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= The Royal Women Of Amarna = The Royal Women of Amarna has been a topic of interest of many scholars given the nature of what they have come to represent during this period and the influence they had on outlining the roles carried out by royal women. They have also been a source of controversial theories that are based on the many surviving texts on the women of Amarna that have been found to be greater in number than any evidence found on other queens or royal women in Egypt.

History
Akhenaten, who was formerly known as Amenhotep IV, reigned in Egypt during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom for seventeen-years from 1353-1336 BC. His reign came to be known as the Amarna Period after he moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to Tell el-Amarna. Egypt, thus, did not only witness a shift in its capital, but also a revolutionized religion that took the cult of Aten to the new horizons of Amarna that was later named Akhetaten by King Akhenaten. Other gods began being neglected and the cult of Amun was almost abolished with closing down the temples of Amun across Egypt. Thebes, therefore, lost both its civil and religious authority and along with revolutionizing the religious traditions of polytheism, the populace was also driven to worship the royal family, through which they were able to worship Aten. The alteration in aspects of traditional religion was not the only novelty in the Amarna period; art was also taken to new extremes. Figures were depicted in exaggeration, especially those of the royal families, and leaned more toward elongation of facial and physical aspects which highly dramatized the character of people portrayed during the Amarna period under which this form of art flourished. The religious evolution later came at a high cost; people were growing more and more alienated from their gods and deities and even Akhenaten, towards the end of his reign, began showing characteristics of a true oppressor that is incapable of religious tolerance. Moreover, the Amarna period also marked a fundamental change in regards to how kingship was viewed: the cultic and political significance of the queen gradually increased and was assimilated to the male ruler. At the height of those developments, Akhenaten’s wife Nefertiti was characterized as an almost coequal partner of the king. However, after the Amarna Period, we see signs of those cultural changes gradually disappearing and going back to the pre-Amarna traditions once more as if those seventeen-years never really existed.

Nefertiti


Queen Nefertiti was the Chief Wife of Akhenaten. Like his mother Tiye, [[Nefertiti]] was not of royal blood. She gave birth to six daughters (two of which later became queens of Egypt): Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Nefernefruaten-tasherit, Nefrure, and Setepenre. [[Nefertiti]] have ruled alongside Akhenaten, possibly wielding almost the same amount of power as he did. She is depicted in Karnak as smiting the enemies just as kings are depicted in the typical pose of the pharaoh and the populace worshiped her alongside her husband as well. It has been suggested earlier that [[Nefertiti]] ruled for a short period of time under the image of a male. However, it became later clear that she co-ruled with her husband under the name of Neferneferuaten which might explain her disappearance from temples under Akhenaten’s 12th year of reign that she began to be represented differently since. [[Nefertiti]] was also known for her astonishing beauty and her power that was a highly guiding force behind the throne. She has been depicted nearly twice as often in reliefs as much as her husband, Akhenaten, at least during the first five years of his reign.

Kiya
Kiya was Akhenaten’s Minor Wife, also known as “the Wife and Great Beloved of the King.” Little is known about her among Egyptologists given that her roles were poorly documented in contrast to that of [[Nefertiti]]’s. However, she has been recently the focus of revisiting the chronology of the Amarna period in terms of society and art. Tracing back her origins has been proven to be difficult and there is a theory that she is Tadukhipa that used to go under an Egyptian name and this could have been possibly the reason why she was not the Chief Wife of Akhenaten since being a foreigner makes her ineligible to this position. Her titles included: possibly the “Noble lady” that has been addressed in inscriptions or “wife and beloved of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on Maat, Akhenaten, the beautiful child of the living Aten, who shall live forever continually: Kiya.” She was less prominent than [[Nefertiti]] or the six princesses; however, she was still honored with the sunshade sanctuaries and chapels that were built for her. Kiya is known to have given birth to at least one child which might have been a girl; however, her name is unknown. It has also been suggested that she is the mother of Tutankhamun (whose name was formerly Tutankhaten) but his parentage has never been entirely proven; however, it is known that he is the son of a king. Not as much as [[Nefertiti]], but Kiya has been portrayed in some reliefs accompanying the king during ceremonies as well.

Meretaten
Meretaten was the first of six daughters born to Akhenaten and his Chief Wife [[Nefertiti]]. Her name means “the Aten’s Beloved.” She was probably born before her father’s rule. She is the most frequently depicted and mentioned of the six daughters. There is speculation that Meretaten may have taken on some or all of the roles once carried out by [[Nefertiti]] and possibly Kiya, once they passed away. This view supports the belief that Meretaten became increasingly important at the end of Akhenaten’s reign. In some of the inscriptions, she is referred to as the King’s Chief Wife, a title that was superimposed on Kiya; thus, it is also speculated that Meretaten was given a senior position in the royal court.

