When Maryalice Yakutchik writes early in an article for DiscoveryChannel.com [001] that: "Essentially nothing is known about Nefertiti before she became co-regent of Egypt with her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled from 1352 B.C. to 1336 B.C", then one does not feel over confident that she will be able to answer the question posed in the title of her article, "Who Was Nefertiti?"
Nor is one's confidence at all lifted when the author tells (concerning Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley's efforts in her book entitled Nefertiti) that "Nefertiti was an elusive subject for Tyldesley because, 
she says, "meager shreds of evidence" can support a variety of interpretations about the sun queen". And Yakutchik's further comment, that "Nefertiti's origins - as well as her demise - remain shrouded in mystery", is echoed by the following one taken from the similarly uninformative - because uncertain - AkhetEgyptology article "Nefertiti": "Little is known about the origins of Nefertiti but it seems unlikely that she was of royal blood". [005]
Now, how many times does one meet in Egyptology (and in ancient history generally) this phrase, "… little is known about …"?
A large part of the problem of course is that Akhnaton and his beautiful wife, Nefertiti, have been located to the wrong century, to the mid-C14th instead of to the mid-C9th BC. I. Velikovsky (Ages in Chaos) was needed to begin setting the record straight here.[007] It is a great pity that the established Egyptologists in general have not heeded him, at least in his basic message of the need for a radical chronological revision of Sothic-based Egyptian history. It is a great pity that they have not woken up to the fact that their efforts at historical synchronisation are so perennially fruitless, constantly yielding this catch-cry,"… little is known about …".
I find it extremely frustrating to have to read this phrase over and over again, in documents pertaining to one or other period of ancient history.
By comparison, a sensible revision can be most fruitful. And I hope to show this yet again, this time in regard to Queen Nefertiti, so that she will now become very well known and her origins will be fully revealed: but in the C9th BC, not the C14th.
Preface
A C9th BC Setting for Akhnaton and Nefertiti
I recently, whilst finishing an article entitled "The Many Faces of Horemheb" [MFH], was struck by a certain similarity between the demise of Nefertiti and that of the biblical queen, Jezebel. In conventional history Nefertiti of course pre-dates Jezebel by some 500 years. And what similarity might one expect to find anyway between the delicately beautiful Nefertiti and the brazen Jezebel, except for the common denominator, "Queen"?
Well, this is where the revision - if properly set - can yield the harvest of abundance that I am talking about, that is denied to the bankrupt conventional scheme. According to my MFH article, one of the alter ego's of Horemheb was as the biblical king, Jehu (841-814 BC), who brought down the House of Ahab and, with it, Ahab's former queen, Jezebel. I noted that Horemheb had also, like his other persona Jehu, 'slaughtered' a famous queen, though then meaning 'slaughtered' only in a symbolical sense. This queen was Nefertiti. My initial thought and conclusion had been that Horemheb had acted true to his form as Jehu, and had twice treated with utter contempt a royal woman - now Jezebel, now Nefertiti - one who had in 'each' case enthusiastically imposed a pagan cult.[010]
But I had not initially also recognised the fall of Jezebel as being the same incident as the demise of Nefertiti: hence, that Nefertiti was the biblical Jezebel.
Let me first reproduce the section I had formerly written that would later suddenly prompt me to stop and re-think who Nefertiti was, and to conclude that she was Jezebel. I have since lifted it right out of my MFH article in order to make it a kind of foundation, or focal point, for this new article. Here [now in brown color] is the relevant section, beginning with Horemheb and Nefertiti, and then moving on to Jehu and Jezebel:
Like Jehu, in the case of Baal, Horemheb initially left no stone unturned - literally - in eradicating traces of the heretic religion. He turned upside down some of the stone blocks from Nefertiti's pillars in the Hwt-Benben, so as to make partial scenes. And he defaced her images [015]. She, who had been goddess-like at Amarna [020], was now treated with utter contempt, as R. Winfield Smith explains [030]:
It is certain that the queen was held in contempt by those responsible for this undignified treatment. To turn a beautiful female upside-down, to slash her viciously, and to place her where she would be symbolically crushed by the enormous weight of massive, soaring walls, can hardly be explained otherwise.
We might recall along similar lines the contempt with which this Syrian Commander [see MFH for my identification of Jehu's origins as Syrian] had, in a former time, treated that other notable Queen, Jezebel, because of her religious and political affiliations.
Horemheb had, in his purge of Atonism, acted with the same sort of single-minded intent as had Jehu in his persecution of the Baal cult throughout Israel.
[End of section of comparison].
Once it had dawned upon me though that this may have been the same queen being fatally crushed before the same General, then I further tested whether any significant parallels might be drawn between Nefertiti and Jezebel. And I was extremely happy with the outcome of this - albeit brief - testing. What Egyptologists have always found most obscure about Nefertiti, namely her beginnings and her end (the 'book-ends' of her life), these could now, I came to believe, be factually revealed.
So let me now present, in outline, the public life of Nefertiti, as I see it, through the medium of Jezebel.
The Queen's Origins
We are apparently free to examine Nefertiti's origins because these, as we have just read, have by no means been established by the Egyptologists.
J. Dunn ("Queen Nefertiti") gives the typical sort of hypothetical version of what Nefertiti's origins might have been:
Nefertiti may or may not have been of royal blood. She was probably a daughter of the army officer, and later pharaoh, Ay, who may in turn have been a brother of Queen Tiye. Ay sometimes referred to himself as "the God's father", suggesting that he may have been Akhenaten's father-in-law, though there is no specific references for this claim. However, Nefertiti's sister, Mutnojme, is featured prominently in the decorations of Ay's tomb in the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank at Thebes (modern Luxor). However, while we know that Mutnojme was certainly the sister of Nefertiti, her prominence in Ay's tomb clearly does not guarantee her relationship to him. Others have suggested that Nefertiti may have been a daughter of Tiye, or that she was Akhenaten's cousin. Nevertheless, as "heiress", she may have also been a descendant of Ahmose-Nefertari, though she was never described as God's wife of Amun. However, she never lays claim to King's Daughter, so we certainly know that she cannot have been an heiress in the direct line of descent.
