Family/Spouse: Akenkheres\Smenkhkar (Cingeris) Pharaoh of Egypt. Akenkheres\Smenkhkar (son of Akhenaten Pharaoh of Egypt and Kiya) died in C 1364 BC. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. (Princess of Scytha?) Scota died in Killed Fighting Tuatha DE Dannan; was buried in Glen Scuithrin, Ireland.
2. (Merytaten Princes of Scythia) Scota was born in Egypt; and died.

Notes:

From
Neferchichi's Tomb
Pharaohs
http://www.neferchichi.com/akhenaten.html

Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten
Birth name: Amenhotep ("Amun is satisfied")
Adopted name: Akhenaten ("Servant of the Aten")
Throne name: Neferkheperure ("Beautiful are the Manifestations of Re")
Rule: 1350 - 1334 BC (10th king of the 18th dynasty, New Kingdom)
Noteworthy relatives: Nefertiti (queen), Tutankhamun (son), Ankhesenamun(daughter), Merytaten (daughter), Smenkhkare (son), Amenhotep III(father), Tiy (mother). [Check out the family tree]



Egypt had experienced few cultural changes for thousands of years- untilthe controversial king Amenhotep IV came along and turned everythingupside down and inside out! The revolutionary era during which he and hisfamily lived is often called "the Amarna Period," named after the modernEgyptian city (Tel el-Amarna) that is located on the spot where hiscapital once stood. After the end of the Amarna Period, life in Egyptreturned to normal. Hoping to forget it ever happened, people later triedto eradicate all traces of Akhenaten and his successors' rule by smashingtheir statues, mutilating their mummies, and ruining their reliefcarvings. The massive destruction makes it difficult to figure out theevents that happened during the Amarna Period. We aren't even 100% sureabout how certain people are related to each other, although moderngenetic testing of mummy DNA can possibly help us determine this in thefuture. Much of our understanding of this turbulent time comes frommaking educated guesses based on the archaeological evidence that stillremains.

So what did Amenhotep IV do that was so awful?

Well, his reign started out as normal as any other. He was crowned kingat the Temple of Amun in Karnak, he had taken his cousin Nefertiti as hisqueen, and he ruled Egypt from the capital at Thebes. Then, a few yearslater, things started to change. He declared that all the other gods (andthere were LOTS!) did not exiSt There was only one god, the Aten, and itwas the sun itself. The Aten was shown as the sun's disk, with rays thatended as hands holding ankhs, the symbol of life.

It was now necessary to change his name: "Amenhotep" means "the god Amunis satisfied," but he didn't want to be associated with Amun or any ofthe other deities. He renamed himself "Akhenaten," which means "servantof the Aten"-- a much more appropriate title!

Web Resources about Pharaohs & Egypt:
A Brief Chronology of the Great Pharaohs
http://www.osirisweb.com/egypt/egypt2.html
Encyclopedia of the Rulers of Egypt He
http://www.sis.gov.eg/rulers/html/front.htm
By the Egyptian government.
Pharaohs and High Priests of Ancient Egypt
http://www.american-pictures.com/genealogy/pharaohs.htm
Kings & Queens of Egypt
You can see a comprehensive list of the ancient Egyptian Kings
http://www.guardians.net/egypt/famous.htm
Neferchichi's Tomb, Pharaohs
http://www.neferchichi.com/pharaohs.html
Guide to Ancient Egypt on the Web
http://www.cmi.k12.il.us/~kempeja/Anewegypt.html
Egypt
Resources on ancient Egypt (Kemet), its pharaohs, hieroglyphs, pyramids,the gods and goddesses, archaeology, art, egyptologists, sites forhomeschoolers and kids, and gossip.
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/egypt/
The Pharaohs Network
http://www.thepharaohs.net/main.cfm
Egyptian Royalty (Books about)
http://www.royalty.nu/Africa/Egypt/index.html

http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/egyptinf/history/html/akhen.htm
at http://www.guardians.net/egypt/famous.htm
Guardian's Egypt
Kings & Queens of Egypt
Burial : Akhetaten (el-Amarna); subsequently ? Valley of the Kings(Thebes)
Amenhotep IV-better known as Akhenaten, the new name he took early onin his reign-ushered in a revolutionary period in Egyptian history. TheAmarna Interlude, as it is often called, saw the removal of the seat ofgovernment to a short-lived new capital city, Akhetaten (modernel-Amarna), the introduction of a new art style, and the elevation of thecult of the sun disc, the Aten, to pre-eminent status in Egyptianreligion. This last heresy in particular was to bring down on Akhenatenand his immediate successors the opprobrium of later kings.

