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TWO queens after Akhenaten?WHO RULED

Egyptologists have known for about fifty years that a woman ruled Egypt in the 14th century BC, between the death of Pharaoh Akhenaten and the accession to the throne of his son, the young Tutankhamun (c. 1345-1327). However, they are divided as to the identity of this mysterious queen.
Based on epigraphic and iconographic research, Pr Valérie Angenot, a specialist in ancient Egyptian art at the Université du Québec à Montréal, argues that TWO women, not one, ascended the throne of Egypt after Akhenaten's death. She presented the results of her work at the annual conference of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), held on April 12 in Alexandria (Virginia) under the title "Neferneferuaten - A Semiotic Outline".
Currently, two hypotheses are in conflict. Some (the Anglo-Saxons for short) believe that Queen Nefertiti reigned after the death of her husband Akhenaten. Others (the French) see Princess Meritaten, one of the couple's six daughters, on the throne.
Valérie Angenot, based on in-depth studies of statues and representations on stelae, believes that there would not have been one but TWO queens, who ruled together. The two queens were sisters: Meritaten, the eldest and Neferneferouaten, the youngest, both daughters of Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertititi, therefore sister of Tutankhamun who, at 4 or 5 years old, was too young to succeed his father.
Pr Angenot claims that some of the anonymous royal head sculptures attributed to Akhenaten or Nefertititi are in fact those of princesses. According to her, this is the case of a feminine head now in the Kestner Museum in Hanover (KMH), Germany, and identified until then as a "young Akhenaton" although stylistically dated to the end of his reign.
Now we have to wait for the inevitable criticism on this Egyptologically sensitive subject....


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