What happened after Akhenaten’s death? Where was he buried? Who succeeded him? Could it have been Nefertiti? And who was Smenkhkare? Tantalising clues have been found at Amarna and in the Valley of Kings. But how to make sense of them? For more information about this and other online lectures please visit https://chrisnaunton.com/online-lectures/

1. AFTER AKHENATEN
Nefertiti, Smenkhkare,
and where were they all buried?
Dr Chris Naunton
@chrisnaunton / #afterakhenaten
chrisnaunton.com/online-lectures/

2. Akhenaten
died in his 17th year

3. Tutankhamun
An Amarna pharaoh
BUT
Reign saw the transition
back to the old ways

6. ‘Restoration Stela'
(of Tutankhamun)
Egyptian Museum, Cairo

7. “Now when his majesty arose as king,
The temples of the gods and goddesses … had fallen
into neglect
Their shrines had fallen into desolation …
Their sanctuaries were as if they had never been
Their halls were a trodden path
The land was in confusion, the gods forsook this land”

8. “And his majesty has made monuments for the gods
…
Building anew their sanctuaries as monuments of
eternal age
He has added to what was in former time,
…
He has surpassed that done since the time of the
ancestors
…
He has multiplied their wealth…”

9. Tutankhamun & Ay, KV 62 Horemheb, KV 57

10. Tutankhamun represents the end of the
Amarna Period
What happened in between, after Akhenaten?

11. It is possible that Tutankhamun
succeeded Akhenaten directly

12. But there clearly were other
pharaohs.
Who were they? And how do they
fit in?

13. Ankhkheperure Smekhkare

14. Tomb of Meryra (ii)
Scene appears
adjacent to the
‘durbar’ scene of
year 12
i.e.
The two scenes are
contemporary and
Smenkhkare was
therefore king in
Akhenaten’s year
12
i.e. as co-regent.

15. ‘Smenkhkare Hall’,
Great Palace, Amarna

16. From Petrie, Tell el-Amarna

17. Strip of wood at top of
wooden box
Carter No.: 001k
‘Wooden box of Smenkhkare’

18. L-R:
• Neferkheperure Waenre Akhenaten
• Ankhkheperure Meryneferkheperure
Neferneferuaten Merywaenre
• Meritaten

19. In the 1970s John Harris noticed that the
longer form of the Ankhkheperure name
often featured a feminine ‘t’ in the name –
‘Ankhetkheperure’
So Harris concluded Smenkhkare was a
woman, and that she was Nefertiti who also
used the name Neferneferuaten of course.

20. In 1978 R Krauss proposed that actually
there were two different pharaohs with
the coronation name ‘Ankhkheperure’

21. 1988 J P Allen noted that when the name
‘Neferneferuaten’ was used it almost always
came with an epithet meaning ‘beloved of
Akhenaten’.

22. 1988 J P Allen noted that when the name
‘Neferneferuaten’ was used it almost always
came with an epithet meaning ‘beloved of
Akhenaten’.
The long form (i.e. with epithets) of the
‘Ankkheperure’ name never accompanied
the name Smenkhkare.
The short form never accompanied the
name Neferneferuaten.

23. L-R:
• Neferkheperure Waenre Akhenaten
• Ankhkheperure Meryneferkheperure
Neferneferuaten Merywaenre
• Meritaten

24. Finally in 1998 M Gabolde showed
that the epithet ‘beloved of
Akhenaten’ was originally inscribed
as ‘effective for her husband’

