Page 62 - All About History - Issue 180-19

who were leaving. So was this apparent fear It was worse than those things Nebmaatra
justified or was Akhenaten paranoid? Amenhotep III heard
To answer this we have to turn to an … It was worse than those things
extraordinary part of the inscription on one Menkheperure Thutmosis III heard
of the boundary stelae that marked the boundaries And it was worse than those things heard
WHo WAs of Tell el Amarna. Amidst the hyperbole about by any kings who had ever assumed the white

Crown (ie ruled the south of Egypt).”
why Amarna was chosen as the city to the Aten,
it states,
It is clear the motivation to move the capital
smEnkArA? “It was worse than those things I heard in city from Thebes to Tell el Amarna was more
regnal year 4
than religious inspiration. It seemed there was
It was worse than those things I heard in
some backlash – the likes of which no king had
regnal year 3,
Was the shadowy co-ruler of It was worse than those things I heard in seen. What this backlash was, however, will
remain a mystery. It is possible it was a potential
Akhenaten really Nefertiti taking regnal year 2 challenge to wrest the throne from him, or there
on the role of king? It was worse than those things I heard in had been audible criticism to his religious changes.

regnal year 1 Whatever it was, it was disturbing enough for
One of the most popular theories is that
Smenkhare was in fact Nefertiti. This
is based on nomenclature – essentially
following Nefertiti’s name changes. In year
12 of Akhenaten’s reign Nefertiti disappears
from the records as the Great Royal Wife,
Nefernefruaten-Nefertiti. This led some
scholars to believe she had fallen from grace
and had been banished from Tell el Amarna.
However in year 13, a co-ruler appears
called Ankhkheperure-Nefernefruaten, with
the title of Great Royal Wife being
transferred to Akhenaten’s
oldest daughter Meritaten.
Further evidence that
this co-ruling king was
Nefertiti was found in
the form of bezel-rings
bearing the feminine
form of the name,
Ankh-et-kheperure
rather than the masculine
Ankhkheperure.
Then another figure
appears as co-ruler,
known as Ankhkheperure-
Smenkhare, who was
co-ruler for two to
three years before
Akhenaten died, and then
ruled alone, dying a few
months later. He was also
married to Meritaten as his
Great Royal Wife, although
it is thought she predeceased
him. He then married the only
surviving daughter of Akhenaten,
Ankhesenepaaten, who had already
been married to her father and
bore him a child.
Upon the death of
Smenkhare, the throne
passed to Tutankhamun
who married
Smenkhare’s widow
© Getty Images Ankhesenpaaten. depicted handing out © Alamy
Here Akhenaten is
gifts to his courtiers

62