Egyptian Dreams

[Lutz]

[Meretseger]

Aldred citing a talatat that apparently depicts Akhenaten worshipping the Aten attended by his two elder daughters and Kiya and her daughter in a lower register. There is also a wine jar docket from Kiya's estate which seems to date to year 16. Given the uncertainty of the change in ownership of Maru Aten there is no pressing reason to assume she DIDN'T survive her husband. Her equipment could have come from stores or from a tomb there is no certainty of which and the former is at least a possibility.

[Lutz]

[Meretseger]

The fragmentary nature of the evidence from that period makes a number of scenarios possible. Kiya's equipment could have been usurped when the remains of the Amarnan royalty were transfered to Thebes. If we ever find a cache holding the Amarnan royal ladies (cross your fingers everyone!) and Kiya is there that would settle the question. If Kiya should be found elswhere, say in the necropoli associated with one of the harem palaces that would almost certainly mean she survived her husband.

[neseret]

[Meretseger]

Good point. But why should Kiya be buried anywhere but where she lived? I will concede however that burial at a harem palace would likely indicate a loss of favor if she DID pre-decease her husband.

I've kind of lost interest in Kiya since the DNA proved she couldn't be the mother of Smenkhkara and Tutankhamun - and that they were most likely respectively the brother and nephew of Akhenaten. My favorite theory blown to smitherines! ah well...

However I stubbornly insist that we should not take a transfer of property as proof of either death OR disgrace.

[Nefertum]

[Meretseger]

Oddly enough I feel that the fact her burial equipment was 'repurposed' is good evidence that she may have been alive and equipment in storage convenient to hand.

The problem with Nefertiti is that she pretty much disappears from view after Meketaten's burial. Merytaten (Mayati) seems to be acting as her father's feminine counterpart late in the reign from the evidence of the Amarna letters.

[Lutz]

[Meretseger]

I'm not sure I follow you, Lutz.

Nefertiti seems to disappear altogether from the official record while Kiya was never really in it being a secondary if favored wife. Maru Aten clearly indicates that it was transferred from her ownership to Meritaten's but we don't know exactly when or under what circumstances.

Kiya *might* have died; or she might have retired from court either due to loss of favor or Akhenaten's death; or she might simply have given or sold Maru Aten to Meritaten.

Far more recent royal families have had a general shifting and trading of residences upon the death of the monarch or even lesser members of the family and there seem to have been several deaths among the royal ladies c. yr. 14 including Tiye and Nefertiti that might necessitate or encourage must shifting of real estate.

In short the question is more open then is realized and we mustn't jump to the most dramatic conclusions.

[Lutz]

[Meretseger]

I don't call that a clarification, Lutz.

[Thieuke]

Do we know of any Great Royal Wife in the 18th dynasty who married her husband's successor?

Anchesenpaäten, daughter of Achnaten and Nefertiti did marry potentially both her father and Smekhkare. So with either of the latter two being Tut's father that would mean Tut marrying one of his father's widows.

Im also favoring the Tashjerit version as Tut's queen. She was younger than the king and AIII married as a boy an ever younger Tiye.

the younger Anchesenpaäton would be a granddaughter of Achnaten and Nefertiti either by their first daughter Meritaten or their third Anchesepaäton senior. The father could be Achnaten or Smekhkare meaning Tut married his cousin or halfsister on the paternal side.

Young girls have a higher risk of early births and miscarriages so the two foetuses could be the result of the young age of Tut's Great Royal Wife. As both were young they and their courtiers were probably not too bothered about it. Expecting him to live much longer than he eventually did.

[Frater0082]

[Lutz]