Meritaten Tasherit, which means ''Meritaten the Younger'' was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty. She is likely to have been the daughter of

Meritaten Meritaten, also spelled Merytaten, Meritaton or Meryetaten ( egy, mrii.t-itn) (14th century BC), was an ancient Egyptian royal woman of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Her name means "She who is beloved of Aten"; Aten being the sun-deity whom h ...

, eldest daughter of Pharaoh

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...

. Who her father was remains a matter of debate. Many assume it to be Meritaten's father, Akhenaten, or possibly her husband

Smenkhkare Smenkhkare (alternatively romanized ''Smenkhare'', ''Smenkare,'' or ''Smenkhkara''; meaning "'Vigorous is the Soul of Re") was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of unknown background who lived and ruled during the Amarna Period of the 18th Dynasty. S ...

. Since both Meritaten Tasherit and another princess,

Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit (or Ankhesenpaaten-ta-sherit, “Ankhesenpaaten the Younger”) was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty. Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit and another princess, Meritaten Tasherit are two princesses who appear in scene ...

appear only in texts that once mentioned Akhenaten's second wife

Kiya Kiya was one of the wives of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record, in contrast to those of Akhenaten's ‘Great royal wife’, Nefertiti. Her unusual n ...

, it is also possible that they were children of Akhenaten and Kiya, or that they were fictional, replacing the name of Kiya's daughter, who might have been

Beketaten Beketaten ( egy, bꜣk.t-itn)(14th century BCE) was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty. Beketaten is considered to be the youngest daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye, thus the sister of Pharaoh Akhenate ...

, more commonly thought to be

Tiye Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the daughter of Yuya and Thuya. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. I ...

's child. Meritaten Tasherit's fate is uncertain. The mention of the god

Aten Aten also Aton, Atonu, or Itn ( egy, jtn, ''reconstructed'' ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect of ...

in her name suggests that she was indeed a daughter of Akhenaten, since his successors reverted his religious reforms, and reverted to the worship of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

's traditional gods. The name Aten was dropped from popular use during this time.

References

*Eyma, Aayko ed., ''A Delta-Man in Yebu: Occasional Volume of the Egyptologists' Electronic Forum No. 1'', Universal-Publishers.com 2003, p. 54 14th-century BC Egyptian women Princesses of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub