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97-489: Several of Egypt's most famous pharaohs were from the Eighteenth Dynasty, including Tutankhamun , whose tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. Other famous pharaohs of the dynasty include Hatshepsut (c. 1479 BC–1458 BC), the longest-reigning woman pharaoh of an indigenous dynasty, and Akhenaten (c. 1353–1336 BC), the "heretic pharaoh", with his Great Royal Wife , Nefertiti . The Eighteenth Dynasty

194-564: A candidate for the mummy in KV55 . If so, he would be the father of Tutankhamun. Clear evidence for a sole reign for Smenkhkare has not yet been found. There are few artifacts that attest to his existence at all, and so it is assumed his reign was short. A wine docket from "the house of Smenkhkare" attests to Regnal Year 1. A second wine docket dated to Year 1 refers to him as "Smenkhkare, (deceased)" and may indicate that he died during his first regnal year. Some Egyptologists have speculated about

291-413: A central figure of the state, the pharaoh was the obligatory intermediary between the gods and humans. To the former, he ensured the proper performance of rituals in the temples ; to the latter, he guaranteed agricultural prosperity, the defense of the territory and impartial justice. In the sanctuaries, the image of the sovereign is omnipresent through parietal scenes and statues . In this iconography ,

388-441: A child near by his first regnal year. There is nothing in the tomb positively identified as belonging to Smenkhkare, nor is his name found there. The tomb is certainly not befitting any king, but even less so for Akhenaten. In 1980, James Harris and Edward F. Wente conducted X-ray examinations of New Kingdom Pharaoh's crania and skeletal remains, which included the supposed mummified remains of Smenkhkare. The authors determined that

485-472: A combination of these headdresses or crowns worn together was depicted. The word pharaoh ultimately derives from the Egyptian compound pr ꜥꜣ , * /ˌpaɾuwˈʕaʀ/ "great house", written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr "house" and ꜥꜣ "column", here meaning "great" or "high". It was the title of the royal palace and was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ꜥꜣ "Courtier of

582-468: A desecrated rishi coffin with the owner's name removed. It is generally accepted that the coffin was originally intended for a female and later reworked to accommodate a male. Over the past century, the chief candidates for this individual have been either Akhenaten or Smenkhkare. The case for Smenkhkare comes mostly from the presumed age of the mummy (see below) which, between ages 18 and 26 would not fit Akhenaten who reigned for 17 years and had fathered

679-604: A different passage where he asserts that Darius I was the first ruler of Egypt to be honored as a king. Even after the reign of the Egyptian kings and pharaohs, the notion of Pharaoh's self-notion as a divine being survived and is described in rabbinic literature . In these sources, the Pharaoh is described as hubristically asserting his own divinity and yet, compared to the one true God, is no more than an impotent human. Genesis Rabbah 89:3 invokes Pharaoh describing himself as

776-419: A different set of names emerged using the same: " Ankhkheperure mery Neferkheperure [Akhenaten] Neferneferuaten mery Wa en Re [Akhenaten]". Smenkhkare can be differentiated from Neferneferutaten by the lack of an epithet associated with his throne name. James Peter Allen pointed out the name 'Ankhkheperure' nearly always included the epithet 'desired of Wa en Re' (referring to Akhenaten) when coupled with

873-471: A female version 'Ankhetkheperure' occurs; in this case the individual is Neferneferuaten. The issue of a female Neferneferuaten was finally settled for the remaining holdouts when Allen confirmed Marc Gabolde 's findings that objects from Tutankhamun 's tomb originally inscribed for Neferneferuaten which had been read using the epithet "...desired of Akhenaten" were originally inscribed as Akhet-en-hyes or "effective for her husband." Theories arose when

970-587: A few years earlier than the conventional date of 1550 BC. The radiocarbon date range for its beginning is 1570–1544 BC, the mean point of which is 1557 BC. The pharaohs of Dynasty XVIII ruled for approximately 250 years (c. 1550–1298 BC). The dates and names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton. Many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes (designated KV). More information can be found on

1067-506: A number of people to get the same idea to commission a retrospective, commemorative stela at the same time. Allen notes that the everyday interaction portrayed in them more likely indicates two living people. There has been much confusion in identifying artifacts related to Smenkhkare because another pharaoh from the Amarna Period bears the same or similar royal titulary . In 1978, it was proposed that there were two individuals using

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1164-640: A predecessor. The simple association of names, particularly on everyday objects, is not conclusive of a co-regency. Arguing against the co-regency theory, Allen suggests that Neferneferuaten followed Akhenaten and that upon her death, Smenkhkare ascended as pharaoh. Allen proposes that following Nefertiti's death in Year 13 or 14, her daughter Neferneferuaten-tasherit became Pharaoh Neferneferuaten. After Neferneferuaten's short rule of two or three years, according to Allen, Smenkhkare became pharaoh. Under this theory, both pharaohs succeeded Akhenaten: Neferneferuaten as

1261-459: A relationship with Horus . Aha refers to "Horus the fighter", Djer refers to "Horus the strong", etc. Later kings express ideals of kingship in their Horus names. Khasekhemwy refers to "Horus: the two powers are at peace", while Nebra refers to "Horus, Lord of the Sun". The Nesu Bity name, also known as prenomen , was one of the new developments from the reign of Den . The name would follow

1358-604: A ruler were a letter to Akhenaten (reigned c.  1353 –1336 BCE) or an inscription possibly referring to Thutmose III ( c.  1479 –1425 BCE). In the early dynasties, ancient Egyptian kings had as many as three titles : the Horus , the Sedge and Bee ( nswt-bjtj ), and the Two Ladies or Nebty ( nbtj ) name. The Golden Horus and the nomen and prenomen titles were added later. In Egyptian society, religion

1455-474: A single maxim: "Bring Maat and repel Isfet ", that is to say, promote harmony and repel chaos. As the nurturing father of the people, the Pharaoh ensured prosperity by calling upon the gods to regulate the waters of the Nile , by opening the granaries in case of famine and by guaranteeing a good distribution of arable land. Chief of the armies, the pharaoh was the brave protector of the borders. Like Ra who fights

1552-503: A sole reign and only served as Akhenaten's co-regent for about a year around Regnal Year 13. However, James Peter Allen depicts Smenkhkare as successor to Neferneferuaten and Marc Gabolde has suggested that after Smenkhkare's reign, Meritaten succeeded him as Neferneferuaten. 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 and Meritaten appear together in

1649-412: A time when Smenkhkare was assumed to have also used the name Neferneferuaten, perhaps at the start of his sole reign, it sometimes defied logic. For instance, when the mortuary wine docket surfaced from the 'House of Smenkhkare (deceased)', it seemed to appear that he changed his name back before he died. Since his reign was brief, and he may never have been more than co-regent, the evidence for Smenkhkare

1746-424: A war crown by many, but modern historians refrain from defining it thus. Egyptologist Bob Brier has noted that despite their widespread depiction in royal portraits, no ancient Egyptian crown has ever been discovered. The tomb of Tutankhamun that was discovered largely intact, contained such royal regalia as a crook and flail , but no crown was found among his funerary equipment. Diadems have been discovered. It

1843-488: Is a box (Carter 001k) from Tutankhamun's tomb that lists Akhenaten, Neferneferuaten, and Meritaten as three separate individuals. There, Meritaten is explicitly listed as Great Royal Wife. Further, various private stelae depict the female pharaoh with Akhenaten. However under this theory, Akhenaten would be dead by the time Meritaten became pharaoh as Neferneferuaten. Gabolde suggest that these depictions are retrospective. Yet since these are private cult stelae it would require

1940-591: Is an ornate, triple Atef with corkscrew sheep horns and usually two uraei. The depiction of this crown begins among New Kingdom rulers during the Early Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt . Also called the blue crown, the Khepresh crown has been depicted in art since the New Kingdom. It is often depicted being worn in battle, but it was also frequently worn during ceremonies. It used to be called

2037-402: Is assumed he was a member of the royal family, likely either a brother or son of the pharaoh Akhenaten . If he is Akhenaten's brother, his mother was likely either Tiye or Sitamun . If a son of Akhenaten, he was presumably an older brother of Tutankhamun , as he succeeded the throne ahead of him; his mother was likely an unknown, lesser wife. An alternative suggestion, based on objects from

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2134-549: Is known. In 1334 Akhenaten's son, Tutankhaten, ascended to the throne: shortly after, he restored Egyptian polytheist cult and subsequently changed his name in Tutankhamun , in honor to the Egyptian god Amun . His infant daughters, 317a and 317b mummies , represent the final genetically related generation of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The last two members of the Eighteenth Dynasty— Ay and Horemheb —became rulers from

2231-416: Is not plentiful, but nor is it quite as insubstantial as it is sometimes made out to be. It certainly amounts to more than just 'a few rings and a wine docket' or that he 'appears only at the very end of Ahkenaton's reign in a few monuments' as is too often portrayed. The location of Smenkhkare's burial is unconfirmed. He has been put forward as a candidate for the mummy discovered in KV55 , which rested in