25. Image ©Griffith Institute. Coloured by Dynamichrome

26. KV 62, Tutankhamun
Shabtis

27. KV 62, Tutankhamun
Ritual Figure

28. KV 62, Tutankhamun
Canopic Jar Stoppers

29. KV 62, Tutankhamun
Coffinettes

30. KV 62, Tutankhamun
Coffins and Death Mask

31. KV 62, Tutankhamun
Mummy Bands

34. KV 62, Tutankhamun
Mummy Bands
Ankheperure
MeryNeferkheperure
=Neferneferuaten

35. KV 62,
Tutankhamun
Death Mask

36. KV 62, Tutankhamun
Death Mask
Nebkheperure
(Tutankhamun)
Or Ankhkeperure
Meryneferkheperure
(Neferneferuaten)?

37. So who was the female pharaoh
Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten?

38. Nefertiti
Kiya
Meritaten
Other daughters?

39. Nefertiti
Clearly v prominent throughout Akhenaten’s reign

40. Nefertiti
Clearly v prominent throughout Akhenaten’s reign

41. Nefertiti
Thought to have disappeared from view
BUT…
Newly discovered inscription at Dayr Abu Hinnis,
10km N of Amarna:
Akhenaten’s year 16
Mentions ‘The Great Royal Wife, his beloved,
mistress of the Two Lands, Neferneferuaten
Nefertiti’
Images from A. Van der Perre in
In the Light of Amarna

42. Nefertiti
Used the name Neferneferuaten throughout…

43. Kiya
• ‘Greatly beloved’ wife of
Akhenaten
• Appears to have fallen from
favour around year 11
• Her name was replaced at the
North Palace and Maru-Aten by
Meritaten
• Her burial equipment appears
to have been re-purposed for
someone else

44. Meritaten
Appears in the Hut Benben alongside
Nefertiti
Also was to be buried in the royal
tomb along with Akhenaten and
Nefertiti according to the boundary
stelae
Seems to have displaced Kiya at the
North Palace and Maru-Aten

45. Meritaten
Appears as Great royal
Wife of Smenkhkare in
the tomb of Meryra ii

46. Meritaten
Named alongside
Ankhkheperure
Neferneferuaten on
the box found by
Carter…

47. Other daughters…
Meketaten
Died during Akhenaten’s reign

48. Other daughters…
Ankhsenpaaten
(Ankhesenamun)
Married Tutankhamun

49. Other daughters…
Neferneferuaten Tasherit
Neferneferure
Setepenre

50. Neferneferuaten Nefertiti
Ankhkheperure
Meryneferkheperure (beloved of Akhenaten)
Neferneferuaten
Merywaenre (beloved of Akhenaten)
3x-n-hi.s (effective for her husband)

51. TOMBS

52. Boundary Stela ‘B’

53. ‘Let a tomb be made for me in the eastern mountain of
Akhetaten. Let my burial be made in it, in the millions of
jubilees which the Aten, my father, has decreed for me. Let
the burial of the Great King's Wife, Nefertiti, be made in it,
in the millions of yea[rs which the Aten, my father, decreed
for her. Let the burial of] the King's Daughter, Meritaten, [be
made] in it, in these millions of years.

56. Royal Wadi, Amarna

57. The Royal Tomb (TA 26)

58. Kemp, ‘THE AMARNA ROYAL
TOMBS AT AMARNA’
Via http://amarnaproject.com/

59. TA 26A
Burial
Chamber

60. TA 26C

61. Akhenaten
died in his 17th year

62. Akhenaten
Sarcophagus
fragments
Egyptian
Museum,
Cairo

63. TA 26B, ‘Room Gamma’

64. TA 26A, ‘Burial Chamber’
After Martin, The Royal Tomb at El-‘Amarna. 2 vols.
London, Egypt Exploration Society 1974, 1989

65. TA 27:
Unfinished, single corridor, access via staircase
w central ramp as in TA 26, dimensions also the
same.
TA 28:
Smaller but finished. Entrance corridor and
three chambers, similar to TA 26B. For
princesses?
TA 29:
Four corridors cut and plastered, no other
chambers. Dimensions similar to those of
TA26C. Possibly for a lesser queen?

