38 Facts About Neferneferuaten

Neferneferuaten's gender is confirmed by feminine traces occasionally found in the name and by the epithet Akhet-en-hyes, incorporated into one version of her nomen cartouche.

Neferneferuaten is distinguished from the king Smenkhkare who used the same throne name, Ankhkheperure, by the presence of epithets in both cartouches.

Neferneferuaten is suggested to have been either Smenkhkare's wife, Meritaten or his predecessor's widow, Nefertiti.

The reigns of Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten were very brief and left little monumental or inscriptional evidence to draw a clear picture of political events.

Aidan Dodson proposes that Smenkhkare did not have an independent reign and thus, Neferneferuaten must have come after him, the result being that Smenkhkare's reign is entirely that of a coregent, ending about a year later, in Year 14 or 15 of Akhenaten's reign, with little firm evidence to argue against it.

Simultaneously, Neferneferuaten obtained another epithet, Axt-n-H=s, "One Who is Beneficial for Her Husband", which Gabolde used to prove this king's female identity beyond doubt.

Neferneferuaten replaced the name of Akhenaten with references to the Aten in her prenomen and nomen.

The fact that most of Tutankhamun's funerary equipment was originally made or inscribed for the female king Neferneferuaten strongly suggests that Tutankhamun, in fact, directly succeeded Neferneferuaten on the throne after the female king died.

Regardless of the order of succession, Neferneferuaten's successor seems to have denied her a king's burial based on items originally inscribed with her name, but used for the burial of Tutankhamun.

Neferneferuaten wrote during the Hellenistic period in Ancient Egypt when it was being ruled by a Greek dynasty rather than a native dynasty.

Neferneferuaten's lost work Aegyptiaca, now known only in fragmentary form from later writers quoting his work, is the sole ancient record available.

Unlike Smenkhkare, there are no known named depictions of Neferneferuaten; she is only securely attested in inscriptions.

The most definitive inscription attesting to Neferneferuaten is a long hieratic inscription or graffito in the tomb of Pairi written by a scribe named Pawah:.

The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands Ankhkheperure Beloved of Aten, the Son of Re Neferneferuaten Beloved of Waenre.

Nicholas Reeves sees this graffito as a sign of a "new phase" of the Amarna revolution, with Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten "taking a decidedly softer line" toward the Amun priesthood.

Neferneferuaten pointed out the name 'Ankhkheperure' was rendered differently depending on whether it was associated with Smenkhkare or Neferneferuaten.

Allen later showed that Neferneferuaten's epithets were of three types or sets.

Finally, a few of Neferneferuaten's cartouches bear unique epithets not associated with Akhenaten at all.

Allen concluded that the strong affiliation with Akhenaten in the epithets and the number of them made it likely that Neferneferuaten had been his coregent and therefore, preceded Smenkhkare.

Neferneferuaten suggests that adoption of the throne name Ankhkheperure by Smenkhkare was "to emphasize the legitimacy of Smenkh-ka-re's claim against that of Akhenaton's "chosen" coregent".

The reign of "king" Neferneferuaten is actually better documented than that of Semenkhkare.

Mud jar sealings referring to the " estate of Neferneferuaten, beloved of Waenra," were discovered in Saqqara.

Nefertiti, who already played an important role in Amarna, and already bore the name Neferneferuaten, is in my view the most likely candidate for this function.

Nefertiti was an early candidate for King Neferneferuaten, first proposed in 1973 by JR Harris.

The apparent use of a portion of her name made her an obvious candidate even before Neferneferuaten's gender was firmly established.

Neferneferuaten proposes that Neferneferuaten helped guide the reformation in the early years of Tutankhaten and conjectures that the return to the dominence of the Amun priesthood is the result of her 'rapid adjustment to political reality'.

Van der Perre considers it likely Nefertiti assumed the royal office using the name Neferneferuaten, adopting the throne name briefly used by Smenkhkare in combination with her own name, but that the chance of a co-regency period is slim.

Meritaten as a candidate for the identity of Neferneferuaten seems to be the most fluid, taking many forms depending on the views of the Egyptologist.

Neferneferuaten had been put forth by Rolf Krauss in 1973 to explain the feminine traces in the prenomen and epithets of Ankhkheperure and to conform to Manetho's description of a Akenkheres as a daughter of Oros.

Neferneferuaten speculated Meritaten might have ruled with the feminine prenomen 'Ankh-et-kheperure' after Akhenaten's death and before Smenkhkare's accession.

The primary argument against Meritaten, either as Krauss's pro tempore Ankh-et-kheperure before marriage to Smenkhkare or as Akhenaten's coregent King Neferneferuaten, is that she is well attested as wife and great royal wife to Smenkhkare.

Neferneferuaten sees the inscribed box as depicting Meritaten in simultaneous roles using the name Neferneferuaten as coregent and using her birth name in the role of royal wife to Akhenaten.

Neferneferuaten has proposed that the Meryre drawing was executed in advance of an anticipated coronation that ended up not taking place due to his death.

Neferneferuaten identifies her as the subject of the Dakhamunzu affair, with the Hittite prince Zannanza ascending the throne as Smenkhkare.

Since Nefertiti has been confirmed to be living as late as Year 16 of Akhenaten's reign however, the Meritaten theory becomes less likely because she would no longer be the most senior living person to be at court using either the name Neferneferuaten nor be identified as "Effective for her husband" as the epithet of a ruling female pharaoh.

In 2009, James Allen proposed a new reading of events, suggesting that Neferneferuaten was Akhenaten and Nefertiti's fourth daughter, Neferneferuaten-tasherit.

Neferneferuaten is a less attractive candidate now that the Year 16 graffito for Nefertiti has been verified.

Neferneferuaten's identity and legacy is a key part of the archaeological topics in Jacqueline Benson's 2024 historical fantasy novel, Tomb of the Sun King.