2328-487: Is presumed that crowns would have been believed to have magical properties and were used in rituals. Brier's speculation is that crowns were religious or state items, so a dead king likely could not retain a crown as a personal possession. The crowns may have been passed along to the successor, much as the crowns of modern monarchies. During the Early Dynastic Period kings had three titles. The Horus name

2425-717: Is the vernacular term often used for the monarchs of ancient Egypt , who ruled from the First Dynasty ( c.  3150 BCE ) until the annexation of Egypt by the Roman Republic in 30 BCE. However, regardless of gender, "king" was the term used most frequently by the ancient Egyptians for their monarchs through the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty during the New Kingdom . The earliest confirmed instances of "pharaoh" used contemporaneously for

2522-538: Is the oldest and dates to the late pre-dynastic period. The Nesu Bity name was added during the First Dynasty . The Nebty name (Two Ladies) was first introduced toward the end of the First Dynasty. The Golden falcon ( bik-nbw ) name is not well understood. The prenomen and nomen were introduced later and are traditionally enclosed in a cartouche . By the Middle Kingdom , the official titulary of

2619-595: Is the soul of Re") 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 . Since the Amarna period was subject to a large-scale condemnation of memory by later pharaohs, very little can be said of Smenkhkare with certainty, and he has hence been subject to immense speculation. Smenkhkare's origins are unknown. It

2716-543: Is unique among Egyptian dynasties in that it had two queens regnant , women who ruled as sole pharaoh: Hatshepsut and Neferneferuaten , usually identified as Nefertiti. Dynasty XVIII was founded by Ahmose I , the brother or son of Kamose , the last ruler of the 17th Dynasty . Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the Hyksos rulers. His reign is seen as the end of the Second Intermediate Period and

2813-555: Is used specifically to address the ruler is in a letter to the eighteenth dynasty king, Akhenaten (reigned c.  1353 –1336 BCE), that is addressed to "Great House, L, W, H, the Lord". However, there is a possibility that the title pr ꜥꜣ first might have been applied personally to Thutmose III ( c.  1479 –1425 BCE), depending on whether an inscription on the Temple of Armant may be confirmed to refer to that king. During

2910-523: The Tanhuma , in commentary on Ezekiel 29:9, Pharaoh is said to have proclaimed himself as lord of the universe. Pharaoh is represented as a heretical figure who presents himself as divine, and these texts then claim that his claims were exposed when he had to go to the Nile to relieve himself. Smenkhkare Smenkhkare (alternatively romanized Smenkhare , Smenkare , or Smenkhkara ; meaning "Vigorous

3007-548: The Eighteenth dynasty (sixteenth to fourteenth centuries BCE) the title pharaoh was employed as a reverential designation of the ruler. About the late Twenty-first Dynasty (tenth century BCE), however, instead of being used alone and originally just for the palace, it began to be added to the other titles before the name of the king, and from the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty (eighth to seventh centuries BCE, during

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3104-527: The First Dynasty . The was -scepter is shown in the hands of both kings and deities. The flail later was closely related to the heqa -scepter (the crook and flail ), but in early representations the king was also depicted solely with the flail, as shown in a late pre-dynastic knife handle that is now in the Metropolitan museum, and on the Narmer Macehead . The earliest evidence known of

3201-561: The JAMA editors came from Arizona State University bioarchaeologist Brenda J. Baker. The content was retold on the Archaeology News Network website and is representative of a portion of the dissent: A specialist in human osteology and paleopathology, Baker takes issue with the identification of the skeletonized mummy KV55 as Tutankhamun’s father, Akhenaten. The authors [Hawass et al in JAMA ] place this individual’s age at

3298-712: The Narmer Palette . The white crown of Upper Egypt, the Hedjet , was worn in the Predynastic Period by Scorpion II , and, later, by Narmer. This is the combination of the Deshret and Hedjet crowns into a double crown, called the Pschent crown. It is first documented in the middle of the First Dynasty of Egypt . The earliest depiction may date to the reign of Djet , and is otherwise surely attested during

3395-605: The Septuagint , Koinē Greek : φαραώ , romanized:  pharaō , and then in Late Latin pharaō , both -n stem nouns. The Qur'an likewise spells it Arabic : فرعون firʿawn with n (here, always referring to the one evil king in the Book of Exodus story, by contrast to the good king in surah Yusuf 's story). The Arabic combines the original ayin from Egyptian along with the -n ending from Greek. In English,

3492-519: The Uraeus —a rearing cobra—is from the reign of Den from the first dynasty. The cobra supposedly protected the king by spitting fire at its enemies. The red crown of Lower Egypt, the Deshret crown, dates back to pre-dynastic times and symbolised chief ruler. A red crown has been found on a pottery shard from Naqada , and later, Narmer is shown wearing the red crown on both the Narmer Macehead and