The young prince was at least the second son of Amenhotep III by hischief wife, Tiy: an elder brother, prince Tuthmosis, had died prematurely(strangely, a whip bearing his name was found in Tutankhamun's tomb).There is some controversy over whether or not the old king took his soninto partnership on the throne in a co-regency there are quite strongarguments both for and againSt A point in favour of a co-regency is theappearance during the latter years of Amenhotep III's reign of artisticstyles that are subsequently seen as part of the 'revolutionary' Amarnaart introduced by Akhenaten; on the other hand, both 'traditional' and'revolutionary' Art styles could easily have coexisted during the earlyyears of Akhenaten's reign. At any rate, if there had been a co-regency,it would not have been for longer than the short period before the newking assumed his preferred name of Akhenaten ('Servant of the Aten') inYear 5.

The beginning of Akhenaten's reign marked no great discontinuity withthat of his predecessors. Not only was he crowned at Karnak (temple ofthe god Amun) but, like his father ' he married a of non-royal blood,Nefertiti, the daughter of the vizier Ay. Ay seems to have been a brotherof Queen Tiy (Anen was another) and a son of Yuya and Tuya. Nefertiti'smother is not known; she may have died in childbirth or shortlyafterwards, since Nefertiti seems to have been brought up by another wifeof Ay named Tey, who would then be her stepmother.

The cult of the Aten

There can be little doubt that the new king was far more of a thinkerand philosopher than his forebears. Amenhotep III had recognized thegrowing power of the priesthood of Amun and had sought to curb it; hisson was to take the matter a lot further by introducing a newmonotheistic cult of sun-worship that was incarnate in the sun's disc,the Aten.

This was not in itself a new idea: as a relatively minor aspect of thesun god Re-Harakhte, the Aten had been venerated in the Old Kingdom and alarge scarab of Akhenaten's grandfather Tuthmosis IV (now in the BritishMuseum) has a text that mentions the Aten. Rather, Akhenaten's innovationwas to worship the Aten in its own right. Portrayed as a solar disc whoseprotective rays terminated in hands holding the ankh hieroglyph for life,the Aten was accessible only to Akhenaten, thereby obviating the need foran intermediate priesthood.

At first, the king built a temple to his god Aten immediately outsidethe east gate of the temple of Amun at Karnak, but clearly thecoexistance of the two cults could not laSt He therefore proscribed thecult of Amun, closed the god's temples, took over the revenues and, tomake a complete break, in Year 6 moved to a new capital in Middle Egypt,half way between Memphis and Thebes. It was a virgin site, not previouslydedicated to any other god or goddess, and he named it Akhetaten-TheHorizon of the Aten. Today the site is known as el-Amarna.

In the tomb of Ay, the chief minister of Akhenaten (and later to becomeking after Tutankhamun's death), occurs the longest and best rendition ofa composition known as the 'Hymn to the Aten', said to have been writtenby Akhenaten himself. Quite moving in itself as a piece of poetry, itssimilarity to, and possible source of the concept in, Psalm 104 has longbeen noted.

It sums up the whole ethos of the Aten cult and especially theconcept that only Akhenaten had access to the god: 'Thou arisest fair inthe horizon of Heaven, 0 Living Aten, Beginner of LifeRthere is none whoknows thee save thy son Akhenaten. Thou hast made him wise in thy plansand thy power.' No longer did the dead call upon Osiris to guide themthrough the after-world, for only through their adherence to the king andhis intercession on their behalf could they hope to live beyond thegrave.

