The Lost History Of Tutankhamun's Siblings (and Wife) | Nefertiti's Daughters | Odyssey

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] Nefertiti the iconic female face of ancient Egypt living 3500 years ago during an upheaval of ancient life caused in part by her husband pharaoh akhenata the identity of this woman has been cloaked in mystery since her rediscovery in the ruins of the city that she and her husband found item now called armana Nefertiti is now believed to have been a fully fledged Pharaoh King to the throne after the uncertain death of Akhenaten yet she was more than a queen more than a ruler Nefertiti was a mother we know of six children born between Akhenaten and Nefertiti it was these children that caused much controversy between akhanatan Nefertiti and a secondary wife Kia Kia gave birth to the only male heir now the world's most famous Nefertiti on the other hand had a string of female children but who were these Daughters of Nefertiti and why do we not hear more about them where are their tombs and their Treasures why did they die young marry their father and brother and what can we learn about their lives under their sheltered upbringing in the Palaces of akatatan closed off from the rest of the world did they agree with their parents new religion in 1912 German archaeologists were Excavating at the desolate city of Arman where they discovered many intriguing objects from Nefertiti's life stylized yet lifelike images of the queen Pharaoh children and other royal family members most notably the bust of Nefertiti because the times were different in the early 1900s many of these artifacts found at armana have been removed from Egypt and Scattered far and wide across the world I've come here to the neues museum in Berlin where they have the biggest collection of Amana art in the world and I'm finally going to come face to face with the children of Nefertiti to find out who they really were these are the daughters of Nefertiti and the sisters of Tutankhamun [Music] history hit is like Netflix just for history fans with exclusive history documentaries covering some of the most famous people and events in history just for you our extensive catalog of documentaries covers everything from the rise of Hannibal Barker to the illustrious Treasures of King Tut so sign up today for broadcast quality documentaries uncovering the mysteries of the ancient world we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and odyssey fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code Odyssey at checkout around 1 352 BC amenhotep III was ruling Egypt though at quite an extended age he probably had a co-regent a formidable woman who had assisted amenhotep III for many decades in fact many foreigners preferred to converse with this queen rather than the pharaoh it was in one of these foreign letters from a king of the Hittites that he congratulated the queen on the birth of her grandchild Merit arten this grandmother and queen was none other than Queen T amanhotep and tea had several children including a young prince the future Pharaoh Akhenaten they lived in thieves on the West Bank in an opulent palace called malkata the son of tea and amenhotep III was named amanhotep IV however shortly after his father's death he changed his name from amanhotep IV to Akhenaten I'm in hotep IV had married a young girl from a noble family Nefertiti ancient textual evidence possibly names her father as a courtier of Amon Hotel III and the brother of Queen T his name was I toward the end of amanhotep III's life akhanatan and Nefertiti had their first child together they named her Merit arten her name means the one who makes the sun god Autumn happy by naming their daughter this it was a foreshadowing of what religious changes were afoot Merit arten would have known her grandfather amanhotep III before he died as she is shown at Karnak temple with Nefertiti merid arten's father amanhotep IV became Pharaoh when her grandfather died they only continued to live in themes for the next four years her father began to show less interest in the plethora of Egyptian gods in particular our moon to whom Karnak Temple was home her father showed more favor in one God only named arten the life-giving SanDisk he founded a new capital miles north of Thieves and named it akitat meaning the Horizon of the atom he even went as far as to remove his previous name which mentioned the god Amun and changed it to akhenata meaning the servant of atom it would be in this new city that Merit artan was given her highest ranking positions according to many a northern Palace at akadatan was built for a secondary wife of Akhenaten whose name was later replaced with the name of Merit arten maritarta is depicted many times in the new city where she is venerating the godartan along with her father Akhenaten and mother Nefertiti a very close relationship is visible between Merit arten and alkenarten during her younger years on one scene Akhenaten is shown gifting a golden earring to Merit arten it is known that akhanatan and Nefertiti had six children together and only daughters the secondary wife of Akhenaten Kia gave birth to the male Heir tutank AMU then called tutank artan [Music] this would have caused some friction between Nefertiti and Kia very soon after the birth of Tut Kia disappears did she die of a plague