Nefertiti: Queen Of The Amarna Period
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti (Nfr nfrw itn Nfr.t jy.tj) = Beautiful are the Beauties of Aten, the Beautiful one has come
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti (ca. 1370 BC – ca. 1330 BC) was the Great Royal Wife (chief consort) of Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc.
Nefertiti had many titles including Hereditary Princess (iryt-p`t); Great of Praises (wrt-hzwt); Lady of Grace (nbt-im3t), Sweet of Love (bnrt-mrwt); Lady of The Two Lands (nbt-t3wy); Main King’s Wife, his beloved (hmt-niswt-‘3t meryt.f); Great King’s Wife, his beloved (hmt-niswt-wrt meryt.f), Lady of all Women (hnwt-hmwt-nbwt); and Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt (hnwt-Shm’w-mhw).
Nefertiti, Egyptian Nfr.t-jy.tj, original pronunciation approximately Nafteta, for (“the beauty has come”). Nefertiti’s parentage is not known with certainty, but one often cited theory is that she was the daughter of Ay, later to be pharaoh. Scenes in the tombs of the nobles in Amarna mention the queen’s sister who is named Mutbenret (previously read as Mutnodjemet).
Their six known daughters (and estimated years of birth) were:
Meritaten: No later than year 1, possibly later became Pharaoh Nefernferuaten.
Meketaten: Year 4.
Ankhesenpaaten, also known as Ankhesenamen, later queen of Tutankhamun
Neferneferuaten Tasherit: Year, possibly later became Pharaoh Nefernferuaten.
Neferneferure: Year 9.
Setepenre: Year 11.
Discovered in 2012, a Regnal Year 16, month 3 of Akhet, day 15 inscription, dated explicitly to Akhenaten’s reign, mentions the presence of the “Great Royal Wife, His Beloved, Mistress of the Two Lands, Neferneferuaten Nefertiti”. The badly legible five line text “mentions a building project in Amarna” (Egypt’s political capital under Akhenaten). (The inscription was found in a limestone quarry at Dayr Abū Ḥinnis, just north of Dayr al-Barshā, north of Amarna.)
This means that Nefertiti was alive in the second to last year of Akhenaten’s reign, and demonstrates that Akhenaten still ruled alone, with his wife by his side. Therefore, the rule of the female Amarna pharaoh known as Neferneferuaten must be placed between the death of Akhenaten and the accession of Tutankhamun.
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