Dakhamunzu
Encyclopedia
Dakhamunzu is the name of an Egyptian
queen known from the Hittite
annals The Deeds of Suppiluliuma, which were composed by Suppiluliuma I
's son Mursili II
. The identity of this queen has not yet been established with any degree of certainty and Dakhamunzu has variously been identified as either Nefertiti
, Meritaten
or Ankhesenamen. The identification of this queen is of importance both for Egyptian chronology and for the reconstruction of events during the late Eighteenth Dynasty
.
The episode in The Deeds of Suppiluliuma that features Dakhamunzu is often referred to as the Zannanza
affair, after the name of a Hittite prince who was sent to Egypt to marry her.
and the newly arising power of the Hittites under Suppiluliuma I. During the late-Amarna period and its immediate aftermath we are almost totally dependent on the Hittite records for information on these matters.
While involved in war with Mitanni, the Hittites are attacked by Egyptian forces in the region of Kadesh
, which only recently came under Hittite control. Suppiluliuma retaliates by simultaneously besieging Mitanni forces at Carchemish
and sending forces into the Amqu
region, at that time an Egyptian vassal state. At this point the annals inform us that:
Such an offer to marry a female member of the Egyptian royal family was unprecedented, as Amenhotep III
made clear in his correspondence with a foreign king, the gift of women in marriage was for Egypt a one way trade: From time immemorial no daughter of the king of Egypt is given to anyone. Suppiluliuma is therefore surprised and suspicious, the annals report his reaction:
Nevertheless he sends his chamberlain to Egypt to investigate the matter, he orders him:
In the meantime Suppiluliuma concludes the siege of Carchemish and then returns to his capital Hattusa
for the winter. The following spring his chamberlain and a messenger from Egypt return to him, bringing a further letter of the queen:
Suppiluliuma however remains suspicious and he tells the Egyptian messenger:
Nevertheless, after further negotiations with the Egyptian messenger and consultation of an earlier peace treaty between the Hittites and Egypt, Suppiluliuma agrees to send one of his sons to Egypt. But this prince, named Zannanza, was killed, possibly before he even reached Egypt. As the annals make clear, the Hittites accused the Egyptians for this murder:
This led to recriminations on behalf of Suppiluliuma, who again attacks Amqu, drives the Egyptians from it and returns with prisoners to Hattusa.
The deaths of both Suppiluliuma and his immediate successor Arnuwanda II
might be seen as an indirect result of the Zannanza affair because both succumbed to a plague brought to Hattusa by the prisoners from Amqu.
, Tutankhamun
's widow. This emendation is however now seen as unjustified and it is rather assumed that Dakhamunzu is a Hittite rendering of the Egyptian title ta hemet nesu (the king's wife) instead of a proper name of a queen. As a consequence Dakhamunzu has variously been identified as either Nefertiti
, Meritaten
or Ankhesenamen.
Nibhururiya, the name of the recently deceased Pharaoh as it is recorded in the annals, might equally be seen as a rendering of the prenomen of either Akhenaten
(Neferkheperure ) or Tutankhamun (Nebkheperure) and the flexibility of the chronology of the period admits both possibilities. The chronology of events requires that the death of Nibhururiya occurs near the end of Suppiluliuma's life and therefore conventional Egyptian chronology
favours Tutankhamun. It is also assumed that the situation at the Egyptian court (i.e. the lack of male royal offspring) fits better with the period after Tutankhamun's death. In this case Dakhamunzu should be identified as Ankhesenamun, while the anonymous pharaoh from Suppiluliuma's draft letter can be identified as Ay
, a servant Dakhamunzu did not want to marry.
Alternative Egyptian or Hittite chronologies however make Akhenaten a more likely candidate for Nibhururiya. Comparison between the probable times of death for Akhenaten (after the vintaging of wine, i.e. at the end of September or the start of October) and Tutankhamun (in December, based on floral and faunal evidence from his tomb) with the account found in the Hittite annals (which places the reception of Dakhamunzu's first letter in late autumn) also seems to favour the identification of Nibhururiya with Akhenaten. Further evidence to support this identification might come from one of the Amarna letters
which seems to deal with the same military actions against Amqu that are reported in the Hittite annals. Since the Amarna archives seems to have been abandoned and closed by the end of Tutankhamun's reign, the presence of this letter there suggest he cannot have been the recently deceased pharaoh from the annals.
