Controversy over the grave of the eminent Queen of Egypt

French Learner Marc Gabolde thinks the mummy named "Young Lady" discovered nearly a century ago is Queen Nefertiti.

Controversy over the tomb of Queen Nefertiti

According to Ancient Origins, English Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, of the University of Arizona, said that inside the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun, Howard Carter discovered 93 years ago, there was a passage leading to the secret room that kept the mummy. of the beautiful queen Nefertiti.

However, according to Marc Gabolde, expert of the 18th and Amarna Dynasty of Montpellier University, the mummy of Queen Nefertiti was discovered in the Valley of the Kings of Egypt by the French learner Victor Loret. a century. The mummy is currently on display at the Egyptian Museum called "Young Lady" or "KV35YL Mummy".

Sculptures depicting Queen Nefertiti on her husband's pharaoh Akhenaten and her children.Akhenaten carried his first daughter, Meritaten, while Nefertiti carried her second premature daughter, the Meketaton.On her left shoulder was the third daughter Anjesenpaaton, who later married Tutankhamun.The relief is on display at the Berlin Museum.(Photo: Public Domain).

Tombs are smaller than usual

It is normal to have two rooms in the Pharaoh Tomb of Tutankhamun compared to other tombs in the Kings Valley like the tombs of Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III and Horemheb, Gabolde wrote in the Spanish newspaper. ABC House.

According to him, the tomb is smaller than usual because it suits this king only. He considered the Egyptian economic situation at the time, reducing the number of tomb rooms from four to two "nothing unusual".

Pharaoh Moremheb's three-dimensional model of KV57.(Photo: Public Domain).

He also explained that the tomb of many other Egyptian pharaohs, such as Ay, Tutankhamun's successor, had no extra rooms. According to him, the workers who just started to build the second slope leading to the tomb, King Ramses I died.

In fact, the son of this king, Seti I, " expanded the corridor to form a crypt consisting of two sub-rooms and a small room the size of half of the other two rooms, instead of four extra rooms. If there is not much time, people will not prioritize digging all the next rooms, so the appearance of extra rooms in Tutankhamun tombs is not as surprising as Reeves. said " Gabolde."

Also according to Gaboldge, the signs that Reeves discovered were not necessarily traces of sealed doors. Instead, they "may be a trace that two carved teams leave behind, or they are part of a project to build an unfinished sub-room with hacks filled in a hurry. I'm honest Hopefully Reeves is partly right and finds the room sealed with the queen's remains after the paintings, as this will shed light on the queen's identity.However, the mummy is found likely to be more of Meritaten than of Nefertiti ".

Mummy of "Young Lady"

In September 2010, National Geographic announced the survey results of a group of interdisciplinary researchers headed by the famous Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. The DNA test also confirmed that the true KV35 mummies were from her mother and mother pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Marc Gabolde believes that the mummy mentioned in these studies is from Queen Nefertiti or "Young Lady".

The front of the mummy is a younger lady.

"Nefertiti is Akhenaten's cousin, both his father and mother, and KV35YL's mummy is her. She is Tutankhamun's mother , " Gabolde said.

He hypothesized that inbreeding "undermines the genetic mixing of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and this explains why their two children have the physical characteristics of both brothers".

In his most recent book about Tutankhamun, Gabolde wrote that Nefertiti probably died a few months before her husband became a pharaoh, not her ruler of Egypt during the period between the reigns Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. This ruling position probably belonged to Meritaten, the eldest of six daughters of Nefertiti and Akhenaten.

The face of the mummy "younger lady".

"Thanks to the great inheritance and the honorary title perhaps received after Nefertiti's death as the" great royal wife "of his own father for a few months, Meritaten took over the country for two years. ", according to Gabolde. Her tomb has yet to be found.

If Nicholas Reeves is right and behind the wall in Tutankhamun's tomb is the remains of Nefertiti, then Gabolde's theories will collapse.

Bust of Meritaten, daughter of Nefertiti and Akhenaten, on display at the Louvre Museum, Paris.(Photo: Public Domain).