Words: 1779
The Tomb of Queen Nefertari Location The Tomb of Nefertari is situated in Egypt in the Valley of the Queens, which is located in Thebes near Luxor. Time Period Queen Nefertari lived from 1290BC till 1255BC so during her reign in the 19th Egyptian Dynasty, her tomb would’ve been constructed and prepared for her burial. Archaeology The first archaeologist to discover the Tomb was Ernesto Schiaparelli, the Director of the Turin Museum. He discovered the tomb in 1904 and he then spent two years excavating the site and other sites around the valley of the queens with not much success.
Tomb robbers had already stolen most of the artefacts that would’ve been inside the tomb when Schiaparelli discovered it. However he did find some minor objects, including Shabti Figures, a pair of the Queen’s sandals and a knob of a cane with a print of King Ay on it. The main part of the tomb was the magnificent paintings on the walls. Since the tomb had been there for over 3000 years the state of the paintings and walls had suffered immensely. The quality of the tomb’s structure was not particularly great therefore it was not conserved well.
For instance, unlike other tombs, the beautiful paintings were not painted directly onto the wall but onto plaster which coated the walls throughout the tomb. Over the years, land slides caused deterioration and salt deposit which put the paintings in a dangerous state of preservation. Restorations The tomb was in a pretty horrible state, so for a long time between the end of the excavation and 1986 the site was basically abandoned. Then, in 1986 the Ministry of Culture and the Egyptian Antiquities Organization in cooperation with Getty Conservation Institute were determined to restore the Tomb completely.
They employed a team of skilled and professional conservators to save the beautiful tomb from disaster. To save the tomb’s beauty and structure, the conservators applied over 10,000 strips of Japanese Mulberry-Bark paper all over the crumbling ceilings and walls to keep the plaster from peeling. They also swabbed the entire tomb with purified water which removed over 3000 years of dust and soot. However these conservators were given specific instructions to not retouch the beautiful mural paintings to keep the tomb as accurate to history as possible while still preserving the beauty.
This gruelling restoration process took around four years and cost around $4 000 000. While in the process of restoring the tomb, scientists worked out why the tomb was in such a bad state. They found two main reasons, humanity and humidity. They believe that a flood occurred sometime between 100B. C. E and 100AD that may have caused the immense deterioration. Site Description Queen Nefertari’s tomb is known for being the most grand and beautiful tomb in the valley of the Queens, which reflects the Queen’s position in the eyes of her husband.
This tomb was used as the burial site of Queen Nefertari and all of her possessions for the afterlife. The tomb is made up of several rooms and halls which are all decorated with paintings of the queen in various positions doing many different things. At the bottom of the entrance stairway, on the beam of the doorway there is a depiction of a sun between the godesses Isis and Nephthys. This leads to an offering hall, with paintings of the Queen worshiping and offering things to multiple gods which are represented throughout the tomb.
These paintings of Nefertari and the gods are supposed to illustrate her journey to the afterlife with the help of the gods. In nearly all of the paintings of Nefertari, she is depicted smiling, dancing or playing a board game wearing a soft white gown making her look elegant, poised confident and pure. There are stone benches supported by pillars which were presumed to be used to contain offerings and finery items of the Queen. In the next room, there are images of heavenly cows and a bull together with the sacred oars from the four Helms of Heaven because Nefertari adored these cows.
On many of the walls, Ramses II expressed his love for Nefertari through poetry, for example: “My love is unique—no one can rival her, for she is the most beautiful woman alive. Just by passing, she has stolen away my heart”. The ceilings throughout the tomb are beautifully decorated with yellow stars against a deep blue background to represent the heavens. The tomb is full of vibrant, colourful painted scenes of Nefertari and scenes from the ‘Book of the Dead’, which are what make the tomb such a spectacular place. Ancient Egyptian Society Nefertari Background
Queen Nefertari (1290–1255 BCE) was the favourite wife of Ramses the Great (Ramses II). Her name Nefertari means Beautiful Companion and that suited her perfectly. Ramses treated her with compassion and loyalty, he even dedicated a temple to her, Abu Simbel which was very unusual because temples were usually dedicated to gods not humans. Nefertari is said to have mothered at least 4 sons and two daughters during her lifetime. Ramses II Background Ramses II (1303 – 1213 BCE) is commonly known as Ramses the Great because he was seen as if not the but one of the greatest and most powerful Pharaoh’s of all time.
He ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BCE and during this time Egypt blossomed. He built more monuments and statues than any other pharaoh. Royal Lifestyle The kings and pharaoh’s were so important, that some Egyptians believed and worshipped them as if they gods. Each pharaoh was supposed to be descended from the sun god, who was the first King of Egypt. All of the Pharaoh’s were extremely rich as Egypt thrived on slavery and they did not have to pay their workers. This showed because every Pharaoh would have multiple palaces, temples and a magnificent Tomb for them in the Afterlife all decorated lavishly and often even in gold.
