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 fifteen-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
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 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 worshipped 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 co-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 three-thousand
year history. Hesitant to relinquish the throne to her nine-year-old step-son
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 re-established 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
1920’s, 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
world and become one of the most recognizable
and legendary figures of the ancient world!
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