Smenkhkare

Smenkhkare was the eleventh pharaoh of Egypt's famous 18th Dynasty. In point of fact, he may never have ruled on his own, though in the later years of Akhenaten reign, he was probably a co-regent.

Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare (sometimes spelled Smenkhare and Smenkare; meaning "Vigorous is the Soul of Ra") was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty who may have been the immediate successor of Akhenaten, and was a predecessor of Tutankhaten. One academic source states that Smenkhkare's sole rule lasted for approximately one year. Some Egyptologists suggest that this pharaoh's independent reign may have been as short as a few months. Others indicate a reign as long as eleven years.

Smenkhkare is one of the most mysterious figures in Egyptian history. Tutankhamun's reign began immediately after either Smenkhkare or Neferneferuaten's death. Some scholars have speculated that Smenkhkare, rather than Akhenaten, was the parent of Tutankhamun. If these were other names for Nefertiti, when she ruled as pharaoh, as has been suggested by some both would have been his grandparents, since she had been the royal queen of Akhenaten.

Pharaoh Identity

The identity of the Pharaoh whose praenomen is Ankhkheprure, who is usually known as Smenkhkare, is somewhat mysterious. Egyptologists once did not even agree upon the gender of the pharaoh. The traditional position was that this pharaoh was a man found buried in tomb KV55 whose gender seems to be supported by various scientific examinations of the remains found there.

The most recent studies of the late Amarna period by various Egyptologists including Aidan Dodson, James P. Allen and Erik Hornung / Rolf Krauss / David Warburton all agree that there were in fact two rulers who shared the prenomen Ankhkheprure. As the latter write:

"It is now certain that not only a man 'Ankhkheprure', but also a woman 'Ankhetkheprure' ruled between Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. The king is first known as 'Ankhkheprure' (throne name) Smenkhkare' dsr-hprw (personal name), later as 'Ankhkheprure' mrjj Neferneferkheprure' / Waenre' / and Neferneferuaton mrjj Waenre.' The two names of the queen, i.e. 'Ankhetkheprure' mrjj / Neferkheprure' / Waenre / and Nefernefruaton...are nearly the same as the king's later set of names and epithets. The funerary epithet...(beneficial for her husband) is hers alone and indicates that she succeeded her husband 'Ankhkheprure.' Her identity remains problematic; Kiya, Nefertiti, and Meritaten have been proposed. Items of her funerary equipment were adapted for Tut'ankhamun (M. Gabolde, Égypte Afrique & Orient 33, 2004, 19-26). Josephus lists three rulers named AXENXEPPSS < 'Ankh(et)kheprure', i.e. two male rulers (one of which might be due to a corruption of the text) and a female, described as a king's daughter. In its transmitted form the Manethonian tradition ascribes twelve years and some months to either of the kings named Akhenkherres. Possibly the figures reflect an original two years and some months."

The sets of names are associated with Smenkhkare is Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare, who may be identified as the Amarna Pharaoh who ruled beside Queen Meritaten, who was Akhenaten's daughter and Chief Wife, presumably after the death of her mother Nefertiti.

To date, no objects other than the wine jar label, six royal seals, a depiction of a male king Smenkhkare along with his Queen Meritaten and now a gold foil from the trough (or container) of the KV55 coffin are known. Some clearly feminine objects with the name Ankhkheprure Neferneferuaten, including a box of hers, were reused in the burial of Tutankhamun. The throne name Ankhkheperure occasionally is written in the feminine form Ankhetkheperure, with the feminine "t". This suggests that Meritaten may have been the female ruler Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten and thus the successor of her recently deceased husband, Smenkhkare.

According to James P. Allen's most recent research, king Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten was perhaps Akhenaten's co-regent, Nefertiti, in the latter's final years, but this was a woman who is distinct from the male king Ankheperure Smenkhkare. The epithet 'desired of Waenre' (ie: Akhenaten) in Neferneferuaten's nomen occasionally is replaced with the feminine term "Effective for her husband." In contrast, the male king Smenkhkare ruled Egypt for a brief period on his own since he is attested in his Year 1 on a wine label from "the House of Smenkhkare", in the tomb of Kheruef along with his queen Meritaten and by the six seals bearing his name. Allen contends that Smenkhkare was not Neferneferuaten who would then be a junior co-regent of Akhenaten before she assumed the throne on her own right.

