Nefertiti's Daughters & Tutankhamun’s Sisters (FULL DOCUMENTARY)

Nefertiti, the iconic female face of ancient Egypt, living 3,500 years ago during an upheaval of ancient life, caused in part by her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten. The identity of this woman has been cloaked in mystery since her rediscovery in the ruins of the city that she and her husband founded, Akhetaten, now called Armana. Nefertiti is now believed to have been a fully-fledged pharaoh, king to the throne, after the uncertain death of Akhenaten. Yet, she was more than a queen, more than a ruler. Nefertiti was a mother. We know of six children born between Akhenaten and Nefertiti. It was these children that caused much controversy between Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and a secondary wife, Kia. Kia gave birth to the only male heir, now the world's most famous Tutankhamun. Nefertiti, on the other hand, had a string of female children. But who were these daughters of Nefertiti, and why do we not hear more about them? Where are their tombs and their treasures? Why did they die young? Marry their father and brother? And what can we learn about their lives under their sheltered upbringing in the palaces of Akhetaten, closed off from the rest of the world? Did they agree with their parents' new religion? In 1912, German archaeologists were excavating at the desolate city of Amarna, where they discovered many intriguing objects from Nefertiti's life, stylized yet lifelike images of the queen, pharaoh, children, and other royal family members, most notably the bust of Nefertiti. Because the times were different in the early 1900s, many of these artifacts found at Amarna have been removed from Egypt and scattered far and wide across the world. I've come here to the Neues Museum in Berlin, where they have the biggest collection of Amarna art in the world. And I'm finally going to come face to face with the children of Nefertiti to find out who they really were. These are the daughters of Nefertiti and the sisters of Tutankhamun. Around 1352 BC, Amenhotep III was ruling Egypt. Though at quite an extended age, he probably had a co-regent, a formidable woman who had assisted Amenhotep III for many decades. In fact, many foreigners preferred to converse with this queen rather than the pharaoh. It was in one of these foreign letters from a king of the Hittites that he congratulated the queen on the birth of her grandchild, Merit Aten. This grandmother and queen was none other than Queen Tiye. Amenhotep and Tiye had several children, including a young prince, the future pharaoh Akhenaten. They lived in Thebes on the west bank in an opulent palace called Melkata. The son of Tiye and Amenhotep III was named Amenhotep IV. However, shortly after his father's death, he changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten. Amenhotep IV had married a young girl from a noble family, Nefertiti. Ancient textual evidence possibly names her father as a courtier of Amenhotep III and the brother of Queen Tiye. His name was Ai. Toward the end of Amenhotep III's life, Akhenaten and Nefertiti had their first child together. They named her Merit Aten. Her name means the one who makes the sun god Aten happy. By naming their daughter this, it was a foreshadowing of what religious changes were afoot. Merit Aten would have known her grandfather Amenhotep III before he died, as she is shown at Karnak Temple with Nefertiti. Merit Aten's father Amenhotep IV became pharaoh when her grandfather died. They only continued to live in Thebes for the next four years. Her father began to show less interest in the plethora of Egyptian gods, in particular Amun, to whom Karnak Temple was home. Her father showed more favor in one god only, named Aten. The life-giving sun disc. He founded a new capital miles north of Thebes and named it Akhetaten, meaning the horizon of the Aten. He even went as far as to remove his previous name, which mentioned the god Amun, and changed it to Akhenaten, meaning the servant of Aten. It would be in this new city that Merit Aten was given her highest ranking positions. According to many, a northern palace at Akhetaten was built for a secondary wife of Akhenaten, whose name was later replaced with the name of Merit Aten. Merit Aten is depicted many times in the new city where she is venerating the god Aten, along with her father Akhenaten and mother Nefertiti. A very close relationship is visible between Merit Aten and Akhenaten during her younger years. On one scene Akhenaten is shown gifting a golden earring to Merit Aten. It is known that Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six children together and only daughters. The secondary wife of Akhenaten, Kia, gave birth to the male heir Tutank Amun, then called Tutank Aten. This would have caused some friction between Nefertiti and Kia. Very soon after the birth of Did she die of a plague that tormented the new city, or was she removed by Nefertiti? Some believe that Merit Aten, the half-sister of Tut, became his adoptive mother and raised him in the northern palace, which was formerly inhabited by Kia. Although the wet nurse of Tut was named Maya, some believe that Maya and Merit Aten are one and the same. But this theory holds little factual evidence, even