Tut’s Parents:
Dr. Zahi Hawass said in his autopsy of Tut-ankh-Amon that “Tutankhamon’s parents are brother and sister.” He believed this meant “Akhnaton & an unknown female.” This was proven with DNA analysis. On Tut’s Restoration Stele, he claims his father is “Amonhotep 3.” Zahi said “father can mean Grandfather or predecessor.” In Ancient Egypt Incest was common among royalty, to “preserve the divine bloodlines,” via intermarriage. Had Queen/Pharaoh Hatshepsut not said her “father was Amon” her descendants would not have resulted to this for royal blood. I believe Tut’s parents are Sitamon & Smenkhkare. Both are “children of Amonhotep 3.” Sitamon was an “infant sister of Amonhotep 3” whom he married for political reasons, then married the commoner Tiye and made her his “Chief Royal Wife,” indicating other marriages. Amonhotep 3 was a teenager when he married Tiye while “hunting birds.” Tiye was fresh blood not tainted yet by incest. Sitamon was also the name of his Daughter. If Amonhotep had intercourse with his mother, then Sitamon was his “sister & daughter,” born before marriage to Tiye. Male Puberty is established by age 13. If his mother waited until that age, and did so for political reasons, then this is possible. The political reason was marriage to the eldest daughter of Pharaoh was required for future kings. There was no heir until he found Tiye and married her, escaping the situation with his mother. Sitamon means “Daughter of Amon.” Nicknames existed in Ancient Egypt.
Smenkhkare was believed to be a son of Amonhotep 3. The first born may have been Thutmose 5, but he either died young or was unfit to rule. His next in line was Amonhotep 4 (later as Akhnaton). When was Amonhotep 4 born? It would be after marriage to Tiye, so maybe early adulthood or later teen? Smenkhkare was born after him, so Sitamon would have waited for him to be pubescent before marriage. Amonhotep 3 ruled about 37 years. So this would be Sitamon’s age when his heir Amonhotep 4 became King; he ruled about 16 years. If Amonhotep 3 had a “co-regency” with his son due to poor health, would his heir need a queen for legitimacy? There is evidence of an illness besetting Egypt during the later portion of Amonhotep 3’s reign, and because he commissioned numerous Sakhmet statues built to offset the epidemic (Sakhmet was venerated to treat diseases). The mummy in KV55 was in his early to mid 20s, too young for Akhnaton and about the right age for Smenkhkara. The only reason people believed the mummy in KV55 was Akhnaton was due to the damage to the coffin it was found in; coincidentally many tombs were violated during the religious revolution following Akhnaton’s death. The revolution of 2011 CE in Egypt also had numerous tomb violations and grave-robbing, so this is nothing new.
How old was Smenkhkare when Akhnaton became King? He would have been born before Akhnaton became King, 16 + 2 = 18 (2 = the years Smenkhkare ruled approximately). So say Smenkhkare was a child when this happened, then Sitamon had intercourse with him to produce Tutankhaton. Tut was 9 when he was crowned; 9-2 = 7 (age when Akhenaton died), 16-7 = 9 (year 9 of Akhnaton reign). Tut was the son of a former Queen, who was essentially dethroned when Tiye became Chief Royal Wife, and so his mother wanted to be reinstated when she married Smenkhkara while Akhnaton was still in power. Zahi Hawass said in his book (Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, p. 145) that “Sitamon was the daughter of Amonhotep 3 and Tiye, and became queen later in his reign.” Perhaps if no one was supposed to know this, the information changed, though she was the right age for his daughter after Tiye was discovered and Sitamon was “adopted.” The name Sitamon appears as both a sister and daughter name of Amohotep 3’s family. Sitamon was an option for Tut’s mother (Zahi Hawass’s book, page 173), and his father was “most likely either Amonhotep 3 or Akhnaton.” Sitamon probably died before Tut became Pharaoh.
If Sitamon and Smenkhkare (S1) are Tut’s parents, then Tut is “son [in-law] of Amonhotep 3 via political marriage to Sitamon, Nephew of Amonhotep 3 because S1 had intercourse with his sister Sitamon, and grandson of A3 because Sitamon was also his/A3’s daughter [A3’s Daughter’s son].” Smenkhkare married Sitamon for protocol to become Pharaoh, then she died during Akhnaton’s reign and Smenkhkare married Meritaton (2nd daughter of Akhnaton). Tut inherited any genetic defects of this union. Incest in Egyptian Chronology is very confusing.
