Ankhesenamun

Hittite letters

A document was found in the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusa dating back to the Amarna period. The document—part of the so-called Deeds of Suppiluliuma I—relates that Hittite ruler, Suppiluliuma I, while laying siege to Karkemish, received a letter from the Egyptian queen. The letter reads:

My husband has died and I have no son. They say about you that you have many sons. You might give me one of your sons to become my husband. I would not wish to take one of my subjects as a husband... I am afraid.

This document is considered extraordinary, as Egyptians traditionally considered foreigners to be inferior. Suppiluliuma I was amazed and exclaimed to his courtiers:

Nothing like this has happened to me in my entire life!

Suppiluliuma sent an envoy to investigate and eventually did send one of his sons, Zannanza, but the prince died en route, perhaps being murdered.

The identity of the queen who wrote the letter is uncertain. In the Hittite annals, she is called Dakhamunzu, a transliteration of the Egyptian title, Tahemetnesu (The King's Wife). Possible candidates for the author of the letter are Nefertiti, Meritaten, That would make the subject deceased Egyptian king appear to be Akhenaten rather than Tutankhamun. As noted, Akhenaten had potential heirs, including Tutankhamun, to whom Nefertiti could be married. Other researchers focus upon the phrase regarding marriage to 'one of my subjects' (translated by some as 'servants') as possibly a reference to the Grand Vizier Ay or a secondary member of the Egyptian royal family line, however, and that Ankhesenamun may have been being pressured by Ay to marry him and legitimize his claim to the throne of Egypt (which she eventually did).

Mummy KV21A

DNA testing announced in February 2010 has generated speculation that Ankhesenamun is one of two 18th Dynasty queens recovered from KV21 in the Valley of the Kings.

The two newborns found buried with Tutankhamun have been proven to be his children, and the current theory is that Ankhesenamun, his only known wife, is their mother. However, not enough data was obtained to make more than a tentative identification. Nevertheless, the KV21a mummy has DNA consistent with the 18th Dynasty royal line. According Juan Belmonte the most likely explenation is that KV55 mummy does not belong to Akhenaten but to Smenkhkare, or alternatively, Tutankhamun fathered his daughters by a different woman than Ankhesenamun. It was also proposed that KV55 body is Akhenaten and KV21a is Ankhesenamun, but Akhenaten was not her biological father as result of Nefertiti's extramarital affair, which Belmonte notes as "historical speculation, possible but improbable".

KV63 After excavating the tomb KV63, it is speculated that it was designed for Ankhesenamun due to its proximity to the tomb of Tutankhamun, KV62. Also found in the tomb were coffins (one with an imprint of a woman on it), women's clothing, jewelry, and natron. Fragments of pottery bearing the partial name Paaten were also in the tomb. The only royal person known to bear this name was Ankhesenamun, whose name was originally Ankhesenpaaten. However, no mummies were found in KV63.

Damnatio memoriae Ankhesenamun is believed to have married king Ay, Tutankhamun's successor after her husband's unexpected death. However, Ay and his army chief, Horemheb became political rivals at court during Ay's reign. Ay attempted to sideline Horemheb from the royal succession by naming General Nakhtmin as the "King Son". As Nozomu Kawai writes: "This title is undoubtedly superior to Horemheb’s status. Therefore, King Ay intended to relegate Horemheb to a less important position and replace him with Nakhtmin to carry out his functions. We do not know exactly when Nakhtmin was promoted, but this must have created Horemheb’s strong hostility against King Ay."

When Horemheb instead came to power as Ay's successor and became the final king of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, he carried out a damnatio memoriae campaign against his rival Ay by usurping Ay's mortuary temple, desecrating Ay's WV23 royal tomb and erased as many inscriptions and depictions of Ay as possible in revenge. Ay's royal sarcophagus in his tomb was smashed into numerous fragments. However, Ankhesenamun also fell victim to Horemheb's anger at Ay's actions. As Nozomu Kawai writes: "At the same time, Ankhesenamun became the target of a damnatio memoriae by Horemheb. The evidence indicates that she was persecuted severely. On the lunette of the Restoration Stela of Tutankhamun, which was usurped by Horemheb, her figures were completely erased and replaced by an inscription instead of changing her image to that of his [ie. Horemheb's] wife, Queen Mutnodjmet. An inlaid stela of Tutankhamun at Karnak shows a large, sharp, rectangular cavity containing some perforations behind the king who presents offering to Amun and Mut. The presence of the perforations indicates that there was a figure behind him. Since the figure of the queen is regularly behind the king, it is probable that the figure of Ankhesenamun was deliberately removed by Horemheb. These extreme acts of damnatio memoriae against Ankhesenamun were probably due to some historical events that rankled Horemheb."

Horemheb, therefore, attempted to erase all memory of Ay, Ay's allies and Ankhesenamun when he became pharaoh.

Popular culture

Ankhesenamun's name has entered popular culture as the secret love of the priest Imhotep in the 1932 film The Mummy. The 1999 remake, its sequel and its spin-off television series used the name Anck-su-namun, while other movies like The Mummy's Hand (1940) and the 1959 remake of the Universal film series named the character Ananka.

Ankhsenpaaten/Ankhsenamun is the heroine protagonist of the novel The Lost Queen of Egypt written by Lucille Morrison in 1937 detailing a fictionalized version of the princess' life before and after marriage to Tutankhamen.

Ankhesenamun is the protagonist of the 1988 French novel La Reine Soleil by Christian Jacq, as well as its 2007 animated adaptation.

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Ancestry and family