The recently proposed identification of an Egyptian official named Armaa, who appears in a Hittite document relating events from Mursili II's regnal years 7 and 9, as Horemheb
in his function of viceroy and commander in Asia (i.e. before his accent to the throne) would also rule out Tutankhamun as possible candidate for Nibhururiya.
The identification of Nibhururiya as Akhenaten does however complicates the identity of Dakhamunzu because besides his great royal wife Nefertiti, Meritaten seems to have held the title ta hemet nesu in relation to her father as well. in this case the identity of Dakhamunzu is largely depended on the identity of Akhenaten's co-regent and successor
. Those who see evidence for a gradually changing role for Nefertiti (from great royal wife, over co-regent to sole ruler after Akhenaten's death) will naturally identify Dakhamunzu as Nefertiti and they see the Zannanza affair as further evidence for Nefertiti's continuing importance in the late-Amarna period. In this case it is believed that, in spite of her changed role at the Egyptian court, to the outside world she would have remained to be known as the king's wife and a parallel is drawn between the Hatshepsut
-Tuthmosis III co-rule earlier in the 18th dynasty and a co-regency between Nefertiti and Tutankhamun, the latter king can then be identified as the unnamed pharaoh from Suppiluliuma's letter, supplanting Nefertiti on the Egyptian throne. Other's however maintain that Nefertiti predeceased her husband and they will therefore identify Dakhamunzu/Akhenaten's female co-regent as Meritaten. In this scenario Smenkhare can be identified as the new unnamed pharaoh, who would then be the servant Dakhamunzu was unwilling to marry, although the identification of Smenkhkare as Zannanza is also suggested as a (more unlikely) possibility.
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
queen known from the Hittite
Hittite language
Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...
annals The Deeds of Suppiluliuma, which were composed by Suppiluliuma I
Suppiluliuma I
Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites . He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant Egyptian empire for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates....
's son Mursili II
Mursili II
Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1321–1295 BC .-Family:Mursili II was the younger son of Suppiluliuma I, one of the most powerful rulers of the Hittite Empire...
. The identity of this queen has not yet been established with any degree of certainty and Dakhamunzu has variously been identified as either Nefertiti
Nefertiti
Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they started to worship one god only...
, Meritaten
Meritaten
Meritaten also spelled Merytaten or Meryetaten was an ancient Egyptian queen of the eighteenth dynasty, who held the position of Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten...
or Ankhesenamen. The identification of this queen is of importance both for Egyptian chronology and for the reconstruction of events during the late Eighteenth Dynasty
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
The eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt...
.
The episode in The Deeds of Suppiluliuma that features Dakhamunzu is often referred to as the Zannanza
Zannanza
Prince Zannanza was a son of Suppiluliuma I, king of the Hittites. He is best known for almost becoming the Pharaoh of Egypt, and because his death caused a diplomatic incident between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires, that resulted in warfare.The Egyptian Queen Dakhamunzu, who could have been...
affair, after the name of a Hittite prince who was sent to Egypt to marry her.
Context
The Dakhamunzu episode should be seen against the background of Egypt's relations with the other major powers in Western Asia during the second half of the 14th century BC, more specifically the three-cornered struggle for power between Egypt, MitanniMitanni
Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and south-east Anatolia from ca. 1500 BC–1300 BC...
and the newly arising power of the Hittites under Suppiluliuma I. During the late-Amarna period and its immediate aftermath we are almost totally dependent on the Hittite records for information on these matters.
While involved in war with Mitanni, the Hittites are attacked by Egyptian forces in the region of Kadesh
Kadesh
This article is about Kadesh in the lands of the Amurru, bordering on Damascus Syria up to Hammath; see also Kadesh or Kedesh Kadesh was an ancient city of the Levant, located on or near the headwaters or ford of the Orontes River...
, which only recently came under Hittite control. Suppiluliuma retaliates by simultaneously besieging Mitanni forces at Carchemish
Carchemish
Carchemish or Kargamış was an important ancient city of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo Assyrian Empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible...
and sending forces into the Amqu
Amqu
The Amqu is a region , equivalent to the Beqaa Valley region, named in the 1350-1335 BC Amarna letters corpus....
region, at that time an Egyptian vassal state. At this point the annals inform us that:
"[The Egyptians] were afraid. And since, in addition, their lord Nibhururiya had died, therefore the queen of Egypt, who was Dakhamunzu, sent a messenger to [Suppiluliuma]."