Other scholars such as Nicholas Reeves have contended that Smenkhkare was the same person as Neferneferuaten who ruled together with Akhenaten as co-regents for the final one or two years of Akhenaten's reign. Reeves contends that Smenkhkare shares some names with Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten, and it is possible that Nefertiti was Smenkhkare, as it is not unheard of Ancient Egypt for women to become pharaoh (e.g., Hatshepsut). On several monuments, the two are shown seated side-by-side. Reeves' suggestions would give weight to the idea that all of the names in question were different titles for Meritaten, used at different times as she held different positions: Queen, co-regent, and finally, Pharaoh. Unfortunately, however, Reeves' suggestion that the KV55 royal mummy was Akhenaten is disproven by various anatomical examinations of its mummy from Rex Harrison in the 1960s to William Murnane and Bob Brier in the 1990s, the latter is a noted anatomist from Long Island University. Hence, the simplest explanation for the fact that Meritaten was associated with her father Akhenaten in several monuments and then her adoption of Smenkhkare's prenomen for her own use as she was pharaoh, presumably after her husband's death--was the fact that she wielded great power from her position as pharaoh's Eldest Daughter. Her high status at court also is emphasised by Amarna Letter 11 where Meritaten is called 'the Mistress' of the royal house. This evidence, together with her title as 'Chief Queen' under Akhenaten and then Smenkhkare, makes her the primary candidate for the female ruler known as Neferneferuaten.

We list Smenkhkare as the eleventh pharaoh of Egypt's famous 18th Dynasty, ruling from 1336 until about 1334 BC. In point of fact, he may never have ruled on his own, though in the later years of Akhenaten reign, he was probably a co-regent.

His birth name was Smenkh-ka-re (or Djeser-kheperu, meaning "Vigorous is the Soul of Re, Holy of Manifestations"). His name can also be found as Smenkhkara. His Throne name was Ankh-khepery-re, meaning "Living are the Manifestations of Re".

Smenkhkare is a study in the difficulties of Egyptology, and why the list of kings of Egypt vary from scholar to scholar. While there are many times we are able to determine the factual history of Egypt in some great detail, at other times, even in otherwise well documented eras, darkness suddenly surrounds events due to an absolute lack of good evidence.

Sometimes this evidence has simply not been discovered, but at other times, the evidence would exist, had it not been hacked away by the ancient Egyptians themselves. Such is the case with Smenkhkare.

We know very little of Smenkhkare's life, or even where he was buried, though he is entwined with the mysteries of tomb KV 55 on the West Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes). If the mummy found in that tomb was indeed Smenkhkare, then he probably died at around the age of 20 to 25.

However, because of the heresy of the Amarna kings, the cartouches and much other evidence within KV 55 were mostly destroyed. One of the factors that has led scholars to believe that the mummy is in fact Smenkhkare is a process of elimination.

At first the mummy was thought to be that of Queen Tiye, but subsequent examination of the remains indicate that instead, it is the mummy of a young man. It was also speculated that the mummy could have been non other then Akhenaten, who we think was Smenkhkare's father, but Akhenaten ruled Egypt for 17 years and it seems difficult to believe he could therefore have died at such an early age.

Hence, the plausibility that the mummy is that of Smenkhkare. Further analysis has also revealed that the mummy's blood type and that of Tutankhamun are the same, and that the skull dimensions are very similar, leading scholars to believe that not only is this Smenkhkare, but that he was indeed Tutankhamun's older brother.

He was probably either a younger brother or older son of Akhenaten, but if a son, he would not have probably been also a son of Nefertiti. We believe she had only daughters. He would have therefore probably been the son of some minor wife, perhaps even Kiya, who we also believe to be the mother of Tutankhaman.

Most Egyptologists believe that if he ruled at all after the death of Akhenaten, it would probably only have been for a few months, but there is also a strong possibility that he did not survive Akhenaten's reign.. He was succeeded by the famous Tutankhamun. He was married to Merytaten who was probably his eldest sister, the senior heiress of the royal blood line, but she seems to have died early, leaving her sister, Ankhesenpaten in this position. It was Ankhesenpaten who married a somewhat younger Tutankhamun. Smenkhkare and Merytaten are pictured in the tomb of Meryre ii at Amarna, and were once shown on a relief at Memphis.

