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| I propose that Year 3 of "Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten" would have been Tutankhamun's Year 3, as well, using the same kind of double-reckoning as was the case with Hatshepsut and Thutmose III who, it must be recalled, was king of Egypt the entire time that Hatshepsut reigned, even though she usurped his prerogative. While it is difficult to say exactly how old Tutankhamun was in his Year 3, it is fairly certain that this is about the time when he left the Amarna court for good. With him came the royal lady who was to be his only attested wife until his death, later on styled "Ankhesenamun". In the scenes where Tutankhamun is portrayed with his queen on his funerary equipment, they appear to be contemporaries, but Ankhesenamun was almost certainly her husband's senior. In fact, she may have been older than the king by up to a decade and was married to him either because she was the only survivor among his sisters or was by now the "senior" Amarna princess. Anyone who has ever enjoyed George Bernard Shaw's play, "Caesar and Cleopatra", will recall Cleopatra referring to her young brother/husband as "that little thing" and will not doubt that such an incongruous match was as possible in the New Kingdom as in the days of the Ptolemies. Ankhesenamun seems to have been born around Year 4 of the reign of Akhenaten. There is even a chance she had given birth to a daughter of her own at some point, fathered by Akhenaten, himself. This is suggested by the name of a little girl called "Ankhesenpaaten Junior", mentioned in incomplete inscriptions on blocks at Hermopolis and Karnak. At any rate, if Ankhesenamun was her mother, Tutankhamun was unlikely to have been the father. Regardless, Ankhesenamun, by Year 3 of the joint reign, was an adult woman by the standards of her culture, who might have been cajoled by her pre-pubescent husband into playing the sort of games that amused him but which did nothing to insure the all-important succession. Since the original names in the cartouches on Tut's golden throne contained those mentioning the Aten and this chair obviously was not made when Tut was still a small child but at least 10, this indicates that the royal pair was still loyal to the Aten even after they moved to Memphis. Tutankhamun may wear the atef crown on the scene of the throne, but it is evident from his pose that he is not yet fully grown. Also, we also know there was a temple of Amun functioning in Year 3 of "Neferneferuaten". [28] So what can we conclude? Perhaps there really was a conciliatory mood in Egypt now and, although the disc was still worshipped, other gods would be tolerated again, as well. Here are the conditions described in the "Restoration Stela" of Tutankhamun: CONTINUE |