The Zannanza affair
The annals then recount the message the Egyptian widow queen wrote to Suppiluliuma:
My husband died. A son I have not. But to thee, they say, the sons are many. If thou wouldst give me one son of thine, he would become my husband. Never shall I pick out a servant of mine and make him my husband. I am afraid.
Such an offer to marry a female member of the Egyptian royal family was unprecedented, as Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
made clear in his correspondence with a foreign king, the gift of women in marriage was for Egypt a one way trade: From time immemorial no daughter of the king of Egypt is given to anyone. Suppiluliuma is therefore surprised and suspicious, the annals report his reaction:
"Such a thing has never happened to me in my whole life"
Nevertheless he sends his chamberlain to Egypt to investigate the matter, he orders him:
"Go and bring thou the true word back to me. Maybe they deceive me. Maybe in fact they do have a son of their lord"
In the meantime Suppiluliuma concludes the siege of Carchemish and then returns to his capital Hattusa
Hattusa
Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. It was located near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of the Kızıl River ....
for the winter. The following spring his chamberlain and a messenger from Egypt return to him, bringing a further letter of the queen:
"Why didst thou say 'they deceive me' in that way? had i a son, would I have written about my own and my country's shame to a foreign land? Thou didst not believe me and hast even spoke thus to me. He who was my husband has died. A son I have not. Never shall I take a servant of mine and make him my husband. I have written to no other country, only to thee have i written. They say thy sons are many: so give me one son of thine. To me he will be husband, but to Egypt he will be king"
Suppiluliuma however remains suspicious and he tells the Egyptian messenger:
You keep asking me for a son of mine as if it were my duty. He will in some way become a hostage, but king you will not make him"
Nevertheless, after further negotiations with the Egyptian messenger and consultation of an earlier peace treaty between the Hittites and Egypt, Suppiluliuma agrees to send one of his sons to Egypt. But this prince, named Zannanza, was killed, possibly before he even reached Egypt. As the annals make clear, the Hittites accused the Egyptians for this murder:
"They spoke thus: 'The people of Egypt killed Zannanza' and brought word: 'Zannanza died'. And when [Suppiluliuma] heard of the slaying of Zannanza, he began to lament for Zannanza and to the gods he spoke thus: 'Oh gods! I did no evil, yet the people of Egypt did this to me, and they also attacked the frontier of my country'."
This led to recriminations on behalf of Suppiluliuma, who again attacks Amqu, drives the Egyptians from it and returns with prisoners to Hattusa.
Aftermath
Nothing is told of the eventual fate of Dakhamunzu, but the draft for a letter written by Suppiluliuma might shed more light on the matter. This letter is addressed to an unnamed pharaoh, written in response to an earlier letter from this pharaoh to Suppiluliuma. From this correspondence it appears that this pharaoh came to the throne of Egypt at some time before the murder of Zannanza, and that Suppiluliuma seems to have been unaware of this development at the Egyptian court at the time he send his son there. This new pharaoh might be seen either as a servant to whom Dakhamunzu was married against her own wish or as supplanting her on the throne, depending on the identification of the individuals involved (see below).The deaths of both Suppiluliuma and his immediate successor Arnuwanda II
Arnuwanda II
Arnuwanda II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1322–1321 BC . He succeeded his father Suppiluliuma I, who succumbed to the plague which Egyptian captives from his Canaan campaign had brought with them to the Hittite heartland....
might be seen as an indirect result of the Zannanza affair because both succumbed to a plague brought to Hattusa by the prisoners from Amqu.
Identification of the Egyptian protagonists
Initially the name Dakhamunzu was believed to be a misreading of Sankhamun, a supposed version of AnkhesenamunAnkhesenamun
Ankhesenamun was a queen of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. Born as Ankhesenpaaten, she was the third of six known daughters of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti, and became the Great Royal Wife of her cousin Tutankhamun. The change in her name reflects the changes...
, Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
's widow. This emendation is however now seen as unjustified and it is rather assumed that Dakhamunzu is a Hittite rendering of the Egyptian title ta hemet nesu (the king's wife) instead of a proper name of a queen. As a consequence Dakhamunzu has variously been identified as either Nefertiti
Nefertiti
Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they started to worship one god only...
