Okay, we're BACK. I'm back anyway. I have very little concept of how interesting other people find my rambling. Anyway, so last time we covered The Heretic King himself, Amarna a bit, the weird art, the religion, a little bit about his mummy. Now we're gonna get to the part that just ALWAYS drags me back in- Nefertiti.
Like. Realistically I recognize I'm mostly drawn to her because in comparison to men in Egypt we have like a dozen ladies to talk about at all, and maybe four anyone is really that interested in outside of academic circles. But ya know, I acknowledge that and this is my blog so here we are.
Another thing is that I'm just extremely mesmerized by her bust, and by the notion that she was the most beautiful woman in Egypt, and was almost certainly one of the most powerful in pharaonic history. Ask my friends/family, I see that lady's face or hear her name and I'm like a dog when you've mentioned food. Like, Yes!? Did someone say Nefertiti?! What about her? Wanna hear what I read about her? In lieu of all of that could I just like, stare at her until I unravel her secrets?
You know, it's a hobby. And the interesting thing is that I don't even know if I like her? Like I recognize that she was wildly influential for a woman in her position and admire her but I also like. Morally don't know if we'd vibe. Whatever. Anyway, let's talk about her.
As with everything else, I just can't cover everything here as much as I wish I could. I'd be writing for like. Years. So, sorry if I miss a detail that you find interesting or think is important to the narrative- if so, as always, drop me a line. ALSO, I'm not an expert. A lot of articles talk with absolute certainty about things that are highly contested, but I'm just being straight forward, these are just some theories that I find compelling.
So, Nefertiti. Her name literally means "a beautiful woman has come," which tbh sounds like a lot to live up to, but it seems as though she did a good job. Can you imagine naming your child "This One Is Gonna Be A Hot Adult"? I mean I guess it's possible she was renamed when she was old enough to like, ensure the validity of it, and we do name kids things that translate to "beautiful, fair, pretty," etc., but still. What a name. It literally wasn't always her name, though, which is INTERESTING and we will get to it.
She was Akhenaten's Great Royal Wife, or first wife; he had several, with the intent to ensure an heir. He liked Nefertiti the most, though. There's evidence of a second wife named Kiya, too, who he also seemed to care a lot for, and who might(might!) have been King Tut's mother.
But anyway, Nefertiti was his first wife and as evidenced in the last post she appeared in many images with him, and in much more obvious intimacy than most pharaohs were want to show. In the one that it looked like they were gonna kiss:
Like. Realistically I recognize I'm mostly drawn to her because in comparison to men in Egypt we have like a dozen ladies to talk about at all, and maybe four anyone is really that interested in outside of academic circles. But ya know, I acknowledge that and this is my blog so here we are.
Another thing is that I'm just extremely mesmerized by her bust, and by the notion that she was the most beautiful woman in Egypt, and was almost certainly one of the most powerful in pharaonic history. Ask my friends/family, I see that lady's face or hear her name and I'm like a dog when you've mentioned food. Like, Yes!? Did someone say Nefertiti?! What about her? Wanna hear what I read about her? In lieu of all of that could I just like, stare at her until I unravel her secrets?
 |
| tell me your secrets |
As with everything else, I just can't cover everything here as much as I wish I could. I'd be writing for like. Years. So, sorry if I miss a detail that you find interesting or think is important to the narrative- if so, as always, drop me a line. ALSO, I'm not an expert. A lot of articles talk with absolute certainty about things that are highly contested, but I'm just being straight forward, these are just some theories that I find compelling.
So, Nefertiti. Her name literally means "a beautiful woman has come," which tbh sounds like a lot to live up to, but it seems as though she did a good job. Can you imagine naming your child "This One Is Gonna Be A Hot Adult"? I mean I guess it's possible she was renamed when she was old enough to like, ensure the validity of it, and we do name kids things that translate to "beautiful, fair, pretty," etc., but still. What a name. It literally wasn't always her name, though, which is INTERESTING and we will get to it.
She was Akhenaten's Great Royal Wife, or first wife; he had several, with the intent to ensure an heir. He liked Nefertiti the most, though. There's evidence of a second wife named Kiya, too, who he also seemed to care a lot for, and who might(might!) have been King Tut's mother.
But anyway, Nefertiti was his first wife and as evidenced in the last post she appeared in many images with him, and in much more obvious intimacy than most pharaohs were want to show. In the one that it looked like they were gonna kiss:
 |
| dis one |
In this one, for a while some scholars were like "Is he... you know... " cuz it looks kind of like that's another pharaoh, with that headpiece and all. BUT with something like the bust as corroborating evidence, it seemed like actually maybe Nefertiti just wore headpieces that kind of sort of resembled a pharaoh's headpiece. NOW WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT HUH????
This is another place where I want to stress there are MANY THEORIES and lots of scholars DO NOT AGREE. However, I personally am fascinated by the theory that at some point Akhenaten made Nefertiti his co-regent. People are fairly convinced a co-regent did exist (they usually did, as this made for smoother transition after the pharaoh died). Based on art like this and statuary and the fact that she was considered a deity in a similar way to Akhenaten, it seems pretty suggestive that he esteemed her very highly. She also seemed to be a favorite of the people, and perhaps that too had some bearing on her influence.
Also, there doesn't seem to be evidence that Akhenaten and Nefertiti ever had a son together, and while we think he and Kiya did have one (Tutankhamen) it's not out of the realm of possibility that a king who had already kind of done whatever he wanted decided to stick with his fav rather than cede to the son of a lesser wife.