3589-450: The khepresh crown . However, the set of three empty cartouches can only account for the names of a king and queen. This has been interpreted to mean that at one point Nefertiti may have been a coregent, as indicated by the crown, but not entitled to full pharaonic honors such as the double cartouche. Furthermore, it is now accepted that other artifacts similar to this one are depictions of Akhenaten and Neferneferuaten. Alternatively, once

3686-431: 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 . Inscriptions mention a King's Daughter named Meritaten Tasherit , who may be the daughter of Meritaten and Smenkhkare. Furthermore, Smenkhkare has been put forth as

3783-492: The "Red Crown", was a representation of the kingdom of Lower Egypt, while the Hedjet , the "White Crown", was worn by the kings of Upper Egypt. After the unification of both kingdoms, the Pschent , the combination of both the red and white crowns became the official crown of the pharaoh. With time new headdresses were introduced during different dynasties such as the Khat , Nemes , Atef , Hemhem crown , and Khepresh . At times,

3880-549: The Amarna tombs shortly after Year 13. Therefore, the depiction of Smenkhkare in Meryre's tomb must date to no later than Year 13. For him to have succeeded Neferneferuaten means that aside from a lone wine docket, he left not a single trace over the course of five to six years. In comparison to the theories mentioned above, Marc Gabolde has advocated that Smenkhkare's Great Royal Wife, Meritaten, became Pharaoh Neferneferuaten after her husband's death. The main argument against this

3977-475: The Egyptian ruler Djoser , was cast as having had his mother as the Mesopotamian goddess Ninsun alongside his father, the previous human ruler of Uruk. Another Mesopotamian example of a god-king was Naram-Sin of Akkad . During the Early Dynastic Period , the Pharaoh was represented as the divine incarnation of Horus , and the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt. By the time of Djedefre (26th century BCE),

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4074-610: The High House", with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the Twelfth Dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula "Great House, May it Live, Prosper, and be in Health ", but again only with reference to the royal palace and not a person. Sometime during the era of the New Kingdom , pharaoh became the form of address for a person who was king. The earliest confirmed instance where pr ꜥꜣ

4171-746: The Khat headdress, has been commonly depicted on top of the Nemes. The statue from his Serdab in Saqqara shows the king wearing the nemes headdress. Osiris is shown to wear the Atef crown, which is an elaborate Hedjet with feathers and disks. Depictions of kings wearing the Atef crown originate from the Old Kingdom. The Hemhem crown is usually depicted on top of Nemes , Pschent , or Deshret crowns. It

4268-514: The Pharaoh also ceased to have a father, as his mother was magically impregnated by the solar deity Ra . According to Pyramid Text Utterance 571, "... the King was fashioned by his father Atum before the sky existed, before earth existed, before men existed, before the gods were born, before death existed ..." According to an inscription on the statue of Horemheb (14th–13th centuries BCE): "he [Horemheb] already came out of his mother's bosom adorned with

4365-460: The Pharaoh was the supreme officiant; the first of the priests of the country. More widely, the pharaonic gesture covered all the fields of activity of the collective and ignored the separation of powers . Also, every member of the administration acts only in the name of the royal person, by delegation of power. From the Pyramid Texts , the political actions of the sovereign were framed by

4462-605: The Theban Mapping Project website. Several diplomatic marriages are known for the New Kingdom . These daughters of foreign kings are often only mentioned in cuneiform texts and are not known from other sources. The marriages were likely to have been a way to confirm good relations between these states. Pharaoh Pharaoh ( / ˈ f ɛər oʊ / , US also / ˈ f eɪ . r oʊ / ; Egyptian : pr ꜥꜣ ; Coptic : ⲡⲣ̄ⲣⲟ , romanized:  Pǝrro ; Biblical Hebrew : פַּרְעֹה ‎ Parʿō )

4559-480: The archives and placed under the responsibility of the vizier , applied to all, for the common good and social agreement. Sceptres and staves were a general symbol of authority in ancient Egypt . One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos . Kings were also known to carry a staff, and Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks -staff. The scepter with

4656-500: The area as Kush and it was administered by the Viceroy of Kush . The 18th dynasty obtained Nubian gold, animal skins, ivory, ebony, cattle, and horses, which were of exceptional quality. The Egyptians built temples throughout Nubia. One of the largest and most important temples was dedicated to Amun at Jebel Barkal in the city of Napata. This Temple of Amun was enlarged by later Egyptian and Nubian Pharaohs, such as Taharqa . After

