The same elongated head, large belly and pendulous breasts can be found in depictions of other Egyptian royalty in the years following his reign, experts say. The question is whether artists at that time may have been incorporating symbols of fertility and the afterlife into their work.
"Akhenaten is a good topic for discussion, but from an Egyptologist standpoint, there's a lot going on below the surface in most of these works," Bryan said.
Other experts, including Redford, are convinced Akhenaten looked the way statues show him.
Evidence of Akhenaten's congenital conditions show up in many of the 300 or so statues, busts and hieroglyphs that survive him, experts said.
"Overall treatment of the king's figure never varies, including a statue of him in the Louvre with an elongated face, enormous belly and spindly legs," Redford said.
Braverman agrees with Redford: Akhenaten was one strange-looking ruler.
There is evidence his family kept him from public view until he ascended the throne, and the same misshapen features can be seen in his ancestors, daughters and other relatives, including King Tut, who was either a brother, a son or both a son and son-in-law, Braverman said.
"He was the first pharaoh to insist on realistic representation from the artists of his time," Braverman said.
dennis.obrien@baltsun.com
Today's gathering is open to the public and is scheduled for 1 p.m. May 2 at Davidge Hall on the medical school campus at the northeast corner of Lombard and Greene Streets.
