Meritaten
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Meritaten also spelled Merytaten or Meryetaten (14th century BC) was an Ancient Egyptian queen of the eighteenth dynasty, who held the position of Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten. Meritaten also may have served as pharaoh in her own right under the name, Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten.
The royal lineage of Egypt was held by its women. Women pharaohs, such as Hatshepsut, were known to have their daughters serve in the role of great wife and would have their daughters marry brothers, cousins, nephews, and uncles to continue the lineage. A male pharaoh needed to marry into the lineage if not born into it, as well as to have a great wife from the royal lineage to officiate at the temple and for other royal functions. For them, secondary marriages to other royal women maintained the lineage through greater numbers of offspring.
Meritaten was the first of six daughters born to Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife, Nefertiti. Her name means "She who is beloved of Aten"—Aten being the sun-god her father worshipped—introducing monotheism into the religion of Egypt. (The male version of her name would be Meryaten, "He who is beloved of Aten.") She was born early in her father's reign, before the royal family moved to the new capital established by her father, Akhetaten. She was shown beside her mother in reliefs carved into the Hut-Benben, a temple devoted exclusively to Nefertiti. She also appears—along with her parents and younger sister Meketaten—on the boundary stelae designating the boundaries of the new capital. She had one daughter, who was named after her as, Meritaten Tasherit ("Meritaten the Younger").
During Akhenaten's reign she was the most frequently depicted and mentioned of the six daughters. Her figure appears on paintings in temples, tombs, and private chapels. She is shown not only on the pictures showing the family life of the pharaoh, which were typical of the Amarna period, but on official ceremonies too. She also is mentioned in diplomatic letters, by the name Mayati.
| Meritaten in hieroglyphs |
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Meritaten's titles include Great Royal Wife, which can indicate either marriage to her father or to Akhenaten's co-ruler Smenkhkare, who some believe was her (half-)uncle or half-brother, although a simpler explanation for the title may be that Meritaten simply assumed her mother's duties and office of "Great Royal Wife".
Meritaten's name seems to replace that of another royal lady in several places, among them in the Northern Palace and in the Maru-Aten. This had been misinterpreted as evidence of Nefertiti's disgrace and banishment from the royal court, but more recently the erased inscriptions turned out to be the name of Kiya, one of Akhenaten's secondary wives, disproving that interpretation.
According to some, Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare ruled together with Meritaten, but the year following Akhenaten's death Smenkhkare died, and further, they assert that Meritaten's reign was brief as she also died not long afterward.
[edit] Conspiracy theories
Meritaten is sometimes identified with Queen Scota, the founder of Scotland, who is believed to be of Egyptian origin.
[edit] Sources
- Joyce Tyldesley: Nefertiti – Egypt's Sun Queen
- Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004) ISBN 0-500-05128-3
