Pair Statue

Reconstructed pair statue of Nefertiti and Akehaten

This statue of Nefertiti and Akhenaten (two-thirds lifesize) seated side by side was found broken into nearly two hundred fragments by the expedition of Ludwig Borchardt in 1912. It had been carved from a single block of grano-diorite but left with its surface unfinished. The location of the find was the house of the sculptor Tuthmose, creator of the famous bust of Nefertiti. Borchardt took the head back to Germany, where it now forms part of the Berlin Museums. The other pieces he left behind at Amarna. They were rediscovered by the present expedition, buried beside the expedition house. Kristin Thompson and Dimitri Laboury have assembled this digital photographic image of the fragments, which includes a plaster cast of the original head in Berlin.

The original head of Nefertiti from the dyad above, now in Berlin (image from D. Arnold, 2004. The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt, New York, figs 72, 74.)

A cast of the Berlin head being fitted to the neck fragment housed in the antiquities storeroom at Amarna.