Plenty of suppositions here. Nor can any presumed link with Ay be properly established. Moreover if Nefertiti were Jezebel, as I am maintaining, then the typical view that she may not have been of royal blood can no longer be upheld, because (1 Kings 16:31):
"Jezebel [was the] daughter of King Eth-baal of the Sidonians".
(Some suggest that Ethbaal was actually a king-priest of Tyre who ruled the Sidonians). Anyway, in this biblical statement we have, I believe, the very origins of Queen Nefertiti as a Phoenician and of royal blood.
But, since Jezebel was Ahab's wife, let us firstly discuss the queen with Ahab of Israel.
When Akhnaton's era of el-Amarna [EA] is properly set historically, then we find that we are able to identify, in the extensive EA correspondence, biblical contemporaries of Ahab (C9th BC).
We can even, I propose, identify in the correspondence Ahab and his wife Jezebel.[35]
I have in fact previously identified Ahab with EA's Lab'ayu, who certainly ruled the region of northern Israel (around Shechem). And Jezebel, I have identified with EA's Baalat-Neše; the only woman important and powerful enough to have figured in the EA correspondence. Here is what I wrote on another occasion about Baalat-Neše and her connection with Lab'ayu (Ahab) [reproduced in brown again]:
Velikovsky had, with typical ingenuity, looked to identify the only female correspondent of EA, Baalat Neše, as the biblical "Great Woman of Shunem", whose dead son the prophet Elisha had resurrected (cf. 2 Kings 4:8 & 4:34-35). Whilst the name Baalat Neše is usually translated as "Mistress of Lions", Velikovsky thought that it could also be rendered as "a woman to whom occurred a wonder" (thus referring to Elisha's miracle). This female correspondent wrote two letters (EA 273, 274) to Akhnaton, telling him that the SA.GAZ pillagers had sent bands to Aijalon (a fortress guarding the NW approach to Jerusalem). She wrote about "two sons of Milkili" in connection with a raid. The menace was not averted because she had to write again for pharaoh's help. Because Milkili himself at about this time had taken a stand against the city of "Shunama" - which would appear to be the biblical "Shunem" - Velikovsky had concluded that Baalat Neše was asking Egypt for help for her own city of Shunem. But this conclusion is quite unwarranted as the letters do not actually make the connection between Baalat Neše and Shunama.
In a revised context, Baalat Neše, the "Mistress of Lions", would most certainly be Jezebel, wife of Ahab. Jezebel was also wont to write official letters, even "in Ahab's name and [she] sealed them with his seal" (1 Kings 21:8). It would be most appropriate for the "Mistress of Lions" (Baalat Neše) to be married to the "Lion Man" (Lab'ayu). Her concern for Aijalon, near Jerusalem, would not be out of place since Lab'ayu himself had also expressed concern for that town. Baalat (Baalath, the goddess of Byblos) is just the feminine form of 'Baal'. Hence, Baalat Neše compares well with the name, Jezebel, with the theophoric inverted: thus, Neše-Baal(at)/ "Nesebaalat".
If this woman Jezebel were so stunningly beautiful (as we know she indeed was as Nefertiti), then there is the likelihood that some of the great kings of the day would have wanted to snare her away from Ahab, a very powerful king in his own right. As the song goes:
"When you're in love with a beautiful woman, you watch your friends …. Everybody wants her. Everybody tells her, that she's the most beautiful woman they know. …".
Certainly king Ahab had plenty of wives of his own from whom to choose. We know from EA 32 that he (as Lab'ayu) had even ranged as far as Arzawa (Cilicia), in search of a wife. And king Ben-hadad [I] had once, when he had brought Samaria under siege, commanded Ahab: 'Deliver to me your silver and gold, your wives and children' (1 Kings 20:5). But Ben-hadad's siege had ultimately failed.
No doubt, amongst all of his "wives", Ahab cherished Jezebel the most. And it may well be she to whom he was referring when he (as Lab'ayu), protesting his loyalty to Akhnaton, wrote:
"Further, how if the king hath written for my wife, how should I withhold her? How, if the king hath written unto me: 'Plunge a dagger of bronze into thine heart', how should I not do the bidding of the king?"[050]
Chances are anyway that Akhnaton (and indeed his luxorious father, Amenhotep III) had already greatly covetted Queen Jezebel, who had, as Baalat-Neše, written to Akhnaton several times (and maybe more) to gain his help. Indeed, the net was out to bring her husband (Lab'ayu) in chains to pharaoh. Lab'ayu was actually captured once, but he escaped through bribery (EA#245). Soon afterwards though he would fall victim to a violent death.
The duplicitous Ahab had typically protested his loyalty to the Egyptian crown, though with no intention whatsoever of complying (just as he had in the end point-blank refused Ben-hadad's demands, 20:9). And perhaps what the king of Israel had subconsciously meant in his EA letter, when seemingly groveling to pharaoh, was that he would rather have 'a dagger of bronze plunged into his own heart than yield up to pharaoh his beloved wife'.
Though Ahab was the king of the land of Israel, it is pretty clear from reading the relevant sections of 1 Kings that Jezebel virtually ruled Ahab. He ever turned to her when a setback occurred, and she promptly proposed a plan, often involving murder and betrayal. And it was she who had instituted into Israel a Phoenician version of Baalism, probably of the Tyrian Baal Melquart variety (though some suggest Baal Shamem), and of Ashtarte.
"Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel" (1.Kings 21:25).
("Specialty Tyre - A City at the Crossroads of History"):
"During this period the prophet Elijah practically fought a one man battle to keep all of Israel from accepting Baal as their god.
During this time Tyre must [sic] have controled Sidon because the bible refers to 'Ethbaal of the Sidonians'."
But later, after Ahab had died in battle (or perhaps even earlier, while Ahab was away on campaign), there was nothing to prevent pharaoh Akhnaton from doing what he had so longed to do, to claim Jezebel for himself.
So, early in Akhnaton's reign, this queen - who was now also a mother [of Ahab's sons Ahaziah and Jehoram (EA's Mut Baal) - the latter now reigning in his father's place - and of Athaliah, the wife of Jehoram of Judah (EA's Abdi-Hiba)], did what the Egyptians must long have been anticipating. She went to Egypt to marry the oddest of pharaohs.
Not surprisingly, she was greeted there rapturously and given an Egyptian name:
"The beautiful (or perfect) woman has come".
(2) Jezebel (as Nefertiti) Married to Akhnaton
Jezebel's Egyptian name, translated as "The beautiful (or perfect) woman has come," "prompts some scholars to think that Nefertiti traveled to Egypt from a foreign land", as Yakutchik has noted. Tyldesley, too, has entertained this idea [060]:
"This [her name] has naturally led to the suggestion that the new queen may have been a foreigner who, quite literally, arrived at the Egyptian court in order to marry the king. The idea of a foreign queen has a certain attraction … because it allows Nefertiti to introduce strange, un-Egyptian religious ideas into the hitherto highly conservative royal family and thus provides a neat explanation for Amenhotep's [i.e. Akhnaton's] defection from the traditional Egyptian gods. It allows Nefertiti a certain romantic glamour to match her regal status."
And whilst I believe that Tyldesley has hit the nail right on the head in all four major points of observation that she has made here, that Nefertiti was a 'foreigner', who 'came to Egypt specifically to marry the king', and 'who brought with her strange, un-Egyptian religious ideas', thereby 'explaining Akhnaton's defection', Tyldesley herself will go on to conclude to the contrary [070]:
"… Nefertiti, far from being a foreigner, must have been born a member of Egypt's wealthy élite".Though not an Egyptian royal, she adds [080]:
"… the fact that Nefertiti never refers to herself as a 'King's Daughter' makes such speculation fruitless. Nefertiti could not have been a royal princess".
Nefertiti, however, was foreign in her origins, being a Phoenician, not an Egyptian, princess, who had married a king of Israel, and who had brought her strange un-Israelite religious ideas into the land.[082] She had later, subsequent to her Israelite husband's death (or late in his reign), gone to Egypt to marry the highly unconventional pharaoh, Akhnaton, influencing him, as she had Ahab, to abandon traditional ways.
We also may want to mention that Jezebel noticeably completely disappears from the biblical narrative FOR THE VERY SAME PERIOD as she operates as Nefertiti in Egypt, i.e. from late in Ahab's reign to the end of Jehoram of Israel's reign. (Akhnaton may even have pinched her from Ahab before the latter's death).
The queen had previously exerted so strong an influence over king Ahab in Israel that he, like Solomon before him, had built a temple for this foreign wife of his and had also set up a shrine to the goddess Ashtarte (1.Kings 16:32-33). Now she would influence Akhnaton in the same way, though likely to a far greater degree since the pharaoh had had time to plan for her coming to Egypt, and had therefore been able to make a study of what would please the queen in regard to her religion. Accordingly some Egyptologists, as we are going to read, suggest that it may have been Nefertiti, rather than Akhnaton, who instigated the Aton cult. [085] And I would have to agree, based on my Jezebel parallel.
We also may ask the question, was there a connection between Nefertiti's manifestations in Egypt as a fruitful wife and the fertility goddess, Asherah/Astarte (Aphrodite)?
Jehu's reference to Jehoram of his mother's "many whoredoms and sorceries" as if still continuing, just before her death (2 Kings 9:22).
Enough has been written about Nefertiti's career with Akhnaton in el-Amarna (ancient Akhetaton), where she is supposed to have given him 6 daughters, but no sons. This period of her life at least is generally well known as there are representations of it everywhere in Akhetaton. The two of them were apparently very much in love, and they were not afraid to show it publicly. In fact they could both be quite uninhibited and exhibitionistic. Many pictures show them embracing. Other pictures show the whole family in domestic scenes. Nefertiti seemed to be a beloved wife and mother.
The pair often presented themselves to their subjects at the Window of Appearance (or palace balcony), depicting themselves there as basking in the rays of the Aton.
Akhnaton undoubtedly had a great love for his Chief Royal wife, Nefertiti, just as Ahab had had before him. Akhnaton and Nefertiti were inseparable in early reliefs, many of which showed their family in loving, almost utopian compositions [87]. At times, the king is shown riding with her in a chariot, kissing her in public and with her sitting on his knee. One eulogy proclaims her:
"… the Heiress, Great in the Palace, Fair of Face, Adorned with the Double Plumes, Mistress of Happiness, Endowed with Favors, at hearing whose voice the King rejoices, the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands, Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, May she live for Ever and Always."
But Nefertiti, though Akhnaton's favourite wife, was no more Akhnaton's only wife than she had been Ahab's sole wife; though she was undoubtedly also Ahab's favoured wife.