though many artefacts belonging to Merit Aten were found in the tomb of Tutank Amun, from a clothing chest to musical clappers containing the names of Merit Aten and their grandmother, Queen Ti. Life in Akhenaten's new city was not the utopia that he had dreamed of. Plague swept through the town, foreign allies turned their backs, and the population were not as welcoming of the idea of only one main god as he had hoped. The final years of Amarna were very muddy, and much is still unknown. Nefertiti had become a co-regent with Akhenaten, but she appears to disappear in her older age. Perhaps she changed her name to the royal name of Nefernuaten. Out of the blue, a new co-regent arrives on the scene, around this time, named Smenkhara. Some even go as far as to suggest a bisexual relationship between Akhenaten and Smenkhara. Smenkhara became a short-lived pharaoh when Akhenaten died. High in the hills of Amarna, at the nobles' tombs, in one tomb of Merira, Smenkhara is shown giving tribute to Merira, along with Merit Aten. In this tomb, we have a clear sign showing that Merit Aten became great royal wife of Smenkhara. It is even possible that before things began to fall apart, that there were four rulers of Egypt at the same time. Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Smenkhara, and Merit Aten. It is possible that she had given birth to two children, one sharing the same name as her mother, Merit Aten. A tomb for Merit Aten has never been found. A boundary stealer of her father mentions that she shall be laid to rest in the family tomb in the eastern mountains, but no sign of Merit Aten being buried there was ever found. We have no idea what the final fate of Merit Aten was. A new female ruler appears, and the two former rulers, Smenkhara and Merit Aten, disappear. Did they die from the plague that ravaged the city? Were they killed to make way for the abandonment of Amarna and a new young pharaoh who became Tutankhamun? Did they give up the throne and move back to Thebes with the entire population of Amarna? Or were they simply expelled and left in shame? One may never know. The second daughter of Nefertiti is named Mekhet Aten, meaning protected by the Aten. Unsurprisingly, very little is known about Mekhet Aten. She first appears in Thebes at Karnak in a temple built by her father Akhenaten, just three years before the family moved to the new capital city. She is then mentioned in year four and five of Akhenaten on a boundary stele of Amarna. Therefore, we can deduce that she was around seven years old at this time. This royal family are extremely close and scenes show them in loving moments. Mekhet Aten appears on the lap of Nefertiti in one scene, holding hands with her mother, while two of her other sisters also join in. Whereas Mekhet Aten seems close with Nefertiti, her elder sister Merit Aten appears closer with Akhenaten on the same scene. In the tomb of her grandfather from Nefertiti's side, Ai, she is shown holding a tray of offerings towards Ai. When she was around 15 years old, she appears again in several Amarnan tombs, including the tomb of Hoi and Meri Ra. It is suggested that she married her father Akhenaten and became pregnant, but things seemed to end here for Mekhet Aten. She died in year 14 of Akhenaten's reign, which means she was around 17 years old. She was buried in a royal tomb at Amarna. Unlike the old view on death and rebirth in the next life, where you needed to appease several gods, Akhenaten believed you simply arrived in heaven and rose like the Aten's son from your devotion in this life. In the tomb of Mekhet Aten, the sad reality of her death comes to light. Her entire family is shown grieving for her. In a moment of extreme sadness, she is shown deceased under a canopy. The significance of her under the canopy is heartbreaking. The canopy at this time symbolized childbirth. What we understand from this scene is that she tragically died during childbirth, a time that was most feared by many Egyptians. Although the tomb is very badly damaged, another scene shows Akhenaten and Nefertiti looking over the dead daughter while Akhenaten holds Nefertiti by the arm. Outside of the room, we can see a woman holding a newborn child being covered with a royal fan. Many believe that this is the child that Mekhet Aten gave birth to. Very few objects from Mekhet Aten remain, yet one scribal palette can be marveled at showing the name of Nefertiti and her daughter, Mekhet Aten. A princess, a queen, a woman of the utmost terrible circumstances. The middle child of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. She is believed to have been born in Thebes very shortly before the royal family moved to the new city of Akhetaten, now Omana. She was given the birth name of Ankesen Pa Aten, which she later changed to Ankesen Amun when she veered away from her father's religion. In her early life, along with her two elder sisters, she became one of the principal priestesses of the Aten and is often shown along with her two sisters. Akhenaten made it that the public had to worship the family and in turn the royals and mainly the pharaoh would pass on your prayers to the god Aten. It is suggested that she was married to her own father, a practice at the time which was not unusual. She may have even given