Discover more About Queen Ankhesenamun

Ankhesenamun was a queen who lived during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Born as Ankhs en BA Aton ("she lives for ATON"), she was the third of six known daughters of the Egyptian King Akhenaten and his wife, the Great Queen Nefertiti.

Ankh-en-Amun was well known as the great royal wife of King Tutankhamun. The results of DNA tests of mummies discovered in the Valley of the Kings necropolis were revealed in February 2010, sparking speculation that one of the two queens of the Eighteenth Dynasty buried in that tomb may be Ankhs-in-Amun. 

Her early life

Ankhs-in-BA-ATON was born at a time when Egypt was experiencing an unprecedented religious revolution (about 1348 BC). Her father had abandoned the main worship of the ancient gods of Egypt in favor of Aten, which until that time was a minor aspect of the Sun God, personified as the disk of the sun.

It is believed that she was born in Thebes, around the fourth year of her father's reign, but she probably grew up in the city of Akhetaten (currently known as Tell Amarna), which was founded as the new capital of the kingdom by her father. The three eldest daughters - Meret Aton, Maaket Aton, and Ankhs en BA Aton - became the "grand princesses" and participated in many functions of government and religion next to their parents.

Her later life

It is believed that she first married her father, which was not unusual in Egyptian royal families. It is believed that she was the mother of Princess Ankhs-in-BA-Aten tashrit (possibly from her father or from Semnakh-ka-ra), although the lineage is unclear.

After the death of her father and the short reign of Smenkh-ka-Ra and Nefertiti, she became the wife of Tutankhamun. After their marriage, the wife honored the restored religions by changing their names to Tutankhamun and Ankh-en-Amun. It seems that the couple had two stillborn daughters. And since Ankh-in-Amun is the only known wife of Tutankhamun, the embryos found in his tomb are likely their daughters. Around the ninth year of his reign, around the age of eighteen, Tutankhamun died suddenly, leaving Ankh-en-Amun alone and without an heir at about the age of twenty-one.

A blue glass ring of unknown origin obtained by him in 1931 shows the coronation name of King AI and the name of Ankh-en-Amun inside two cartridges. This suggests that Ankh-en-Amun married AI shortly before she disappeared from history, although no traces show her as his great royal wife. On the walls of the Tomb of Ai, te (The Great Wife of AI), and not Ankh-en-Amun, appears as his great royal wife. She probably died during or shortly after his reign, and her burial place has not yet been found.

Inductive messages

A document was found in the ancient Hittite capital Khatusha, dating back to the Amarna Period. The document, which is considered part of the so-called "works" of Shubiluliuma I (Shubiluliuma I), tells that the Hittite ruler, Shubiluliuma I, while besieging the city of Carchemish, received a letter from the Egyptian queen. The letter reads:

Amon asked, "Why do you say, 'they cheated on me like that, if I had a son, would I have written about my nakedness and the shame of my country to a foreigner?" Don't you believe me and say that to me! My husband is dead and I have no son!. And I will not take my servant as a husband! I did not write for any other country, for you alone I wrote! They say that you have many sons: so give me one of them! For me, he will be a husband, but for Egypt, he will become a king. Ankhs-en-Amun. This document is considered unusual, since traditionally the Egyptians considered foreigners inferior to them. Shpilolyoma I was amazed and told his advisers: Damn, Amon, nothing like this has ever happened to me in my entire life! Ankhs-en-Amun Shubiluliyoma sent an envoy to check and finally sent one of his sons, Zananza, but the Prince died on the way, probably he was killed. The identity of the queen who wrote the letter is uncertain. In the Hittite chronicles, she is called dakhamunzu, which may be a contraction of the Egyptian title, "Ta-Hamet-nisu" (the King's wife). Potential candidates for the author of the letter are Nefertiti, Meret Aton, and Ankhas-en-Amon. Ankh-en-Amun seemed the most likely because there were no royal candidates for the throne after the death of her husband Tutankhamun, while Akhenaten had at least two legitimate heirs. But this was based on the 27-year reign of the last king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Horemheb, who now admits that he reigned for a slightly shorter period of 14 years. Since Nefertiti was depicted with the same vigor as her husband in official monuments, beating the enemies of Egypt, scholar Nicholas Reeves believes that she may be dakhamonzo in the Amarna Correspondence. This makes the deceased Egyptian King look like Akhenaten instead of Tutankhamun. As noted, Akhenaten had potential heirs, including Tutankhamun, to whom Nefertiti could have been married. Other researchers focus on the phrase about marrying" one of my subjects "(translated by some as" servants") as a possible reference to the Grand Vizier AI or a minor member of the Egyptian royal dynasty, however, and that Ankh-en-Amun may have been pressured by AI to marry him and confirm his legitimacy to the Egyptian throne (which she eventually did).

Condemnation of memory

It is believed that Ankh-en-Amun married King AI, Tutankhamun's successor, after the sudden death of her husband. However, AI and his army chief Horemheb, became political rivals at court during AI's reign. AI attempted to marginalize Horemheb from the royal succession hierarchy by naming the general Nakhtmin as the "King's son". As Nozomu Kawai writes: "This title is undoubtedly higher than the status of Horemheb. Therefore, King AI intended to remove Horemheb to a less important post and replace him with Nakhtmin to carry out his functions. We do not know exactly when Nakh-Min was promoted, but this promotion must have caused great hostility from Horemheb against King AI."

When Horemheb came to power as the successor of AI and became the last king of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, he launched a campaign to condemn the memory of his opponent AI by seizing AI's Mortuary Temple, desecrating his royal tomb in the western Valley Cemetery No. 23 and erasing as much of AI's inscriptions and images as possible as a kind of revenge. AI's royal coffin in his grave was shattered into many fragments. However, Ankhs-in-Amun was also a victim of Horemheb's anger over AI's actions. As Nozomu Kawai writes:

"At the same time, Ankh-en-Amon became the object of memory condemnation by Horemheb. Evidence suggests that she was severely persecuted. In the restorative painting of Tutankhamun, captured by Horemheb, her figures were completely erased and replaced with inscriptions instead of transforming her image into the image of his wife [i.e., Horemheb], Queen Mut-Nejmet. An inlaid painting of Tutankhamun in the Karnak shows a large and sharp rectangular gap containing some holes behind the king, making offerings to Amun and MUT. The presence of holes indicates that there is a shape behind them. Since the figure of the Queen is usually found behind the king, likely, the figure of Ankh-en-Amon was deliberately removed by Horemheb. These severe acts of memory condemnation against Ankh-en-Amun were probably due to some historical events that upset Horemheb."
Horemheb, in doing so, tried to erase all memory of Ai, Ai's allies, and Ankh-in-Amun when he became king.

Genealogy and family

Ankhes-in-Amun was the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. She married Tutankhamun, the King of Egypt, and was his main wife. They had no surviving sons, but two fetuses were found in the Tomb of Tutankhamun. After Tutankhamun's death, it is believed that Ankh en-Amun married AI, Tutankhamun's successor.