Neferneferuaten Tasherit or Neferneferuaten the younger (14th century BCE) was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty and the fourth daughter of

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

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 ...

and his Great Royal Wife

Nefertiti Neferneferuaten Nefertiti () ( – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a radical change in national religious policy, in whic ...

Family

Neferneferuaten was born between ca. year 8 and 9 of her father's reign. She was the fourth of six known daughters of the royal couple. It is likely that she was born in Akhetaten, the capital founded by her father. Her name ''Neferneferuaten'' ("Beauty of the Beauties of Aten" or "Most Beautiful One of Aten") is the exact copy of the name Nefertiti took in the 5th regnal year. ("Ta-sherit" simply means "the younger").Tyldesley, Joyce. Nefertiti: Egypt's Sun Queen. Penguin. 1998. She had three older sisters named

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 ...

Meketaten Meketaten ("Behold the Aten" or "Protected by Aten") was the second daughter of six born to the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. She likely lived between Year 4 and Year 14 of Akhenaten's reign. Although little is known ...

, and

Ankhesenpaaten Ankhesenamun (, "Her Life Is of Amun"; c. 1348 or c. 1342 – after 1322 BC) was a queen who lived during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt as the pharaoh Akhenaten's daughter and subsequently became the Great Royal Wife of pharaoh Tutankhamun. Born Ank ...

(later known as Ankhesenamun), and two younger sisters named

Neferneferure Neferneferure ( egy, nfr-nfr.w-rꜥ "beautiful are the beauties of Re") (14th century BCE) was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty. She was the fifth of six known daughters of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. ...

and

Setepenre Setepenre is an often-used title of Egyptian kings (pharaohs), meaning "Elect of Re". It was also used as a personal name in at least two instances. Pronunciation In Akkadian records, the name (referring to Ramesses II) is rendered in cuneiform s ...

.Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004.

Life

One of the earliest depictions of Neferneferuaten Tasherit is on a mural from the King’s House in Amarna. She is depicted sitting on a pillow with her sister

. The fresco is dated to ca. year 9 of

, and the entire family is depicted, including the baby

. Neferneferuaten Tasherit is depicted in several tombs in Amarna and appears on monuments. A statue base originally from Amarna, but later moved to Heliopolis, mentions the

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 ...

and

, while in texts in a lower register the royal daughters

and Neferneferuaten Tasherit are mentioned. In the tomb of Huya, the chief Steward of Neferneferuaten's grandmother Queen

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 ...

, Neferneferuaten is shown in a family scene on a lintel on the north wall. The extended scene shows Akhenaten and Nefertiti on the left with their four eldest daughters, while on the right hand side

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...

, Queen

and princess

Baketaten 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 ...

are shown. In the reward scene in the tomb of Meryre II, Neferneferuaten Tasherit is shown with four of her sisters (only Setepenre in absent). She is depicted at the Durbar in year 12 in the tomb of the Overseer of the royal quarters Meryre II in Amarna. Akhenaten and Nefertiti are shown seated in a kiosk, receiving tribute from foreign lands. The daughters of the royal couple are shown standing behind their parents. Neferneferuaten is the first daughter in the lower register. She is holding an object which is too damaged to identify. Her sisters

and

are standing behind her. Neferneferure is shown holding a pet gazelle and Setepenre is shown reaching over to pet the animal.Murnane, William J., Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt, Society of Biblical Literature, 1995 Neferneferuaten also appears in the award scene of Panehesy. She is shown standing in the building near the window of appearance as her parents,

and

, bestow honors upon the first servant of the

named Panehesy. In another scene in this tomb Neferneferuaten and her three older sisters all accompany their parents who are shown offering flowers to the

. The four royal daughters are all shown holding bouquets of flowers. Neferneferuaten Tasherit is shown with her sisters

and

mourning the death of

in ca. year 14 in the Royal Tomb in

Amarna Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Ph ...

. Her younger sisters

and

are not present in this scene.Dodson, Aidan, Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation. The American University in Cairo Press. 2009, Dibujo de tumba

Final years and death

It is unknown what became of Neferneferuaten Tasherit, but it has been suggested she died before

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

and Ankhesenpaaten came to the throne. It is possible she was one of the persons buried in chamber

\alpha

in the Royal Tomb in

. It has been suggested that she might be identified as Akhenaten's co-regent, J.P. Allen,
The Amarna Succession
', in Causing His Name to Live: Studies in Egyptian Epigraphy and History in Memory of William J. Murnane, ed. P. Brand and L. Cooper, Culture and history of the Ancient Near East 37. Leiden: Brill, 2009 p. 14. whose exact identity is still disputed, but who could have been a woman. Other women who have been suggested as candidates for the identity of this female ruler are Queen

(her mother) and her older sister

References

{{Amarna Period Navigator Princesses of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt 14th-century BC Egyptian women Children of Akhenaten Nefertiti