nefertiti

December 6, 1912, German archaeologist, Ludwig Borchadt on a dig in Armana, Egypt, finds an amazing treasure. It is the bust of Nefertiti! Eradicated from history she is at last found. While excavating an ancient sculpture's studio he comes across this icon of complete female beauty, elegance and sophistication. It is said that he was so overwhelmed by the beauty of Nefertiti that he wrote only one thing in his diary: " Description is useless- see for youself." Wife of the herectic king, Akhenaten. She stood with him in a revolution of monotheism. They replace the all powerful, king of all gods, Amun, and other dieties to solely worship Aten, the Sun Disk. Banning years of tradition that changed Egypt's history forever

Her story is one of intrigue shrouded in a cloud of mystery, a time of religious upheaval, tyranny and possibly murder. She is as elusive today as she was when she first disappeared from history some 3000 years ago. Sadly today hardly anyone can agree on anything dealing with this period of time due to a huge lack of information. I am by far no expert in this field but I will write what I do know . And by all means if you have additional information or would like to comment on this subject, go to the message board.

It is written that Ay at times called himself "the god's father" leading one to believe that he was Akhenaten's father in law. In Ay's highly decorated tomb in the Valley of the Kings, some of the inscriptions show Mutnojme, Nefertiti's sister as his daughter. I have read that in Ay's tomb there are several carvings of a woman that they identified as Mutnojme. Confusing as this is, Ay's wife Teye is described as only a "nurse" or "wet nurse" rather than "mother of the Great Royal Wife". The term wet nurse is used for both men and women who looked after the royal children. Suggesting quite possibly that Ay was father to both Nefertiti and Mutnojme and that they had two different mothers. Others say she was from the house of Ahmose-Nefertari. (In her bestowed tittle of The beautiful one has come)

It could be that Nefertiti's actual mother died early on, and it was left to Teye to raise the young girl.

She bore the king 6 daughter's, Meritaten, Meketaten, who died in the 12th year of Akhenaten's rule, Ankhesenpaaten who later becomes wife of Tutankhamun and has her name changed to Ankhesenamun, Neferneferuaten, Neferneferure and Setepenre.

"She who is beloved of Aten" She was born early in her father's reign, before the royal family moved to the new capital established by her father, Akhetaten. She was shown beside her mother in reliefs carved into the Hut-Benben, a temple devoted exclusively to Nefertiti. She also appears�along with her parents and younger sister Meketaten�on the boundary stelae designating the boundaries of the new capital. She had one daughter, who was named after her, Meritaten Tasherit ("Meritaten the Younger").Meritaten's titles include Great Royal Wife, which can indicate either marriage to her father or to Akhenaten's co-ruler Smenkhkare, who some believe was her (half-)uncle or half-brother, although a simpler explanation for the title may be that Meritaten simply assumed her mother's duties and office of "Great Royal Wife".

("Behold the Aten" or "Protected by Aten") was the second daughter of six born.She was probably born in year 2 or 3 Akhenaten's reign.Meketaten died in the 13th or 14th regnal year of her father. In Year 12 she was still alive, since she was depicted with her parents and sisters at the reception of foreign tributes � a ceremony that can be seen on several scenes in the private tombs of high-ranking officials such as Huya and High Priest Meryre II.

Meketaten under the canopy, on the wall paintings of the Gamma chamber. In front of her: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Meritaten, Ankhesenpaaten and Neferneferuaten Tasherit.

she was the third of six known daughters. The change in her name reflects the changes in Ancient Egyptian religion during her lifetime after her father's death. Her youth is well documented in the ancient reliefs and paintings of the reign of her parents. She was probably born in year 4 of Akhenaten's reign and by year 12 of her father's reign she was joined by her three younger sisters. He made his wife his co-regent and had his family portrayed in a realistic style in all official artwork. Ankhesenamen was definitely married to one king. She was the Great Royal Wife of pharaoh Tutankhamun (who may have been her half-brother). It is also possible that she was briefly married to Tutankhamun's successor, Ay. It has also been said that she may have been the great royal wife of her father, Akhenaten, after the possible death of her mother and co-regent of Akhenaten's immediate successor, Smenkhkare, who now is thought to have been a woman. She became the "Senior Princesses" and participated in many functions of the government and religious rituals.