"Nefertiti is so consistently presented as Akhenaten's consort, and is so obviously at the center of the nuclear royal family, that there is a tendency to forget that Akhenaten followed New Kingdom tradition in having many secondary wives".[090]It was probably with another royal wife called Kiya that the king sired his successors, Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun. Nefertiti also, according to some, shared her husband with two other royal wives named Mekytaten and Ankhesenpaaten, as well as later with her probable daughter, Meritaten.
J. Dunn [100] believes Queen Nefertiti to be "perhaps better known than her husband, the heretic king Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV)":
It is said that even in the ancient world, her beauty was famous, and her famous statue, found in a sculptor's workshop, is not only one of the most recognizable icons of ancient Egypt, but also the topic of some modern controversy. She was more than a pretty face however, for she seems to have taken a hitherto unprecedented level of importance in the Amarna period of Egypt's 18th Dynasty.In artwork, her status is evident and indicates that she had almost as much influence as her husband. For example, she is depicted nearly twice as often in reliefs as her husband, at least during the first five years of his reign. Indeed, she is once even shown in the conventional pose of a pharaoh smiting
[105] his (or in this case, her) enemy.
Tyldesley puts all this into more mathematical terms, with reference to the vast number of inscribed and painted sandstone, or talatat, blocks, that have survived at Thebes [110]:
The indexing of the talatat blocks has made one thing very clear: Nefertiti enjoyed a far greater prominence in Theban state ritual than had ever been imagined. A brief analysis of the images of the recovered blocks makes fascinating reading. By 1976 there had been 329 confirmed occurrences of the name or figure of Amenhotep IV [Akhnaton] and 564 occurrences of Nefertiti's name or image. When broken down these figures seem even more startling: for example, Nefertiti's name appeared sixty-seven times on offering tables, Nefertiti and Amenhotep appeared together thirteen times, and only three tables bore Amenhotep's name alone. This imbalance is likely to be at least in part a reflection of the fact that the recovered blocks … include a disproportionate number of images from Hwt-Benben, a building which was particularly associated with Nefertiti. Nevertheless, Nefertiti's prominence in what until now had been a king-dominated sphere, is beyond dispute.
Nefertiti also fulfilled an important religious rôle in the Aton cult and mythology, apparently, according to Tyldesley (ibid. Emphasis added), even venturing beyond Egyptian women's traditionally allowed service in temples, as "priestesses, musicians and dancers [whilst] many queens had held honorary positions in the cult of Hathor". Thus:
Some queens had enjoyed a more intimate relationship with the gods. It was recognized that the queen could stimulate or arouse susceptible male deities, and the king's grandmother Mutemwia had even conceived a child with Amen. Centuries of tradition, however, decreed that the king, and only the king, as chief priest of all cults, should offer to the gods. Within the precincts of Hwt-Benben it was Nefertiti and not Amenhotep who took the king's role of priest.
"Nefertiti" moreover, as Tyldesley had written [120], "had transformed herself into a semi-divine human being". She was a virtual goddess. Whilst Tyldesley is of the opinion that such unconventional initiatives were actually instigated by Akhnaton [130]:
"… Akhenaten's wife was not only a highly capable woman but was - if the evidence from Amarna is to be believed - the passion of his life and the center of his universe. It is therefore not surprising that Akhenaten, conscious of the lack of a female aspect to the Aten and aware of just how useful an ally a strong queen could be, promoted Nefertiti to provide the absent element of the new cult …. This aspect of Nefertiti's queenship was now to be emphasized as never before. Nefertiti was to become Akhenaten's religious twin, the female complement to his male role.""The Aten, Akhenaten son of Re, and Nefertiti, his wife, now formed an inverted semi-triad which paralleled the ancient triad formed by the creator god, his son Shu, and Shu's twin consort Tefnut."
I would instead opine that it was Nefertiti who had largely taken the initiative here, introducing this female element of herself into Egyptian mythology, as "a living female fertility symbol" [140]. She served as the fertility goddess Ashtarte (or Baalath) to Akhnaton as Baal.
Then, all of a sudden, the famous Nefertiti disappears from the Akhetaton scene. And no one can say exactly why. Though our parallel with Jezebel allows us to go all the necessary steps further.
Velikovsky, to assist himself in attempting to determine the reason for Nefertiti's sudden disappearance from the public arena in Akhetaton, after her having been so prominent there for about a decade[145], turned to the Oedipus cycle of legends [150] that had served him so well in his reconstructing the EA period. According to a version, Oedipus sent away in shame his young wife Euryganeia and four daughters. There is probably a degree of truth in this legend. What we now know for certain is that Nefertiti was not murdered in Egypt, nor did she die in Egypt, but that she, like Euryganeia of the legend, left the country alive. Probably, as the former great beauty ("Beauty forever and ever") advanced to middle age, and having been unable to produce the required male heir, she was naturally superseded by the younger woman, Meritaten. Women were quite expendable in those days - even Nefertiti, it seems, despite her former power and glory. As Tyldesley has well observed: "Her political role may well have stemmed from her religious prominence" [160]. And that 'religious prominence' was based upon her fecundity. She had outlived her usefulness and was no longer needed.
Nefertiti would no doubt have come to anticipate this outcome. Nevertheless, there is a certain pathetic and tragic aspect to it all. "It is sad to see in [Nefertiti's] last portrait how tired and sorrowful she grew" [170]. And that tragic element was only going to intensify as pent-up anger against the murderous Baal régime that she had embodied would detonate in the person of Jehu.
Nefertiti, as always, would take her 'banishment' from Egypt with her customary dignity, like the king's daughter that she was. Tyldesley has noted how Nefertiti always maintained her composure, even as she began to age; for example in regard to her deportment [180]: "Whatever her shape, Nefertiti appears consistently graceful in her movements". Keeping up appearances was always most important to the queen, and this applied even, as we shall see, when she was faced with her death.[190]
Leaving behind her, in Egypt, a daughter to serve as Akhnaton's wife, and with another one (Athaliah) now ruling in Jerusalem as a virtual clone of her mother, the aging queen returned to Israel (perhaps with her remaining daughters) to be with her king-son, Jehoram, in Jezreel.
