Nefertiti's Daughters

Akhenaten and Nefertiti with
Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten & Neferneferuaten-Tasherit
Public domain photograph

We know that Neferkheperure-Wa'enre Akhenaten and Nefertiti had 6 daughters and possibly a 7th, who could even have been a son, Tutankhamun, as shown in the table below. (I have added links to my Squidoo lenses where available.) The royal couple with six duaghters are shown on a relief dating to the 2nd month of the 12th year of Akhenaten's reign, known as the Durbar scene.

Name

Born

Died

Notes

Meritaten

1356BC

 

Smenkhare's Queen. Later Pharaoh?

Meketaten

1350BC?

1338BC?

Mother of Tutankhamun?

Ankhesenpaaten

1348BC

1323BC??

Tutankhamun's Queen

Neferneferuaten-Tasherit

1344BC

Neferneferure

1342BC

1338BC?

Setepenre

1341BC

1338-5BC??

Unknown daugher? Tutankhamun?

1339BC?

Could be a daughter of Meritaten or Meketaten

It is also worth noting that since duaghters were only reliably displayed in scenes from their 6th birthday, while it is unlikely, it is nonetheless possible that there could have been a younger child whose existence has been lost to history.

(The dates shown are the best estimates of Egyptologists and me but could be wrong by a few years. The dating method generally used is to determine in which year of Akhenateb's reign that an event occurred. However, both this determination is uncertain in many cases and the dates of Akhenaten's own reign have not been fixed so there is a double uncertainty. I am still researching these dates and will fill in gaps when I can find the details. Birth dates are easier because the order of daughters is known so dates of birth are bracketed by the next older and younger daughters; dates of death are highly uncertain as with one exception their deaths are not directly recorded and thier tombs are still missing.)

If you have any extra information or questions about this lens you can contact Kate Phizackerley, the lensmistress, using the contact form I have provided.

You can also follow Kate Phizackerley on Twitter or just follow News from the Valley of the Kings .

Kate has written many Squidoo lenses. If you are interested in reading more of them, please visit this lens where they are all listed by subject and category eg Ancient Egypt, Book Reviews etc..

And if you would like to know more about Kate then please visit her personal lens on Squidoo or Kate's main personal hub and web site.

And finally, I'd like to thank a few developers whose icons I feature on my lenses: Dry Icons for the Portfolio icon; Gopal Raju for the Twitter Bird; Icons-Land for Sweet Angel; Maja Benic for the Contact & Home icons.