Editing Akhenaten (section)

== Family ==
[[File:Relief depicting Akhenaton and Nefertiti with three of their daughters under the rays of Aton 01 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Akhenaten, [[Nefertiti]] and their children]]

{{See also|Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt family tree}}
[[File:Alabaster sunken relief depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and daughter Meritaten. Early Aten cartouches on king's arm and chest. From Amarna, Egypt. 18th Dynasty. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.jpg|thumb|Alabaster sunken relief depicting Akhenaten (head lost), Nefertiti, and daughter Meritaten. Early Aten cartouches on king's arm and chest. From Amarna, Egypt. 18th Dynasty.The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London. With thanks to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL.]]
The future Akhenaten was born Amenhotep, a younger son of pharaoh [[Amenhotep III]] and his [[Great Royal Wife|principal wife]] [[Tiye]]. Akhenaten had an elder brother, [[crown prince]] [[Thutmose (prince)|Thutmose]], who was recognized as Amenhotep III's heir. Akhenaten also had four or five sisters: [[Sitamun]], [[Henuttaneb]], [[Iset (daughter of Amenhotep III)|Iset]], [[Nebetah]], and possibly [[Beketaten]].{{sfn|Ridley|2019|pp=37–39}} Thutmose's early death, perhaps around Amenhotep III's thirtieth regnal year, meant that Akhenaten was next in line for Egypt's throne.{{sfn|Dodson|2018|p=6}}

Akhenaten was married to [[Nefertiti]], his [[Great Royal Wife]]. The exact timing of their marriage is unknown, but inscriptions from the pharaoh's building projects suggest that they married either shortly before or after Akhenaten took the throne.{{sfn|Tyldesley|2005}} For example, Egyptologist [[Dimitri Laboury]] suggests that the marriage took place in Akhenaten's fourth regnal year.{{sfn|Laboury|2010|pp=62, 224}} A secondary wife of Akhenaten named [[Kiya]] is also known from inscriptions. Some Egyptologists theorize that she gained her importance as the mother of [[Tutankhamun]].{{sfn|Ridley|2019|pp=220}} [[William J. Murnane|William Murnane]] proposes that Kiya is the colloquial name of the [[Mitanni]] princess [[Tadukhipa]], daughter of the Mitanni king [[Tushratta]] who had married Amenhotep III before becoming the wife of Akhenaten.{{sfn|Tyldesley|2006|p=124}}{{sfn|Murnane|1995|pp=9, 90–93, 210–211}} Akhenaten's other attested consorts are the daughter of the [[Enišasi]] ruler [[Šatiya]] and another daughter of the [[Babylonia]]n king [[Burna-Buriash II]].{{sfn|Grajetzki|2005}}

[[File:Spaziergang_im_Garten_Amarna_Berlin.jpg|thumb|left|This limestone relief of a royal couple in the Amarna style has variously been attributed as Akhenaten and [[Nefertiti]], [[Smenkhkare]] and [[Meritaten]], or [[Tutankhamun]] and [[Ankhesenamun]].]]

Akhenaten could have had seven or eight children based on inscriptions. Egyptologists are fairly certain about his six daughters, who are well attested in contemporary depictions.{{sfn|Dodson|2012|p=1}} Among his six daughters, [[Meritaten]] was born in regnal year one or five; [[Meketaten]] in year four or six; [[Ankhesenpaaten]], later queen of Tutankhamun, before year five or eight; [[Neferneferuaten Tasherit]] in year eight or nine; [[Neferneferure]] in year nine or ten; and [[Setepenre (princess)|Setepenre]] in year ten or eleven.{{sfn|Ridley|2019|p=78}}{{sfn|Laboury|2010|pp=314–322}}{{sfn|Dodson|2009|pp=41–42}}{{sfn|University College London|2001}} Tutankhamun, born Tutankhaten, was most likely Akhenaten's son, with Nefertiti or another wife.{{sfn|Ridley|2019|p=262}}{{sfn|Dodson|2018|pp=174–175}} There is less certainty around Akhenaten's relationship with [[Smenkhkare]], Akhenaten's coregent or successor{{sfn|Dodson|2018|pp=38–39}} and husband to his daughter Meritaten; he could have been Akhenaten's eldest son with an unknown wife or Akhenaten's younger brother.{{sfn|Dodson|2009|pp=84–87}}{{sfn|Ridley|2019|pp=263–265}}

Some historians, such as [[Edward F. Wente|Edward Wente]] and [[James Peter Allen|James Allen]], have proposed that Akhenaten took some of his daughters as wives or sexual consorts to father a male heir.{{sfn|Harris|Wente|1980|pp=137–140}}{{sfn|Allen|2009|pp=15–18}} While this is debated, some historical parallels exist: Akhenaten's father Amenhotep III married his daughter Sitamun, while [[Ramesses II]] married two or more of his daughters, even though their marriages might simply have been ceremonial.{{sfn|Ridley|2019|p=257}}{{sfn|Robins|1993|pp=21–27}} In Akhenaten's case, his oldest daughter Meritaten is recorded as Great Royal Wife to Smenkhkare but is also listed on a box from Tutankhamun's tomb alongside pharaohs Akhenaten and Neferneferuaten as Great Royal Wife. Additionally, [[Amarna letters|letters written to Akhenaten]] from foreign rulers make reference to Meritaten as "mistress of the house". Egyptologists in the early 20th century also believed that Akhenaten could have fathered a child with his second oldest daughter Meketaten. Meketaten's death, at perhaps age ten to twelve, is recorded in the [[Royal Wadi and tombs|royal tombs at Akhetaten]] from around regnal years thirteen or fourteen. Early Egyptologists attribute her death to childbirth, because of the depiction of an infant in her tomb. Because no husband is known for Meketaten, the assumption had been that Akhenaten was the father. [[Aidan Dodson]] believes this to be unlikely, as no Egyptian tomb has been found that mentions or alludes to the cause of death of the tomb owner. Further, [[Jacobus van Dijk]] proposes that the child is a portrayal of Meketaten's [[ancient Egyptian conception of the soul|soul]].{{sfn|Dodson|2018|pp=19–21}} Finally, various monuments, originally for Kiya, were reinscribed for Akhenaten's daughters Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten. The revised inscriptions list a Meritaten-tasherit ("junior") and an Ankhesenpaaten-tasherit. According to some, this indicates that Akhenaten fathered his own grandchildren. Others hold that, since these grandchildren are not attested to elsewhere, they are fictions invented to fill the space originally portraying Kiya's child.{{sfn|Harris|Wente|1980|pp=137–140}}{{sfn|Dodson|Hilton|2004|p=154}}