A ring shows that Ankhesenamen married Ay, shortly before she disappeared from history, although no monuments show her as a royal consort. On the walls of Ay's tomb it is Tey (Ay's senior wife), not Ankhesenamen, who appears as queen. She probably died during or shortly after his reign and as of yet no burial has been found for her. After excavating the tomb KV63 it is a theory that it was designed for Ankhesenamen due to the location which is very close to KV62 which is Tutankhamun's tomb. Also found in the tomb were coffins (one with an imprint of a woman on it), womans clothing, jewelery and natron, also fragments of pottery bearing the partial name Paaten. The only royal person known to bear this name was Ankhesenamen whose name was originally Ankhesenpaaten. However there were no mummies found in KV 63 so it remains just a theory.

(Ta-sherit means "the younger one"); She was the fourth of six known daughters of the royal couple. It is likely that she was born in Akhetaten, the capital founded by her father. Her name Neferneferuaten ("Beauty of the Beauties of Aten" or "Most Beautiful One of Aten") is the exact copy of the name Nefertiti took in the 5th regnal year. I found very little information on her.

Neferneferuaten (right) and younger sister Neferneferure, on a painting found in a private house in Amarna.

She was the fifth of six known daughters She was born in the 8th or 9th regnal year of her father in Akhetaten. Her name ("Beauty of the Beauties of Re" or "Most Beautiful One of Re") is almost the same as the name of her elder sister Neferneferuaten; just a note, she doesn't have Aten in her name. This indicates that there was a shortage of acceptable names for royals, since most Egyptian names had the names of gods mentioned in them, and most of those gods fell out of favor under Akhenaten's reign. Her name also indicates that the discontinuation of the cults of other gods did not affect the cult of Re, who was thought to be identical to Aten.

The sixth and last daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Her name also does not include the "aten" element. She was probably born in late year nine, or possibly early year ten of Akhenaten's reign. Not much is known about Setepenre, although it is assumed she died young, predeceasing Meketaten who died in or around year 14. It is likely, however, that the young princess was not much older than 8 when she died.

During Akhenaten's reign and more than likely afterwards, Nefertiti enjoyed unprecedented power, and by the twelfth year of his reign, there is evidence that she may have been elevated to the status of co-regent, equal in status to the pharaoh himself. She was often depicted on temple walls the same size as the king, signifying her importance, and shown worshiping the Aten alone. Perhaps most impressively, Nefertiti is shown on a relief from the temple at Amarna which is now in the MFA in Boston, smiting a foreign enemy with a mace before the Aten. Such depictions had traditionally been reserved for the pharaoh alone, and yet Nefertiti was depicted as such.

The reason for this may have been simple: love. In an age when marriages were arranged for political reasons, the partnership between Akenhaten and Nefertiti seems to have been unusually romantic. We also know from relief inscriptions that these two are or look to be very much in love and always family oriented.

With a lot of physical contact, such as kissing in public, sitting on his knee, riding in a chariot together etc. Nefertiti is also one of the very few Egyptian queens that we know to have been lovingly described by her husband, the pharaoh.

And the Heiress, Great in the Palace, Fair of Face,
Adorned with the Double Plumes, Mistress of Happiness,
Endowed with Favours, at hearing whose voice the King rejoices,
the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands,

Even the figure of Nefertiti , Akhenaten had carved onto the four corners of his granite sarcophagus and it was she who provided the protection to his mummy, a role traditionally played by the female deities Isis, Nephthys, Selket and Neith.

