Once upon a time in Poland, when I was a teenager there were cigarettes "Nefertiti", smuggled from Bulgaria or somewhere else, with a small picture of her bust in profile on the package. They were different in look and although I didn't smoke, I liked the cover of the package. Then I found my "Nefertiti" in Oregon - a good friend of mine - a beautiful, gentle and wise woman. In high school years I red the novel "Faraon" by Boles³awa Prus and saw the movie from 1965 based on it under the same title by Jerzy Kawalerowicz. It's a story of the fight between young idealistic Ramzes XIII and the high priest Herhor. The picture of Ancient Egypt was shaped in me by different impressions. This is a very broad subject with many aspects and there is natural fascination with Egypt. Although now we know more than ever before, for people who are in the subject is rather obvious that we know still little. Egyptology is a very broad and field science. The amount of time that the Egyptian civilization existed left treasures to be researched by generations to come. It's the history over five thousand years old still influencing our way of looking the roots of western culture. For example in 1921 Sir. William Osler took a good look at the statue of "Imhotep" - "a giver of joy" - from 2800 BC to discover that our assumption about first medical doctors from Greece is false.
I have tremendous respect for Egyptian art. I am not an expert, I feel just strong appeal of forms worked out over the millennia. They are otherworldly, classical in a different way than those of Greeks or Romans. Pyramids, Sphinx they are these big things that it's impossible not to know. But there are thousands of small and big objects left after Egyptian civilization. They radiate with the beauty and spiritual wisdom of the ancient world preserving within its forms time and people who happened to perfect their skills in search for immortality.
The contemporary history of the scientific effort to recreate Amarna Period starts in 1912, when the bust of Nefertiti, the name that translates, The beautiful lady comes was discovered by Germans archaeologists. The uniqueness and beauty of this masterpiece grabbed attention of scholars and automatically raised a chain of questions. It took almost fifty years of research to establish that the bust of Nefertiti, belongs to the wife of Akhenaten, whose the very name means, It is well with Athen . In the same edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, (Chicago, 1985), but in different volumes are two opposite theories. In one she originates as an Asiatic princess from Mitanni.2 In a second she is a daughter of a military man, Ay, who later is a friend of her husband, and at least, after death of Akhenaten, Smenkhkare and Tutankhamon, he himself become a king. 3
The subject is till today vivid and it's reappearing on the pages of resent popular periodicals, for example in The National Geographic. The Pharaoh-poet and his beloved wife were both rebels in the context of their culture. Interesting is the fact, that they were deliberately erased from the history of their own nation. Paradoxically, today they became the most controversial and one of the less known people of an ancient Pharaonic history.
The bust itself doesn't look as big as I could suspect looking at its photo. The height of it is fifty centimeters and a hand might easily cover her face. The first impression is the astonishingly achieved sense of the balance between the head in a big headdress and lower part of the bust, which are jointed by a delicately elongated neck. The expression of the face is blessed one shaded with a trace of melancholy in equilibrium with mysterious smile beautifully carved on her lips. Only one eye is looking somewhere beyond ordinary, probably the second was never fixed. Dominating complementary colors emphasized this impression. The painted sea blue headdress is crossed by a small strip of red and yellow in juxtaposition to the warm orange face with very red painted lips and the neck that ends in a gold-yellow necklace. The gaudy look of the necklace is well keeping in balance with this dark sea blue hat. The artist orchestrated composition with the use of very modest resources in a perfect way. The bust's ears and regalia on the headdress are a little bit eroded by time. The queen's status symbol is broken. It was a snake, king's cobra, so often seen on King and Queen's headdress.
I let my imagination enliven these frozen stone pictures found in ruins of Tell-Amarna and look back on the history of those days Egypt, for our subject is hiding the period that was outstanding from the line drawn by Egyptian belief system and millennia lasting tradition. Amarna Period even today is awaking debates among scientists. The Akhenaten and Nefertiti's rebellion might be viewed in the context of their own time. For us, people of the information age, maybe it's impossible to look through the eyes of an ancient man, nevertheless there is a lesson to be learned too.
As Mircea Eliade noticed, in the primary cultures the way of existence was based on mythological thinking rather than scientific or historical for that matter. Therefore, it means that everything was created at the beginning by gods, who taught the first people how to do things and from then-on humans can only repeat it in rites and rituals. By that reenactment they could communicate with this invisible and infinite reality in which gods exist. 4 Everything was sacred and had supernatural meaning as it had for Native American Indians. Every innovation had been taken as a god's fate and transformed into myth already in a second or third generation.