But not for long.
Having seen to the murder of so many in Israel (and perhaps also in Egypt), the queen would now meet her own bloody death, before the rampaging Jehu (Horemheb) (2 Kings 9:30-37):
"When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; she painted her eyes with kohl [195], and adorned her head, and looked out of the Window. As Jehu entered the gate, she said, 'Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?' He looked up to the Window and said, 'Who is on my side? Who?' Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. He said, 'Throw her down'. So they threw her down; some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, which trampled on her. Then he went in and ate and drank; he said, 'See to that cursed woman and bury her; for she is a king's daughter'. But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. When they came back and told him, he said, 'This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite. 'In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; the corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung on the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say. This is Jezebel'.'"
This is an electrifying narrative. Indeed, according to The Jerome Biblical Commentary ("2 Kings", 1968, 10:56):
"The wealth of detail, the sure touch in the delineation of the various strong personalities involved, and the headlong pace of the narrative make it certain that the author is a contemporary and perhaps even an eyewitness."
"The account of Jehu's revolt has long been recognized as a masterpiece of historical narrative."
Notice the Akhetaton-like, or Nefertiti-like, elements in the above biblical narrative. The queen hastily paints her eyes with kohl [200], and she adorns her head, and she takes her place at the Window; most likely Israel's version of Amarna's 'Window of Appearance' (hence I have taken the liberty of using the capital 'W'), which was the palace balcony.
And this may only highlight the tragic aspect of her death; for did the queen's mind fleetingly flit back to those glory days when she and her husband Akhnaton had presented themselves at Amarna's Window of Appearance to those seemingly adoring crowds? But on this present occasion, instead of adoring subjects below to greet her, the queen looked down upon the sullen face of Jehu. And the balcony upon which she stood in her regal adornment [205] would now be the stage for the queen's headlong fall to her tragic death.
Nor had she been under any illusions about Jehu's intentions for her. Far from having adorned herself for the purpose of attempting to seduce Jehu, she did this in order that she might face death like a queen. It was perfectly in keeping with Jezebel's proud character.
She actually even insulted Jehu, naming him "Zimri"; Zimri being a former army captain who had, like Jehu, slain the king of Israel and had assumed rulership (1 Kings 16:9-12).
The narrative of the queen's death as told above provides us, in just a few verses, with certain facts about Nefertiti that many Egyptologists 'would kill for' to know, namely:
What became of Akhnaton's famous wife?How, when and where did she die?
And: Why has her mummy never been found?
Akhnaton had decreed: "If the Great Queen Nefertiti who lives, should die in any town of north, south, west or east, she shall be brought and buried at Akhetaten" [210]. But that was not destined to happen. The queen did not die in any one of Akhetaton's suburbs, but had actually left the city before she died.
Jehu, when later he as Horemheb had the opportunity to deface the Atonist images in Egypt, memorialised Nefertiti/Jezebel's shattering death, that he himself had eye-witnessed in Jezreel, by turning the talatat blocks upside down and defacing her, and slashing the Aton's rays across the fingertips.
A Chronology of Nefertiti's Public Career
Identifying Nefertiti with Jezebel really enables one now to sharpen up the chronology of the troublesome EA era revised. The Phoenician queen would have become Ahab's wife at some point during his reign in the mid-C9th BC.
G. Gammon [220], who is of the opinion that "the el-Amarna correspondence probably covers a period of a little more than 18 years, from two to three years before the Egyptian court moved to Akhetaten until it was abandoned by Tutankhamun in the 3rd or 4th year of his reign", has dated a revised Akhnaton to 848-832 BC, giving him "a co-regency of 11 years" with his father Amenhotep III [230]. That is a very good effort on Gammon's part, but it is a little late insofar as there is no overlap in his chronology of Akhnaton with Ahab, whom he has departing from the scene around 853 BC (some 5 years before the commencement of Akhnaton's reign). Gammon has dated the commencement of the reigns of Ahab's two sons to, respectively, 853 BC for Ahaziah and 852 BC for Jehoram. (Biblical historians sometimes come to light with a complex co-rex and pro-rex situation between Ahab and these two sons).
According to AkhetEgyptology: "From surviving records it seems [Nefertiti] either fell [excuse the pun] from favor or died at around year 12 of Akhenaten's reign. In this case her burial may have been elsewhere". We now know that the queen at her death was un-buriable. And she certainly died "elsewhere" in regard to Egypt. Projecting back those 12 or so years from c. 841 BC, the approximate year of the commencement of Jehu's reign, when the queen met her violent death, we arrive right at the time of Ahab's year of death in 853 BC. This is a very encouraging chronological fit (though of course still open to any necessary fine tuning).
The Queen noticeably disappears from the biblical narrative for this entire period.
To put the matter now in very simple terms:
An approximate visualization of the revised chronology
By the time of her violent death in Israel, the Phoenician queen would have been a middle-aged grandmother. Hence it would have been the face pictured above, rather than the one depicted on the Berlin bust, that Jehu saw when he "looked up to the Window".
B: The Character of Nefertiti/Jezebeel
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia writes:
Jezebel introduced the worship of Baal into Israel, thereby inciting a mutual enmity with the prophets of Jehovah. [236] She is portrayed as the most bitter opponent of the prophet Elijah and as instigating the murder of one Naboth for possession of his vineyard (see 1 Kings 21). Jezebel survived her husband by 14 years and was killed by Jehu when he seized the thrones of Israel and Judah (see 2 Kings 9). The name of Jezebel was held in reproach among the Jews because she introduced tyrannical government and the worship of foreign gods. In the New Testament (see Revelation 2:20), the name Jezebel is given to a wicked woman who exerts a corrupting influence. In English it has come to signify a brazen or forward woman. [End of quote 240]
Jezebel's name is now a byword for a wicked woman. Jehu speaks of her "many whoredoms and sorceries" still continuing (2 Kings 9:22). Here are some Net samples:
How Bad Was Jezebel?
For more than two thousand years, Jezebel has been saddled with a reputation as the bad girl of the Bible, the wickedest of women. This ancient queen has been denounced as a murderer, prostitute and enemy of God, and her name has been adopted for lingerie lines and World War II missiles alike. But just how depraved was Jezebel? [250]
All Dressed Up and No Place to Go
By Lynn Lusby Pratt
CBN.com - Here Lies Jezebel, a most wicked queen. [251]
She was first a pagan princess. When Ahab became king of Israel (and he was no saint himself!), he married her, making her the queen over God's people. Bad move. She brought in all the false religions with their wicked ceremonies. Knowledge of the true God may have been lost forever, if it hadn't been for the prophet Elijah's work.
Jezebel sponsored nearly 1,000 prophets of false gods; she killed people to get what she wanted (1 Kings 21:17, 13, 14). When Elijah called down God's fire from Heaven (1 Kings 18) - proving that Jezebel's gods were fake - everyone was scared to death … except Jezebel. She went after Elijah. And she swore by the false gods that she'd kill him (1 Kings 19:2). But God didn't let her. ….
MOUNTAINTOP LOYALTY: THE ELIJAH EXPERIENCE #13 RUNNING FROM THE QUEEN
In spite of Elijah's great triumph in the trial on Mount Carmel and the dramatic demonstration that Elijah's God is the Lord of heaven and earth and the source of Israel's blessings, Jezebel is undaunted. Hers is no empty threat - remember, she sent Elijah a note promising to kill him - and Ahab has shown that he is either unwilling or unable to restrain her. So Elijah knows that one of the main sources of Jezebel's present apostasy is still spewing out its poison and that his own life is in danger.
After running a hundred miles through the sand to save himself, poor Elijah had to be thinking to himself: "What does a guy have to do?" And perhaps that was his problem: he thought the saving of Israel WAS HIS problem . . . and not God's problem.
On the other side of the desert, you really have to wonder about this woman named Jezebel. What in the world is driving her? She hadn't personally gone to the top of Mount Carmel, but she had certainly heard all the details.
And not only had she heard about her 450 Baal prophets being executed, but she had to also have heard how Baal had failed to deliver that day. Her hand-chosen men had prayed and shouted for nine or ten hours in the hot blazing sun, and no answer. They had screamed themselves hoarse, and not a peep from her beloved Baal. Didn't that get through her thick skull? Did nothing penetrate the mind of this woman? ….
[End of Net samples]
Undoubtedly one of Jezebel's worst crimes was, to satisfy her husband Ahab's cupidity, to have the innocent Naboth, the owner of an adjacent plot of land, unjustly framed and subsequently stoned to death, so that Ahab could get his hands on Naboth's vineyard. It was Ahab's willingness to accept this fait accompli that brought destruction to his House. Nor would Jezebel escape the vengeance. (1 Kings 21). Whatever her good points, Jezebel was a vain, proud, stubborn, conniving, greedy, unjust and murderous woman. As Robert Palmer sang: "A pretty face … don't mean a pretty heart …".[253]
Nefertiti's Likenesses to Jezebel
Yakutchik's suggestion that it may have been Nefertiti, rather than Akhnaton, who had instigated the new Aton religion in Egypt, is right in line with her character as Jezebel, who was the originator of Phoenician Baalism in Israel, in which regard she ruled her husband [255]:
"It's clear [Nefertiti] had an unusually high status during her husband's turbulent reign. The couple's renegade practice … they worshipped the sun disc god over all others … threatened Egypt's priesthood and ensured they would have no shortage of powerful enemies. Some Egyptologists think it was Nefertiti who actually instigated this new religion and catalyzed a rift between the royals and the priests."
That is 1 Kings all over again! The Queen introduces the pagan cult, causing dissension amongst the people and the priests. No doubt she - equally as fiery and determined as her opponent, Elijah - now persecuted the priests and prophets of the old religion in Egypt, represented by Amun, just as she had done in Israel. (Akhnaton was of the Thutmoside line whose origins I have shown to be Davidic, hence Yahwistic). Yakutchik continues, though attributing the religious initiatives to Akhnaton, rather than to Nefertiti:
"As Akhenaten disposed of the plethora of old gods, enraging his priests and subjects, he likely needed a strong female figure to soften the abstract austerity of the sun deity, according to British archeologist Joyce Tyldesley, who wrote a biography of Nefertiti."
And that religious action, in which Nefertiti was so significantly involved, serves to answer the question that Yakutchik will now pose (as indeed she will go on to answer anyway):
"How does one of the most powerful, stunningly beautiful and controversial queens of ancient Egypt virtually vanish from history?
With the help of her enemies, apparently. And if there's one thing Egyptologists agree on when it comes to Nefertiti, it's that she had plenty of enemies.
Like Akhenaten, Nefertiti's name was erased from historical records and her many likenesses defaced after her death, as Egypt reverted to its former religion.
With so many enemies, the obvious question is whether Nefertiti died naturally, or was she murdered? We don't know …." [257]
Actually now we do know.
