Aidan Dodson

You mentioned in the introduction, very close to the end of his reign, she is promoted to female pharaoh and remains such after his death.

But what's very interesting there is that once she becomes female pharaoh, she rapidly starts to dismantle the whole Aten business within...

Within a short period of time, Amun is back again.

And there is one text where it's possible that you may be able to restore a damaged bit of text as her calling herself Beloved of Amun.

So I wonder how far she was fully bought into all this.

She was doing what she felt was appropriate to support her husband and so on.

Okay, well, it is the bust of a woman.

Very unusual in Egyptian art, it simply is a standalone bust and probably was intended to be a masterpiece for sculptors to copy from.

They also found in the same place, albeit totally shattered, a parallel bust of Akhenaten.

So it looks as though these two were set up at the end of the sculptor's workshop and this was, okay, if you want to double check what he looks like or what she looks like, this is what you're using.

It's made of limestone but covered with a layer of plaster, which has allowed the features to be modelled in an exquisite kind of manner.

She's wearing a tall, blue, flat-topped crown, which is unique to Nefertiti.

No other queen ever uses this.

It has inlaid eyes, but only one of those eyes is present.

The other one seems never to have been fitted.

They certainly looked around on the floor before it hadn't fallen out.

And the skin is painted a distinctive pinkish hue, which, although very unusual in Egyptian art, is by no means unique.

Yeah, I think the problem is it's unclear quite whether what that lower level was ever intended to be a definitive outer level, if you know what I mean.

And that is simply what was the initial carving, which then the plaster is then added on round it.

The very fact that it's a very similar kind of setup with the parallel Achenartan one suggests that this was intended that way and that it was never intended to be a naked limestone sculpture.