they were handled a lot visitors were in and out of the Tomb so we did expect the data not really reveal a lot and this was actually the case the team were unable to retrieve sufficient data so this does actually reflect the fact that the DNA would have been damaged the only way to reconcile the differences is probably to do next Generation sequencing which is a more sensitive High throughput technique which is much more suitable for heavily degraded DNA now if we look at the context of the burial itself if we look at the location of the Tomb and we look at the fact thatboth these ladies were entered together they both had these clenched fists and bent elbows quite likely that they were mother and daughter and they would have been royal we look her mummy 21b she's in her 40s

she has that degenerative condition and

if we look at Nefertiti's portrayal in

latter life she is depicted as an older lady so I need 21 beaks actually a strong Contender for Nefertiti for me the mummy kv-21b is the strongest candidate for Nefertiti if the DNA is anything to go by it could be her even the mummy KB 21 a has been found to be the daughter of KB 21b now this could be huge as we do not actually have a DNA source for Nefertiti The Headless

kv-21a has been linked by DNA results to the two stillborn children found in the Tomb of tutank Amu that could only mean one thing that the

Headless mummy KB 21A is in fact the sister and wife and the mother of the two children of tutank amul this mummy kv-21a that I believe is Tut's sister

Anki sinamun even shares some similarities with the body of tat including some of the genetic bodily deformations if she is

that makes KV 21b her mother and we know that the mother of ankier ceramun was none other than Nefertiti therefore 21b could in fact be Nefertiti

the reason that we don't have a DNA profile for Nefertiti is because we're not actually sure who her parents are she has been linked to be the daughter of pharaoh I now you see tuya and yuya had three children

they were Queen tea the Royal astronomer Anan and I in our Mana I has been referred to as the God's father this would indicate

that he is the father of a daughter that has married the Pharaoh which would be

Nefertiti so this title links I to be the father of Nefertiti quite nicely

in my opinion it is entirely possible that kv-21b is Nefertiti if you just look at the face of the mummy and you

look at the representations that we have

of Nefertiti the similarities are

striking now I am not in any way a

forensic pathologist or an expert at

facial reconstruction however I have my own way of doing an artistic representation an artistic reconstruction of a money when you look at KV 21b you first of all notice the long slender neck and of course the strong jawline however you also start to

notice the eyes she has painted on eyeliner on the mummy in the thin style

which we can only associate with the bust of Nefertiti because

kv-21b's head has been damaged in later

years by grave robbers one of her eyes

is actually missing so what I did in my

reconstruction process was I took the

one eye on the one side duplicated that

inverted it and lined it up to the skull

that way I could have a symmetric face

to work with then what I start to do I

start to outline key features on the

mummy and what I started to notice was

this mummy shared a lot of the lines on

the face that we would associate with

Nefertiti such as the jowls by the mouth

also the lines under the eyes are

strikingly similar to The Nefertiti

Berlin bust even the cheekbones and

jawline lines up pretty well even the

nose eye shape and the lips line up

pretty well with presentations that we

have of Nefertiti I am in no way

claiming that kv-21b is 100 Nefertiti

however for me she is the closest

Contender have a look at the

Reconstruction that I have done and make

up your own mind

please this leaves us in a predicament because

you see many egyptologists are skeptical

on the DNA results of KB 21A and B

some egyptologists are still searching

for the real Nefertiti today we want to encourage the real

Queen Nefertiti to stand up we have to remember this is not a photographic likeness of the queen there was no such

thing as portraiture in the western sense in ancient Egypt the Torso in the Brooklyn Museum of and you can notice that the cartouches are all hacked out that's because the ancient Egyptians did everything they could to try to erase his memory because the ancient Egyptians purposefully tried to destroy the memory of the amount of period it is important for us egyptologists to try to enlist the service of other individuals to help us to try to reconstruct that period and one of the ways we can do this is by asking individuals that are involved in

medicine and genealogical research to come to our assistance and collaborate with us science in the service of the humanities is a very very valuable tool and then trying to identify Nefertiti and other members of the ancient amarna family the two mummies that are suggested to be the physical remains of Queen Nefertiti the first KV 35yl another set of human remains that are

