14 Facts About Smenkhkare

Smenkhkare was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of unknown background who lived and ruled during the Amarna Period of the 18th Dynasty.

Smenkhkare was husband to Meritaten, the daughter of his likely co-regent, Akhenaten.

An alternative suggestion, based on objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun, is that Smenkhkare was the son of Akhenaten's older brother, Thutmose and an unknown woman, possibly one of his sisters.

Smenkhkare is known to have married Akhenaten's eldest daughter, Meritaten, who was his Great Royal Wife.

Furthermore, Smenkhkare has been put forth as a candidate for the mummy in KV55.

Clear evidence for a sole reign for Smenkhkare has not yet been found.

Some Egyptologists have speculated about the possibility of a two- or three-year reign for Smenkhkare based on a number of wine dockets from Amarna that lack a king's name but bear dates for regnal years 2 and 3.

Academic consensus has yet to be reached about when exactly Smenkhkare ruled as pharaoh and where he falls in the timeline of Amarna.

Aidan Dodson suggests that Smenkhkare did not have a sole reign and only served as Akhenaten's co-regent for about a year around Regnal Year 13.

Per Dodson's theory, Smenkhkare served only as co-regent with Akhenaten and never had an individual rule and Nefertiti became co-regent and eventual successor to Akhenaten.

Smenkhkare can be differentiated from Neferneferutaten by the lack of an epithet associated with his throne name.

Smenkhkare has been put forward as a candidate for the mummy discovered in KV55, which rested in a desecrated rishi coffin with the owner's name removed.

Smenkhkare published his conclusions in 2010 where he 'utterly excluded the possibility of Akhenaten':.

Smenkhkare did not possess the slightest dental pathology and not even the onset of degenerative changes in the spine and joints.