Nefertiti's facelift?

I think National Geographic has the most revealing picture of the face found under the iconic beauty we've known for the last century.

Nefertiti's "hidden" visage is more realistic, with creases around the corners of her mouth (above, bottom left) and cheeks, less prominent cheekbones, and a bump on her nose.

"CT [scans] impressively demonstrated that the inner core was not just an anonymous mold, but rather a skillfully rendered work of quality art," Huppertz said in an email.

In the final stucco layer (above, top left), Thutmose smoothed over the creases and nose bump, possibly to reflect the "aesthetic ideals of the era," said Huppertz, whose research appears in April in the journal Radiology.

The particular style of art during her husband, Ankhenaton's time, was known for being pretty realistic, actually. The Pharaoh himself was depicted regularly as kind of an odd duck, with a long head and big hips, pot belly, and so on. There are several samples of ancient art depicting him. But Nefertiti was always depicted as beautiful. And, actually, even the un-retouched Nefertiti is a very striking, older woman. It just wasn't what Nefertiti wanted to have immortalized.

I find that ancient face lift kind of wonderfully humanizing. I think she probably asked for the stucco job to represent her best self on her own. It was a hedge against the possibility that her mummy would not really take on life again, someday. That all posterity would know of her was a monument--so she wanted that monument to be her, young.

It's neat to see how little our human intentions have changed over time.