She bore the King no sons and he takes Kiya, a secondary wife who gives birth to Tutankhamun. It is said that she too disappears from history very suddenly. And quite possibly at the hands of Nefertiti. Kiya goes missing around year 12 of Akhenaten's reign, at the North Palace, stone fragments have been found with Meritaten's name chiseled over Kiya's. It is assumed that Kiya may have stepped on Nefertiti's toes by getting to close to the Pharaoh and was done away with.

Most would agree, that Nefertiti was an extremely powerful figure in ancient times. However, some claim that she was never as powerful as her apparently sickly husband Akhenaten. I on the other hand, feel she was smarter than what people give her credit for. You're only as strong as the weakest link. She knew her husband was sick.

Many scholars presume that the Mutnodjme, Nefertiti's sister, who is said married Horemheb. In Akhenaten: King of Egypt by Cyril Aldred, the author explains that a fragmentary statue of Mutnodjme discovered at Dendera describes her not only as "Chief Queen", but also "God's Wife of Amun", which he explains puts her in the line of those other great consorts who traced their descent from Ahmose-Nefertari. This links both sisters to the cult of Amun, which he tells us could obviously not have been openly proclaimed at Amarna.

Yet we must be very careful with this link between Nefertiti and Amun by way of her sister's later attachment to the cult. Horemheb considered himself to be an adamant restorer of the old religion after the Amarna period, and so just because his Chief Queen took the title of God's Wife does not necessarily mean that Nefertiti held any real interest in that cult.

Doubtless though, Nefertiti may very well, and probably did participate in a similar manner as God's Wife in the cult of Re Atum. Unlike other chief queens, she is shown taking part in the daily worship, repeating the same gestures and making similar offerings as the king. Where traditionally a relationship existed between God and King, now that relationship is expanded to include the royal pair.

She in fact exhibits the same fashion as God's Wife. From her first appearance at Karnak, she wears the same clinging robe tied with a red sash with the ends hanging in front. She also wears the short rounded hairstyle. In her case, this was exemplified by a Nubian wig, the coiffure of her earlier years, alternating with a queens tripartite wig, both secured by a diadem bearing a double uraei. Sometimes this was replaced by a a crown with double plumes and a disk, like Tiye and her later Kushite counterparts. She dressed for appeal, and if she fulfilled a similar function as God' wife of Amun in the Amarna religion, part of this responsibility would have been to maintain a state of perpetual arousal. However, since the Aten was intangible and abstract, this appeal must be to his son the king. Ay praises her for "joining with her beauty in propitiating the Aten with her sweet voice and her fair hands holding the sistrums".

In fact, as the wife of the sun god's offspring, she took on the role of Tefnut, who was the daughter and wife of Atum. After the fourth regal year, she began to wear a mortar-shaped cap that was the headgear of Tefnut in her leonine aspect of a sphinx. She was then referred to as "Tefnut herself", at once the daughter and the wife of the sun-god. Therefore, Nefertiti played an equal role with the king who was the image of Re.

Of course, as a god, no mortal could claim to be her mother, which may be the reason why Teye must content herself with the titles of "Wet-nurse" and "Governess" In fact, it may have been that she hid her parentage to conceal the fact that the progenitors of this high and mighty princess were not also equally divine.

These days in Luxor and Karnak they are finding clues to Nefertiti's stratagem. During the reign of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, they had built temples to Aten in the sacred sanctums of the god Amun. This was the supreme act of irreverence against the old ways. When thier reign was over, all the temples of Aten were destroyed and the building stones were salvaged and used as filler for the foundations of new monuments. As of writing this topic, 60,000 stones with hundreds of scenes have been recovered and catalogued with more on the way. With new technology and a little bit of the old, computer imaging has become an important tool. Some have determined that during this dynamic duo's reign, there once stood an enormous entry by the eastern gate leading onto the Temple of Karnak.

About Year 14 of Akhenaten's reign (1336 BC), Nefertiti herself vanishes from the historical record. To this day she remains a mystery. Some believe she went on to rule as Smenkare, other believe she changed her name to Neferneferuaten, more believe she died during a so called plague. And the list goes on. As time goes on, and new technology becomes available we might in our lifetime know exactly what took place.