birth to an inbred child sharing the same name as herself. Yet the child died from the plague that wiped out half of the population of Omana. When her father died during the short period of rule under Smenkhara and Nefernuaten, Ankesen Pa Aten was married to her slightly younger brother Tutank Aten, again not strange practice at the time, as they believed that inbreeding would keep the family lines stronger as well as the religious aspect where the Omanan royals were divine in their own way. They could not marry out of the divine lineage. Ankesen Pa Aten and Tutank Aten appeared to be very close. They are seemingly trained to be rulers by Nefertiti herself if the theory is true that Nefertiti lived on past Ankenaten. They are also cared for by Nefertiti's father, Ai. After a few short years, Tutank Aten was crowned as pharaoh when he was nine years old and Ankesen Pa Aten was made the great royal wife, also known as queen. Only two years into his rule Tutank Aten and Ankesen Pa Aten abandoned their father's city and moved back to Thebes and reinstated Amun as the chief god of Egypt. To affirm that they were distanced from Aten now, they changed the epithets of their names mentioning Aten to now mention Amun, becoming The close brother and sister were then stamping their mark in Thebes, being shown on statues and reliefs together in the two main temples of Thebes, Luxor Temple and Karnak. Ankesen Amun is often shown in loving scenes with her brother, some engraved in gold where she is seen hunting geese with Tutank Amun, others where he pours out wine for his sister queen. There is a loving scene on a wooden chest which is aptly known as their wedding scene. A young Tutank Amun and Ankesen Amun are seen presenting each other with the lotus in a lush garden. Yet the most famous of all of these scenes of the couple is on the throne of Tut where Ankesen Amun is leaning forward rubbing oils from a bowl onto her brother-husband. We know that the couple tried to conceive an heir at least twice, yet these children suffered the same fate as her first child. Two mummified children from Tut and Ankesen Amun were found in Tut's tomb. Tutank Amun died around the age of 19 after a nine-year reign. Having no children, this left Ankesen Amun in a predicament. Her grandfather I, Mefertiti's father, wanted to become the next pharaoh, yet we have evidence that Ankesen Amun did not want this. Here at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin they have some really amazing examples of trade relations between Hittites and Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians had very good trade routes to the north including people of the Hittites, Amuru and Assyria and they used to send letters between each other in the international communication language which was written in cuneiform, sort of looks like little bird scratchings. And one of the most famous letters is that of Queen Nefertari that she used to send letters to the Queen Pudahipa up in the north and they had a very good rapport between themselves. But before Nefertari of Ramses II, Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye used to send letters up there. Queen Tiye was actually very instrumental in causing a good relationship between the two countries. However as we go on from Tell el-Armana we have letters from Nefertiti and Akhenaten to the Hittites in the north and this is where we see things start to crumble. During the time of Tutankhamun he had very good trade relations at that time with the Hittites to the north, so much so that even Ankehsenamun wrote to the Hittites when Tut died and asked for one of their sons to be sent because she did not want to marry Ai, her possible grandfather who was an old man. And some artifacts have been found, not in Egypt, out of Egypt showing Tut and Ankehsenamun and on the other side the Assyrian lion goddess who is connected to Sekhmet. Shortly after her husband died and before Ai became king she wrote a letter to the Hittites stating that she did not wish to marry the courtier and that the king of the Hittites should send one of his many sons for her to marry and he shall become the pharaoh. Unfortunately it appears that Ai was aware of this and once the Hittite prince arrived in Egypt he was executed. Ankehsenamun married Ai whose first wife was dead already. A small ring showing the joint names of Ai and Ankehsenamun remains to tell this tale. Although Ai was in his late 70s and only ruled for a short time, during this short time the then 20-something year old Ankehsenamun disappears from all records. Her fate is not known. The tomb of Ai in Thebes is thought to be the original burial place of Tut. However Ai swapped the tombs claiming the larger for himself. The decorations are very similar and a scene in the tomb could be a final image of Ankehsenamun. Ai was an old man yet on the wall there is a young man with the bodily features of Tutankhamun and next to him is his great royal wife wearing the feathers of Amun. This scene would appear to be Tut and Ankehsenamun yet their faces and names have been hacked out. This scene of the couple showing them hunting geese a symbolic image that was repeated several times by Tutankhamun and the unfortunate Ankehsenamun. Nefertiti's fourth daughter shares the same name as