that tormented the new city or was she removed by Nefertiti some believe that Merit arten the half-sister of Tut became his adoptive mother and raised him in the northern Palace which was formally inhabited by Kia although the wetness of Tut was named Maya some believe that Maya and Merit arten are one in the same but this Theory holds little factual evidence even though many artifacts belonging to Merit artan were found in the Tomb of tudang Amun from a clothing chest to musical clappers containing the names of Merit artan and their grandmother Queen tea life in akhenaten's New City was not the Utopia that he had dreamed of plague swept through the town foreign allies turned their backs and the population were not as welcoming of the idea of only one main God as he had hoped the final years of armana were very muddy and much is still unknown Nefertiti had became a co-regent with Akhenaten but she appears to disappear in her older age perhaps she changed her name to the Royal name of nephrenuatan out of the blue a new co-regent arrives on the scene around this time named smencara some even go as far as to suggest a bisexual relationship between Akhenaten and smencara became a short-lived Pharaoh when Akhenaten died high in the heels of Amana at the Noble's tombs in one tomb of Mary ra smencara is shown giving tribute to Mary ra along with miradata in this tomb we have a clear sign showing that Merit arten became great Royal wife of smencara it is even possible that before things began to fall apart that there were four rulers of Egypt at the same time Nefertiti smencara and meridartan it is possible that she had given birth to two children one sharing the same name as her mother Merit artan a tomb for merit arten has never been found a boundary stealer of her father mentions that she shall be laid to rest in the family tomb in the eastern mountains but no sign of Merit art and being buried there was ever found we have no idea what the final fate of Merit arten was a new female ruler appears and the two former rulers smencara and meridartan disappear did they die from the plague that ravaged the city were they killed to make way for the abandonment of Amana and a new Young pharaoh who became Tutankhamun did they give up the throne and move back to Thebes with the entire population of Amana or were they simply expelled and left in shame one may never know the second daughter of Nefertiti is named mekit artan meaning protected by the atom unsurprisingly very little is known about mechadata she first appears in Thebes at Karnak in a temple built by her father akanatan just three years before the family moved to the new capital city she is then mentioned in year four and five of Akhenaten on a boundary stealer of Amana therefore we can deduce that she was around seven years old at this time this royal family are extremely close and scenes show them in loving moments make it arten appears on the lap of Nefertiti in one scene holding hands with her mother while two of her other sisters also join in whereas mechatatan seems close with Nefertiti her eldest sister Merit arten appears closer with Akhenaten on the same scene in the Tomb of her grandfather from Nefertiti's side I she is shown holding a tray of offerings towards I when she was around 15 years old she appears again in several Amman and tombs including the tomb of Hoy and Mary ra [Music] it is suggested that she married her father Akhenaten and became pregnant but things seemed to end here for magadatan she died in year 14 of akhenaton's Reign which means she was around 17 years old she was buried in a Royal Tomb at Amana unlike the old view on death and rebirth in the next life where you needed to appease several Gods akhanatan believed you simply arrived in heaven and Rose like the art and sun from your devotion in this life in the Tomb of mekadatan the sad reality of her death comes to light her entire family is shown grieving for her in a moment of extreme sadness she is shown deceased under a canopy the significance of her Under The Canopy is heartbreaking the canopy at this time symbolized childbirth what we understand from this scene is that she tragically died during childbirth a time that was most feared by many Egyptians although the tomb is very badly damaged another scene shows Akhenaten and Nefertiti looking over the dead daughter while Akhenaten holds Nefertiti by the arm outside of the room we can see a woman holding a newborn child being covered with a royal fan many believe that this is the child that mechaten gave birth to very few objects from mechadatan remain yet one scribal palette can be marveled at showing the name of Nefertiti and her daughter a princess a queen a woman of the utmost terrible circumstances the middle child of Akhenaten and Nefertiti she is believed to have been born in Thebes very shortly before the royal family moved to the new city of akatatan now Amana she was given the birth name of Uncle which she later changed to Anka sen Amu when she veered away from her father's religion in her early life along with her two Elder sisters she became one of the principal priestesses of the artist and is often shown along with her two sisters made it that the public had to worship the family and in turn the Royals and mainly the Pharaoh would pass on your prayers to the god aten it is suggested