ALSO ALSO ALSO it is possible Nefertiti could have been the immediate successor to Akhenaten! Okay, so Smenkhare (the next pharaoh) has very little recorded about "him" at all. The name first appears at the latter end of Akhenaten's reign and in one of the tombs at Amarna, this person is shown with Akhenaten and Nefertiti's daughter Meritaten. Also! They share the same throne name, a name usually unique to one individual (this name was Ankhkhperure) as someone else... Neferneferuatn. You know how I said this lady's naming and renaming were interesting? WELL THIS IS WHY.
Neferneferuaton Nefertiti is the name Nefertiti took under the cult of Aten, meaning "beautiful are the beauties of Aten, the beautiful one has come." (yes both the name itself AND the translation are mouthfulls) The throne name of the likely co-regent of Akhenaten was Ankhkhperure Neferneferuaten. The throne name of the next pharaoh was Ankhkhperure Smenkhare. It seems reasonable to assume that after Akhenaten died, it would be advantageous to change a name that refers to an extremely unpopular cult (such as Neferneferuaten) if you wanted to be in the people's and the elite's good graces.
When I first read about that it kind of just blew my brain. I don't know if it does anyone else's but like, WHAT?!?! She Did THAT! The MYSTERY. The INTRIGUE. The POLITICAL CUNNING. The possibility that Nefertiti was like ya know, I think I'll take over now! I just think that's very iconic of her.
No one can know for certain the motivations at any point, but Nefertiti seemed to be an avid proponent of her husband's reforms when they were happening (she did after all gain quite a lot from them). It's also been suggested that she was a part of appeasing the powerful by reverting to the old traditions after the fact if she did take over. In either case, she appeared as an important piece of whatever big movement was going on at the time.
She had SO MUCH INFLUENCE DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW IMPRESSIVE THAT IS FOR A WOMAN IN ANCIENT ANYWHERE?!?!! Like, comparatively, there were definitely worse places to be a woman than Egypt but EVEN SO.
 |
| GET IT HO |
As with most aspects of Amarna, there's so much we just Don't Know and Will Probably Never Know. On one hand as a historian that drives me absolutely insane, because I want to? Please? Tell me the things?? But I also acknowledge that part of what makes Egyptian history so appealing is that there is a little bit of mystery to it, like maybe the answers are really boring. Who knows?
Regardless, we really don't know what happened to her, she just stops showing up. I mean, same with Akhenaten, they're just not there anymore. As with AK, though, it's highly possible a lot of evidence we would've had was destroyed by Horemheb in his pursuit of erasing their existence. We do have a mummy (skeleton) that scholars think is likely Akhenaten. We also have Tutanhamen who was related somehow, probably his son, probably not hers. We have mummies that we think are relatives or royal wives. But we do not, unfortunately have Nefertiti.
BUT WE DO HAVE SOME THEORIES AND THEY ARE BANGERS.
Theory 1: one of the mummies we already have are Nefertiti.The one in question is called the "younger lady," and it was found in a tomb with several other royal mummies from this era, probably not their original tomb but likely moved there for their protection. WARNING: here comes a mummy picture:
.
.
.
.
I don't know if this is weird to say about a mummy, but I can see how this was probably a really beautiful person when they were alive. As you can see there's some damage, and there are theories on that as well. Those are important parts of the body that have spiritual significance and if she came to be as unfavorable as Akhenaten, that damage could've been a result. Some facial reconstructions have been done of this mummy to those who are fairly convinced it's her. The reconstructions really don't seem unimaginable as a real-life Nefertiti, but keep in mind there was also an obvious bias to start out with.
My personal opinion is that, whether the mummy is her or not, I don't really like the reconstruction. Obviously I'm not an expert so I can't say how accurate it is, but I CAN say that Nefertiti seems really.... white for someone who lived in Egypt, idk. A consideration anyway.
Theory 2: I like this one SO MUCH. Okay, so you know King Tut's tomb. You've seen it, we've briefly referenced it. Okay, so that tomb is SMALL for a pharaoh's tomb. And you might be saying "well yeh, but he was like 20 they didn't have time to make a proper-" NO! It seems very likely that those who buried him did it quickly, yes, but it's also quite possible that Wasn't His Tomb In The First Place!!!
A lot of the artifacts in Tutankhamen's tomb can reasonably be looked at and seem like they were not his. Some of the statues, the canoptic jars, appear... feminine. Scholars have even argued that the headdress of that famous death mask was made for a woman, and altered last minute to work for Tutankhamen. It looks like the original cartouche was erased and replaced by the current one! The name in the partially erased cartouche : Ankhkhperure Neferneferuaten.
UGH!!! I LOSE my MIND every time I think about it. It's just so coooll ðŸ˜.
 |
| This is the ho. So the green diagram is what is THERE the red lines on the orange show the marks indicating the original inscription!!! (I don't read hieroglyphs so I'm just relying on some people who do here) (image taken from here) |
So the thought is that our boy Tut might be in what was meant to be Nefertiti's tomb! And that MAYBE she's still there behind one of the walls in a ~secret chamber~.
As with everything else I HAVE NO IDEA but HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE?!
So. What a lady. What a legacy. UUUGHHHHH. I don't have a ton more that would make a lot of sense to include here. As per usual, I definitely wrote more than is typical for a blog post, so if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
I've said it before, I just like. Collect these facts. I read articles, watch questionable documentaries, find books, etc. I don't have all of those sources on hand, but I did scrounge up a few for further reading if you want to know more.
I'd also like to give a shout out to Michelle Moran for her book Nefertiti and it's influence on my interest in this subject in the first place. It's a good read, ya'll should check it out.
Okay, that's all for now! Thanks for reading! Hit me up if you wanna chat about any of this stuff. ^_^
Comments
Post a Comment