Neferneferuaten / Smenkhkare

The mysterious successors

The final years of Akhenaten's reign are heavily clouded in mystery, largely because later pharaohs systematically destroyed the records of the Amarna period. It appears Akhenaten briefly ruled with a co-regent named Smenkhkare, who was married to his daughter Meritaten. Smenkhkare died within a year.

A female pharaoh in disguise

Following Smenkhkare's death, a ruler named Neferneferuaten took the throne as co-regent. Because Queen Nefertiti had previously adopted "Neferneferuaten" as part of her royal title, many historians strongly suspect that this pharaoh was actually Nefertiti ruling in her own right. Others theorize it may have been her daughter Meritaten. The exact identities and sequence of these brief reigns remain heavily debated.

A shared throne name and wine-docket evidence

Adding to the confusion, both rulers used the identical throne name Ankhkheperure, distinguished only by different epithets attached to it. Egyptologist Aidan Dodson has argued that dated wine dockets from Amarna help establish their sequence: one reads "Year 1, wine of the house of Smenkhkare," while another refers to "the House of Smenkhkare (deceased)," implying his reign and death fell early. Undated dockets citing regnal Years 2 and 3, using a dating formula that differs from Akhenaten's own, are instead attributed to Neferneferuaten. Because these Year 3 dockets appear to predate the Year 1 reference to Smenkhkare, some scholars conclude that Neferneferuaten reigned first and Smenkhkare succeeded her, reversing the order long assumed in older scholarship. Others, notably Marc Gabolde, propose that Neferneferuaten was in fact Meritaten, Akhenaten's eldest daughter, ruling under a modified version of her mother's throne name. No consensus has been reached, and the fragmentary evidence may never allow a firm conclusion.