Meketaten
Meketaten was the second daughter of six born to Akhenaten and [[Nefertiti]]. Although little is known about her, she is frequently depicted with her sisters accompanying her parents. Her name means “She Whom the Aten protects.” She was probably born in her father’s early reign since there are depictions of her on the temples at Karnak. She is more commonly known, not from her portrayals on tombs and reliefs, but from her tomb at Amarna. It has been speculated that Meketaten died at child birth because depictions on the walls of the tomb show a child being carried and a woman lying on her deathbed which led some scholars to think that. As of Meretaten’s death and burial place, little is known about that.

Ankhesenpaaten
Ankhesenpaaten is nominally known as the third daughter of both Akhenaten and Nefertiti and has been referred to as “born of the King’s Great Wife Nefertiti.” She was born during the 7th or 8th year reign of Akhenaten and her name means “May She Live for the Aten.” Her youth is well documented in the ancient tomb reliefs and paintings of the reign of her parents along with her sisters. Her name later became Ankhesenamun after the reign of her father ended. Her possible marriage to her father Akhenaten remains rather ambiguous. Given that she was the third daughter, her changes of being a queen were slim. However, after her mother Nefertiti, step-mother Kiya, and her two older sisters disappeared, Ankhesenpaaten married Tutankhaten (who was later known as Tutankhamun). After Tutankhaten became king, Egypt returned to its pre-Amarna era and, along with his wife, they moved to live either in Thebes or Memphis. She was depicted on many of her husband’s monuments which may have been an indication that she had a stronghold in the government affairs.

Nefernefruaten-tasherit
She was the fourth daughter of Akhenaten and his Chief Wife Nefertiti. Her name came after her mother’s and it is Nefernefruaten the Younger. In one of the tombs, there is an inscription that perhaps refers to Nefernefruaten as the King’s wife and daughter but this could possibly be just an error made by the artist who was responsible for decorating the tomb.

Nerfure
She was the fifth daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Not much is known about her except that she was possibly born in the 9th year of Akhenaten’s reign. Evidence suggest that a tomb belonging to her is found in the Royal Wadi at Tell el-Amarna.

Setepenre
She was the last of six known daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Her name means “she whom the Sun has chosen.” She has been shown on several few monuments and was believed to have died before her father due to a possible widespread disease in the Mediterranean. Little is known about her, unlike some of the other daughters of the Chief Wife and the King.

Religious functions
Amarna women played a significant role in royal and religious duties. It is believed that Nefertiti was active in the religious and cultural changes initiated by her husband (some even maintain that it was she who initiated the new religion). She also had the position as a priest, and she was a devoted worshiper of the god Aten. In the royal religion, the King and Queen were viewed as "a primeval first pair". It was they who worshipped the sun disk named Aten and it was only through them that this god was accessed. Indeed, the remainder of the population was expected to worship the royal family, as the rays of the sun fell and gave life to, it would seem, only the royal pair. Nefertiti’s role was very distinctive due to her many representations in cult temples in a very predominant way. She participated a lot in the cult rituals of the revolutionized religion just as much as her husband did. In some cases, she dominates the temple decorations at Karnak which leads once more to the belief that she might have been the driving force behind Akhenaten’s changed religion. Meretaten, the first daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, was also depicted several times behind her mother on representations on the walls of the Aten temples at Karnak. She is presented as a young adult holding a sistrum. She is also present adorning reliefs more than a few times at Amarna, where she is represented in several offering scenes. Meretaten, along with her sister, is represented in state ceremonies. Those representations greatly indicate the importance of the role of royal women in religious and state-functions during the Amarna period.

Representations in Art
Akhenaten’s move to a new capital, Akhenaten/Amarna, brought crucial changes in the portrayal of royal women. The artists of Amarna departed from the traditional iconic representations in order to emphasize the individual, and the natural, in a manner which was unheard of before, in Egyptian art. This change was depicted, above all, in their female imagery. Women play a prominent role in the art of this time which was characterized by expression and intimacy. Intimacy emerged from the sculptures and works of the Amarna Period; Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti, and their six daughters are seen in emotional interdependence. The female concept is highlighted in strong images: the sensuous representation of aging Queen Mother Tiye, and elegant Nefertiti, whose painted limestone bust is the best-known work from ancient Egypt and perhaps even from all antiquity. Some scholars have said the changes made to the art were part of Akhenaten’s religious reforms and were an attempt to show that men and women were both part of the same gender spectrum. Akhenaten did truly took his father’s art, Amenhotep III, to new heights of exaggeration. The artistic style came to portray more elongated figures with slanted eyes and sculpted lips and cheek-bones. Large bellies and thighs adorn the walls of the Amarna temple, alongside hunch-backed aging figures that are stray away from the well-built firmed-shouldered figures of pre-Amarna art. Many excavations made in Amarna were those of statutes of heads of different princesses or minor queen Kiya, alongside reliefs where the royal women of Amarna were portrayed dominantly with distinctive appearances.