her mother. She is known as Nefernuaten Tasherit or the beauty of the Aten the younger. Nefernuaten Tasherit is thought to have been born around year nine of Akhenaten's rule. She does not appear in many scenes with the family apart from one where she is shown as a young toddler sitting on a pillow playing with her younger baby sister. The entire Amanan family are shown on this fresco from the main palace. However the only surviving intact scene is that of Nefernuaten Tasherit. Since the other's feet are still visible on the fresco artists have been able to reconstruct the scene to allow us to imagine how it initially looked. She does however make two brief appearances as a young princess in a noble's tomb at Amarna where she is shown with her other sisters. She does not appear to have a high role in the family when it came to official duties which is why she could possibly have only been shown in nobles tombs. Nefernuaten Tasherit was present at the death of her older sister Mekhetaten as she is included in the lineup of princesses mourning their sister's passing. This scene took place before the next two younger sisters were born as they are not present on the scene. Many are uncertain of the ultimate fate of this princess. She may have been the Amanan princess shown on several scenes without titles as many believe she died before Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun took the throne. Neferure is either the possible twin sister of Nefernuaten Tasherit or she may have been born very soon after Nefernuaten Tasherit. The thought behind them being twins is that they are both shown at what looks to be the same age on a palace fresco. Both princesses are shown bold with their defined eyeliner as well as being adorned in fine blue lapis and gold jewelry. Nefernuaten Tasherit on the right looking back at her sister holding her under the chin a loving image of Neferure and her sister. Neferure does not appear on many scenes with the royals. In the tomb of Mary Ra she is shown with her sisters giving offerings to the overseer. Neferure is depicted holding a baby gazelle and a single lotus flower while she still has her side lock the sign of royal youth. The plague that swept through Amarna took many victims including the other royals. One of the youngest victims to have befallen this fate was Neferure. The scene showing the death of Mekhetaten has the royal princesses present all except one Neferure. It is likely that she is not shown in because she like her elder sister had died. We have a small rose quartzite statue of Akhenaten but this is the artist's draft. He's drawn onto the stone what he wants to create. This is unfinished and this is great because it allows us to get an insight into how Akhenaten's artists created their art. Towards the end of the Amarna period much of the art was left unfinished like these two draft statues of two young Amarnan princesses. One clutching at a cistrum and a lotus. These two statues lead us closer to the idea that Nefernuaten Tacherit and Neferure were twins. The final glimmer of the life of the young princess was found in the tomb of her half-brother Tutankhamun. Among the thousands of pieces discovered was a very small wooden box showing Tut's sister Neferure seated as a young child with her finger pressed to her mouth. A traditional pose for infants in the art of the Egyptians. Setapendra, the youngest and the last daughter of Nefertiti whose name translates to chosen of the sun god Ra. Oddly her name deviates from Aten slightly yet still mentioning a solar deity. Could this have been a precursor to the dramatic reshift of religion and power in the country in the years to come? She was the last born child to Akhenaten Nefertiti who appeared to have been trying to conceive a male heir. Born in year 11 of Akhenaten's rule Setapendra makes her final appearance while receiving foreign tributes with her parents and her sisters. She is the very last daughter shown on a carving in the tomb of Merira. This princess tragically died at the age of six before the death of Mekhetaten as she appears nowhere on these key family moments. There are hundreds of statues, inlays and ostraca showing the princesses of the Aten and many of these show a very young princess. Could this be the local artist's attempt for the short-lived princess Setapendra? A final recognition in mourning. We may never know as so many of these pieces were damaged when the city was abandoned and remain unidentifiable. When we look at the busts and our trauma we of course notice how strangely these people are depicted. That was Akhenaten's own art style but let us look beyond that and look at the faces of these young princesses though we may not know who is being depicted all the time. Let us remember the human side of these young women. Nefertiti is remembered through the image of her beauty but like so many who wish to be remembered through their children the outcome would have been the latter for one of the most mysterious and memorable queens to have ever walked on the sands of Egypt. After seeing the Amarna heads close up for myself I feel like I've discovered Nefertiti's family. We might not know a lot about them and there might still be so much mystery but to me I hope that I've brought them back to life for you.