Without going into big polemics I simplify it to the statement, that modern man is living in the secular world and reality constructed rather on rational, scientific thought, thus, "historical" one. How can I apply mythological perception to ancient Egypt? They had a written history, pictures and whole arsenals of documents. Even today we can guess what happened 5,000 thousand years ago. For example, The Narmer Palette is as readable as an elementary book and deliberately recorded facts for next generations. In Lascaux cave we can see the pictures, but there is no story or coherence in a clear, definite way. The ancient Egyptian culture should be classified as a "historical" one. However, system of beliefs and Pharaonic succession was the thread that unified Egyptian culture and simultaneously linked it into the myth of creation. The chief god manifested itself in the person of the Pharaoh, who always renewed the primal order over chaos and darkness. For ancient Egyptians their reality was permanent in a presence of spiritual element called ka . Everything changeable and impermanent was of less importance. The physical expression of this believe is left in the shape of pyramids, writing and their art. The army of priests was guarding and administrating society. They were building these gigantic monuments with use of, comparatively, rather primitive technology. To be against this system meant to erase oneself from the next, everlasting life. A good illustration of this procedure, we have in the painted limestone relief; Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt from Saqqara (c.2400 B.C.), where there is an empty shape after the person, who disappeared from the picture.
On this background the Amarna Period seems to be an unexpected element underlining the mystery of human nature. Suddenly the continuously living art tradition was broken. During the one king's lifetime, new ideas in art were flourishing with unusual freshness and never before seen vigor. The stiffness of figures is dissolving, monotony of presenting the king always in noble duties and victorious poses yields place for presenting the royal family in a more intimate, warm and human situation. Cyril Aldred adequately remarked, when he made comparison with relieves of earliest kings, the family of Akhenaten on the Berlin stele is very much alive in a transient world of human emotion and suffering . 5 The Pharaoh descended from the heaven and lived for a moment in the ancient Egypt history a little more as a human, than any other Pharaoh before.
In art, lines became much more organic and flexible. Nature seems to be a central focus of the artists and generally the art of this period radiates the beauty and appreciation for nature. The scenes of hunting and military, so prized before, are comparatively almost non-existent in the city, Akhetaten, the name given by the King that means - The Horizon of the Disc. The inspiration that had been taken from Aegean culture mixed with a new, monotheistic idea produced this unique time called - Amarna. And like Cyril Aldred pointed out:
This so entirely new vision on the part of the sculptor, which is rare in the ancient world, though there is a hint of it in a painting in London (British Museum 37984) and somewhat ambiguous representation earlier in Crete. 6
Throughout the entire New Kingdom there is the wave of change, not only in the visual arts, but also in music, politics and customs. In the New Kingdom set of instruments is changing and perfecting old ones like the harp, lend or lyre, adding some new ones, for example, crackling drums from Asia or the two feet long trumpet sub, used by solders and also for religious purpose - as myth passed it, the invention of the god Osiris. During the period musicians were equipped rather in more noisy instruments, leaving behind the time, when harps and flutes were dictating rather peaceful, mystical music. The ecstatic music, now played in the rhythm of drums and clappers by women, was leaving behind blind harpists and playing priests . The character of this new emotional quality in music, I can hear in relieves from the time, like in one from the Saqqara, illustrating the funeral dance. 7
From the known facts the art revolution done by Akhenaten and Nefertiti had already its own beginning in the reign of Thutmose IV (1425-1417 B.C.), who was in touch with the Mitanian king, Artatama and with whom Thutmose IV established peaceful diplomacy. In a political game, there was exchange of the Artatama's daughter for a clarification on the Egyptian side considering Syrian city-states, which were conquered by Mitannians. Already back then had occurred contact and cultural interchange. In fact, Egyptians got taste of raw Aegean's silver, loosing some affection toward their own Nubian's gold. This cultural exchange, deepen even more during the reign of Thutmose IV's son - Amenhotep III. In the commemorative scarab from his time left information about the arrival of the Mitannian princess Gilukhepa, along with 317 women. 8
Another important detail, connecting those three Pharaohs; Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), is the fact, that by wedding commoner women they shifted away from the principle of marrying the royal heiress. 9 Also, as the Encyclopedia Britannica insists, the name of the god Aton had appeared long before Akhenaten during the reign of Thutmose IV. The Akhenaten innovation at this point would be merely monotheism, the very powerful idea at his time, which could strengthen the position of Egypt and open them into completely new direction. Unfortunately, after such a long domination of polytheism, most of the population was not ready for this big transformation. I can picture for myself only Egyptian intelligentsia willing to follow the new religion, rather than common people, who couldn't recognize the profit of it. After all, I guess, the heresy of Akhenaten was welcomed by priests, as much as perestroika by some Communists in Russia. All these facts suggest, the possible direct and indirect, influences of Aegean's culture on the Amarna Period, and vice versa.
