posted 04 July 2005 12:07 PM            

STORY — TARA BROWN: Egypt. No wonder it's captured the imagination of travellers for thousands upon thousands of years. You can't help but be awestruck by this land of pharaohs and ancient wonders. But as tomb raiders discovered long ago, the greatest treasures are out of sight, deep underground. This is the Valley of the Kings, the burial place of Egypt's most powerful, ancient rulers and their riches. Our guide, Dr Zahi Hawass, head of Egyptian antiquities.

Does it still excite you when you come to the Valley of the Kings?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Oh, yes. You know, this place is a place of magic and mystery and in this place many things happen.

TARA BROWN: We're on the trail of one of archaeology's greatest mysteries and now one of its most contentious, most heated international debates. Inside the tomb known as Cave E35, Dr Hawass is leading us to a hidden chamber.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Are you afraid?

TARA BROWN: No.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Are you sure?

TARA BROWN: Yep.

It's hard not to be excited when you're retracing the steps of a civilisation that left its mark in such an extraordinary way.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: I mean, look at the scenes down here.

TARA BROWN: It's beautiful.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: It can capture the heart of everyone. Let me take you now to the most important place, the sacred place that contains the three mummies.

TARA BROWN: We're about to enter a hidden chamber whose secrets have only ever been revealed to a handful of archaeologists. On the other side of this wall could lie ancient Egypt's most powerful, most beautiful and most mysterious queen, Queen Nefertiti, the woman at the centre of this archaeological row.

Wow, I had no idea they were so tiny.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Yeah, but also mystery, isn't it? Look at them.

TARA BROWN: It's a mystery, a detective story like no other. For his part, Dr Hawas will only concede that these mummies, discovered in 1898, were ancient royals and that they lived more than 3000 years ago.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Who was this lady? Who was this boy? Who was this man or a female? That's really the mystery. And the mystery will continue.

TARA BROWN: But go to Britain, to the campus of York University, and you'll find an entirely different interpretation.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: I just wanted the answer to a question which had intrigued me for ages, basically.

TARA BROWN: Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher is convinced that after 13 years of sleuthing, she's solved the mystery.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: Out of all the mummies we have, this is the most likely. It ticks all the right boxes and I personally think it is.

TARA BROWN: You personally think it is Nefertiti?

DR JOANN FLETCHER: Basically, let's just say I've not seen anything that makes me think it isn't.

TARA BROWN: If Dr Fletcher is right, this is one of the great moments in archaeology, up there with the discovery of King Tutankhamen. She might look unassuming now, but as ruler of ancient Egypt, Queen Nefertiti was the most powerful woman in the world. There was also her beauty, her mystique. She was captivating then and she still is.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: She had it all, basically. She was almost superwoman in many respects. She had incredible royal power, she was the equivalent of a pharaoh, a male king, and yet she had six daughters as well. But really, I think, when we just view Nefertiti as a beauty, we lose so much more of her character, because she was so much more than just a pretty face. She was a really strong woman.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Nefertiti, in my opinion, is the icon of our Egyptian identity.

TARA BROWN: So if this was Nefertiti, you'd be very excited?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Of course I would be very excited, but we have to be honest. When we announce something it should be true. We cannot announce something based on a theory.

TARA BROWN: So you can see what's at stake here. Not only this icon, but also some very precious reputations.

Does any part of you accept that this theory might be right?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: It's completely wrong. I'm an Egyptologist for 34 years. I can smell history. I have been seeing this mummy nine times. I could not find any evidence, one single evidence to prove that she is Nefertiti.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: The establishment reacted pretty much as I thought they would, as they always have done. If you're not in it, then you're sort of not fit to have an opinion. But I've done all the hard slog and I've got the evidence to back up my hypothesis.

TARA BROWN: She also has the financial muscle of the Discovery Channel, which has backed her investigation. This was what sparked Dr Fletcher's interest, a wig found beside the mummy she says is Nefertiti.

JOANN FLETCHER: What we're actually looking at here is basically the Nubian wig, the Nubian hairstyle, which generally was only worn by royal women between around 1400 and 1300 BC.

TARA BROWN: That was the first clue. Then there was this unusual double piercing of the mummy's left ear. Dr Fletcher's research shows Nefertiti was one of only three women who had it. In February this year, Dr Fletcher and a team of specialists entered the tomb armed with modern technology to decipher this ancient puzzle. Their digital imaging confirmed this was a woman, aged between 18 and 30.

SCIENTIST: I think without any doubt it's a female.

TARA BROWN: Jewellery was found in the chest cavity, proving her high status.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: The fingers, there are some fingers here.

TARA BROWN: But this was the clincher.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: Oh, this is the crowning moment, it really is.

TARA BROWN: Their forensic reconstruction showed the body was buried with the right arm in this position, flexed across the chest. That means it had to be a pharaoh and because the mummy was a woman, it could only be Nefertiti. And there's even more intrigue. Dr Fletcher believes Nefertiti's body was mutilated by her enemies.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: This isn't simple damage done by tomb robbers. This is a malicious act by an individual or individuals with a vested interest in damning her soul. They wanted to deprive her of the ability to live in the afterlife, which is a terrible thing.

