<p>The 3,300-year-old carved bust of the queen with her aqualine nose and high cheek bones has won her legions of admirers.<br /><br />But a delicately carved face in the limestone core of the renowned bust suggests the royal sculptor may have smoothed creases around the mouth and fixed a bumpy nose to depict the 'Beauty of the Nile' in better light.<br /><br />TV historian Bettany Hughes was part of a team that stumbled on the discovery which is supported by research from German scientists who studied the 20-inch bust of Nefertiti, which means 'the beautiful one has come'.<br /><br />Hughes and her team carried out a CT scan of the bust and discovered a second limestone model with a bent nose and wrinkles around the eyes which may have been used as a template for the bust, reports the Daily Mail.<br /><br />"That statue showed her nose was bent, and that she had wrinkles around her eyes. It's a real portrait of a real woman," Hughes told The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival Saturday.<br /><br />"We're now going to a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, where we think Nefertiti's sister is, to see if the dynasty has the same features," he said.<br /><br />The bust of Nefertiti, who died around 1330 BC aged between 29 and 38, was found in Egypt in 1912 at Tell el-Amarna, the short-lived capital of Nefertiti's husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The bust is now housed in Berlin's Altes Museum.<br /><br />But the first suggestion that she may have had the ancient equivalent of botox and a nose job came in March last year when German scientists analysed the limestone carving with CT scans.<br /><br />Their analysis showed that compared to the outer stucco face, the inner face had less prominent cheekbones, a slight bump on the ridge of the nose, creases around the corner of mouth and cheeks, and less depth at the corners of the eyelids.<br /><br />The changes were possibly made to make the queen adhere more to the ideals of beauty of the time, the researchers said.<br /></p>
<p>The 3,300-year-old carved bust of the queen with her aqualine nose and high cheek bones has won her legions of admirers.<br /><br />But a delicately carved face in the limestone core of the renowned bust suggests the royal sculptor may have smoothed creases around the mouth and fixed a bumpy nose to depict the 'Beauty of the Nile' in better light.<br /><br />TV historian Bettany Hughes was part of a team that stumbled on the discovery which is supported by research from German scientists who studied the 20-inch bust of Nefertiti, which means 'the beautiful one has come'.<br /><br />Hughes and her team carried out a CT scan of the bust and discovered a second limestone model with a bent nose and wrinkles around the eyes which may have been used as a template for the bust, reports the Daily Mail.<br /><br />"That statue showed her nose was bent, and that she had wrinkles around her eyes. It's a real portrait of a real woman," Hughes told The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival Saturday.<br /><br />"We're now going to a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, where we think Nefertiti's sister is, to see if the dynasty has the same features," he said.<br /><br />The bust of Nefertiti, who died around 1330 BC aged between 29 and 38, was found in Egypt in 1912 at Tell el-Amarna, the short-lived capital of Nefertiti's husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The bust is now housed in Berlin's Altes Museum.<br /><br />But the first suggestion that she may have had the ancient equivalent of botox and a nose job came in March last year when German scientists analysed the limestone carving with CT scans.<br /><br />Their analysis showed that compared to the outer stucco face, the inner face had less prominent cheekbones, a slight bump on the ridge of the nose, creases around the corner of mouth and cheeks, and less depth at the corners of the eyelids.<br /><br />The changes were possibly made to make the queen adhere more to the ideals of beauty of the time, the researchers said.<br /></p>