Nefertari's Knees

This interesting picture of a display in the Turin Egyptian Museum of the supposed legs of Ramses II's great royal wife Nefertari found in her tomb QV66 in the Valley of the Queens. The article comes with some contradicting evidence that they may actually be a couple hundred years older than Nefertari, though the tomb showed no signs of intrusive burials.

One of the great mysteries in Egyptology is what happened to the missing mummies of the queen's buried in the Valley of the Queens. If the legs are Nefertari's then she would be one of the few queens if not the only one whose remains were actually found in her tomb in the queen's valley. The article presented the unlikely possibility that the legs were washed into the tomb during flooding. The presence of wild animals that entered most of the tombs could be another explanation how part of a mummy ended up in Nefertari's tomb.

The article presents the idea that the carbon dating may be right and that the chronology of the Ramasside period may be off. This is unlikely especially given that there may be some discrepancy in the chronology but certainly not 200 years.


Notes:

1. Photo of legs by Michael Habicht
2. Study of history, owners, and condition of valley and its tombs by the Getty Museum
3. Tombs in the Valley of the Queens by Anneke Bart