One can easily understand why a woman such as Jezebel/Nefertiti would have accumulated, in the course of her public life, "plenty of enemies". And unfortunately for her, one of these enemies was General Horemheb, or Hui [see my MFH], known in Israel as Jehu. And this man, unsentimental, and despising the queen, was not easily put off, having a mind like a steel trap.
Yakutchik (op. cit.) tells of the famous bust of Nefertiti in the Berlin Museum:
"The wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten and perhaps a ruler in her own right after his death [sic], Nefertiti was little more than a historical whisper when, in 1912, an exquisite limestone sculpture of her now-famous face was unearthed at the royal retreat of Amarna. It was more than 3,200 years old, dating from 1345 B.C [sic]".
"… from the moment it went on display at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin in 1924, the enigmatic bust with the swanlike neck assumed a place as one of the world's most famous icons. Little was known [grrrrr …] about the woman whose beauty it celebrated".
How should one respond to the bust of Queen Nefertiti in the Berlin Museum?
There are probably as many responses to it as there are beholders. And Tyldesley [260] gives a sample of some of these, positive and negative, concluding with this telling one from Camille Paglia:
"As we have it the bust of Nefertiti is artistically and ritualistically complete, exalted, harsh and alien … This is the least consoling of the great art works. Its popularity is based on misunderstanding and suppression of its unique features. The proper response to the Nefertiti bust is fear."
To which comment, Tyldesley adds [270]: "Nefertiti herself would probably have approved".
My view of the female character who inspired this magnificent limestone bust - coloured as it is now by the fact, as I believe, that I know who Nefertiti really was, namely Jezebel - would definitely correspond more with Camille Paglia's estimation of it, than with that of those who have fallen completely under its spell. This piece of art has about it a certain coldness and detachedness that could elicit fear. Certainly, I suspect it would have had this sort of unhappy effect upon those many who had found themselves opposed to the queen during her lifetime, in the C9th BC; enemies like Elijah, for instance, who, though himself 'a 'prophet of fire', had had to run for his life from this fire-breathing queen. The reaction then was: Be Afraid. Be very Afraid!
Christmas 2004
[001] Yakutchik, Maryalice, Discoverychannel, Internet comments.
[005] See Earl L. Ertman, `An Electrum Ring of Nefertiti - More Evidence of Her Co-Kingship' in KMT, Winter 2001, p. 26-28.; Featuring an enlarged image of the ring. A ring of Nefertiti with her incised name in yellow stone from Tell el-Amarna and bought at Luxor in 1901 by a Mr. Cole is shown in PSBA, Jan - Dec., 1902, p. 309.
Compare to Donald B. Redford, `The Monotheism of the Heretic Pharaoh' in BAR, May 1987, p. 16-32. Features a frontal view on the front cover page of Nefertiti. See also:Rev. J.R, Towers, `Was Akhenaten a monotheist before his accession?' in Ancient Egypt, Part, IV, Dec 1931, p. 97-100.
Additional source list for images and info on Nefertiti: National Geographic (Editor: Zahi Hawass), `Egypt of the Pharaohs', p. 206, features a full page side view of the Berlin head of the Queen against a black background. `The Horizon Book of Lost Worlds' features the same full page image against a light blue background on page 114.; Albert Leonard, The Late Bronze Age in BA, Mar 1989, p. 4-39. Shows a good B&W photo of Akhnaton and Nefertiti on p. 18. Carolyn R. Higginbotham, The Egyptianizing of Canaan, May/Jun 1998, p. 40 features a good quality color image of the famous rendition of Akhnaton and Nefertiti and one daughter underneath the rays of the sun above in deeply and sharply cut stone. Depending which chronology one uses, can make all the difference how history is interpreted. In our model, far from Egypt spreading its influence, it was Mesopotamia and Israel spreading its influence around.
[007] A gold scarab with the hieroglyphic name of Nefertiti was found at the Ulu Burun shipwreck site and is shown (B&W) in George F. Bass, Nautical Archaeology and Biblical Archaeology in BA, March 1990, p. 4-10.
[010] I need also to add here that I had identified the Baalism that Jehu wiped out in Israel with the Atonism that Horemheb would wipe out in Egypt, considering this to be one and the same combined campaign of annihilation, enacted by one and the same religious zealot.
[015] Joyce Tyldesley, Nefertiti, p. 60.
[020] Ibid., 148.
[030] As quoted ibid., 60.
[035] For more on Jezebel see William E. Phipps, `Assertive Biblical Women', London, 1992, p. 69-81.
[040] See Immanuel Velikovsky, `Ages in Chaos', various chapters.
[050] As cited in Cambridge Ancient History, p. 327.
[060] Joyce Tildesly, Nefertiti, p. 41-42.
[070] Ibid., p. 41-42.
[080] Ibid., p. 47.
[082] To get an idea on how entrenched and pervasive this idolatry became based on finds from Khirbet El-Khom, Ta'anach and Kuntillet Ajrud (Horvat Teman in Hebrew)
see Sandra Scham, `The Lost Goddess of Israel' in Archaeology, Mar/Apr 2005, p. 36-40. Monotheistic Israel would not make images of or inscriptions on the living God, for it was forbidden. Many temple ware items had been robbed from them starting from the time of Shishak/Thutmose III. For long time spans Israel had merely a remnant who were still faithful to the Lord. From times of spiritual revivial nearly no artifcats would survive as witness except perhaps the biblical record. So, is the Bible revisionist history? Hardly, we believe, only following a wrong chronology such impressions can confuse historians and casual readers alike.
[085] Among many sources the Mitteilungen - Deutsches Ärchäologisches Institut shows some fragments of Nefertiti and Amenhotep IV (on separate, unrelated fragments) libating with a nmst jar. Band 35, 1979, Tafel 46 (MDIK 35), `Sayed Tafik'. KMT, Winter 2002/03, p. 36 shows a Berlin limestone fragment of Akhenaten and Nefertiti together.