that she was married to her own father a practice at the time which was not unusual she may have even given birth to an inbred child sharing the same name as herself [Music] yet child died from the plague that wiped out half of the population of almana when her father died during the short period of rule under smencara and nephronuatan ankisen paraton was married to her slightly younger brother again not strange practice at the time as they believed that inbreeding would keep the family lines stronger as well as the religious aspect where the armaan and Royals were divine in their own way they could not marry out of the Divine lineage appeared to be very close they are seemingly trained to be rulers by Nefertiti herself if the theory is true that Nefertiti lived on past on canatan they are also cared for by Nefertiti's father I after a few short years tutank arten was crowned as Pharaoh when he was nine years old and ankisen paaten was made the great Royal wife also known as Queen only two years into his rule abandoned their father's City and moved back to thieves and reinstated our moon as the chief God of Egypt to affirm that they were distanced from art and now they changed the epithets of their names mentioning arten to now mention our moon becoming Tutankhamun a a close brother and sister were then stamping their Mark in themes being shown on statues and reliefs together in the two main temples of Thebes Luxor Temple and Karnak is often shown in loving scenes with her brother some engraved in Gold where she is seen hunting geese with tutank AMU others where he pours out wine for his sister Queen there is a loving scene on a wooden chest which is aptly known as their wedding scene a young tutank Amun an ankis are seen presenting each other with the lotus in a lush Garden yet the most famous of all of these scenes of the couple is on the throne of touch where ankisenamun is leaning forward rubbing oils from a bowl onto her brother husband we know that the couple tried to conceive an heir at least twice yet these children suffered the same fate as her first child two mummified children from tat and ankisenamun were found in touch too died around the age of 19. after a nine year reign having no children this left ankisenamun in a predicament how grandfather I Nefertiti's father wanted to become the next Pharaoh yet we have evidence that anke senamun did not want this here at the Pokemon Museum in Berlin they have some really amazing examples of trade relations between Hittites and Egyptians the ancient Egyptians had very good trade routes to the north including people of the Hittites amuru and Assyria and they used to send letters between each other in the international communication language which was written in cuneiform sort of looks like little bird scratchings and one of the most famous letters is that of queen nefertari that she used to send letters to the queen are purihipa up in the north and they had a very good rapport between themselves but before nefertari of Ramses II amenhotep III and Queen T used to send letters up there Queen tea was actually very instrumental in causing a good relationship between the two countries however as we go on from tele Amana we have letters from Nefertiti to the Hittites in the north and this is where we see things start to crumble [Music] during the time of tutankhamu he had very good trade relations at that time with the Hittites to the north so much so that even Anki sanamoon wrote to the Hittites wenta died and asked for one of their sons to be sent because she did not want to marry I her possible grandfather who was an old man and some artifacts have been found not in Egypt out of Egypt showing Tut andamoon and on the other side the Assyrian lion goddess who is connected to segment [Music] shortly after her husband died and before I became king she wrote a letter to the Hittites stating that she did not wish to marry the courtier and that the king of the Hittites should send one of his many sons for her to marry and he shall become the pharaoh unfortunately it appears that I was aware of this and once the hittite prince arrived in Egypt he was executed I whose first wife was dead already a small ring showing the joint names of I and Anki Sanam remains to tell this Tale although I was in his late 70s and only ruled for a short time during this short time the then 20-something-year-old anke sanamoon disappears from all records her fate is not known the tomb of I in Thebes is thought to be the original burial place of Tut however I swapped the tombs claiming the larger for himself the decorations are very similar and is seen in the Tomb could be a final image of ankisenamo I was an old man yet on the wall there is a young man with the bodily features of Tutankhamun and next to him is his great Royal wife wearing the feathers of amul this scene would appear to be taught yet their faces and names have been hacked out the scene of the couple showing them hunting geese a symbolic image that was repeated several times by tutank Amun and the unfortunate ankis [Music] Nefertiti's fourth daughter shares the same name as her mother she is known as nefer nuatan tasharit or the beauty of the artem the younger foreign is thought to have been born around year 9 of akhenaten's rule she does not appear in many scenes with the family apart from one