Who was the shadowy pharaoh Neferneferuaten? Ancient Egypt’s most elusive mystery...

In the years leading up to Neferneferuaten’s appearance, Egypt experienced a period of deep internal disruption.

The crisis began under the rule of Amenhotep IV, who later changed his name to Akhenaten.

Once enthroned, he abandoned traditional worship of the Egyptian gods and imposed the exclusive cult of the Aten, the sun disc.

As part of this religious upheaval, he closed temples, took apart the priesthoods of Amun, and ordered the construction of a new capital city named Akhetaten, located at modern-day Amarna. 

From approximately 1353 to 1336 BCE, Akhenaten's religious reforms undermined the traditional power structures that had governed Egyptian society for centuries.

By stripping the old priesthoods of their influence and wealth, he destabilised the social and political traditions of the kingdom.

Temples lost their inscriptions, and statues of gods suffered defacement; monuments also showed evidence of the erasure of the names of gods such as Amun.

As a result, the traditional concept of divine kingship became confused. 

Military and diplomatic neglect soon followed as the empire’s northern and southern borders became vulnerable since Akhenaten paid little attention to foreign affairs.

Vassal states in Syria and Canaan sent desperate letters begging for military support, preserved today in the Amarna Letters.

These cuneiform tablets document the weakening Egyptian influence abroad and reveal the perception of Egypt’s growing weakness. 

By the time Akhenaten died, probably around 1336 BCE, Egypt was isolated and fractured.

The right of the royal family to rule had diminished, and the unpopular religious system left few allies among the priesthood, the military, or the people.

It was during this uncertain transition that Neferneferuaten took power, but under circumstances that remain unclear. 

Despite ruling during a historically documented period, Neferneferuaten’s identity remains pretty unclear.

The name appears in inscriptions, tomb graffiti, and a limited number of official monuments, but no direct statement explains who they were.

The full royal name, Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten, has caused confusion, as it bears similarities to other known figures such as Smenkhkare and Akhenaten himself. 

The throne name “Ankhkheperure” appears in several versions, some linked to Neferneferuaten and others to Smenkhkare.

One version includes feminine grammatical forms and titles referring to Akhenaten as “beloved,” which strongly suggests a female ruler who aligned herself with Akhenaten’s new religious ideology.

Confusingly, another version omits those feminine elements. 

The most reliable evidence shows that Neferneferuaten ruled between the death of Akhenaten and the reign of Tutankhamun.

The regnal period may have lasted between two and three years, possibly as a coregency near the end of Akhenaten’s life or as an independent reign afterwards.

During this time, Neferneferuaten issued inscriptions and objects that publicly reaffirmed loyalty to the Aten, although some artefacts show tentative steps toward religious reconciliation. 

Scholars rely heavily on these small set of inscriptions and material objects to reconstruct Neferneferuaten’s reign.

Among the most important sources are reused or altered artefacts discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Many of his funerary items, which included a golden burial mask and canopic jars, were originally crafted for someone else.

Analysis of these objects shows that names were scratched out and replaced with Tutankhamun’s.

In some cases, the original name belonged to Neferneferuaten. 

One inscription, found in the tomb of the official Pairy, explicitly names Neferneferuaten as a female ruler.

Another significant artefact is a limestone block from Hermopolis that depicts a ruler offering to the Aten.

The figure shows feminine features but wears the king’s uraeus and royal regalia. 

Graffiti left by workmen at the royal tombs also record the presence of a pharaoh named Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten.

Several talatat blocks (limestone slabs from Amarna) record this name alongside royal titles normally used only by a ruling monarch.

The stylistic and religious content of these materials consistently aligns with late Amarna-period iconography. 

The core difficulty remains the lack of a single source that directly and conclusively identifies who Neferneferuaten was.

Her presence exists mostly through traces; among them were overwritten inscriptions, alongside reused funerary objects and ambiguous royal names.

That absence of clarity has led to decades of scholarly debate. 

Many Egyptologists argue that Neferneferuaten was in fact Nefertiti, the famous wife of Akhenaten.

Her name, Neferneferuaten Nefertiti, closely matches the royal name later used by the mysterious ruler.

During her husband’s reign, she held extraordinary influence, appearing in temple reliefs as an equal participant in religious ceremonies and diplomacy. 

Several depictions show Nefertiti wearing the blue war crown and performing kingly acts, including smiting enemies and driving royal chariots.

Late in Akhenaten’s reign, references to her become less frequent, but one inscription suggests she adopted the title “Effective for her husband,” which may have been the beginning of a formal coregency. 

Some scholars propose that after Akhenaten’s death, Nefertiti assumed the full powers of kingship under the name Neferneferuaten.

The feminine endings on several throne names, combined with links to the Aten cult and Akhenaten’s memory, seem to support this theory.

However, no definitive inscription confirms this transition from queen to pharaoh, and the lack of a burial site has left the question open. 

Another candidate is Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

Her name appears in a number of inscriptions from Amarna, and she was a high-status religious and administrative official.

In one version of the Amarna Letters, she is even addressed with royal honours. 

Meritaten may have acted as queen consort to the short-lived male ruler Smenkhkare, but some theories suggest she ruled in her own right.

A few objects found in the tomb of Tutankhamun mention a female ruler using titles that could match Meritaten, and her name sometimes appears in contexts that suggest independent authority. 

However, most of the artefacts that point toward a female ruler after Akhenaten seem to connect more directly to Nefertiti.

Meritaten’s youth and the brevity of the period between Akhenaten’s death and Tutankhamun’s accession make it less likely that she held full pharaonic authority. 

Confusion over royal names and titles led earlier scholars to believe that Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten were the same person.

Smenkhkare’s throne name, Ankhkheperure, appears on monuments previously attributed to Neferneferuaten.

Both rulers seemed to follow Akhenaten’s death closely, and both are only faintly visible in the historical record. 

However, the inscription evidence distinguishes between the two. Some inscriptions clearly mention Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare and others refer to Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten.

The addition of feminine grammar and titles in the latter cases has led most scholars to separate them into two individuals.

Smenkhkare appears to have been a male co-regent or successor who ruled for a short period before disappearing as well.

His relationship to the royal family remains unclear, although some have proposed he was a younger brother or son-in-law of Akhenaten. 

The confusion arises primarily because both names share the same throne title but differ in epithets and grammatical structure.

So, without more securely dated inscriptions, the chronological order between Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten continues to be debated. 

There are several less popular theories that have circulated over the past century.

Some suggest that Neferneferuaten was a younger daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, such as Neferneferuaten Tasherit.

However, no evidence exists to suggest that Tasherit ever held administrative or religious authority.

Others speculate that Neferneferuaten was a symbolic composite figure, created to ease the political transition between Akhenaten’s death and the ascension of a child ruler. 

A few have even argued that Neferneferuaten may have been a short-lived puppet monarch controlled by powerful figures such as Ay or Horemheb.

These men later rose to power during the reign of Tutankhamun and may have used a pliable royal figure to reintroduce traditional practices without directly assuming the throne themselves. 

However, none of these alternatives have produced sufficient evidence to override the primary contenders of Nefertiti and, to a lesser extent, Meritaten.

The problem remains that all proposals rely on inference rather than clear evidence from the sources. 

Despite over a century of scholarship, the true identity of Neferneferuaten continues to baffle us.

Each new discovery only adds a piece to the puzzle, but it has never been able to provide a final answer.

The political confusion of the late Amarna period, the reuse and erasure of names on royal artefacts, and the brief reigns of several short-lived rulers make the period one of the most challenging in the study of Egyptian history.