Did Ankhesenpaaten Kill King Tut?
Did Ankhesenpaaten Kill King Tut? -
Investigating the possible Murder of Tutankhamun
Background information - In 1968 and
1978 X-ray examinations of the mummy of Tutankhamun
revealed that the mummy
of King Tut had a mysterious dense spot on the lower back of the
skull. This lead to speculation that the young King
Tut had been killed, or murdered, by a blow on his head. But did
Ankhesenpaaten Kill King Tut?
Did Ankhesenpaaten Kill King Tut? -
The Suspect Ankhesenpaaten
Ankhesenpaaten, the wife of King Tut
has been put forward as a prime suspect in the possible murder of King
Tut. But who was Ankhesenpaaten and what relationship did she have with
the Pharaoh Tutankhamun?
-
Her Position:
Ankhesenpaaten was the
chief wife and consort of Tutankhamun
-
Her Father: Ankhesenpaaten was
the daughter of
the pharaoh
Akhenaten
-
Akhenaten was also the
father of King Tut, so their marriage was incestuous
-
Her Mother
was the ambitious Nefertiti the chief wife of Akhenaten. King Tut's
mother was Kiya
-
The parents of Tutankhamun
and Ankhesenpaaten initiated a highly unpopular religious revolution
which changed Ancient Egypt from a polytheistic religion, with many
gods, to monotheism (the worship of one god)
-
After his death
Ankhesenpaaten was forced to
marry the Pharaoh Ay, who was also her grandfather (Ay was the father of
Nefertiti). She even tried to avoid this by trying to arrange a marriage
with a Hittite prince. The Hittites were the arch enemies of the
Egyptians and this act would have been viewed as totally treacherous
-
Another Mysterious death:
Ankhesenpaaten died mysteriously
shortly after the death of King Tut sometime during the brief rule of Ay, between 1325 BC
and 1321 BC
Did Ankhesenpaaten Kill King Tut? -
Did Ankhesenpaaten have the Opportunity?
As his wife Ankhesenpaaten would
have had easy access to Tutankhamun. They would have naturally also had
time alone together. Ankhesenpaaten would have had the opportunity to
kill King Tut, had she wanted.
Did Ankhesenpaaten Kill King Tut? -
Did Ankhesenpaaten have a Motive?
The images of Tutankhamun and King
Tut depict a happy couple. But were these scenes of domestic bliss
accurate? Their marriage failed to produce any live, healthy heirs - did
Ankhesenpaaten blame her husband for this? King Tut was her half-brother
and three years younger, did she resent the marriage which she was
pushed into by her ambitious mother Nefertiti? Ankhesenpaaten would have
been strongly influenced by her parents Akhenaten and Nefertiti and
their belief in the new religion which worshipped the sole god Aten. Did
she think that Tutankhamun was weak when pressure pushed him into making
compromises regarding the new religion and moving back to the old
religion and worshipping all the old gods, the chief of which was the
god Amun? During this period even their names were changed from Tutankhaten to
Tutankhamun and Ankhesenpaaten to Ankhesenamun.
A year after changing their names Tutankhamun, Ankhesenpaaten and the royal
court, moved
from their home in Amarna back to the old capital at Thebes, the center of worship of Amun and the power base of the Amun priests.
We know that Ankhesenpaaten was head strong and as the daughter and wife
of a pharaoh used to getting her own way. Did resentment build up in
Ankhesenpaaten to such an extent that she would kill Tutankhamun? It
looks as if Ankhesenpaaten did have motives for killing King Tut, her
husband.
Did Ankhesenpaaten Kill King Tut?
Each section of this website addresses all topics and
provides interesting facts and information about the Golden Age of
Pharaohs and of Egypt and the mysterious death of King Tut. The Sitemap provides full details
of all of the information and facts provided about the fascinating subject
of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
|