suggested to represent Nefertiti or KV 21b so now

as a typical an ancient Egyptian studies we have a Clash of Titans two camps are the physical remains in kv-35 younger lady the remains of Nefertiti or r

the physical remains of KV 21 be the

physical remains of Nefertiti and we know

that she was not a twin so one of these two identifications has to be dismissed and here in a nutshell how we unpackage the two theories so that you can make an educated conclusion about which of the identifications is the more compelling and again in 2019 the genetic markers of this mummy KV 35 younger woman

were compared a very compelling evidence

that she is in fact able to be connected with that royal family now as we look at KV 21b there were analysis that were conducted on this mummy in 2016 and 2021 but those genetic markers seem to be less numerous and

there are many many more gaps in her

genetic markers by the fact that the DNA evidence did not support the identification of kv-21b as Nefertiti the proponents of that theory decided they would take another attack and so they tried to press into service the use of a CAT scan and or historical data and what they tried to do was to show that there was coincidence between the mummy and the cranium as revealed by a CAT scan and so the Mythic just described is academically flawed so the two images that they chose represent an individual

at two different stages in their life and so it's inconceivable that a mummy can represent the two ends of a person's life a younger and an older one so in my opinion the superimposition of The Mummy and the cranium as a result of a CAT scan on two different images that do not necessarily represent the same face is open to Serious academic scrutiny or will you base your conclusion on the preponderance of evidence that scientific genealogical data provides the answer is up to you hi Cara hi Curtis how are you I'm great and you good good hanging in there yeah yeah you know I you know I'm working on this new documentary and I I was discussing it with you beforehand and you know you had some pretty interesting views about and I just thought it would

be great to have you share the your views in this documentary so we're

looking to see who are the candidates for Nefertiti's mummy you know what is your opinion or do you think she should still be a mystery it's funny there's all of this um Heming and hawing and discussion about which mummy is hers and some have identified her based on hair um some have identified her based on DNA studies some have identified her based on location and I actually just steer clear of the argument almost entirely just standing on the sidelines with arms

crossed and scowling from afar asking well if we have a mummy what can we actually learn from it sometimes you can learn a great deal sometimes not as much as you would like finding the mummy of Nefertiti you know what could it potentially teach us could it potentially sideline us into imposing certain theories or questions upon her and I think that just the money of of um just the mummy of hachepsut and how much that how much attention them finding the mummy of hot chefs that seems to have drawn from scholarship has in my opinion taken away from hotshepsut's history achievements and and many other uh issues that I think deserve more attention so in some ways I think the mummy Chase is like the shiny thing over here and I would rather be over here with my arms crossed scowling looking on outside you want to learn more about

what she did and who she was rather than okay there's the the three thousand year old body I I don't I say this to my graduate students all the time I say it's my undergraduate students all the time we should only be asking research questions that we have a chance of answering and in the case of some mummies unless there is a toe tag unless there is a text assigned to this mummy we will never truly know whose mummy is Nefertiti's it's the same with Akhenaten if these mummies aren't marked

in some way that's definitive there will

always be some element of doubt and we

will always be unsure about which mummy is whose and so given that this is a research question that we actually cannot answer in the same way that I

have students that want to write about Akhenaten was he mad or strategic well that's great you can you can touch that question but you'll never be able to get to akhenaten's psychological State because Egyptians didn't leave anything about the psychological state in the same way if this mummy is not definitively marked we can't know and Nefertiti not being ostensibly a member of the 18th Dynasty Royal household at least directly related DNA studies are only going to be of so much use and this is a circular argument of tail chasing that I would rather opt out of if a woman's mummy is found whose DNA is linked to tudankamu and then why could it not be one of his sisters or or somebody else in the family whom we don't know or attempts to find her May impose identities on mummies that are not her it's not like the The Mummy of let's say seti the first or Ramses II where we had their names on the bandages on the inside yeah yeah this is this is basically all guesswork well the and the other thing floating about this research Curtis if I if I may be so bold is Nicholas Reeves suggestion that Tutankhamun was buried in the foyer of the king who served before him and the king who served before him was likely svencarving smencaray's funery materials have not been found in any way shape or form from the Valley of the Kings which is highly unusual and suggests that there is a tomb for smenkare that we maybe have not discovered yet right yeah and if you fit with I would say 30 to 40 percent