The Fall of Akhnaton:
Amonhotep 4 became Pharaoh after his father died of an illness. There may have been a co-regency prior to this, then Amonhotep 4 changed his name to Akhnaton. A4 continued the self-deification idea from his father. A3 (Nebmaa(t)-ra Amonhotep 3) once prayed to himself and was answered, so his people worshiped him as a god. They did not yet know that prayer is a psychic ability, and that anything can be used to focus one’s willpower, be it statues, a story, or a person. A3 introduced Science to his son A4, as with water evaporation. A4 took this religiously. He built open-ceiling temples to the Sun, so he could watch the Sun “drink its offerings.” The Sun was called the Aton, or Orb of Light (crown on Ra’s head). A3 made the new god “Aton-Ra”; “Ra” was his nickname. When “Ra” died all that was left was “Aton”, whose Chief Prophet was A4. So A4 changed his name, and the names of his people, to “Aton-friendly names.” In trying to convert people to this new concept, A4 closed all the other temples of the Gods, to focus attention to this discovery of a “real God” of real powers, that of solar powers not the lifeless statues in the temples. This action upset the people who did not know about Science. The roots to the Rosicrucian Order lay claim to this new Science of A4.
A4 (Akhnaton) married Nefertiti, a relative of his Advisor/Vizier, Aye. He was very much in love with her, and she bore him many daughters, but no surviving sons. Her sister later married Horemhab, but did not bear sons either. Her daughters never once bore a son. Why are sons important if royalty lies with the female? It is because Sons become Kings, and female Kings were not common then.
To reflect the “family motto” A4 once had intercourse with his mother Tiye, producing a daughter Bakhtaton. This is shown in a scene from a tomb where Nefertiti is dining with Akhnaton and Tiye is shown on the right panel, apparently losing her appetite and gives her food to Bakhtaton. A4 bestowed affection onto Tiye, after her husband A3 died, in the royal court of Akhetaton (Tell Al-Amarna). Bakhtaton was Tut’s “sister” (memory suggests she was blond-haired). After Nefertiti discovers this action, she divorced A4, as a threat to her being Great Royal Wife/Queen.
When Nefertiti divorced A4, something happened. A4 bestowed affection onto Smenkhkare, as found in some murals from there. A4 gives a new name to Smenkhkare, or Nefertiti’s former name (Nefer-Neferu-Aton), to prevent people from knowing about the divorce and to make them believe he was still married to Nefertiti. A4 later married his own daughters, Merit-Aton and later, when that didn’t work, to Ankhesnpaaton (Ankhesnamon), whom he had a daughter, Ankhesenpaaton Tasheri. A4 adopted Tut as “his bodily son” and heir. He wanted Tut to carry on the work of the Monotheist Faction in Egypt.
The failure of Science taking root in Egypt and A4’s refusal to back down caused a revolution and disorder in Egypt. This caused riots there due to high unemployment, religious upheaval, and economic factors relating to grain storage at the now-closed temples. The economy of Egypt was farming, and all the resources were now directed to Akhetaton and the Temples of Aton. Tombs were plundered as a result, as were old temples. Civil unrest was popular.
Smenkhkare inherited Egypt after A4 died of some illness, or was murdered. Smenkhkare tried to build a temple of Amon, the main God prior to Aton worship. He was probably murdered too, because (memory) his tomb was violated when Tut was Pharaoh. Items from this tomb were recycled for Tutankhamon’s use in KV62.
When Tutankhaton became Pharaoh, the world was quiet for some time, expecting change. He was only 9 years of age then. His Viziers (Aye was one of them) held the peace while Tut was being educated. This period lasted some 3 years before a decision was reached. Aton had to go. To prevent his own untimely demise, Tut ordered Polytheism to be the official religion once more. Aton was still worshiped, but only in the City of Aton, which was abandoned by Tut as he moved to the northern city of Mennofer (Memphis), and later to Thebes (Waset). He changed his “Aton-friendly names” back to their original Polytheist names. And he reopened the Temples, filled them with treasures to attract the Gods back to Egypt, wrote laws, and maintained Egypt’s borders with small raids into Northern Syria and Southern Nubia (as found in the tomb of his Viceroy, Huy).
Copyright 2011 Michael J. Costa, All rights reserved.
M7, 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment