Meketaten ("Behold the Aten" or "Protected by Aten") was the second daughter of six born to the Egyptian
PharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
AkhenatenAkhenaten was known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV . A Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, he ruled for 17 years and died in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
and his
Great Royal WifeGreat Royal Wife or Chief King's Wife is the term used to refer to the chief wife of a male pharaoh of Ancient Egypt on the day of his coronation, as her status in the royal lineage was essential to gaining the position of pharaoh...
NefertitiNefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for changing Egypt's religion from a polytheistic religion to a henotheistic religion. They revered only one god, Aten, the sun disc...
. She was probably born in year 2 or 3 Akhenaten's reign. Although little is known about her, she is frequently depicted with her sisters accompanying her royal parents in the first two thirds of Akhenaten's seventeen year reign.
Her approximate year of birth is the 3rd or 4th regnal year of Akhenaten.
Meketaten ("Behold the Aten" or "Protected by Aten") was the second daughter of six born to the Egyptian
PharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
AkhenatenAkhenaten was known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV . A Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, he ruled for 17 years and died in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
and his
Great Royal WifeGreat Royal Wife or Chief King's Wife is the term used to refer to the chief wife of a male pharaoh of Ancient Egypt on the day of his coronation, as her status in the royal lineage was essential to gaining the position of pharaoh...
NefertitiNefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for changing Egypt's religion from a polytheistic religion to a henotheistic religion. They revered only one god, Aten, the sun disc...
. She was probably born in year 2 or 3 Akhenaten's reign. Although little is known about her, she is frequently depicted with her sisters accompanying her royal parents in the first two thirds of Akhenaten's seventeen year reign.
Her approximate year of birth is the 3rd or 4th regnal year of Akhenaten. This is based on the facts that Akhenaten's last documented year is the 17th, and Ankhesenpaaten, the third princess had already given birth to a child by that time, which means she must have been already born before Year 5, thus Meketaten cannot have been born later than the 4th.
Meketaten's first depictions were on the walls of the
Hut-benben temple dedicated to her mother Nefertiti, where she and her elder sister
MeritatenMeritaten also spelled Merytaten or Meryetaten was an ancient Egyptian queen of the eighteenth dynasty, who held the position of Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten...
appear alongside the queen. She was also depicted on
boundary stelaeThe Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten map out the boundaries of the Ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten, the capital city of Pharaoh Akhenaten.Many of the stelae are heavily eroded, but two of them have been protected and are easily visited. One is in the north of the city boundaries, by Tuna el-Gebel...
mapping out the limits of Akhenaten's new capital Akhetaten. She moved there with her family when she was still a small child.
Meketaten died in the 13th or 14th regnal year of her father. In Year 12 she was still alive, since she was depicted with her parents and sisters at the reception of foreign tributes – a ceremony that can be seen on several scenes in the private tombs of high-ranking officials such as Huya and High Priest Meryre II. The fact that on the fragments remained of her sarcophagus the cartouches of both
Amenhotep IIIAmenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
and Akhenaten can be seen, can be interpreted as an evidence for a long co-regency between the two rulers.
It is very likely that a plague swept across Egypt between Akhenaten's 12th and 15th regnal years, for many members of the royal family cease to be mentioned again; among them Queen Mother
TiyeTiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu...
, Queen
NefertitiNefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for changing Egypt's religion from a polytheistic religion to a henotheistic religion. They revered only one god, Aten, the sun disc...
, Akhenaten's secondary wife
KiyaKiya was a wife of Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record in contrast to Akhenaten's first royal wife, Nefertiti.- Name and titles :...
, Meketaten and the two youngest princesses,
NeferneferureNeferneferuré was an Ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th dynasty. She was the fifth of six known daughters of Pharaoh Akhenaten and Great Royal Wife Nefertiti.She was born in the 8th or 9th regnal year of her father in Akhetaten...
and
SetepenreSetepenrewas an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th dynasty; sixth and last daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his chief queen Nefertiti.She was born around the 9th year of her father's reign in Akhet-Aten, the new capital Akhenaten built. Her name was not a typical personal name, it was more...
. Meketaten's death could have resulted either from a plague, or – according to a widespread theory – from childbirth.
Three chambers (denoted as Chambers Alpha, Beta and Gamma) of the
Royal TombThe Royal Tomb of Akhenaten is the burial place of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, in the Royal Wadi in Amarna.-Layout:A flight of twenty steps, with a central inclined plane leads to the door and a long straight descending corridor. Halfway down this corridor a suite of unfinished rooms...
are believed to be used for the burial of Meketaten. The chambers Alpha and Gamma depict very similar scenes: in the Alpha chamber Akhenaten and Nefertiti bend over the inert body of a woman, weeping and gripping each other's arms for support. Nearby a nurse stands with a baby in her arms, accompanied by a fan-bearer, which indicates the baby's royal status. The names in the scene have been hacked out. In the Gamma chamber a very similar scene is shown; here the hieroglyphs identify the dead young woman as Meketaten. In the same chamber another scene shows Meketaten standing under a canopy which is usually associated with childbirth but can also interpreted as representing the rebirth of the princess. In front of her, amongst courtiers, stand Akhenaten,. Nefertiti and their three remaining daughters, Meritaten, Ankhesenpaaten and
Neferneferuaten TasheritNeferneferuaten Tasherit or Neferneferuaten junior was an Ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th dynasty and the fourth daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti....
. The presence of a royal baby causes many to believe the young princess died in childbirth (in this case the father is most likely to had been Akhenaten himself, marrying his daughter), but it cannot be proven. It is even possible that the Alpha chamber was the burial place of someone other than Meketaten, possibly Kiya, and the newborn baby can be Tutankhaten.