A Princess of Egypt.

In 1351 BCE, princess Meritaten was approximately ten years old. The king’s eldest daughter, Meritaten was the foremost child of the royal family, front and centre of art and propaganda. Whether it was statuary, shrines, stelae, or palaces, Meritaten enjoyed the privileges of being a princess of ancient Egypt.

What was Meritaten’s life like, and what do we know about her? In this episode, we explore some evidence relating to this girl…

Meritaten

123. Akhenaten and daughters (dominic) (4)
Meritaten (lower left) behind Nefertiti and Akhenaten, offering to the sun god (Amarna; Chris Ward 2019).
123. Akhenaten and princess (Cairo) dominic (2)
Akhenaten kisses his daughter, possibly Meritaten (Cairo; Dominic Perry 2019).
125. Amarna princess (Ismailia) egypt today103301-103301
Amarna princess head with prominent hair / side-lock (Ismailia; Egypt Today).
123. Portrait Berlin 02 wikipedia
An Amarna princess head (Berlin; Wikimedia).
123. Princess eating a duck (Royal women fig 108, Cairo)
An Amarna princess eating a roast duck (Cairo; Arnold 1996).
123. Princess head (Royal women fig 47, Berlin)
The strange proportions of Amarna princesses (Berlin; Arnold 1996).
123. Princesses various wikipedia 01
Amarna princess with prominent hair / side-lock (Wikimedia).
123. Princesses various wikipedia 05
Amarna princess head with prominent side-lock (Wikimedia).
123. Memphis sunshade block (Wegner 2017) - Copy
A partial scene of Meritaten and her father, from a shrine originally at Memphis (Wegner 2017).

Bibliography

Badawy, Alexander. ‘Maru-Aten: Pleasure Resort or Temple?’ The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 42 (1956): 58–64.
Davies, Benedict G. Egyptian Historical Records of the Later Eighteenth Dynasty. Vol. IV. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1992.
Davies, Norman de Garis. The Rock Tombs of El-Amarna. London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1903.
Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunrise: Egypt From Golden Age to Age of Heresy. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2014.
Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2009.
Hornung, Erik. Akhenaten and the Religion of Light. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Kemp, Barry J. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. 3rd Revised Edition. London: Routledge, 2018.
Kemp, Barry J. ‘Tell El-Amarna, Spring 2011’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 97 (2011): 1–9.
Kemp, Barry J. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People. First paperback edition. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014.
Murnane, William J. Texts From the Amarna Period in Egypt. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
Murnane, William J. ‘The End of the Amarna Period Once Again’. Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 96 (2001): 9–22.
Neveu, François. The Language of Ramesses: Late Egyptian Grammar. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2015.
Pasquali, Stéphane. ‘A Sun-Shade Temple of Princess Ankhesenpaaten in Memphis?’ The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 97 (2011): 216–22.
Peet, T. E., and C. Leonard Woolley. The City of Akhenaten, Volume I. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1923.
Wegner, Josef. The Sunshade Chapel of Meritaten from the House-of-Waenre of Akhenaten. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.