Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit

Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit (or Ankhesenpaaten-ta-sherit) was the daughter of Ankhesenamun or Kiya and probably the Pharaoh Akhenaten, father and husband of Ankhesenamun. [Kramer, "Enigmatic Kiya" in Eyma, "op.cit.", p.54] The appearance of the god Aten in her name suggests that she was indeed a daughter of Akhenaten, since his successors reverted his religious reforms, and reverted to the worship of Egypt's traditional gods. Meanwhile, the name Aten was dropped from popular use during this time.

Her name means "Ankhesenpaaten the Younger". Since there were at least two other princesses with names ending in "Tasherit" (younger or little one), it seems there was a shortage of approved names in the royal court (most of the usual Egyptian names contained the name of a god, and during Akhenaten's reign the cults of all gods but Aten were forbidden.)

Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit was born in the last year of Akhenaten's reign and her existence is an important clue in determining how long Akhenaten ruled. Since Ankhesenamun was born around the 5th year of her father's reign, the earliest year she could have had a child was around Year 17 of his reign, when she was 12 years old.

Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit has been known to archaeologists since 1938, when a talatat with her picture and name was found in Hermopolis.

Bibliography

* A. K. Eyma ed., "A Delta-man in Yebu", upublish.com 2003, ISBN 158112564X

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