Smenkhkhare, the Hittite Pharaoh
'Some archaeologists have argued that Smenkhare and the pharaoh-queen are one and the same person.'
The person named Ankhkheperure Smenkhkhare-Djeserkheperu poses other problems. Some archaeologists have argued that Smenkhare and the pharaoh-queen are one and the same person. However, the image of Smenkhare alongside the royal wife Merytaten, in Meryre II's tomb at Amarna, and the exclusively masculine epithets referring to this individual in the same tomb and on a now-vanished block at Memphis, confirm that we are dealing with a man - as distinct from the pharaoh-queen Ankh(et)kheperure Neferneferuaten.
The fact that his wife, Merytaten, bears only the title of queen on these monuments leads me to believe that his reign preceded that of Ankh(et)kheperure Neferneferuaten who was, it is highly likely, Merytaten herself. A peculiarity in the protocol relating to Smenkhkhare may resolve the issue.
Contrary to Ancient Egyptian custom, Smenkhkare is not presented under a coronation name and a birth name in his two cartouches, but under two coronation names. The explanation for this curious fact seems to me clear: both his royal names were composed on the occasion of his coronation. He therefore must have had another name beforehand.
'The Hittite archives found at Boghaz Koy in Turkey provide us with a clue.'
To be Merytaten's husband, moreover, Smenkhkhare must have been the equivalent in rank at least of a royal son prior to his accession to the throne. But no Egyptian prince of that name or any other existed at the time. The Hittite archives found at Boghaz Koy in Turkey provide us with a clue. They tell us that the widow of a king of Egypt wrote to the Hittite king Suppiluliuma to ask for the hand of one of his sons in marriage. After much prevarication, Suppiluliuma sent his son Zannanza to Egypt, where he was assassinated, according to the Hittites.
The absence of a birth name, the lack of an Egyptian of appropriate rank and the clues in the Hittite archives allow us to conjecture that Smenkhkhare might in fact be the Hittite prince Zannanza. Indeed, diplomatic correspondence from Amarna, dating from the same period as the Hittite texts, confirms that the Egyptian queen who wrote to the Hittite king could only be the one woman of royal rank to survive Akhenaten, namely Merytaten, and that the latter was the wife of the mysterious Smenkhkhare before reigning in her own right.
Published: 2002-09-05
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