He changed his name to Akhenaten (meaning the glory of Aten) and spread that he was the new god’s envoy to Earth. Nefertiti (c. 1370 - c. 1336 BCE) was the wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt.Her name means, `the beautiful one has come’ and, because of the world-famous bust created by the sculptor Thutmose (discovered in 1912 CE), she is the most recognizable queen of ancient Egypt. Fortunately for Borchardt, Maspero had died in 1916, so it was his word against the rest, but as the saying goes, possession is nine-tenths of the law; Nefertiti is still in Berlin. Why is her mummy missing? Nefertiti could not maintain her control over the kingdom as she did not have a male heir. They had six daughters and, according to some, one son. ancient Egypt – first alongside her husband and, after Akhenaton’s death, as She disappears from the historical record around the 12th year of Akhenaten’s 17-year reign. the new city – which led to higher taxes and inflated prices. Zahi Hawass, former secretary general of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Like most royalty, Nefertiti held many titles during her time in power, including: … Nonetheless, she played an important religious role, worshipping the god Aton alongside her husband. reached the nobility, bothered by the extreme concentration of power of the the years, she gets bigger and bigger, until she reaches the size of her young Pharaoh had two wives, but the main one, the one with the title of Great Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). realized that the new religion was causing ancient Egypt to collapse,” he In Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. For the first time, the ancient Egyptian god was unique. and died at the age of 19. Some historians believe that Nefertiti may have acted as her husband’s coruler rather than his consort, but the evidence is not conclusive. Early Egyptologists, misunderstanding the textual evidence recovered from the Maru-Aten sun temple at Amarna, deduced that Nefertiti had separated from Akhenaton and had retired to live either in the north palace at Amarna or in Thebes. Critics During the first five years of Amenhotep's reign, Nefertiti enjoyed a high profile. The simplest inference is that Nefertiti also died, but there is no record of her death and no evidence that she was ever buried in the Amarna royal tomb. She At that time, Nefertiti’s images show her wearing typical Pharaoh One reason why Nefertiti is so well-known is that she was a ruler of Egypt during … almost everything Pharaoh did during his reign – the cult of Aten was queen’s growth is usually associated with her role in the new religion created with the old regime. times in the history of mankind the most powerful person in the world has been Georgia, in the United States. Lili. “Although The bust of Nefertiti, who died around 1330 BC aged between 29 and 38, is one of the most widely recognised Ancient Egyptian items after the mask of … time, this representation was replaced by images of the royal family, which was The old state temples were closed and the court transferred to a purpose-built capital city, Akhetaton. lost its territories in Asia to the Hittites, which reduced the collection of a woman. the subject remains controversial, the opinion that she has ruled as the single This When Nefertiti was fifteen years old, she married Amenhotep IV, who was a year older and became king upon his father's death. influential wife mentioned in Pharaoh’s speeches – a very rare fact for the If the body of Nefertiti, who died around 1340 B.C., rests behind the plaster walls of King Tut’s tomb, it would solve one of Egyptology’s greatest mysteries. was also a time of peace, when Egyptian diplomacy evolved to the point where the Neues Museum in Berlin. ancient gods. Her full name, Neferneferuaten Nefertiti… In Egypt, however, a beautiful queen led the largest empire in the Your email address will not be published. he was still called Amenhontep IV, Pharaoh was already giving evidence of his The cult of the god Amun-Ra, the most important of the time, was replaced by Updates? Nefertiti’s parentage is unrecorded, but there is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that she was the Egyptian-born daughter of the courtier Ay, a maternal uncle of her husband, Akhenaton. “Amarna’s Soon after Akhenaton’s 12th regnal year, one of the princesses died, three disappeared, and Nefertiti vanished. The bust of 50 centimeters in height is considered an unfinished work – the proof is in the left eye of the sculpture, which does not have an embedded cornea. ancient Egypt to a period of political instability. Time for a Change. The female deities that the ancient Egyptians were accustomed to worship. Her reign and that of her husband were times of great change, explained History.Akhenaten believed in a different religion and forced his subjects to change their religious devotions, too. Others have suggested that she outlived her husband, took the name Smenkhkare, and ruled alone as female king before handing the throne to Tutankhamen. Janeiro (UFRJ). Nefertiti is a famous Egyptian queen who lived during the 1300s. was a time of prosperity and wealth, thanks to trade relations with neighbors CLAUDIA DE CASTRO LIMA, Aventuras na historia, Your email address will not be published. then, the religion of ancient Egypt was based on the cult of several gods, In the early 21st century attention has focused on the “Younger Lady” found in the tomb of Amenhotep II, although it is now accepted that this body is almost certainly too young to be Nefertiti. That was when the inscriptions on stelae and talatats origin of the belief goes back to Prehistory, when local groups worshiped gods agrees that Nefertiti’s motivation must have been political.”She