where she is shown as a young toddler sitting on a pillow playing with her younger baby sister the entire amanan family are shown on this Fresco from the main Palace however the only surviving intact scene is that of nephrenuatan tashirit since the others feet are still visible on the Fresco artists have been able to reconstruct the scene to allow us to imagine how it initially looked [Music] she does however make two brief appearances as a young princess in a Noble's Tomb at armana where she is shown with her other sisters she does not appear to have a high role in the family when it came to official duties which is why she could possibly have only been shown in Noble's tombs [Music] foreign was present at the death of her older sister makatatan as she is included in the lineup of princesses mourning their sisters passing this scene took place before the next two younger sisters were born as they are not present on the scene many are uncertain of the ultimate fate of this princess she may have been the armaan and Princess shown on several scenes without titles as many believe she died before took the throne [Music] is either the possible twin sister of nephrenuatan tashirit or she may have been born very soon after nephronuatan tashirit the thought behind them being twins is that they are both shown at what looks to be the same age on a palace Fresco both princesses are shown bold with their defined eyeliner as well as being adorned in fine blue lapis and gold jewelry on the right looking back at her sister holding her under the chin a loving image of neferore and her sister nefarure does not appear on many scenes with the Royals in the Tomb of Mary ra she is shown with her sisters giving offerings to the overseer nefarure is depicted holding a baby gazelle and a single lotus flower while she still has her side luck the sign of Royal youth the plague that swept through Amana took many victims including the other Royals one of the youngest victims to have befallen this fate was neferude the scene showing the death of meccata has the Royal princess's present all except one nepharode it is likely that she is not shown in mourning because she like her elder sister had died we have a small rose quartzite statue of akanata but this is the artist's draft he's drawn onto the stone what he wants to create this is unfinished and this is great because it allows us to get an insight into how akhanatan's artists created there are towards the end of the armana period much of the art was left unfinished like these two draft statues of two young armandan princesses one clutching at a system and a lotus these two statues lead us closer to the idea that neverure were twins the final glimmer of the life of the young princess was found in the Tomb of her half-brother tudang Amu among the thousands of pieces discovered was a very small wooden box showing Tut's sister neferude seated as a young child with her finger pressed to her mouth a traditional pose for infants in the art of the Egyptians setupendra the youngest and the last daughter of Nefertiti whose name translates to chosen of the Sun God Ra ugly her name deviates from arten slightly yet still mentioning a solo deity could this have been a precursor to the dramatic reshift of religion and Power in the country in the years to come she was the last born child to akhanata Nefertiti who appeared to have been trying to conceive a male heir born in year 11 of akhenaten's rule setupendra makes her final appearance while receiving foreign tributes with her parents and her sisters she is the very last daughter shown on a carving in the Tomb of Merida this princess tragically died at the age of six before the death of mechatatan as she appears nowhere on these key family moments there are hundreds of statues inlays and ostrica showing the princesses of the artem and many of these show a very young princess could this be the local artist's attempt for the short-lived princess setupendra a final recognition in mourning we may never know as so many of these pieces were damaged when the city was abandoned and remain unidentifiable [Music] when we look at the busts and our trojamana we of course notice how strangely these people are depicted that was akhenaten's own art style but let us look beyond that and look at the faces of these young princesses though we may not know who is being depicted all the time let us remember the human side of these young women Nefertiti is remembered through the image of her beauty but like so many who wish to be remembered through their children the outcome would have been the latter for one of the most mysterious and memorable Queens to have ever walked on the Sands of Egypt after seeing the Amana heads close up for myself I feel like I've discovered Nefertiti's family we might not know a lot about them and they might still be so much mystery but to me I hope that I've brought them back to life for you

Channel: Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries

Views: 108,551

Keywords: ancient history, classical history, ancient civilisations, classical antiquity, history documentary, classical documentary, nefertiti, nefertiti documentary, ancient egypt, tutankhamun, tutankhamun tomb, tutankhamun documentary, museums, egypt museum

Id: qn5QEq3BllQ

Length: 33min 56sec (2036 seconds)

Published: Wed May 03 2023