Nefertiti Bust May Be Ancient 'Makeover'

By Jess Kilby,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 31, 2009 7:39 AM CDT
Nefertiti Bust May Be Ancient 'Makeover'
Berlin's Neues Museum is finally ready to welcome back a famed bust of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, more than 60 years after World War II bombing left much of the building in ruins.   (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Nefertiti’s image as a flawless beauty of antiquity may not be entirely accurate, Reuters reports. New computer scans reveal a slightly different face at the core layer of the Egyptian queen’s famous 3,300-year-old bust than the finely chiseled planes of the statue’s surface—one with a bumpy nose, less striking eye and cheekbone structure, and wrinkles around the mouth.

"It is possible that the bust of Nefertiti was commissioned” by her husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaten, “to represent Nefertiti according to his personal perception," said the lead researcher on the team that produced the new scans.
(More Nefertiti stories.)

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