Yet there has, over time, been a great deal of controversy on all these facts. It would seem that Smenkhkare became co-regent shortly after the death of Ankhenaten's principle wife, Nefertiti. Speculation at times have run rampant, including one theory that Nefertiti herself had actually disguised herself as a male in the custom of Hatahepsut, becoming co-regent.

Lending some credence to this is the "Co-regency Stela, a fragment of which was found in Amarna. Originally, the stele depicted three figures, identified as Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and princess Merytaten.

In later years, however, the name of Nefertiti had been excised and replaced with the name of King Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten, and the name of the princess had been replaced with that of Akhenaten and Nefertiti's third daughter, Ankhesenpaaten. It is curious that Nefertiti's figure, clearly that of a female, would be relabled with the name of a king. Second, the erasure of Merytaten's name and the usurpation by Ankhesenpaaten suggests that Merytaten died before the end of Akhenaten's reign.

There is even controversy surrounding Smenkhkare's wife, Merytaten. It has been suggested that rather then dying early, she outlived her husband and served as a nominal co-regent under the name of Ankhetkheperure, a feminization of her late husband's throne name.

However, the dominant theory today seems to place Smenkhkare as an older son of Ankhenaten, though there is almost an equal likelihood that he was Ankhenten's brother, and that he was likely made co-regent at about the age of 16. For his coronation, a huge brick hall was added to the Great Palace at Amarna, with no fewer than 544 square columns in its main room.

He most probably had differences with Ankhenaten's religious philosophies early on. The funerary equipment that he had made for a possible unfinished tomb at Amarna had almost no sign of the sun cult of Akhenaten. Yet he seems to have wavered, perhaps out of respect to his father or brother. Inscriptions on elements of his funerary equipment also show that he altered his name to Neferneferuaten, the aten indicating an acquiescence to Akhenaten's religious beliefs.

However, this is another area of confusion about Smenkhkare among scholar. We are also told by authoritative sources that Neferneferuaten was perhaps one of Nefertiti names, and thus the continued controversy surrounding the possibility that Smenkhkare was non other than Nefertiti herself. However, the name of Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten are actually never used together, suggesting that they were two different people.

Later still, we read of the existence of a "priest and scribe of divine offerings of Amun in the "House of Ankh-khepery-re" at Thebes", suggesting that he intended to not be buried at Amarna, but rather in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. This information comes from a stele dating from Smenkhkare's third year of rule, and partly states that:

Regnal year 3, third month of Inundation, day 10. The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands Ankhkheperure Beloved of Aten, the Son of Re Neferneferuaten Beloved of Waenre. Giving worship to Amun, kissing the ground to Wenennefer by the lay priest, scribe of the divine offerings of Amun in the Mansion of Ankhkheperure in Thebes, Pawah, born to Yotefseneb. He says:

"My wish is to see you, O lord of persea trees! May your throat take the north wind, that you may give satiety without eating and drunkenness without drinking. My wish is to look at you, that my heart might rejoice, O Amun, protector of the poor man: you are the father of the one who has no mother and the husband of the widow. Pleasant is the utterance of your name: it islike the taste of life . . . [etc.] "

"Come back to us, O lord of continuity. You were here before anything had come into being, and you will be here when they are gone. As you caused me to see the darkness that is yours to give, make light for me so that I can see you . . ."

"O Amun, O great lord who can be found by seeking him, may you drive off fear! Set rejoicing in people's heart(s). Joyful is the one who sees you, O Amun: he is in festival every day!"

For the Ka of the lay priest and scribe of the temple of Amun in the Mansion of Ankhkheperure, Pawah, born to Yotefseneb: "For your Ka! Spend a nice day amongst your townsmen." His brother, the outline draftsman Batchay of the Mansion of Ankhkheperure. (Murnane, 1995).

It is likely that Smenkhkare tired of the religious heresy of Akhenaten's reign, and late in his life, possibly moved to Memphis, the old secular capital of Egypt. Perhaps over time his role in ancient Egypt's history will become clearer to us, but for now, his existence is one of the great mysteries of Egypt's past.

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