These men were so powerful and important. They were in charge of government, law, trade, foreign policy and building. The Pharaoh would also be in charge of the military and be the chief priest too. Each Pharaoh would have several wives, but only one would be Queen. Typically the Pharaoh would make his sister or cousin Queen so it the royal family were rich with incest. In the Case of Ramses the Great, Nefertari was his favourite wife therefore she became Queen. The King and Queen would partake in many different things for fun such as festivals for the sun god, parties, dancing, games especially senet and of cause worshiping their many gods.
The Egyptian Pharaoh’s and Queens lived a luxurious lifestyle. Religion The Egyptians believed in dozens of different gods and godesses, and they were very religious. Each god was different and represented different things. The Egyptians believed in the ritual of Mummification when they die to make them continue their journey into the afterlife. Many people spent their entire lives preparing for the afterlife, building Tombs and , making thousands of things to put inside to take to the afterlife, like furniture, slaves, jewellery, food, weapons and games.
The walls were decorated with Murals of the person going to the afterlife with help of the gods to show the journey. End of Civilisation Egypt was invaded by foreigners several times in in the last 1000 years BCE. They were invaded by the Persians, Sudanese, Macedonians and Greece all under the lead of Alexander the Great. In 30BCE Egypt passed into Roman hands and gradually, following the conversion to Christianity of the Roman leaders, churches and monasteries replaced the temples once built by the Ancient Egyptians.
The Arab invasion of the 7th Century CE turned Egypt into the mainly Muslim country it is today. Conclusion This assignment was a very interesting one to complete. At first, I had some difficulty understanding how to pick a task completely relevant to the topic. However after much research I managed to find the site I wanted to study. After choosing my site, I began to research following the steps given which were really handy in helping me progress in a productive way that I will definitely use in the future.
I had trouble finding a lot of information on the Archaeology side of this assignment and from that perspective, my site was not a good one, but I think I made up for it with all of the detail on the restoration process. Then I began to make my bibliography out of the sites I had already used, it was quite difficult to do this because many of the sites I used did not have the information required from the Library website and I found referencing books was a lot simpler.
I used to have a bland opinion of Archaeology because it just seemed so uneventful but when I read about the discoveries Archaeologists have made to tell us more about the past I became really intrigued and interested. Archaeologists play a very important role for history. In conclusion I really enjoyed this task because I find the Ancient Egypt civilisation very fascinating and I have really learnt a lot. BIBLIOGRAPHY Websites 1. Aldana, G. 1999, Nefertari’s Tomb, Vaisala News, http://www. lindakreft. com/pdf/valley. pdf 2. Asia Rooms Travel Guide. Tomb of Queen Nefertari, Egypt, 2008. ttp://www. asiarooms. com/travel-guide/egypt/egypt-tourist-attractions/tomb-of-queen-nefertari,-egypt. html 3. Belcher, I. 2007, Inside Nefertari’s Tomb, The Times UK, November 17th http://www. timesonline. co. uk/tol/travel/destinations/egypt/article2883641. ece 4. DeLange, G & A. Nefertari, Valley of Queens; Thebes. http://www. delange. org/Nefertari/EP84. htm 5. Egyptian Monuments. Tomb of Queen Nefertari (QV66). http://www. egyptsites. co. uk/upper/luxorwest/tombs/queens/nefertari. html 6. Fischer, D. 1992, The Tomb of Queen Nefertari, Time Magazine, June 1st http://www. ime. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975667,00. html 7. Groffie, P. 2001, The Tomb of Nefertari, Tour Egypt Monthly Magazine, Volume II, Book III, March 1st http://www. touregypt. net/magazine/mag03012001/magf3. htm 8. iexplore Travelling Reviews. Tomb of Queen Nefertari – Luxor, Egypt, Reviewed by wanderluster, from ‘Honeymoon in Luxor’, 2002. http://community. iexplore. com/planning/journalEntryActivity. asp? JournalID=909 3=16386=Tomb+of+Queen+Nefertari 9. Nefertari, 2008, Wikipedia, Wikepedia, the free encyclopedia http://en. ikipedia. org/wiki/Nefertari 10. Nefertari, Kingtutone. http://www. kingtutone. com/queens/nefertari/ 11. Queen Nefertari http://indigo. ie/~marrya/nefertari. html Books 12. Chisholm, J & Reid, S. Who Built the Pyramids? , Usborne Publishing Ltd, London. 13. Dineen, J. 2000, Children’s Illustrated Library Ancient Worlds, Pioneer House Ltd, London. 14. Hart, G. 1997, Eyewitness Guides, Ancient Egypt, Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. 15. Martell, H. M. 2001, The Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World, Kingfisher Publications, London.