Cold Open

It’s around 1330 BCE, in Amarna, Egypt.

Sculptor Thutmose grunts with effort as he reaches up and places a limestone sculpture high on a shelf. Thutmose is known as one of the finest artists in the country, and he’s made hundreds of pieces of art. But this one is the last he’ll ever make in this workshop.

For a decade, Thutmose has made a good living here in Amarna. But a few weeks ago, the Pharaoh died, and barely a week had passed before his successor, his wife Nefertiti, left the city. Nefertiti didn’t share her husband’s love for Amarna and made it clear that she was never coming back. Since then, hundreds of the city’s residents have packed up and followed her. Now, Thutmose has reluctantly decided to close his workshop and leave with everyone else.

Thutmose opens the door, then turns to take one last glance around. The workbench is clear. His tools are in his bag. And he’s stacked all his unfinished or unsold sculptures on the shelf. Although he spent weeks working on them, Thutmose has decided to leave them behind rather than pay to transport them out of the city.

As Thutmose is about to step outside, a gust of wind blows through the street, catches the door, slamming it shut.

The vibration of the door’s impact is too much for the wooden shelf and it falls to the floor, and Thutmose’s sculptures with it. With a sigh, Thutmose looks at the artwork he spent so much time on. Most now shattered into dozens of pieces.

But there’s nothing he can do now. As his feet crunch on the fragments of stone, he pushes the door open and walks out for the last time.

Since everyone else is leaving the city of Amarna, no one bothers to clean up the mess in Thutmose’s workshop. Gradually, Amarna will be covered by Egypt’s shifting sands, and the abandoned city will be forgotten. Thutmose’s workshop won’t see the light of day again for another 3,000 years—and when it does, a spectacular piece of art will be discovered among the wreckage. This archaeological find will stun the world, transform its subject into one of Ancient Egypt’s best-known figures, and spur an international dispute as to where the Nefertiti Bust should be displayed after it was plucked from Egypt’s sand on December 6th, 1912.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is December 6th, 1912: Unearthing Nefertiti.

Act One

It’s the middle of the 14th century BCE, on a dock on the River Nile in Egypt, 16 years before the city of Amarna is abandoned.

Queen Nefertiti lounges on deck as the royal barge gently sways on the water. Shouts punctuate the otherwise quiet morning as sailors untie ropes and release the barge from its mooring. Nefertiti shifts slightly, looking over the side of the barge. And stretching away into the distance is the city of Thebes, Egypt’s capital.

A few days ago, Nefertiti accompanied her husband Pharaoh Amenhotep IV as he checked on the progress of a vast new temple that was under construction in the city. It would be dedicated to Amun, the king of Egyptian gods. But Amenhotep seemed uncomfortable as he and Nefertiti walked through the temple’s towering walls and giant statues. And as soon as the visit was finished, Amenhotep told Nefertiti to prepare for a journey on the royal barge—but he didn’t tell her where they be going.

Now the barge casts off and begins its voyage down the River Nile. But Nefertiti can tell that her husband is still troubled by something. Eventually, more than 200 miles downriver, Amenhotep confesses that he’s undergoing a crisis of faith. He doesn’t want to continue building temples dedicated to Egypt’s traditional gods. And instead, he wants to focus all his attention on one god alone: the Aten.

Nefertiti is shocked by her husband’s attentions. For centuries, Egyptians have worshiped hundreds of different gods. Ra ensures the sun rises every day. Isis helps Egyptians enter the afterlife. Osiris is the lord of the dead. But Atenism is a radical departure from all that. Its worshipers believe in only one god. Previously, relatively few Egyptians were Atenists. But now, Pharaoh Amenhotep has fallen under the spell of this sect—and he wants the entire nation to follow his example.

As the barge continues to drift downriver, Amenhotep points at a dusty, empty riverbank. He tells Nefertiti that he’s going to move away from Thebes and its temples to the old gods. And instead, he’s going to build a new city here on the undeveloped riverbank—and all the temples in this new capital city will be dedicated to the Aten.

