LONDON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- One of the most famous women in ancient history was never a ruler of Egypt, a British expert on Egyptology revealed in Manchester on Monday in a new study.
Egyptologist Dr. Joyce Tyldesley from the University of Manchester says Queen Nefertiti was just one of a series of powerful queens who played an influential role in Egyptian history, but she was never a pharaoh who ruled the country.
Tyldesley says it was the beauty of her famous limestone and plaster sculpture that propelled her into the public spotlight after it was put on public display in 1923.
It was then that Egyptologists began, wrongly, says Tyldesley, to argue that she was unusually powerful, and maybe even that she ruled Egypt.
A new book by the academic -- Nefertiti's Face: the Creation of an Icon, to be published Thursday -- tells the story of the famous sculpture from its creation to its display today in Berlin.
The bust of the Queen, married to the Pharaoh king Akhenaten -- was found in 1912 by German excavator Ludwig Borchardt. It is now on kept at the Neues Museum in Berlin, though Egypt has requested its return.
"Though most people and many Egyptologists believe Nefertiti was an unusually powerful royal woman, and possibly even a pharaoh, I believe this was not the case," said Tyldesley.
"Her husband Akhenaten died around 1336 BC. Tutankhamun, who was possibly Nefertiti's son, became pharaoh in approximately 1336 BC. It has been argued that Nefertiti ruled Egypt, filling in this gap and perhaps influencing the early reign of Tutankhamen," she said.
"But she wasn't born a royal, and for a non-royal woman to become king would have been unprecedented. Her daughter Meritaten, however, was indeed born a royal, and so is a more likely candidate for pharaoh, if anyone is."