4753-471: The chosen successor and Smenkhkare as a rival with the same prenomen, perhaps to challenge Akhenaten's unacceptable choice. However, a hieratic inscription discovered at the limestone quarry at Dayr Abu Hinnis suggests that Nefertiti was alive in Akhenaten's Year 16, undermining this theory. There, Nefertiti is referred to as the pharaoh's Great Royal Wife. Furthermore, work is believed to have halted on

4850-459: The declining Third Intermediate Period ) it was, at least in ordinary use, the only epithet prefixed to the royal appellative. From the Nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ꜥꜣ on its own, was used as regularly as ḥm , "Majesty". The term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler presiding in that building, particularly by

4947-513: The deities were made of gold and the pyramids and obelisks are representations of (golden) sun -rays. The gold sign may also be a reference to Nubt, the city of Set. This would suggest that the iconography represents Horus conquering Set. The prenomen and nomen were contained in a cartouche. The prenomen often followed the King of Upper and Lower Egypt ( nsw bity ) or Lord of the Two Lands ( nebtawy ) title. The prenomen often incorporated

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5044-534: The divinity of the Pharaoh, though this may reflect Greek notions of divine kingship just as much as it could reflect Egyptian ones. The historian Herodotus explicitly denies this, claiming that Egyptian priests rejected any notion of the divinity of the king. The only explicit classical Greek source which describes the divinity of Pharaoh is contained in the writings of Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BCE, who in turn relies on Hecataeus of Abdera as his source of information. Diodorus slightly contradicts himself in

5141-479: The end of the Hyksos period of foreign rule, the Eighteenth Dynasty engaged in a vigorous phase of expansionism, conquering vast areas of the Near-East , with especially Pharaoh Thutmose III submitting the "Shasu" Bedouins of northern Canaan , and the land of Retjenu , as far as Syria and Mittani in numerous military campaigns circa 1450 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that Dynasty XVIII may have started

5238-505: The extent of which can only be compared with those of the much longer reign of Ramesses II during Dynasty XIX. Amenhotep III's consort was the Great Royal Wife Tiye , for whom he built an artificial lake, as described on eleven scarabs. Amenhotep III may have shared the throne for up to twelve years with his son Amenhotep IV. There is much debate about this proposed co-regency, with different experts considering that there

5335-434: The feminine traces were discovered in some versions of the throne names, it was proposed that Nefertiti was masquerading as Smenkhkare and later changed her name back to Neferneferuaten. There would be precedent for presenting a female pharaoh as a male, such as Hatshepsut had done generations prior. Several items from the tomb of Tutankhamun bear the name of Smenkhkare: As the evidence came to light in bits and pieces at

5432-404: The full double cartouches of both pharaohs. However, this is the only object known to carry both names side-by-side. This evidence has been taken by some Egyptologists to indicate that Akhenaten and Smenkhkare were co-regents . However, the scene in Meryre's tomb is undated and Akhenaten is neither depicted nor mentioned in the tomb. The jar may simply be a case of one king associating himself with

5529-451: The glyphs for the "Sedge and the Bee". The title is usually translated as king of Upper and Lower Egypt. The nsw bity name may have been the birth name of the king. It was often the name by which kings were recorded in the later annals and king lists. The earliest example of a Nebty ( Two Ladies ) name comes from the reign of king Aha from the First Dynasty . The title links the king with

5626-431: The god over the Nile river. In Exodus Rabbah 10:2, Pharaoh boasts that he is the creator and owner of the Nile. God is then said to have responded to this statement by challenging the Pharaoh over who owns the Nile, as God proceeds to create a disaster by bringing forth frogs from it that consume Egypt's agriculture. In other midrashic texts, Pharaoh asserts himself as the creator of the universe and even of himself. In

5723-407: The goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt, Nekhbet and Wadjet . The title is preceded by the vulture (Nekhbet) and the cobra (Wadjet) standing on a basket (the neb sign). The Golden Horus or Golden Falcon name was preceded by a falcon on a gold or nbw sign. The title may have represented the divine status of the king. The Horus associated with gold may be referring to the idea that the bodies of

5820-465: The gods and man. This institution represents an innovation over that of Sumerian city-states where, though the clan leader or king mediated between his people and the gods, did not himself represent a god on Earth. The few Sumerian exceptions to this would post-date the origins of this practice in ancient Egypt. For example, the legendary king Gilgamesh , thought to have reigned in Uruk as a contemporary of

