Meritaten Tasherit, which means Meritaten the Younger was an ancient Egypt

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...

ian princess of the 18th dynasty

Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

The eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt...

. She is likely to have been the daughter of 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...

, eldest daughter of Pharaoh 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...

.

The father of this child remains under debate. Many assume it to be none other than Meritaten's father, Akhenaten, or possibly her husband Smenkhkare

Smenkhkare

Smenkhkare was an ephemeral Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, of whom very little is known for certain...

. Since both Meritaten Tasherit and another princess, Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit

Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit

Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th dynasty. She is most commonly held to have been the daughter of Ankhesenpaaten and Akhenaten himself, though it is also possible that her mother was Kiya, Akhenaten's second wife...

 appear only in texts that once mentioned Akhenaten's second wife Kiya

Kiya

Kiya was one of the wives of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record, in contrast to those of Akhenaten's first royal wife, Nefertiti. Her unusual name suggests that she may originally have been a Mitanni...

, it is also possible that they were children of Akhenaten and Kiya, or that they were fictional, replacing the name of Kiya's daughter, who might have been Beketaten

Beketaten

Beketaten was an Ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th dynasty. Beketaten was the youngest daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye, thus the sister of Pharaoh Akhenaten...

, more commonly thought to be Tiye

Tiye

Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu . She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III....

's child.

The fate of this child is uncertain. The mention of the god Aten

Aten

Aten is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of Ra. The deified Aten is the focus of the monolatristic, henotheistic, or monotheistic religion of Atenism established by Amenhotep IV, who later took the name Akhenaten in worship in recognition of 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

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

's traditional gods. Meanwhile, the name Aten was dropped from popular use during this time.