Daughters of Akhenaten
Daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti
Last Year, I visited Tell el-Amarna, where is the middle Egypt near by Beni Hassan, to see Akhetaten’s traces. There are tombs, temples, palaces, office, boundary stelas, and etc…, however unfortunately, those remains were already ruined. I saw one boundary stela at the edge of Akhetaten, and the private tombs at el-Amarna. Then, I re-understood that this king, Akhenaten, was not like other kings because most of the reliefs show his Queen and their daughters behind or beside him. Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their daughters were shown on the reliefs very often. But, those people’s lives are still in the mystery.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six daughters and no sons. Akehnaten had a son named Thutankhaten (Thutankhamen in later) between another wife, though. From the eldest daughter, their names are Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten (Ankhesenamen in later), Neferneferuaten-ta-sherit, Neferneferure, and Sotepenre. Their birth dates were still in debate by many scholars. However, we can reasoning by reliefs from el-Amarna and documents which described the royal family’s daily life (Aldred 1988, 268).
AmenhotepIV became a king around 1358 and ruled Egypt about eighteen years. It is not sure that he had co-regency with his father, AmenhotepIII, but Akhenaten was raised as a crown prince after his elder brother, who named Thotomose, died. AmenhotepIV became a king and married Nefertiti as his first Queen. Then, in the reign of the fifth, he changed his name to Akhenaten, which means something like ‘He Who Glorified Spirit of the Sun-disc’, and moved the city to Akhetaten which means ‘Horizon of the Disc’ (Redford 1989, 142) In the same period, Nefertiti changed her name to Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, means ‘exquisite beauty of the sun disc’ (Aldred 1988, 11, 79). Nefertiti’s birth was not clear, but probably she was a descendant of Ahmose-Nefertari’s blood line. And also, there are possibilities that she was one of the relatives of Great Queen Tiye, and also she was a daughter of Ay (Aldred 1988, 221). Nefertiti’s mother was died after giving birth to her daughter, and Tey who was a wife of Ay was a stepmother of her. Because, usually the mother of the Queen should called ‘Royal mother of the chide wife of the king’ like as Tuya who was a mother of Great Queen Tiye, but Tey was only called ‘Wet-nurse’ and ‘Governess’ (Aldred 1988, 222). Not only Nefertiti became a chief queen, she took part in the daily worship and daily actions with the king. She probably shared power with Akhenaten. There are one theory that Nefertiti was shown in the male figure wearing king’s crown as same as Queen Hatshepsut did (Aldred 1988, 223).
The eldest daughter named Meritaten was born in the second year of Akhenaten’s reign. She was appeared in the earliest reliefs in Thebes with her mother, Nefertiti, and there is a inscription which describe her; ‘the king’s bofily daughter whom he loves, Meritaten, born of the great king’s wife Nefertiti, may she live’. After this, she was appeared on reliefs sometime with her mother and father. Then, her younger sister started to appeared much later from Meritaten (Redford 1989, 79).
The second daughter named Meketaten was born after one or two year after her eldest sister Meritaten. And little after the second daughter was born, the third daughter named Ankhesenpaaten was born before the moving city to Akhetaten because there is a relief in Thebes, which shows three eldest daughter and their parents. It means, Ankhesenpaaten was born about fourth year of the reign (Redford 1989, 79). These three daughters were identified like this with that relief; ‘king’s bodily daughters…born of the great king’s wife Nefertiti” (Redford 1989, 82).
Eldest three daughters were shown together in reliefs many times with their father. “Stela of the royal family” is one of the famous stelas like that, this was probably from a shrine of a private house at Tell el- Amarna. This stela shows Akhenaten sit down across from Nefertiti under the Sun Disc and kissing one of the daughters. Other daughter sits on Nefertiti’s knee and points her forefinger at her father and sister, and one other daughter sits Nefertiti’s left shoulder. Kissing scene and pointing scene is the first appeared from this relief (Freed 1999, 119). Also, there are many interesting fragment were found, and one of them shows the two princesses who spending time together. It is not sure who is these princesses but, one is elder and one is younger according to their height (Freed 1999, 121).
About younger three daughters, their birth years were not clear, so there are many possibilities. Dr. Cyril Aldred, who was an Egyptologist and he died in 1991, said in his book that all of six daughter must born before year nine of the reign. Because, there is a fragment which shows six daughters in the year eight to nine of Akhenaten’s reign (Aldred 1988, 276). However in the opposite, Professor Donald B. Redford who is a professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto and writer of many Egyptology book said, Neferneferuaten-ta-sherit was born in the reign of nine, Neferneferure was born in the reign of ten, and Sotepenre was born in the reign of eleventh (Aldred 1988, 268).
