BRITISH archeologists believe they may have identified the body of one of the most legendary beauties of the ancient world.

They are confident a tattered mummy found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings is probably Queen Nefertiti, stepmother of the boy king Tutankhamun and one of the most powerful women in ancient Egypt.

The conclusion has been made after 12 years of research, using clues such as fragments of a wig and the piercing of the mummy's ears. The breakthrough came after the Egyptian authorities allowed the 3,500-year-old body to be examined in detail for the first time.

Under a pile of ancient linen, archeologists found a broken-off arm bent in a way that was permitted only if the dead person was a pharaoh or queen.

Joann Fletcher, a key member of the research team from York University, said: "It's a royal woman of the late 18th dynasty who wielded tremendous power. There are not many who fit that description. We can never have cast-iron certainty that it is Nefertiti but we have narrowed it right down."

The mummy was originally found with two others by a French team in 1898. It was walled up in a side chamber of the tomb of King Amenhotep II. The body's poor condition meant it drew little attention.

It was photographed only once, in 1907, before the chamber was walled up again. Since then it has been known simply as "the younger woman".

Fletcher's interest in the mummy was sparked when she noticed the photograph's resemblance to a Nefertiti bust on display in Berlin since the 1920s whose beautiful face makes it one of the best-known images of ancient Egypt. It shows a woman with a long neck, high cheekbones and a slender nose. The name Nefertiti means "a beautiful woman has come".

The bust was found at Amarna, where Nefertiti's husband, the pharaoh Akhenaten, had his capital in the 14th century BC. But after his death he was branded a heretic and anything connected with his reign was destroyed.

"Nefertiti is the big name. She is such a phenomenally important Egyptian figure and she is an icon because of that bust in Berlin," said Fletcher.