According to present evidence, however, it appears that it was onlythe upper echelons of society which embraced the new religion with anyfervour (and perhaps that was only skin deep). Excavations at Amarna haveindicated that even here the old way of religion continued among theordinary people. On a wider scale, throughout Egypt, the new cult doesnot seem to have had much effect at a common level except, of course, indismantling the priesthood and closing the temples; but then the ordinarypopulace had had little to do with the religious establishment anyway,except on the high days and holidays when the god's statue would becarried in procession from the sanctuary outside the great temple walls.

The standard bureaucracy continued its endeavours to run the countrywhile the king courted his god. Cracks in the Egyptian empire may havebegun to appear in the later years of the reign of Amenhotep III; at anyrate they became more evident as Akhenaten increasingly left governmentand diplomats to their own devices. Civil and military authority cameunder two strong characters: Ay, who held the title 'Father of the God'(and was probably Akhenaten's father-in-law), and the general Horemheb(also Ay's son-in-law since he married Ay's daughter Mutnodjme, sister ofNefertiti). Both men were to become pharaoh before the 18th Dynastyended. This redoubtable pair of closely related high officials no doubtkept everything under control in a discreet manner while Akhenatenpursued his own philosophical and religious interests.

A new artistic style

It is evident from the art of the Amarna period that the courtofficially emulated the king's unusual physical characteristics. Thusindividuals such as the young princesses are endowed with elongatedskulls and excessive adiposity, while Bek-the Chief Sculptor and Masterof Works-portrays himself in the likeness of his king with pendulousbreasts and protruding stomach. On a stele now in Berlin Bek states thathe was taught by His Majesty and that the court sculptors were instructedto represent what they saw. The result is a realism that breaks away fromthe rigid formality of earlier official depictions, although naturalismis very evident in earlier, unofficial art.

The power behind the throne?

Although the famous bust of Nefertiti in Berlin, the queen is notsubject to quite the same extremes as others in Amarna art, by virtue ofbeing elegantly female. Indeed, there are several curious aspects ofNefertiti's representations. In the early years of Akhenaten's reign, forinstance, Nefertiti was an unusually prominent figure in official art,dominating the scenes carved on blocks of the temple to the Aten atKarnak. One such block shows her in the age-old warlike posture ofpharaoh grasping captives by the hair and smiting them with a mace hardlythe epitome of the peaceful queen and mother of six daughters. Nefertitievidently played a far more prominent part in her husband's rule than wasthe norm.


Tragedy seems to have struck the royal family in about Year 12 withthe death in childbirth of Nefertiti's second daughter, Mekytaten; it isprobably she who is shown in a relief in the royal tomb with hergrief-stricken parents beside her supine body, and a nurse standingnearby holding a baby. The father of the infant was possibly Akhenaten,since he is also known to have married two other daughters, Merytaten(not to be confused with Mekytaten) and Akhesenpaaten (later to becomeTutankhamun's wife).

Nefertiti appears to have died soon after Year 12, although somesuggest that she was disgraced because her name was replaced in severalinstances by that of her daughter Merytaten, who succeeded her as 'GreatRoyal Wife'. The latter bore a daughter called Merytaten-tasherit(Merytaten the Younger), also possibly fathered by Akhenaten. Merytatenwas to become the wife of Smenkhkare, Akhenaten's brief successor.Nefertiti was buried in the royal tomb at Amarna, judging by the evidenceof a fragment of an alabaster ushabti figure bearing her cartouche foundthere in the early 1930s.

The king's resting place

Akhenaten died c. 1334, probably in his 16th regnal year. Evidencefound by Professor Geoffrey Martin during re-excavation of the royal tombat Amarna showed that blocking had been put in place in the burialchamber, suggesting that Akhenaten was buried there initially. Others donot believe that the tomb was used, however, in view of the heavilysmashed fragments of his sarcophagus and canopic jars recovered from it,and also the shattered examples of his ushabtis-found not only in thearea of the tomb but also by Petrie in the city.

