KMT Magazine Fall 2008
At the moment of this posting, the KMT journal site has not been updated
KMT A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt (Volumen 19 Number 3 Fall 2008) features:
King Tut returns…again!
Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs - Peter Lacovara
Why Nefertiti went to Berlin - Rolf Krauss
Egypt on the Tiber - Lucy Gordan-Rastelli
Never Before Exhibited Coffins
Amenhotep I Bestiary: Photo Essay - Dennis Forbes
The Fury of Amen - Dylan Bickerstaffe
In why Nefertiti went to Berlin, Rolf Krauss tells us how a combination of greed and neglicence resulted in the Germans getting this beloved masterpiece of ancient Egyptian art. As we reach a century of its amazing discovery, the controversy as to its rightful ownership not only continues, but seems to be steaming now that Egypt is achieving a better capacity to reclaim and care for its heritage.
The two principal actors of this story of deceit are Ludwig Borchardt, the founding director of the Imperial German Institute of Egyptology in Cairo, who supervised the Amarna expedition that took place between 1911 and 1914, and Gustave Lefébvre, then inspector of the Antiquities Inspectorate in Asyut, Middle Egypt, where Amarna is located.
Lefébvre was responsible for the divisions of the finds and, not trained as Egyptologist, settled for a simple 50/50 division where objects made of plaster would go to the Germans. It seems that Borchardt, already aware of the value of the limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti, rushed the division negotiation, listed the figure as “bust of painted plaster of a princess of the royal family” (italics ours), and presented severely cropped photographs of the object to Lefébvre, who let the precious artifact go.
- Tutankhamun - The Boy King
- A 'Snapshot' of Ancient Egypt and China
- Set of Encyclopedias for Elementary School Research
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