One of the most famous royal women of the
Eighteenth Dynasty She was the consort of AKHENATEN (r. 1353–1335 B.C.E.) and a
leading figure at ’AMARNA. Her name meant “the Beautiful Woman Has Come,” and
she is one of the most beloved and famous of all ancient Egyptians. Nefertiti’s
sculpted bust in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin is one of the best known of all
Egyptian treasures. Little information is available concerning her origins,
although there has been a great deal of speculation about her family ties. She
may have been the daughter of AYA (2), the successor of TUT’ANKHAMUN. Her
sister was possibly MUTNODJMET (1), who married HOREMHAB, the last pharaoh of
the dynasty.
In the fourth year of Akhenaten’s reign,
she appeared with him at the site of Akhetaten (el-’AMARNA), the city dedicated
to the god ATEN. In the sixth year of Akhenaten’s reign, Nefertiti’s name was
changed again to reflect the cult of Aten. Nefertiti lived with Akhenaten in
’Amarna, where he conducted religious ceremonies to Aten. They raised six
daughters, but no sons. One of the daughters, Maketaten, died giving birth to a
child, probably sired by her father, and the couple’s grief was depicted in
wall paintings. Nefertiti disappeared from the court after that. There is some
evidence that she remained in ’Amarna, living in a villa called HAT-ATEN, but
another daughter replaced her as the pharaoh’s principal wife. SMENKHARÉ, who
became Akhenaten’s successor in 1335 B.C.E., reportedly assumed Nefertiti’s
religious name, leading to the speculation that Nefertiti actually played this
role at the ’Amarna court. She was called Neferneferu-Aten, “the Exquisite
Beauty of the Sun Disk.”
A granite head and other unfinished
portraits of Nefertiti have survived. In the Aten temple at KARNAK, Nefertiti
is shown smiting Egypt’s enemies. Her funerary regalia, along with the remains
and effects of other ’Amarna royal family members, were removed from ’Amarna
burial sites during the reign of Tut’ankhamun, but her remains have not been
identified. She outlived Akhenaten but probably did not have political power
because she represented a period that was being reviled across Egypt. When
Smenkharé died, Nefertiti may have served as a counselor for the young
Tut’ankhamun during his brief reign. She remains a symbol of Egypt’s beauty and
mystery.
Aten
A deity introduced into Egypt during the
New Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.E.), Aten was also known as “Aten of the Day,” the
SOLAR DISK that shone upon the river, possibly a form of Ré-Harakhte. AKHENATEN
(r. 1353–1335 B.C.E.), upon ascending the throne in THEBES, proclaimed a great
religious reformation and decreed worship of Aten as the only true religion of
the land. Aten was not an invention of Akhenaten, having been known in the
reigns of his predecessors TUTHMOSIS IV and AMENHOTEP III.
He established a new capital in honor of
the god, a site called Akhetaten, “the Horizon of Aten,” now known as
el-’AMARNA, north of Thebes. Vast temple complexes arose on the shore of the
Nile, but there were no statues of the god. This deity was represented by a
great red disk, from which long rays, complete with hands, extended to the
faithful. Akhenaten and his queen, NEFERTITI, accompanied by their daughters,
conducted cultic ceremonies of the god. Until the last years of his reign,
Akhenaten was the only priest of the cult.
Ceremonies to Aten consisted mainly of the
offering of cakes and fruit and the recitation of lovely hymns composed in his
honor. Aten was lauded as the creator of man and the nurturing spirit of the
world. He was a solar god, possibly a form of RÉ. A distinct strain of
brotherhood and equality of all races and peoples was expressed in the hymns.
Aten’s worship was a modified form of monotheism, and as long as Akhenaten was
alive the deity was the official god of Egypt. Akhenaten associated himself to
Aten, however, sharing feasts as a being united to Aten. Stern measures were
taken against the temple of AMUN in particular and against the veneration of
most other deities as well. Even the cartouche of Akhenaten’s father, Amenhotep
III, was damaged because the name of the god Amun was part of it. When
Akhenaten died in 1335 B.C.E., ’Amarna fell victim to the many enemies of the
new deity and Aten was banished forever.
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