In the Year twelve of Akhenaten’s reign at Akhetaten, Nubians and Kush people came to Egypt to send gifts to Egypt. This scene was remained in the tomb of MeryreII at el-Amarna. On this relief, Akhenaten and Nefertiti sit together and hold hand to hand, all six princesses stand behind their parents. Three eldest stand upper line, and three younger stand bottom. It means, in the year twelve, all of the daughters were complete (Aldred 1988, 280).
The second daughter, Meketaten died for child-bearing. From the Royal Tomb which located in Royal Wadi at el-Amarna, a scene of the burial of Meketaten was found. Royal family were mourning Meketaten’s death, and pouring dust on their heads. Meketaten’s baby could be born because there is a nurse who holding little baby on her hands and standing near Meketaten. However, the baby probably died in the early age (Rice 2002, 106). This could be happened in the Regnal Year 12 or13th of Akhenaten, but the tomb was not dated, so it is not sure. Queen Nefertiti was shown on this relief at this ceremony, but after this, Nefertiti disappeared completely from the history (Aldred 1988, 226). Then, after Nefertiti disappeared, their eldest daughter Meritaten became the consort of Akhenaten, and Babylonian king wrote letter to Akhenaten about her as ‘the mistress of his house.’ Wine labels of fifteenth and seventeenth year of Akhenaten’s reign were found which has inscription like this; ‘the House of the King’s Wife.’ This ‘Queen’ could be Nefertiti but also it could be Meritaten. From this evidence, it is not sure when Nefertiti has died (Aldred 1988, 227).
Smenkhkare who had a same name with Nefertiti, Neferneferuaten, became a king after the death of Akhenaten because he was a co-regent of him. He married Meritaten after Akhenaten’s death, and she was identified as ‘the Chief Wife, his beloved, the Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Lady of the Two Lands, Meritaten.” However, Meritaten died soon after their marriage, and her burial ceremony was probably held at Thebes because her husband tomb was prepared in this place. From this moment, Meritaten and her daughter, whose name is Meritaten-ta-sherit, disappeared from the history. Then, Smenkhkare married Ankhesenpaaten however, Smenkhkare himself died short after while (Aldred 1988, 292). Also, from this age, there are no information about the princesses of Akhenaten and Nefertiti except Ankhesenamen.
Smenkhkare’s birth is not clear, we can assume his birth from his name. Smenkhkare had five names as same as other kings did, and one of them have a meaning of ‘Beloved of Akhenaten.’ So, Smenkhkare should have strong connection with Akhenaten and he must be in ‘beloved’ person by Akhenaten. From this reason, we can say that he could be a son or he must have a nearest relationship with King Akhenaten, even we did not have enough information about him (Aldred 1988, 291).
Smenkhkare’s successor was Thutankhamen who changed his name from Thutankhaten when he took throne. He married Ankhesenamen who also changed her name from Ankhesenpaaten. This means, the state religion was moved back to Amen-Re. He moved the city from Akhetaten to Thebes, and worked for Temple Karnak (Aldred 1988, 293). According to the records which were written by Dr. Dagras E. Delly, who is a professor of anatomy at Cairo University, two female babies’ mummies were found from the tomb of Thutankhamen. These two daughters were probably the daughters of Ankhesenamen. She bored two daughters, but both of them were born prematurely. One daughter’s age of inside womb was before five months and she is about 25.75cm (Kumata 2001, 395). And the other daughter’s age of inside womb was about seven months according to their body development and the size is 36.1cm. Both mummies were rapped by linen (this cloth was took off by Haward Carter) and lay in a coffin together (Kumata 2001, 396). According to Mr. Haward Carter’s recoreds, the small mummy’s face was covered by musk, but the other did not have such musk. However, a small musk was found from the same tomb, so it could be the musk for this mummy (Kumata 2001, 296).
As my conclusion, I made a timeline of the lives of Akhenaten’s daughters. I prefer much more the theory which was made by Dr. Aldred about younger three princesses’ birth year than Professor Redford’s one. That is only because, he pointed out that only older than five years old can attend religious or important ceremony. I understood that the visiting of Nubian and Kush is the one of the important ceremony of King Akhenaten’s reign. So, I put their birth date before the seventh years of Akhenaten’s reign.
This timeline should have discussion on the dating of daughters’ birth, but this is the one of the theory which I found out according to my research.
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