role as a goddess of resurrection, since black is the color of death, the underworld, rebirth and fertility, as well as the fertile land of Egypt. In 2003, Betsy Bryan wrote in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt that "the factors linking Amenhotep I and his mother with the necropolis region, with deified rulers, and with rejuvenation generally was visually transmitted by representations of the pair with black or blue skin – both colours of resurrection." In 2004 Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton recognized in a later depiction of the queen, "the black skin of a deity of resurrection" in connection to her role as a patron goddess of the Theban necropolis. In 2009 Eleni Vassilika, noting that in a wooden statuette of the queen (now at the Museo Egizio) the face is painted black but the arms and feet are light in color, argued that the reason for the black coloring in that case was religious and not genetic. In 2014, Margaret Bunson wrote that "the unusual depictions of Ahmose-Nefertari in blue-black tones of deification reflect her status and cult." In a wooden votive statue of Ahmose-Nefertari, currently in the Louvre museum, her skin was painted red, a color commonly seen symbolizing life or a higher being, or elevated status. Early 20th century archaeologists made observations on Ahmose-Nefertari's likely phenotype and genealogy, and also on the probable symbolic meaning of her most frequent representation in black or purplish black skin tones. In 1974, Cheikh Anta Diop described her as "typically negroid." In the controversial book Black Athena, Martin Bernal intimated that members of the royal family to which Ahmose-Nefertari belonged may have originated from Nubia, and, according to him, 18th dynasty pharaohs could generally be referred to as black. Bernal's work has been embraced by Afrocentrists, but rejected by mainstream Egyptologists. References Notes Citations External links Ahmose Nefertari Image of her coffin and short bio. Mummy of Ahmose-Nefertari by Max Miller. "Women in ancient Egypt" "Women in Power BCE 4500-1000" "Royal Women" Hatshepsut: from Queen to Pharaoh, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Ahmose-Nefertari (see index) 16th-century BC Egyptian people 16th-century BC Egyptian women 16th-century BC women rulers Queens consort of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Wives of Ahmose I Deified Ancient Egyptian people Ancient Egyptian race controversy Regents of Egypt People from Thebes, Egypt