, Meritaten
Meritaten
Meritaten also spelled Merytaten or Meryetaten was an ancient Egyptian queen of the eighteenth dynasty, who held the position of Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten...
or Ankhesenamen.
Nibhururiya, the name of the recently deceased Pharaoh as it is recorded in the annals, might equally be seen as a rendering of the prenomen of either Akhenaten
Akhenaten
Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
(Neferkheperure ) or Tutankhamun (Nebkheperure) and the flexibility of the chronology of the period admits both possibilities. The chronology of events requires that the death of Nibhururiya occurs near the end of Suppiluliuma's life and therefore conventional Egyptian chronology
Conventional Egyptian chronology
The Conventional Egyptian chronology represents the scholarly consensus on the chronology of the rulers of ancient Egypt, taking into account well accepted developments during the 20th century but not including any of the major revision proposals that have also been made in that time.All dates are...
favours Tutankhamun. It is also assumed that the situation at the Egyptian court (i.e. the lack of male royal offspring) fits better with the period after Tutankhamun's death. In this case Dakhamunzu should be identified as Ankhesenamun, while the anonymous pharaoh from Suppiluliuma's draft letter can be identified as Ay
Ay
Ay was the penultimate Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty. He held the throne of Egypt for a brief four-year period , although he was a close advisor to two and perhaps three of the pharaohs who ruled before him and was the power behind the throne during Tutankhamun's reign...
, a servant Dakhamunzu did not want to marry.
Alternative Egyptian or Hittite chronologies however make Akhenaten a more likely candidate for Nibhururiya. Comparison between the probable times of death for Akhenaten (after the vintaging of wine, i.e. at the end of September or the start of October) and Tutankhamun (in December, based on floral and faunal evidence from his tomb) with the account found in the Hittite annals (which places the reception of Dakhamunzu's first letter in late autumn) also seems to favour the identification of Nibhururiya with Akhenaten. Further evidence to support this identification might come from one of the Amarna letters
Amarna letters
The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom...
which seems to deal with the same military actions against Amqu that are reported in the Hittite annals. Since the Amarna archives seems to have been abandoned and closed by the end of Tutankhamun's reign, the presence of this letter there suggest he cannot have been the recently deceased pharaoh from the annals.
The recently proposed identification of an Egyptian official named Armaa, who appears in a Hittite document relating events from Mursili II's regnal years 7 and 9, as Horemheb
Horemheb
Horemheb was the last Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty from either 1319 BC to late 1292 BC, or 1306 to late 1292 BC although he was not related to the preceding royal family and is believed to have been of common birth.Before he became pharaoh, Horemheb was the commander in chief...
in his function of viceroy and commander in Asia (i.e. before his accent to the throne) would also rule out Tutankhamun as possible candidate for Nibhururiya.
The identification of Nibhururiya as Akhenaten does however complicates the identity of Dakhamunzu because besides his great royal wife Nefertiti, Meritaten seems to have held the title ta hemet nesu in relation to her father as well. in this case the identity of Dakhamunzu is largely depended on the identity of Akhenaten's co-regent and successor
Neferneferuaten
Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten was a woman who reigned as pharaoh toward the end of the Amarna era during the Eighteenth Dynasty. The royal succession of this period is very unclear. Manetho's Epitome, an ancient historical source written in Egypt during the third century B.C., mentions a certain...
. Those who see evidence for a gradually changing role for Nefertiti (from great royal wife, over co-regent to sole ruler after Akhenaten's death) will naturally identify Dakhamunzu as Nefertiti and they see the Zannanza affair as further evidence for Nefertiti's continuing importance in the late-Amarna period. In this case it is believed that, in spite of her changed role at the Egyptian court, to the outside world she would have remained to be known as the king's wife and a parallel is drawn between the Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut also Hatchepsut; meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies;1508–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt...
-Tuthmosis III co-rule earlier in the 18th dynasty and a co-regency between Nefertiti and Tutankhamun, the latter king can then be identified as the unnamed pharaoh from Suppiluliuma's letter, supplanting Nefertiti on the Egyptian throne. Other's however maintain that Nefertiti predeceased her husband and they will therefore identify Dakhamunzu/Akhenaten's female co-regent as Meritaten. In this scenario Smenkhare can be identified as the new unnamed pharaoh, who would then be the servant Dakhamunzu was unwilling to marry, although the identification of Smenkhkare as Zannanza is also suggested as a (more unlikely) possibility.