Nefertiti

Nefertiti (nĕf'ərtē`tē) or Nefretete (nĕf'rĕtē`tē), fl. c.1372–1350 B.C., queen of ancient Egypt; wife of Ikhnaton (XVIII dynasty) and aunt of Tutankhamen. She seems to have been divorced by Ikhnaton late in his reign. The exquisite limestone bust of Nefertiti (Berlin Mus.) has given rise to the tradition that she was one of the most beautiful women of antiquity.

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Nefertiti

Nefertiti, painted limestone bust, about 1350 BC; in the Egyptian Museum, Berlin.

(credit: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Ägyptisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; photograph, Jurgen Liepe)

(flourished 14th century BC) Queen of Egypt and wife of Akhenaton (r. 1353–36 BC). She is known from her portrait bust found at Tell el-Amarna, the king's new capital. She may have been an Asian princess from Mitanni. She appears with Akhenaton in reliefs at Tell el-Amarna and followed his new cult of the sun god Aton. Of her six daughters, two became queens of Egypt. In the 12th year of Akhenaton's reign, Nefertiti either retired after losing favour or died.

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Nefertiti, Nofretete

14th century bc, Egyptian queen; wife of Akhenaton

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Nefertiti 

(in Old Egyptian, “the beauty is coming”), Egyptian queen of the late 15th and early 14th centuries B.C.; the wife of Amenhotep IV (Ikhnaton) and possibly his stepsister.

Nefertiti probably helped to implement her husband’s religious reforms; after the reforms, her name was changed to Nefer-Neferu-Aton (“wondrous are the beauties of Aton”). In 1912 the studio of the sculptor Thutmes was unearthed at Tell El-Amarna; the studio contained busts of Nefertiti, which are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the state museums of Berlin.

REFERENCE

Mat’e, M. E. Vo vremena Nefertiti. [Moscow-Leningrad, 1965.]