TARA BROWN: These are the injuries Joann's talking about. As you can see here, a gash across the mouth, her right arm torn off just below the shoulder. Whoever did this to Nefertiti (if it is indeed her) despised her, according to Joann. But these blows were dealt after death, they didn't cause it. That's another wound just here, just below the left breast. That's even more fascinating. To Joann and her team, it looks like this woman was stabbed. They can't be certain of when, just before death or just after. But the signs point to before, and if that's the case, the chances are, this ancient royal was murdered. So this is a murder-mystery as well?

DR JOANN FLETCHER: It could be. It could be.

TARA BROWN: It gets ever more intriguing, doesn't it?

DR JOANN FLETCHER: It certainly does.

TARA BROWN: Why are mutilation and murder so important to the plot? Well, it could be another link to Nefertiti. She and her husband, Akhenaten, were widely hated. They started their own religion, plunging Egypt into chaos. After their deaths, all record of their rule was destroyed. So mutilation and even murder are at least feasible. But not to Dr Hawass.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: If you look at this part, Joann said this is cut by a knife as a sign of revenge. Tara, you are here now and you hate this mummy. Will you go and bring a knife to cut the nose? Are you going to kill the mummy? If you want to take the revenge of a mummy like this, you should come and say boom and destroy the whole mummy. That's the sign of a revenge.

TARA BROWN: But if this wasn't done out of hatred, why has the mouth been smashed in?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: You know, damage can come from deterioration. This is deterioration or...

TARA BROWN: You don't think this mummy has been attacked?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Not at all. Why? How can you attack a mummy?

TARA BROWN: But obviously Joann Fletcher is fair game.

So what is Joann's motivation in making all these claims?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: I think it is clear that she made all of this because she wants to be famous. This theory will go with the wind and Joann will never be a good Egyptologist.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: What can I say?

TARA BROWN: So your reaction then to some of the comments I've read that aren't that supportive? "Evidence is flimsy" says one, another, "There is no archaeological evidence that she is Nefertiti" and "It makes no sense it would be her".

DR JOANN FLETCHER: That's their opinion, they're entitled to it. And there is still many people that think yes, I've been running around after a chimera, after a phantom, and it's not Nefertiti. But they're entitled to their opinion.

TARA BROWN: And back in the tomb, Dr Hawass has saved his best shot till last. This can't possibly be Nefertiti because this mummy is a man.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: If you look at the face and if you look at the body and this part, there is no one single evidence that can say it's a female, but it's more to me to be a male than a female.

TARA BROWN: But didn't you once believe this was a young woman?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: No.

TARA BROWN: Never?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Never.

TARA BROWN: You've never said that you thought this was...

DR ZAHI HAWASS: I've never said that this is a young woman at all.

TARA BROWN: Well, it seems Dr Hawass has a very short memory. This is what he said in February.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: She looks like a young lady in the age of 15.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: Yeah, it's a 15-year-old girl and it's a man. Yep.

TARA BROWN: It doesn't sound like you have that much respect for his views on this?

DR JOANN FLETCHER: I've immense respect for Dr Hawass and his views and he's more than entitled to them. He is the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and so I deeply respect everything he says.

TARA BROWN: And Dr Hawass is not to be tangled with. He's undoubtedly the most powerful archaeologist in Egypt, the man who controls all these ancient wonders.

So do you feel like a pharaoh?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: Me? No. (Laughs) What do you think?

TARA BROWN: I don't know. I think you might.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: They call me in Italy, that I'm the last pharaoh of Egypt.

TARA BROWN: Is that right? Now this last pharaoh is turning his might against Joann Fletcher. Some might call it sour grapes on his part, but Dr Hawass says the British team broke protocol, Dr Fletcher should not have gone public without consulting him.

So, I need to ask you this, is part of the outrage about not sharing the spotlight on this?

DR ZAHI HAWASS: No, no, no. Not at all. There is many things that's wrong here. Number one, that she broke the rules. York University did not follow that. Number two, that she announced something that's not right, completely. That's very important, you have to be honest.

TARA BROWN: Joann Fletcher's 13-year odyssey may have finally brought her to Egypt and face-to-face with Queen Nefertiti, but her greatest discovery may in fact be her last, certainly in this country. So outraged is Dr Hawass over the Nefertiti theory, he's now threatening a life ban, not just on Joann, but the entire team from York University. Now, that means that none of them will ever work again in this country, in this place that most have centred their careers on.

DR ZAHI HAWASS: If you break the rule, you should be punished. You cannot forgive people. If you forgive people like this, it will be like a curse, and I believe in system and I believe the rules have to apply to me as to you.

TARA BROWN: This is a mystery that's endured for 3500 years. Joann Fletcher truly believes she's solved it and, even more importantly for her, she's brought this ancient queen back to life.

DR JOANN FLETCHER: People see history and ancient history as a very stuffy, boring subject and yet it's the most fascinating thing. It captures the imagination and never lets it go. I mean for me, there's nothing else, this is what I love. This is really what I love.

The Borg's View: The mummy is Nefertiti, and our computer image made from the skull is 100% accurate. She is one of the world's most beautiful women (black), even Iman of 10-years ago, has to walk a step behind Nefertiti. When I stood inside that chamber with Fletcher, Hawass, Salima, and Dr. Don Brothwell, I had to physically restrain myself from bowing before the great Queen Tiye and the Pharaoh/Queen Nefertiti. By the way, does anyone have a clue who's bones those are inside the King's sarcophugus?

posted 04 July 2005 01:26 PM            

The sex changed several times, and so did the age range.

He misquoted and misinterpreted the physicians and anthropologists as well.