5917-599: The greatest military pharaoh ever, also had a lengthy reign after becoming pharaoh. He had a second co-regency in his old age with his son Amenhotep II . Amenhotep II was succeeded by Thutmose IV , who in his turn was followed by his son Amenhotep III , whose reign is seen as a high point in this dynasty. Amenhotep III's reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity, artistic splendor, and international power, as attested by over 250 statues (more than any other pharaoh) and 200 large stone scarabs discovered from Syria to Nubia. Amenhotep III undertook large scale building programmes,

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6014-419: The longest history seems to be the heqa -sceptre, sometimes described as the shepherd's crook. The earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to prehistoric Egypt . A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to Naqada III . Another scepter associated with the king is the was -sceptre . This is a long staff mounted with an animal head. The earliest known depictions of the was -scepter date to

6111-512: The mummies of Tutankhamun, KV55 and Thutmose IV . In addition, seriological tests published in Nature in 1974 indicated that the KV55 mummy and Tutankhamun shared the same rare blood type. This information led Egyptologists to conclude that the KV55 mummy was either the father or brother of Tutankhamun. A brother seemed more likely since the age would only be old enough to plausibly father a child at

6208-429: The mummy was in fact Akhenaten. However, evidence to support the much older claim was not provided beyond the single point of spinal degeneration. Other scholars still dispute Hawass's assessment of the mummy's age and the identification of KV55 as Akhenaten. Where Filer and Strouhal relied on multiple indicators to determine the younger age, the new study cited one point to indicate a much older age. One letter to

6305-410: The name of Re . The nomen often followed the title, Son of Re ( sa-ra ), or the title, Lord of Appearances ( neb-kha ). In Ancient Egypt , the Pharaoh was often considered to be divine. This precept originated before 3000 BCE and the Egyptian office of divine kingship would go on to influence many other societies and kingdoms, surviving into the modern era . The Pharaoh also became a mediator between

6402-490: The nomen 'Neferneferuaten'. There were no occasions where 'Ankhkheprure plus epithet' occurred alongside 'Smenkhkare;' nor was plain 'Ankhkheperure' ever found associated with the nomen Neferneferuaten. However, differentiating between the two individuals when 'Ankhkheperure' occurs alone is complicated by the Pawah graffito from TT139. Here, Ankhkheperure is used alone twice when referring to Neferneferutaten. In some instances,

6499-610: The period of Persian domination of Egypt. The Persian emperor Darius the Great (522–486 BCE) was referred to as a divine being in Egyptian temple texts. Such descriptions continued and were designated to Alexander the Great after his conquest of Egypt, and later still for the rulers of the Ptolemaic Kingdom that succeeded Alexander's rule. Descriptions of the divinity of the Pharaoh are much more infrequent in sources from Classical Greece . One Ptolemaic-era hymn describes

6596-423: The pharaoh is invariably represented as the equal of the gods. In the religious speech, he is however only their humble servant, a zealous servant who makes multiple offerings. This piety expresses the hope of a just return of service. Filled with goods, the gods must favorably activate the forces of nature for a common benefit to all Egyptians. The only human being admitted to dialogue with the gods on an equal level,

6693-485: 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. However, they could belong to any of the Amarna kings and are not definitive proof either way. While there are few monuments or artifacts that attest to Smenkhkare's existence, there is a major addition to the Amarna palace complex that bears his name. It

6790-405: The prestige and the divine color ..." Inscriptions regularly described the Pharaoh as the "good god" or "perfect god" ( nfr ntr ). By the time of the New Kingdom , the divinity of the king was imbued as he possessed the manifestation of the god Amun-Re ; this was referred to as his 'living royal ka ' which he received during the coronation ceremony. The divinity of Pharaoh was still held to during

6887-420: The ranks of officials in the royal court, although Ay might also have been the maternal uncle of Akhenaten as a fellow descendant of Yuya and Tjuyu . Ay may have married the widowed Great Royal Wife and young half-sister of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun , in order to obtain power; she did not live long afterward. Ay then married Tey , who was originally Nefertiti's wet-nurse. Ay's reign was short. His successor

6984-429: The reign of Den . The khat headdress consists of a kind of "kerchief" whose end is tied similarly to a ponytail . The earliest depictions of the khat headdress comes from the reign of Den , but is not found again until the reign of Djoser . The Nemes headdress dates from the time of Djoser . It is the most common type of royal headgear depicted throughout Pharaonic Egypt. Any other type of crown, apart from

7081-522: The reign of Tutankhamun, when the statue was made. The cartouches of King Ay, Tutankhamun's successor appearing on the statue, were an attempt by an artisan to "update" the sculpture. The Eighteenth Dynasty empire conquered all of Lower Nubia under Thutmose I . By the reign of Thutmose III , the Egyptians directly controlled Nubia to the Nile river, 4th cataract, with Egyptian influence / tributaries extending beyond this point. The Egyptians referred to

