Nefertiti - The True Story of a Remarkable Discovery

Television loves mummies, even though there's not a lot new to say. In a 'notorious' Discovery Channel/Sunday Times special in 2003, Joann Fletcher, a British Egyptologist at the University of York, claimed to have identified an otherwise unremarkable mummy called 'younger woman' in the tomb KV35 as Queen Nefertiti, who died just before Tutankhamen took over. The beautiful queen had been an icon since her 3,000-year- old bust was found by German archaeologists in 1912. (She moves next month to Berlin's newly restored Altes Museum.) Fletcher's claims to have found Nefertiti's mummy have been debunked by the archaeological community. She was even accused of filching another Egyptologist's work. Fletcher doesn't actually confirm that the mummy is Nefertiti, although the disclaimer is buried in the fine print. Mark Rose, editor of Archaeology, was damning in his review last year of Nefertiti (it's online at www.archaeology.com). This edition might have had a