Places › Museums outside Egypt › Neues Museum, Berlin
Bust of Nefertiti
Object at Neues Museum, Berlin · also called Nefertiti Bust, Nofretete, Büste der Nofretete, Nefertiti Berlin
The Bust of Nefertiti has no inscription at all: no name, no title, no hieroglyphs. To read her name you look at the Amarna reliefs and stelae nearby, where it is written in a cartouche that begins with the sign for 'beautiful'.
The bust was made c. 1345 BC at Amarna. A German team led by Ludwig Borchardt found it in 1912 in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose. It is limestone covered with painted plaster, and one eye was never given its inlay. Egypt has asked more than once for its return.
Her name means 'the beautiful one has come'. It is written with the heart and windpipe (nefer), a bread loaf for t, the reed and walking legs for 'come', and a seated woman at the end. In the reign of Akhenaten she also took the name Neferneferuaten, 'beautiful are the beauties of the Aten'.
What to see and read
The bust itself
Walk around it. Crown, collar and base are all uninscribed.
Her cartouche on the Amarna reliefs
In the rooms nearby, find a cartouche that starts with one or more nefer signs. That is Nefertiti, usually next to the Aten's two cartouches and Akhenaten's own two.
Names you can find here
Signs to look for
- Heart and windpipe F35nfr The heart and windpipe (nefer) opens her name, three times over in the longer form Neferneferuaten.
- Reed and walking legs M18jj The reed with walking legs (ii, 'come') is the middle of Nefertiti, 'the beautiful one has come'.
- Seated woman B1 The seated woman closes her name and marks it as a woman's.
- Cartouche V10 On the reliefs nearby, her name sits in a cartouche, as New Kingdom queens' names often did.
Reading the hieroglyphs here
- Photography has long been banned in the bust's room; read and photograph her cartouche on the reliefs in the Amarna rooms instead.
- Learn the nefer sign: it is the quickest way to spot her name.
Point your camera at a wall Hiero Lens boxes the signs and names them, on your phone; nothing is uploaded. On worn stone, trace a sign over the photo.
Questions
Does the Bust of Nefertiti have hieroglyphs on it?
No. Scholars think it was a sculptor's model for other portraits, which may be why it has no text.
What does Nefertiti's name mean in hieroglyphs?
It means 'the beautiful one has come'. On Amarna monuments it is often preceded by Neferneferuaten in the same cartouche.
Where it is
Open in OpenStreetMap · Written from published sources and not yet checked on site by our team: displays and open tombs change.