egyptologists who are open to the idea that Nefertiti because she shares the ankheprae name and no other king is taking on the throne name of another king that would be a strange and aberrant thing to do that on kemporary element does link never nephro otton whom we know is Nefertiti with smencare if nefertitious menka Ray then we can be talking about this mummy identification all the time but she may be hidden away someplace where we have not discovered her yet that that this that theory of Nick Reeves haunts this entire discussion and it is it is a typical Ploy of researchers to say but that tomb isn't here we don't have it my close examination of these scans highlighted the apparent presence of closed doorways on the West Wall potentially leading to an additional Tutankhamun period storeroom labeled X in the Cutaway bottom left here and that on the North to a corridor continuation of the Tomb labeled why The Proposal I put forward was that the burial of Tutankhamun was actually a tomb within a tomb and the fact that we cannot find her is as much of interest to me in what the Egyptians chose to remember about female power in particular that's where I would rather spend my time I also see this certainty that's imposed generally swirling about documentaries uh for television research which I put research and scare quotes for that and and and an ego driven attempt to connect a find a discovery to a particular mummy or body and to create a an arena of attention that that draws the Gaze to Egypt and to that particular Discoverer so to be honest I I don't trust a lot of this discussion that's happening yeah that's why I wanted to have this this discussion with you because when I make documentaries I want to keep it open I want to have different opinions I want to have the facts as Cara mentioned Nicholas Reeves has his own theory that Nefertiti is still yet to be discovered in an Undiscovered chamber in tutank amun's Tomb now this is a very controversial issue amongst many however until we know 100 for sure that too remains a mystery foreign it is possible that her mummy has been found already and is lying in a museum basement uncataloged it could even be that she is in a private collection or worst of all she was maybe sold to a Victorian tourist and has since then been totally destroyed as was fashionable at the time of Fascination in the western world but what they used to be was kind of a commodity it's long been believed that mummified bodies had magical properties it was as if all the speculation regarding themysticism and magic of the ancient pharaohs had literally become embodied in the remains of the Egyptians themselves so mummies were used for esoteric and occult ingredients love potions Health tinctures that kind of thing it was believed they had medicinal properties they were even ground up and used in popular paint that was known as mummy Brown to think of this today is pretty shocking I mean the victorians were consuming mummies literally in a cannibalistic way there's a level of dehumanization and disregard for human remains that Finds Its Pinnacle in the famous mummy unwrapping parties by the late 17th century the physical consumption of mummies was falling out of favor but the cultural consumption was only becoming more popular one of the first recorded public unwrappings ofa mummy is from the early 18th century it was undertaken by an apothecary known as Christian Herzog and he laterpublished his findings this was a new approach lent Credence under the banner of scientific discovery the spectaclebegan to overwhelm the research as the 19th century took hold famously it was an Englishman named Thomas Pettigrew later known as mummy Pettigrew who popularized The Mummy unwrapping party concept Pettigrew became interested in the subject after assisting famous explorer Giovanni Belzoni in an earlyunwrapping party held for Physicians the popularity of mummy unwrapping parties swelled in the 1830s earlyVictorian audiences found a mixture of spectacle death and scientific research to be an irresistible cocktail the last mummy unwrapping occurred in 1908 by Margaret Murray that's just over A Century of the public ruin of Egyptianbodies countless mummies were destroyed and lost to these centuries of Western consumption of Egyptian remains and it's likely that the mummies of thousands of Royal Figures were lost to history given that we've never been able to positively identify the mummy of Nefertiti it's entirely possible maybe even likely that her remains were discovered uncategorized and lost in this manner thank you I've been given permission to open the Tour by myself foreign it could be that her mummy is stilllying inside her tomb which is yet to bediscovered if Pharaoh I really is her father it is possible that Nefertiti was

buried in the Western Valley in Luxor near her father I and her father-in-law amen hotep III's tombsforeignand indeed mummy may still lie undiscovered beneath the Sands of Egypt

it is equally possible that Nefertiti May remain like so many aspects of ancient Egyptian culture and history

a tantalizing enigma for eternity

een