Egyptology dust-up

This isn't really "news" in the sense of being a breaking story (it actually broke last fall), but I just found out about it, so it's news to me. I was captioning a Discovery Channel documentary a few nights ago called "Nefertiti Resurrected." There's a British Egyptologist named Dr. Joann Fletcher who claims that one of 3 mummies that has lain unidentified in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings is actually the long-lost body of Queen Nefertiti. She's supposedly the one on the far right in the photo below, the one with the mutilated face.



The really interesting thing, though, is the uproar Fletcher has caused because of her tactics. Rather than share her theory with colleagues or publish academically first, she took the theory to the Discovery Channel as a "scoop." The documentary was made by following her around as she sought to flesh out her theory -- gaining access to the tomb to see the mummy for the first time (by not informing the big-wig in charge of granting access to Egyptian antiquities about her theory and coyly referring to the mummy only as "Lady X"), studying the findings and X-rays of the mummy, and also striving to find other evidence to back up her theory, much of it largely speculative, or at least it seemed to me as I was watching it.

The documentary is stacked heavily in favor of her theory, of course, so it was hard to tell just how solid her evidence is. It would seem, though, that most other specialists aren't too impressed by it. Some claim that the mummy isn't even definitely female, while others claim it's too young to be Nefertiti anyway. I found this story on CNN's site and this story in what is (I think) an Egyptian publication. The latter story is more detailed and lays out the controversy pretty well. One thing I wasn't able to find out was whether anything further has happened with Fletcher since. (She was being threatened with banishment from access to all Egyptian antiquities.)

I'm sure the documentary is going to re-air at some point, given that we were re-timing the caption file with a re-edited video. But the Discovery Channel website is mum about reairings and is busily touting the fact that you can buy it on video or DVD. Give it a few more months, and they'll be airing it every week or so. :)

It's worth viewing the documentary if you have an interest in archaeology, as I do.