What is almost certain is that his body did not remain at Amarna. A burntmummy seen outside the royal tomb in the 1880s, and associated withjewellery from the tomb (including a small gold finger ring withNefertiti's cartouche, was probably Coptic, as was other jewellerynearby. Akhenaten's adherents would not have left his body to bedespoiled by his enemies once his death and the return to orthodoxyunleashed a backlash of destruction. They would have taken it to a placeof safety and where better to hide it than in the old royal burial groundat Thebes where enemies would never dream of seeking it?

Akhenaten + (Pharaoh Neferkheperure ?) Nefertiti. (Pharaoh and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Web Resources about Pharaohs & Egypt:
A Brief Chronology of the Great Pharaohs
http://www.osirisweb.com/egypt/egypt2.html
Encyclopedia of the Rulers of Egypt He
http://www.sis.gov.eg/rulers/html/front.htm
By the Egyptian government.
Pharaohs and High Priests of Ancient Egypt
http://www.american-pictures.com/genealogy/pharaohs.htm
Kings & Queens of Egypt
You can see a comprehensive list of the ancient Egyptian Kings
http://www.guardians.net/egypt/famous.htm
Neferchichi's Tomb, Pharaohs
http://www.neferchichi.com/pharaohs.html
Guide to Ancient Egypt on the Web
http://www.cmi.k12.il.us/~kempeja/Anewegypt.html
Egypt
Resources on ancient Egypt (Kemet), its pharaohs, hieroglyphs, pyramids,the gods and goddesses, archaeology, art, egyptologists, sites forhomeschoolers and kids, and gossip.
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/egypt/
The Pharaohs Network
http://www.thepharaohs.net/main.cfm
Egyptian Royalty (Books about)
http://www.royalty.nu/Africa/Egypt/index.html

Amenophis + Mutemwiya Princess of (Syria) Mitanni. Mutemwiya (daughter of Artatama King of (Syria) Mitanni) and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From
http://www.neferchichi.com/tuthmosis4.html
at
Neferchichi's Tomb, Pharaohs
http://www.neferchichi.com/pharaohs.html


Tuthmosis IV
Birth name: Tuthmosis ("Born of the God Thoth")
Throne name: Menkheperure ("Everlasting are the Manifestations of Re")
Rule: 1419 - 1386 BC (8th king of the 18th dynasty, New Kingdom)
Noteworthy relatives: Amenhotep II (father), Tuthmosis III (grandfather),Amenhotep III (son)



By the time Tuthmosis IV became pharaoh, the Great Sphinx in front ofKhafre's pyramid at Giza was already more than 1,000 years old and wasburied up to its neck in the shifting sands of the desert. There had beenmany attempts to dig it up-- some successful, some not (it's unburiednow, of course, and has been so since 1926). The first person to clearaway the sand was Tuthmosis IV. He claimed that he was out hunting in thedesert and took a nap in the shadow of the Sphinx's head (which wouldhave been the only part sticking out of the sand). While Tuthmosis wassleeping, the Sphinx came to him in a dream and promised Tuthmosis thathe would become pharaoh if he cleared away the sand. Digging startedimmediately and sure enough Tuthmosis IV became pharaoh in 1419 BC. Acarved monument known as the Dream Stele between the Sphinx's pawscommemorates the "rescue

During the New Kingdom, royal tombs were built high in the cliffs ofUpper Egypt in a spot commonly called "The Valley of the Kings." Theintention was to make the tombs as inaccessible to grave robbers aspossible... although they got robbed anyway. Around 1000 BC, a group ofpriests gathered up all the royal mummies and stored them in two secret"mummy caches" (one near Deir el-Bahari, and the other in the tomb ofTuthmosis IV's father, Amenhotep II) to keep them safe. These hiddenroyals were nowhere to be found for almost 2,000 years: in 1881, the 40mummies in the Deir el-Bahari location were found. Then in 1898 the tombof Amenhotep II with its additional 16 mummies was discovered. This iswhere Tuthmosis IV was found- in his father's tomb.