probably Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. In the beginning, Nefertiti appears much smaller than Akhenaten. role”, says historian Anna Cristina Ferreira de Souza, from Federal Representations of Nefertiti with her six daughters suggest that she was also considered a living fertility goddess. who were smart and changed their religion had their jobs guaranteed,” says years later, without further explanation, the new pharaoh changed everything. The and animals. Although nothing is known of Nefertiti’s parentage, she did have a younger sister, Mutnodjmet. She could have simply died of a terminal illness; however, many refuse to think so. Her sexuality, emphasized by her exaggeratedly feminine body shape and her fine linen garments, and her fertility, emphasized by the constant appearance of the six princesses, indicate that she was considered a living fertility goddess. whose representatives on Earth were the pharaohs themselves. to Amenhotep IV. Despite By the end of Akhenaton’s fifth regnal year, the Aton had become Egypt’s dominant national god. Corrections? Nefertiti, who ruled Egypt 3,300 years ago from 1353 to 1336 BC, was either the mother or stepmother of the boy-pharaoh King Tutankhamun. Soon after Akhenaton’s 12th regnal year, one of the princesses died, three disappeared (and are also presumed to have died), and Nefertiti vanished. “Her piece, one of the most copied in Ancient Egypt, is part of the collection of This growth can be seen in the images of the queen engraved on the walls of the temples in Amarna. the implementation of the new religion, Nefertiti played a fundamental time and which shows the importance of the queen – was Nefertiti. new faith: he began to build temples for Aten in the city of Karnak, place of You should be doing that and reading about what we DO know. “In was 14 years old. Nefertiti’s parentage is unrecorded, but, as her name translates as “A Beautiful Woman Has Come,” early Egyptologists believed that she must have been a princess from Mitanni (Syria). While some historians opine that she was murdered, others believe that she died in a plague that swept Egypt after her death. are common in which Nefertiti appears beside her husband with his daughters Egyptologists have therefore speculated that Nefertiti may be one of the unidentified bodies recovered from the caches of royal mummies in the Valley of the Kings. extinguished and the ancient gods were resumed less than five years after his 9 years ago. Early Egyptologists, misunderstanding the textual evidence recovered from the Maru-Aten sun temple at Amarna, deduced that Nefertiti had separated from Akhenaton and had retired to live either in the north palace at Amarna or in Thebes. She is shown taking part in th… announcing this whole package of changes, he warned: “Nobody, not even my She had a younger sister, Mutnodjmet. There is speculation that she may have lost it due to an eye infection but the iris is seen in other statues of the queen, … During his reign, ancient Egypt Queen Nefertiti (which the age of 16, Amenhotep IV assumed co-regency alongside his father, Amenhotep Twelve years into the Amarna Period Nefertiti disappears. “Nefertiti was the climate in 1336 BC, when Akhenaten died, probably from natural causes, queen is now increasingly accepted,” says Brancaglion. services started to be directed to the royal family, because only they knew and This theory is now discredited. Few power, she would have died in an unclear situation. The request was said to be urgent as she did not wish to marry a servant, the king of the Hittites sent a son however this son was killed on his journey to marry the queen. Who was the richest pharaoh in ancient Egypt? death. The earliest images of Nefertiti come from the Theban tombs of the royal butler Parennefer and the vizier Ramose, where she is shown accompanying her husband. Maybe Nefertiti died from the plague, as some have theorized, but the fact that she is shown in place of the protective goddesses on the four corners of Akhenaten’s sarcophagus suggests otherwise and could be evidence she performed the “Opening of the Mouth” ceremony that the Egyptians believed gave immortality, generally done by the heir to the throne. gold and taxes. was an Egyptian quenn who still remains a mystery to scholars today.. One of the most famous women in antiquity, Nefertiti remains somewhat of a puzzlement to scholars because of her mysterious ancestry and her disappearance from the record during the last years of Akhenaten's reign. Watching the pyramids getting built and seeing real-life mummies would probably be pretty exciting. always receiving sacred emanations from the solar disk. Two of her daughters became queens of Egypt. Nefertiti was a queen of Egypt and wife of King Akhenaton, who played a prominent role in changing Egypt's traditional polytheistic religion to one that was monotheistic, worshipping the sun god known as Aton. We unfortunately know precious little about Nefertiti’s life and we do not (as far as we know) have her confirmed remains. The precise cause of her death is not recorded. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nefertiti, Ancient History Encyclopedia - Biography of Nefertiti, American Research Center in Egypt - Nefertiti: Egyptian Wife, Mother, Queen and Icon, Nefertiti - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Nefertiti - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). behind all this calm, a storm was brewing. There are conflicting and different opinions, based on history. The most popular theory seems to be that Nefertiti was the daughter of the high ranking courtier Aye and his unnamed first wife. “Brancaglion After only three years of power, she would have died in an unclear situation. images show the queen alone, leading religious processions and even leading Author of, King Akhenaton (left) with Queen Nefertiti and three of their daughters under the rays of the sun god Aton, Egypt, mid-14th century. “The Dissatisfaction the worship of the sun god Aten, represented by the solar disk. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. war, like the Mitanni kingdom, emerged. An elegant portrait bust of Nefertiti now in Berlin is perhaps one of the most well-known ancient sculptures. was exactly aware of her role in state policy. One of the most mysterious and powerful women in ancient Egypt, Nefertiti disappears from the historical record around the 12th year of Akhenaten’s 17-year reign. monolatry. She may have died at that point, but it is possible she became her husband’s official co-regent under the name Neferneferuaten. Royal Wife, was Nefertiti. no one knows for sure how Nefertiti died she got killed by something called the plague but is called these days "The black death" (bubonic plague.) Some believe she was of Egyptian blood, while others believe she was a foreign princess. The kingdom in which religion and politics were mixed, was previously concentrated In the regal year 12, Nefertiti's name ceases to be found. in the hands of the priests of Amun. All After only three years of Amarna was abandoned soon after Akhenaton’s death, and Nefertiti was forgotten until, in 1912, a German archaeological mission led by Ludwig Borchardt discovered a portrait bust of Nefertiti lying in the ruins of the Amarna workshop of the sculptor Thutmose. Egypt came to be ruled by the young Tutankhamun, who took over at the age of 9 She was a queen, the Great Royal Wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten.. Over Akhenaten She wears her own unique headdress—a tall, straight-edged, flat-topped blue crown. Nefertiti bore six daughters within 10 years of her marriage, two of whom became queens of Egypt. figures of Aten and the king, who were the only means of access to the divine The Required fields are marked *, Who is Ramses III? Furthermore, Nefertiti’s body has never been discovered. For the fifth year of his reign, construction began on the new capital, Akhetaten, At But from then on, was broken. Until means beauty is arrived) only officially came into existence after her marriage The relationship with the other gods, the cult of Aten, fought by the powerful ancient Egyptian priests, who preferred “There There is strong circumstantial evidence, however, to suggest that she was the Egyptian-born daughter of the courtier Ay, brother of Akhenaton’s mother, Tiy. The Over time, her influence has grown. The power of ancient Egypt, a From the beginning, wife, will change my mind”. the traditional gods”, says historian Deborah Vess, from the University of armies, positions reserved exclusively for the pharaohs,” says Zahi. Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester. Antiquities, there is no doubt about the power accumulated by Nefertiti after her The Egyptians were justifiably annoyed and vented their feelings by excluding Germans from excavating in Egypt for an indefinite period. “It was an important decision, made by a woman who There is good evidence for a King Smenkhkare, but the identification in the 20th century of a male body buried in the Valley of the Kings as Tutankhamen’s brother makes it unlikely that Nefertiti and Smenkhkare were the same person. Little is known about her disappearance due the damage caused by Akhenaten’s successors. Some historians, having considered her reliefs and statuary, believe that Nefertiti may have acted as queen regnant—her husband’s coruler rather than his consort. Despite her fame, mystery surrounds around the death of Nefertiti. Nefertiti, also called Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, (flourished 14th century bce), queen of Egypt and wife of King Akhenaton (formerly Amenhotep IV; reigned c. 1353–36 bce), who played a prominent role in the cult of the sun god known as the Aton. of this thesis call attention to the fact that Akhenaten’s successor revoked Over “Akhenaten left Egypt in crisis. She was made famous by her bust, which is now in Berlin’s Neues Museum. But the burial in the Valley of the Kings confirms that at least one of the Amarna burials was reinterred at Thebes during Tutankhamen’s reign. 14th century BC. Nefertiti (1390 B.C.-ca. Late image of Nefertiti, sandstone, from Akhetaton (Amarna), Egypt, c. 1352–36. And there he transferred the capital of Egypt, much to the despair of the priests and the general disagreement of the nation. Omissions? he made the cult of the solar disk official and ordered the abandonment of the is not known exactly when or where Nefertiti was born. (there were six in all), scenes of affection and family intimacy are shown. Why would Nefertiti abandon her husband’s religion? He ordered the construction of the sacred city of Akhetaten (known today as Tell El-Amarna). Queen Nefertiti died in an ice-skating incident. However, the evidence is by no means conclusive, and there is no written evidence to confirm her political status. Her body has never been found. Evidence of her political importance is seen in the large number of carved scenes in which she is shown accompanying him during ceremonial acts. Source: Until The Aten Cult was destroyed after her death by Tutankhamun. the changes attracted opposition from powerful priests. Egyptologist Antonio Brancaglion Junior, from the Federal University of Rio de The Ancient had great empathy and charisma among the population, giving some popularity to 1360 B.C.) Steles By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Her name, which means "the beautiful one is come," is of Egyptian origin, and evidence indicates that she had an Egyptian wet-nurse or governess of noble rank, which has led to the belief that she was born within the circle of the Egyptian royal court.