7178-652: The royal family through marriage. During his reign, the borders of Egypt's empire reached their greatest expanse, extending in the north to Carchemish on the Euphrates and in the south up to Kanisah Kurgus beyond the fourth cataract of the Nile. Thutmose I was succeeded by Thutmose II and his queen, Hatshepsut , who was the daughter of Thutmose I. After her husband's death and a period of regency for her minor stepson (who would later become pharaoh as Thutmose III) Hatshepsut became pharaoh in her own right and ruled for over twenty years. Thutmose III , who became known as

7275-424: The royal mummies of the 18th Dynasty bore strong similarities to contemporary Nubians with slight differences. Initial studies conducted on the KV55 mummy indicated that the individual was a young man with no apparent abnormalities in his mid-twenties or younger. Another study used craniofacial analysis and examined past x-rays on several 18th Dynasty mummies. That study found close cranial similarities between

7372-438: The ruler consisted of five names; Horus, Nebty, Golden Horus, nomen, and prenomen for some rulers, only one or two of them may be known. The Horus name was adopted by the king, when taking the throne. The name was written within a square frame representing the palace, named a serekh . The earliest known example of a serekh dates to the reign of king Ka , before the First Dynasty. The Horus name of several early kings expresses

7469-431: The same name: a male king Smenkhkare and a female Neferneferuaten. Neferneferuaten has since been identified as a female pharaoh who ruled during the Amarna Period and is generally accepted as a separate person from Smenkhkare. Neferneferuaten is theorized to be either Nefertiti , Meritaten , or, more rarely, Neferneferuaten Tasherit . After their initial rediscovery, Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten were assumed to be

7566-550: The same person because of their similar prenomen (throne name). Typically, throne names in Ancient Egypt were unique. Thus, the use of similar titulary led to a great deal of confusion among Egyptologists. For the better part of a century, the repetition of throne names was taken to mean that Smenkhare changed his name to Neferneferuaten at some point, probably upon the start of his sole reign. Indeed, Petrie makes exactly that distinction in his 1894 excavation notes. Later,

7663-632: The second successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the traditional custom of referring to the sovereign as, pr-ˤ3 , continued in official Egyptian narratives. The title is reconstructed to have been pronounced *[parʕoʔ] in the Late Egyptian language , from which the Greek historian Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Koinē Greek : Φερων . In the Hebrew Bible , the title also occurs as Hebrew : פרעה [parʕoːh] ; from that, in

7760-399: The serpent Apophis , the king of Egypt repels the plunderers of the desert, fights the invading armies and defeats the internal rebels. The Pharaoh was always the sole victor; standing up and knocking out a bunch of prisoners or shooting arrows from his battle chariot . As the only legislator, the laws and decrees he promulgated were seen as inspired by divine wisdom. This legislation, kept in

7857-399: The sites of new temples. The king was responsible for maintaining Maat ( mꜣꜥt ), or cosmic order, balance, and justice, and part of this included going to war when necessary to defend the country or attacking others when it was believed that this would contribute to Maat, such as to obtain resources. During the early days prior to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt , the Deshret or

7954-400: The start of the New Kingdom. Ahmose's consort, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari was "arguably the most venerated woman in Egyptian history, and the grandmother of the 18th Dynasty." She was deified after she died. Ahmose was succeeded by his son, Amenhotep I , whose reign was relatively uneventful. Amenhotep I probably left no male heir and the next pharaoh, Thutmose I , seems to have been related to

8051-472: The subject of debate within the academic community. Some state that Akhenaten created a monotheism, while others point out that he merely suppressed a dominant solar cult by the assertion of another, while he never completely abandoned several other traditional deities. Later Egyptians considered this " Amarna Period " an unfortunate aberration. After his death, Akhenaten was succeeded by two short-lived pharaohs, Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten , of which little

8148-656: The term was at first spelled "Pharao", but the translators for the King James Bible revived "Pharaoh" with "h" from the Hebrew. Meanwhile, in Egypt, *[par-ʕoʔ] evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ pərro and then ərro by rebracketing p- as the definite article "the" (from ancient Egyptian pꜣ ). Other notable epithets are nswt , translated to "king"; ḥm , "Majesty"; jty for "monarch or sovereign"; nb for "lord"; and ḥqꜣ for "ruler". As

8245-495: The throne next. Horemheb also died without surviving children, having appointed his vizier, Pa-ra-mes-su, as his heir. This vizier ascended the throne in 1292 BC as Ramesses I , and was the first pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty . This example to the right depicts a man named Ay who achieved the exalted religious positions of Second Prophet of Amun and High Priest of Mut at Thebes . His career flourished during