66. KV 55

67. KV 55

68. KV 55, gilded wooden
shrine panel

70. Amenhotep III & Queen Tiye
Egyptian Museum, Cairo

71. Tutankhkamun,
Gilded Shrine

72. KV 55, Coffin

73. KV 55, skull of mummy
After Forbes, Tombs, Treasures. Mummies. Book 3.

74. KV 55, Coffin

75. KV 55, Canopic Jars

76. KV 55,
Magical Bricks

77. Human remains:
Male, approximately 20 years old
(anatomists’ consensus)
Inscriptional evidence:
All points to Akhenaten

78. ...and
KV 35

79. KV 35, tomb of Amenhotep II and a 2nd royal
cache:
Three unwrapped mummies
L-R: Elder Lady, unknown male, Younger Lady

80. The Elder Lady

81. Nest of miniature coffins, KV 62
Carter nos. 320 and 320a

82. Miniature coffin
(Carter 320d)
Figure of the king (320c)
Locks of hair

83. The Elder Lady = Queen Tiye

84. Kemp, ‘THE AMARNA ROYAL
TOMBS AT AMARNA’
Via http://amarnaproject.com/

85. TA 26A, ‘Burial Chamber’
After Martin, The Royal Tomb at El-‘Amarna. 2 vols.
London, Egypt Exploration Society 1974, 1989

86. The Younger
Lady
…Nefertiti?

87. The Younger Lady
J. Fletcher examination suggests
That damage to the face cuts
through embalming resin –
cannot have been injuries
sustained in life, only after
mummification.
Damnatio memoriae?

88. DNA

89. DNA
KV 55 mummy was the father of Tutankhamun
The Younger Lady was his mother
Both were children of Amenhotep III and Tiye and
therefore full sister and brother* – makes it v unlikely
that the YL is Nefertiti or Kiya – neither are ‘king’s
daughter’ or ‘king’s sister’
We still DO NOT know for certain who they were!

90. Where was Neferneferuaten buried?

91. TT 139, Pairy. 18th Dyn,
reigns of Tuthmosis IV
/ Amenhotep III

92. Graffito of Year 3 in the reign of
Ankhkheperure Mery ________
Neferneferuaten Mery ________
Prayer to Amun for Pawah, a
priest in the ‘temple of
Ankhkheperure’

93. Hidden Chambers
in KV 62?
West Wall
Image ©Factum Arte

94. West Wall
Image ©Factum Arte

95. North Wall. Image ©Factum Arte

96. North Wall. Image ©Factum Arte

97. After Reeves,
‘The Burial of Nefertiti?’

99. After Reeves,
‘The Burial of Nefertiti?’

100. After Reeves,
‘The Burial of Nefertiti?’

101. After Reeves,
‘The Burial of Nefertiti?’

102. After Reeves,
‘The Burial of Nefertiti?’

103. After Reeves,
‘The Burial of Nefertiti?’

104. After Reeves,
‘The Burial of Nefertiti?’

105. KV 62, Entrance to Burial Chamber
Prior to removal of the screen wall
Image ©Griffith Institute

106. Removal of the screen wall
by Carter, 1923
Image ©Griffith Institute
Coloured by Dynamichrome

107. KV 57, Tomb of Horemheb

108. KV 57, Tomb of Horemheb

109. KV 57, tomb of Horemheb

110. After Reeves,
‘The Decorated North Wall…’

111. After Reeves, ‘The Decorated North Wall…’

113. ‘Valley of the Monkeys’
= The Western Valley / branch
of the
Valley of Kings
Location of:
KV / WV 22: Amenhotep III
KV / WV 23: Ay
KV / WV 24: unknown
KV / WV 25: unfinished,
possibly begun as the tomb of
Akhenaten prior to his move
to Amarna…

114. Western Valley Excavations

115. To be continued...

116. AFTER AKHENATEN
Nefertiti, Smenkhkare,
and where were they all buried?
Dr Chris Naunton
@chrisnaunton / #afterakhenaten
chrisnaunton.com/online-lectures/

117. EGYPT’S LOST PYRAMID
Dr Chris Naunton
@chrisnaunton
#egyptslostpyramid
NEW DATE ADDED: Weds 20 May, 5.00 pm
chrisnaunton.com/online-lectures/

118. Virtual Nile Cruise
#virtualnilecruise
@chrisnaunton

121. AFTER AKHENATEN
Nefertiti, Smenkhkare,
and where were they all buried?
Dr Chris Naunton
@chrisnaunton / #afterakhenaten
chrisnaunton.com/online-lectures/