New Reference to Nefertiti Found

     KMT magazine (Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 2013, p. 34) is reporting this month that a special exhibit in Berlin is displaying a copy of a gaffito found at Dier el Bersheh, a few miles away from Akhenaten's capital of Amarna. This gaffito has a reference to Queen Nefertiti and is dated to year 16 of Akhenaten's reign.

     This is an interesting development as the previous last known reference to her was from year 12, which has led egyptologists to speculate for years that she died several years before her husband, Akhenaten.

     Other egyptologists have speculated that she "disappeared" around year 12 because she became her husband's co-regent under the name Smenkhare.