A bust as an artistic form already exsisted in the Old Kingdom. For example there is the portrait of Prince Ankh-haf, (Giza. ca.2500.B.C.), done with unusual realism. But the bust of Nefereteiti has the magic and power which didn't come only from realistically treated subject, but also from complexity of solutions that let her head in the big headdress be in balance with the rest. It was achieved not only through the form, but also by color. As Heinrich Schafer discovered in the Tell-Amarna's workshop room of the chief sculptor Thutmose, there were many plaster and stucco casts of heads, faces, hands, and feet. They already worked in the very artistically advanced way never found in free Egyptian works in the same form. 10
The bust of Nefertiti with her mysterious smile keeps busy scientists as well as politicians quarreling about the treasure. In 1912 the digging Germans' archaeologists were obligated to announce any valuable finds to Egyptian's government. Unfortunately, they didn't do it in a proper way, sending a preliminary report without a clear information about the bust, leaving Egyptian Department of Antiquities and King Fuad unaware of this fact, for they send a young assistant instead of the department director. He was anawere of the value, letting the German expedition to take it abroad and though more than four decades passed, with the exception of preliminary reports, no full account was submitted to the scientific world and the public in general. 11 Berliner's dealer James Simon bought the bust and it had been taken to Berlin. During the Second World War American's solders took it to Wiesbaden, where this was exposed publicly after the end of the war. The beautiful lady comes - Nefertiti has been returned to Berlin's Charlottenburg on twenty-third of June in 1956 and is living there till today.
In the twelth year of the Akhenaten reign in the city Akhetaten his mother became his wife - Great Royal Wife, Tiy , sending Nefertiti into oblivion. Her name was erased from the most of the places in the city and she, after many years of being an inspiration and beloved wife of the King, had to move to the Northern Palace. She reappeared from a shade of the ancient world to became a new icon in our times, seen even on cigarettes packages.
The most impressive building of all, however, was the Northern Palace, built a short way outside the town for Nefertiti. It was the world in miniature set amid pools and gardens, a vast, square lake bordered by colonades containing rare birds and beasts, a happy intrusion of nature into the daily human round.12
She stayed there with young Tutenhaten ( later Tutenhamon ).
Nefertiti supposedly lived longer than Akhenaten, and probably she was supported in her lonely fight against the King by her father, Ay. However, her burial place is unknown. No souvenir of her was left in the royal tomb. The only trace left, is a commonly known in Egypt, story about people carrying a golden coffin with her name, somewhere into the deep desert. Horemheb, the successor of Ay and devotee of the old god Amon, destroyed the cult of the god Aten with a similar fanaticism as Akhenaten the cult of Amon.
Opinions on the subject about this particular period in Egyptian art are still controversial. Even the same scientists, who are devoted to the subject, like Cyril Aldred, are constantly making revisions. Others, like Immanuel Velikovsky, are looking for a historical background of a mythical story. In his book Oedipus and Akhenaton , he is searching for an archetype of Oedipus in the person of the King.13Akhenaten and Nefertiti, like the mythical Sphinx, are unsolved mystery of the ancient world and they still inspire people. The well known American composer, Phillip Glass, placed Akhenaten between names like Einstein and Gandhi, paying tribute to the genius of human mind, capacity of love, ecstasy and compassion. Also, Hungarian poet and writer - Bela Hamvas, who in his essay Orpheus, is talking about Akhenaten, as the one of the most Orphic in character personage in the human history. The King's life was not life anymore, but intoxication, máthe, as Orpheus was saying, máthe aiónios - intoxication by world. 14 For Hamvas, the King wanted the paradise on earth, the kingdom of light, supreme love and happiness, to take away the misery and darkness to built the only one, true canon that ever exists. And for us was left the painted bust of Nefertiti, radiating the beauty that doesn't belong to the past nor to time at all, but to timeless moments of creation and Nefertiti, living for ever and ever... .
© written by Adam Rupniewski | 