[087] See the Brooklyn Museum relief of Amenophis IV facing to the right and Nefertiti to the left in Edward F. Campbell, `The Amarna Letters and The Amarna Period' in BA, Feb 1960, p. 2-(7)-22.
[090] Ibid., p.121-122. See also Earl L. Ertman, `An Amarna Icon Reconsidered' in KMT, Winter 2005, p. 39-43. The author argues quite convincingly that the Berlin Relief 15000, previously considered to represent Smenkhare and Meritaten, actually represents Akhnaton and Nefertiti. Of interest is that the female wears dual uraei also called the double cobra crown. If she is Nefertiti and if Nefertiti is Jezebel, she was queen in two kingdoms. For a color image of Queen Tiye wearing the double cobra crown see KMT, Vol. 14, No. 3, Fall 2003, p. 27. Note: Tiye, wearing the double uraeus, was probably a daughter of Ashurnasirpal/ Ben Hadad, it stands to reason that Nefertiti could claim the double uraeus.
[100] op. cit..
[105] Nefertiti smiting an enemy is found on two adjacent blocks from Hermopolis and the enlarged B&W image can be seen in Peter A. Clayton, Chronicles of the Pharaohs, 1999, p. 122.
[110] op. cit., p. 58. Emphasis added. See also Julia Samson, Nefertiti's Regality in Egyptian Archaeology, 1977, p. 88-97; & Barbara S. Lesko, Women's Monumental Mark on Ancient Egypt in BA, Mar 1991, p. 4-(13)-15, where p. 13 shows a talatat fragment with Nefertiti in pharaonic roles in a kiosk on a ship as a warrior ready to strike an enemy. Also shown is a drawing of a solar disk worship scene with her daughter.
[120] op. cit., p3.
[130] op. cit., p. 79.
[140] op. cit., p. 3. See also Sayed Tawfik, `Aten Studies' in Mitteilungen of the DAI, Band 30, 1975, p. 159-168, Tafeln 51-52 showing several fragments.
[145] This length of time is also quite correctly the length of time of Jezebels later `influence' in Israel, Gerald Herm, Phoenicians, p. 76: "After Ahab dies in battle, Jezebel remains influential as queen mother for a dozen years."; She was then not personally present in Israel during that time, only "influential". He also states, the name may be derived from z-b-l, a title for Baal in Phoenician texts. Zebul Baal, or Baalzebub ("Lord of Flies") as corrupted in the Hebrew Bible, means "Chief Baal". According to the New Testament, a designation for Satan in ancient Judaism was "Beelzebul", the prince of demonic powers Mark 3:22. Z-b-l has been denigrated to mean dung in Jewish folklore.[Ibid., p. 73.; Revelation 2:20; Herm, p. 102.]
[150] Immanuel Velikovsky, Oedipus and Akhnaton, ch., "Nefretete".
[160] Tildesly, op. cit., p. 3-4.
[170] Velikovsky, Ibid., p. 97.
[180] Tildesly, op. cit., p. 50.
[190] Tyldesley has devoted many pages to Nefertiti's appearance and dress. See her Index.
[195] A small 18th dynasty kohl-jar decorated with an upright standing monkey faced creature as if it is holding the jar upright may be seen in John Ruffle, `The Egyptians', NY, 1977, p. 168.
[200] Tyldesley, p. 196, tells that the right - and only - eye of the Queen's Berlin bust is "ringed with a black kohl line".
[205] For a modern rendition of her supposed attire see Janet Johnstone, Dressing Nefertiti: Ancient Egyptian Costumes on Television in Ancient Egypt, Aug/Sep 2005, p. 40-44 which also shows a good image of a wall relief of Ay and Tey from their (unused) tomb of Tel el Amarna (p. 20) and a frontal view of the unfinished bust of Nefertiti; or an artistic rendition of the queen by the artist Eduardo Vilela in KMT, Spring 2006, p. 80.;
[210] Tildesly, Ibid., p. 116.
[220] G. Gammon, "A Chronology for the Eighteenth Dynasty" in SISR, Vol. II, 1978).
[230] Ibid., p. 93, 94.
[236] To learn more about Baal worship and how it affects the Christian church click here.
[240] Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
[250] "Jezebel Phoenician Queen of Israel", BOOK EXCERPT
[251] For a comparison of the facial features of Nefertiti with those of the mummy of the `Elder Lady' see KMT, Fall 2001, p. 2.
[253] The famous `Berlin Museum' head of Nefertiti can be seen in many publications. There exists also an unfinished but mostly done sculptured quartzite head of the Queen in the Cairo Museum which may also be seen in numerous publications. See Georges Posener, Dictionary of Egyptian Civilization, NY, 1959, p. 185. A.R. David, `The Egyptian Kingdoms', NY, 1975, p. 76 & Archaeology, Sep/Oct 2000, p. 68.
[255] Yakutchik, M., op. cit. Emphasis added. For Winifred Brunton's artistic portrait of a pensive Nefertiti see KMT, Spring 2004, p. 75.
[257] One example of such an erasure can be seen in `Ancient Egypt,' Vol. 9, N. 3, Dec/Jan09, p. 44. Shown is a triangular piece of what looks like a lintel from Kom el-Nana, which appears to have been a sun-temple to Nefertiti. On the left are two cartouches both of which show remains of the name of Akhnaton/ Amenophis IV. From the partial cartouche to the right the inside glyphs have been carefully erased while the frame was left intakt before this piece broke off from its panel.
[260] Tyldesley, pp. 197-198.
[270] Ibid., p. 198.
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