8342-407: The time of death at 35–45, despite producing no evidence that repudiates well-known prior examinations citing the age in the 18–26 range. These earlier analyses – documented with written descriptions, photographs and radiographs – show a pattern of fused and unfused epiphyses (caps on ends of growing bones) throughout the skeleton, indicating a man much younger than Akhenaten is believed to have been at

8439-456: The time of his death. Baker also uses a photograph of the pubic symphysis of the pelvis to narrow the age of KV55 to 18–23 based on recent techniques used in osteology and forensic anthropology. An examination of the KV55 mummy was conducted in 1998 by Czech anthropologist Eugene Strouhal. He published his conclusions in 2010 where he 'utterly excluded the possibility of Akhenaten': [T]he unambiguous male skeleton from Tomb 55 proved decisively by

8536-607: The time of the Twenty-Second Dynasty and Twenty-third Dynasty . The first dated appearance of the title "pharaoh" being attached to a ruler's name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun (tenth century BCE) on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals, a religious document. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of "Pharaoh Siamun ". This new practice

8633-430: The tomb of Meryre II at Amarna, rewarding Meryre. There, Smenkhkare wears the khepresh crown , however he is called the son-in-law of Akhenaten. Further, his name appears only during Akhenaten's reign without certain evidence to attest to a sole reign. The names of the king have since been cut out but were recorded around 1850 by Karl Lepsius . Additionally, a calcite "globular vase" from Tutankhamun's tomb displays

8730-404: The two mummies as children of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. CT scans also performed on the KV55 mummy indicated that his age at the time of death was likely higher than previous estimates, based on the reveal of age-related degeneration in the spine and osteoarthritis in the knees and spine. These estimates placed the mummy's age at death closer to 40 years than 25. This led to further belief that

8827-461: The two pharaohs Smenkhkare and Neferneferutaten were still considered the same, male person, that he and Akhenaten could have been homosexual lovers or even married . This is because of artwork clearly showing Akhenaten in familiar, intimate poses with another pharaoh. For example, stele in Berlin depicts a pair of royal figures, one in the double crown and the other, who appears to be a woman, in

8924-520: The upper extremes. However, the academic debate was believed concluded following a 2010 genetic study performed by Zahi Hawass that determined that the parents of Tutankhamun were likely the KV55 mummy and “ The Younger Lady ” mummy from KV35. Chief among the genetic results was, " The statistical analysis revealed that the mummy KV55 is most probably the father of Tutankhamun (probability of 99.99999981%), and KV35 Younger Lady could be identified as his mother (99.99999997%). " The study further identified

9021-425: Was Horemheb, a general during Tutankhamun's reign whom the pharaoh may have intended as his successor in case he had no surviving children, which is what came to pass. Horemheb may have taken the throne away from Ay in a coup d'état . Although Ay's son or stepson Nakhtmin was named as his father/stepfather's Crown Prince, Nakhtmin seems to have died during the reign of Ay, leaving the opportunity for Horemheb to claim

9118-503: Was a lengthy co-regency, a short one, or none at all. In the fifth year of his reign, Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten ( ꜣḫ-n-jtn , "Effective for the Aten ") and moved his capital to Amarna , which he named Akhetaten. During the reign of Akhenaten, the Aten ( jtn , the sun disk) became, first, the most prominent deity, and eventually came to be considered the only god. Whether this amounted to true monotheism continues to be

9215-465: Was built in approximately Year 15 and was likely built for a significant event related to him. Academic consensus has yet to be reached about when exactly Smenkhkare ruled as pharaoh and where he falls in the timeline of Amarna. In particular, the confusion of his identity compared to that of Pharaoh Neferneferuaten has led to considerable academic debate about the order of kings in the late Amarna Period. Aidan Dodson suggests that Smenkhkare did not have

9312-419: Was central to everyday life. One of the roles of the king was as an intermediary between the deities and the people. The king thus was deputised for the deities in a role that was both as civil and religious administrator. The king owned all of the land in Egypt, enacted laws, collected taxes, and served as commander-in-chief of the military . Religiously, the king officiated over religious ceremonies and chose

9409-534: Was continued under his successor, Psusennes II , and the subsequent kings of the twenty-second dynasty. For instance, the Large Dakhla stela is specifically dated to Year 5 of king "Pharaoh Shoshenq, beloved of Amun ", whom all Egyptologists concur was Shoshenq I —the founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty —including Alan Gardiner in his original 1933 publication of this stela. Shoshenq I was

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