Editing Akhenaten (section)

=== Later years ===

[[File:Foreign tributes.png|thumb|right|In regnal year twelve, Akhenaten received tributes and offerings from allied countries and vassal states at [[Amarna|Akhetaten]], as depicted in the tomb of [[Meryre II]].]]

Egyptologists know little about the last five years of Akhenaten's reign, beginning in {{circa|1341{{sfn|Britannica.com|2012}} or 1339&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|von Beckerath|1997|p=190}}|lk=no}} These years are poorly attested and only a few pieces of contemporary evidence survive; the lack of clarity makes reconstructing the latter part of the pharaoh's reign "a daunting task" and a controversial and contested topic of discussion among Egyptologists.{{sfn|Ridley|2019|p=346}} 

Among the newest pieces of evidence is an inscription discovered in 2012 at a limestone quarry in [[Deir el-Bersha]], just north of Akhetaten, from the pharaoh's sixteenth regnal year. The text refers to a building project in Amarna and establishes that Akhenaten and Nefertiti were still a royal couple just a year before Akhenaten's death.{{sfn|Van der Perre|2012|pp=195–197}}{{sfn|Van der Perre|2014|pp=67–108}}{{sfn|Ridley|2019|pp=346–364}} The inscription is dated to Year 16, month 3 of [[Season of the Inundation|Akhet]], day 15 of the reign of Akhenaten.{{sfn|Van der Perre|2012|pp=195–197}}

Before the 2012 discovery of the Deir el-Bersha inscription, the last known fixed-date event in Akhenaten's reign was a royal reception in regnal year twelve, in which the pharaoh and the royal family received tributes and offerings from allied countries and vassal states at Akhetaten. Inscriptions show tributes from [[Nubia]], the [[Land of Punt]], [[Syria (region)|Syria]], the [[Hittites|Kingdom of Hattusa]], the islands in the [[Mediterranean Sea]], and [[Ancient Libya|Libya]]. Egyptologists, such as [[Aidan Dodson]], consider this year twelve celebration to be the [[zenith]] of Akhenaten's reign.{{sfn|Dodson|2009|pp=39–41}} Thanks to reliefs in the [[tomb of Meryra II|tomb]] of courtier [[Meryre II]], historians know that the royal family, Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their six daughters, were present at the royal reception in full.{{sfn|Dodson|2009|pp=39–41}} However, historians are uncertain about the reasons for the reception. Possibilities include the celebration of the marriage of future pharaoh [[Ay (pharaoh)|Ay]] to [[Tey]], celebration of Akhenaten's twelve years on the throne, the summons of king [[Aziru]] of [[Amurru kingdom|Amurru]] to Egypt, a military victory at [[Sumur (Levant)|Sumur]] in the [[Levant]], a successful military campaign in Nubia,{{sfn|Darnell|Manassa|2007|p=127}} Nefertiti's ascendancy to the throne as coregent, or the completion of the new capital city Akhetaten.{{sfn|Ridley|2019|p=141}}

Following year twelve, [[Donald B. Redford]] and other Egyptologists proposed that Egypt was struck by an [[epidemic]], most likely a [[Plague (disease)|plague]].{{sfn|Redford|1984|pp=185–192}} Contemporary evidence suggests that a plague ravaged through the Middle East around this time,{{sfn|Braverman|Redford|Mackowiak|2009|p=557}} and ambassadors and delegations arriving to Akhenaten's year twelve reception might have brought the disease to Egypt.{{sfn|Dodson|2009|p=49}} Alternatively, letters from the [[Hattians]] might suggest that the epidemic originated in Egypt and was carried throughout the Middle East by Egyptian prisoners of war.{{sfn|Laroche|1971|p=378}} Regardless of its origin, the epidemic might account for several deaths in the royal family that occurred in the last five years of Akhenaten's reign, including those of his daughters [[Meketaten]], [[Neferneferure]], and [[Setepenre (princess)|Setepenre]].{{sfn|Gabolde|2011}}{{sfn|Ridley|2019|pp=354, 376}}