During the 14th century BC, ancient Egypt
underwent radical religious reforms under the reign of the heretical pharaoh Akhenaten.
His Great Royal Wife and Queen of Egypt, Nefertiti, was a powerful and influential
figure during this time of profound cultural upheaval and even rose to the rank of
co-pharaoh and eventually sole pharaoh of Egypt. Her beautiful and elegant limestone bust
has rendered her one of the most iconic and legendary figures from the ancient world. Nefertiti is believed to have been born in 1370 BC, but her parentage is still
somewhat of a mystery. One theory asserts that she is the daughter of a
top adviser named Ay, who went on to become Pharaoh following Tutankhamun’s reign.
A major flaw in this theory is that neither Ay nor his wife Tey are ever clearly
referred to as the parents of Nefertiti. Tey's only documented relationship to Nefertiti
was that of "nurse of the great queen", which is an unusual designation for
the mother of an Egyptian queen. Another theory proposes that she was
the daughter of Amenhotep the Third, thereby making her the full
sister of her husband Akhenaten. This is also unlikely, because none of
Nefertiti’s known titles are among those generally given to the daughter of a pharaoh.
The newest theory to gain some traction among Egyptologists links Nefertiti to a
Mitanni princess named Tadukhipa, who was initially married to Akhenaten’s
father, Amenhotep the Third. This is due in part to the
meaning behind Nefertiti’s name, "The Beautiful Woman Has Come”, which has
been speculated to imply a foreign origin. Nefertiti married prince Amenhotep the Fourth
when she was 15 years old, several years before he became Pharaoh and changed his name to Akhenaten.
Despite the Pharaoh having multiple wives, records show that Nefertiti and Akhenaten
shared a close and intimate relationship, having six daughters together, but no sons.
Their daughters’ names were Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenamun, Neferneferuaten-Tasherit,
Neferneferure and Setepenre. Nefertiti held many titles throughout her
life, including: “Hereditary Princess”, “Great of Praises”, “Lady of Grace”, “Sweet
of Love”, “Lady of The Two Lands”, “Great King's Wife”, “Lady of All Women”, and perhaps
most importantly: “High Priestess of Aten”. Akhenaten and Nefertiti were the primary driving
forces behind the religious revolution during this period, forcing the people of Egypt
to abandon their pantheon of gods in favor of worshiping a single deity named Aten.
Aten is best described as being the disc of the sun that was originally
an aspect of the sun god Ra. Artistically, Aten is depicted as a solar disc
emitting rays with small hands on the ends. The famous “Stele of Akhenaten”
appears to show the royal family being touched by the rays of Aten.
Worship of Aten was nothing new, and even the previous pharaoh Amenhotep
the Third and Queen Tyie had revered Aten above all other gods, but never to the same
fanatical extent as Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Queen Nefertiti wielded much greater influence
over the empire than previous Egyptian queens and eventually rose from the rank of consort
to that of co-pharaoh alongside Akhenaten. Nefertiti is depicted beside her
husband in art more often than any other Egyptian queen in history.
She is frequently presented in positions of strength and authority, such as
conducting worship of Aten, driving a chariot, and smiting enemies of the empire.
Nefertiti’s sexuality, as evidenced by her exaggeratedly feminine body shape and
her fertility, as observed through the six princesses' repeated presence in art, suggest that
she was regarded as a living fertility goddess. Nefertiti designed a commanding tall flat-topped
blue crown for herself that is theorized to represent a female version of the Khepresh,
which was a war crown popularized by Pharaoh Thutmose the Third a century earlier.
By their ninth year in power, Akhenaten and Nefertiti had declared Aten to not only be the
supreme god, but the only one worthy of worship. They ordered that temples dedicated to Amun
be vandalized or destroyed and that images containing any god other than Aten be banned.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti eventually declared that they were Aten’s only messengers, altogether
supplanting priests and other religious leaders. The aristocracy viewed this sudden shift towards
monotheism as a significant threat to the empire, but largely went along with
the royal couple’s reforms. Many priests of Amun hid texts and artifacts,
saving them from Akhenatan and Neferiti’s wrath. Towards the end of his reign Akhenaten went as
far as to declare himself and Nefertiti actual gods and demanded that they be worshiped as such.
Nefertiti was eventually elevated to the position of Egypt’s sole pharaoh after the death
of her husband, and subsequently changed her name to Neferneferuaten, meaning
“Beautiful is The Beauty of Aten”. It’s theorized that she might have masqueraded
as a male pharaoh named Smenkhkare as well. As pharaoh of Egypt, Nefertiti undoubtedly
became the most powerful woman on Earth. Nefertiti holds the distinction of being
the second New Kingdom female pharaoh, after Hatshepsut, and the fifth of a total
of seven women to ever become pharaoh during ancient Egypt’s 3,000 year history.
Hesitant to relinquish the throne to her nine-year-old stepson Tutankhamun,
Nefertiti wrote to the King of the Hittites, Suppiluliuma the First: “My husband has died and
I have no son. They say about you that you have many sons. You might give me one of your sons
to become my husband. I would not wish to take one of my subjects as a husband... I am afraid.”
This was an extraordinarily desperate proposition because New Kingdom Egyptian royal
women never married foreign royalty. Awestruck by Nefertiti’s request, Suppliliuma
responded by sending his son, Prince Zannanza, but the marriage never happened because the
prince was assassinated en route to Egypt. This attempt to marry a foreigner was likely
viewed as treasonous in the eyes of the Egyptian elite and some have speculated that she was
murdered shortly afterwards because Nefertiti soon disappeared from the historical record forever.
It’s a mystery as to whether Nefertiti died at this time or simply surrendered
her throne to Tutankhamun who married her daughter Ankhesenamun.
Upon ascending the throne, his advisers convinced the young pharaoh to reject Atenism and restore
the traditional worship of Amun and the old gods. He also abandoned his parents’ city of Amarna
and reestablished Thebes as Egypt’s capital. Tutankhamun’s successors, particularly
Horemheb, demolished many of Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s constructions and used the
rubble for their own building projects. Ironically, Akhenaten and Nefertiti are now
two of the most notable figures from all of ancient Egyptian history, while most of their
detractors have forever vanished into obscurity. In 1912, a German archaeological team
led by Ludwig Borchardt unearthed the portrait bust of Nefertiti at the ruins of an
Amarna workshop owned by a royal sculptor. The bust was first shown in a
Berlin museum in the 1920s, and it quickly gained international notice,
rendering Nefertiti one of the most recognizable and beautiful female figures from antiquity.
German dictator Adolf Hitler was particularly proud to have Nefertiti’s bust in Germany’s
possession, describing it as: "a unique masterpiece, an ornament, a true treasure."
One of Hitler’s top officials, Hermann Göring, considered returning the bust
to Egypt as a political gesture, but Hitler strongly disagreed, saying:
"I will never relinquish the head of the Queen!" The bust was hidden away in a German salt
mine during the 1945 allied bombings of Berlin and was discovered by American
soldiers near the end of the war. Egypt requested that the United States
return the bust to its motherland, but they refused and advised Egypt to take
the matter up with the new German government. The bust is currently housed in the
Neues Museum in Berlin, where it had been on display prior to World War II.
The location of Nefertiti’s tomb remains one of the biggest mysteries in
the field of Egyptian archeology. Many Egyptologists believe that finding
the legendary queen’s tomb will be the most significant discovery since Howard Carter's
famous unearthing of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. Through her incredible beauty and unparalleled
influence, Nefertiti has captivated the world and become one of the most recognizable and
legendary figures of the ancient world! Consider liking, commenting,
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