Upon his return to Thebes, Amenhotep puts his plan into action. He closes the old temples and begins openly worshiping the Aten and renames himself Akhenaten in honor of him. Then he orders thousands of masons and craftsmen to begin building Amarna, his new city dedicated to his new god.

Akhenaten's radical changes shock Egypt. Nobles and ordinary Egyptians alike fear that their passage to the afterlife may be blocked if they don’t make offerings to their traditional gods. But thanks to the pharaoh’s absolute power in the kingdom, there’s little anyone can do to stop this religious revolution. And gradually, the new capital Amarna rises from the sand.

Akhenaten is pleased with his creation. The royal court moves to the newly built palace, and a thriving city grows around it to house the workers who service the pharaoh’s every need.

But around 16 years after he ordered the construction of Amarna, Akhenaten dies. He’s buried in a tomb on the outskirts of his city—and he intends his burial place to be the first in a new royal necropolis that’ll be used by his successors for generations. But Akhenaten's wishes are quickly ignored. In the aftermath of his death, a power struggle breaks out between those who embrace his new religion and those who want to return to the old ways. And there’s no one more influential in the royal court than Akhenaten's wife, Nefertiti.

Within days of Akhenaten's death, Nefertiti proclaims herself as his successor. It’s rare, but not unheard of, for a woman to rule Egypt. So, Nefertiti is accepted as the new pharaoh, especially because she promises the Egyptian nobles not to follow the lead of her dead husband. She’s hidden her true thoughts for years, but Nefertiti now admits that she doesn’t believe that the Aten is the one true god.

Instead, she wants to turn back the clock and undo her husband’s religious reforms. Nefertiti orders the city of Amarna to be abandoned. She returns to the royal palace at the old capital of Thebes. And there, she reopens the temples and resumes worship of Egypt’s traditional gods.

By the time Nefertiti herself dies two years later, Egypt will have returned to the old ways. Her successor Tutankhamun will see that Nefertiti is buried in accordance with the ancient rites of their people. But the exact location of her tomb will be lost, and Nefertiti will slowly fade from history’s memory until a chance find more than three millennia later will resurrect Nefertiti's name and make her one of Ancient Egypt’s most famous figures.

Act Two

It’s December 6th, 1912, in Amarna, Egypt, more than 3,000 years after Pharaoh Akhenaten's short-lived religious revolution.

49-year-old German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt scrapes the ground with a trowel, gently clearing away sand and soil. As he brushes aside a lump of clay, a bright blue object catches his eye. Ludwig's pulse quickens as he carefully digs around it, hoping he’s found another work of art.

These days Europeans are fascinated by all things Ancient Egyptian. The trend is known as Egyptomania and is now over a century old - with no sign of waning.

Archaeologists have already dug up mummified remains in the Valley of the Kings. They’ve revealed the secrets of the Pyramids at Giza. And they’ve pored over inscriptions to identify new sites where glittering treasures might be found. Over the last 17 years, Ludwig himself has worked on several excavations in Egypt. And now, he’s heading up a dig at the long-abandoned city of Amarna. And judging from the number of sculptures that Ludwig has found over the previous few days, he thinks he’s uncovered an artist’s workshop.

Ludwig dusts away soil from the tiny blue artifact. Then, he instinctively recoils when he realizes that it’s an eye staring up at him from the sand. Once he’s collected himself, Ludwig stares in astonishment. The glistening eye is made from jewels, and it belongs to a sculpture.

The more Ludwig cleans up the object, the more stunned he is by the find. The sculpture is around 19 inches long and remarkably well-preserved. Eventually, he’s cleared enough to identify it as the bust of a woman’s head and shoulders—and she’s wearing a royal crown.

Ludwig carefully extracts the bust from the ground. Back in his tent, he scours books to identify who the sculpture might portray. And after comparing the woman’s likeness to other statues and inscriptions, Ludwig concludes that the bust depicts Queen Nefertiti. Although much of Nefertiti's life is shrouded in mystery, historians know that she was queen during the tumultuous period when Pharaoh Akhenaten led a religious revolution. She may be a relatively minor figure in Egyptian history, but this sculpture is one of the most incredible feats of ancient art that Ludwig has ever seen.

Six weeks later, the excavation of the workshop in Amarna is complete, and Ludwig meets with Gustave Lefebre, Egypt’s chief antiques inspector. According to an agreement between Ludwig and the Egyptian government, the artifacts that Ludwig found during his dig must be split equally between Germany and Egypt. And it’s Gustave’s job to check that the protocol is being followed. But Ludwig has no intention of letting Gustave take his star discovery.

He watches as Gustave reads an itemized list of all the artifacts that Ludwig has excavated. Many are low-quality pieces—broken sculptures found on the workshop floor, incomplete sculptures that the ancient artist never had a chance to finish, or pieces made from plaster that were probably used for practice. But Ludwig's heart skips a beat when Gustave stops at the line describing the Nefertiti Bust.

Ludwig has done his best to disguise the find’s importance. Rather than listing it as a sculpture of Nefertiti, Ludwig has described it as merely the bust of a princess. But he’s also written that it’s made from poor-quality gypsum rather than finely carved limestone. But that doesn’t stop Gustave from flicking through a stack of photographs to find a picture of the sculpture. Gustav squints as he peers at the blurry photo. Ludwig has deliberately chosen a shot that’s been taken in poor light. It also captures the side of the bust that accentuates the object's greatest flaw—a blank eye that’s missing its jeweled inlay. The photo doesn’t show the other eye, with its magnificent gemstones.

Still, Ludwig holds his breath, terrified that Gustave will see through his deception.

But after what feels like an eternity, Gustave puts the photo aside and moves down the list to the next item. When Gustave is finished, he opens the crates containing the artifacts from the excavation. He takes a few out, declaring that they’ll be kept for the Egyptian Museum. But since the Nefertiti Bust has been declared as a low-quality item, Gustave doesn’t even bother to look at it. Instead, he shakes Ludwig’s hand and adds his signature to the bottom of the export list.

Thanks to Ludwig's trickery, the Nefertiti Bust will soon be on a ship bound for Germany. But Ludwig knows that the Egyptian officials will be angry when they find out what he’s escaped with. So, he keeps his star find under wraps—and only when he thinks enough time has passed will he finally admit what he’s done.

Act Three

It’s April 1924 at the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, Germany, 12 years after the Nefertiti Bust was found and smuggled out of Egypt.

72-year-old German businessman James Simon walks through deserted hallways. In a few moments, the museum will open to the German public, and its newest wing will welcome its first visitors. But before the crowds arrive, James wants one last look around. As he enters a room that houses artifacts found at Amarna, James spots a familiar object under a protective glass: the Nefertiti Bust.

After the Nefertiti Bust was smuggled out of Egypt, it was kept secret from the German people. But not from James. He had been funding Ludwig Borchardt’s excavation, so he was allowed to keep the bust in his home, as long as he didn’t publicize that he had it. Then four years ago, James donated the bust to the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, but its curators were also sworn to secrecy and told that it must be kept in storage. Finally, last year, Ludwig Borchardt decided enough time had passed and he announced the Nefertiti Bust’s existence to the press. Reporters went wild over the stunning find and now, it’s going on public display for the first time.

The Nefertiti Bust wows the thousands of Berliners who flock to see it. But Ludwig is wrong to think that hiding the bust for over a decade means the Egyptians won’t notice what he’s done. Immediately Egyptian authorities protest that the sculpture was smuggled out of their country illegally, and demand its return.

But their complaints will come to nothing. Over the next century, the Nefertiti Bust will rarely leave the German capital. The museum trustees will refuse to consider its repatriation, despite the efforts of the Egyptian government, who’ll complain that Ludwig Borchardt deliberately misled officials and effectively stole the priceless object after he discovered it in the ruins of a long-abandoned city on December 6th, 1912.

Outro

Next on History Daily. December 9th, 1979. A commission of scientists announces to the world that the deadly virus smallpox has finally been eradicated.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.