Nefertiti: Egypt's Sun Queen

In the tradition of her intriguing "Hatchepsut," Joyce Tyldesley rescues another female ruler from the shadows of history c. 1350 b.c.: Queen Nefertiti (literally "a beautiful woman has come"). We know her from the exquisite painted bust in the Berlin Museum, discovered in 1912, which has made her ancient Egypt's most recognizable queen and a symbol of her country's history. Until now, however, she has remained largely unknown and unrecognized for her contributions to Egyptian society. Wife of Akhenaten, the monotheistic pharaoh, adored by her family, blessed by the sun god, and worshiped by her people, Nefertiti suddenly and completely vanished from the record. Was she banished by her husband or raised to rule as his equal? Did she reign, under another name, in her own right? Could she have been the aminence grise behind the young Tutankhamen, her son-in-law? Tyldesley synergizes archeological, textual, and artistic evidence in a detailed discussion of Nefertiti's life and times at the ephemeral and heretical Amarna court. "Nefertiti" is a radical re-creation of the woman who was the most influential in the Bronze Age world.