Mobasser 1

Jasmine Mobasser

Prof. Stacy Burleson

Intro to the Humanities 1

May 25th, 2022

Ankhsenamun

Sometime around 1350 BCE, Ankhsenamun was born. The first time I’ve heard of

Ankhsenamun was when I watched “The Mummy”, but the movie isn’t an accurate

representation of her actual life. In the first movie, she committed suicide and Imhotep brought

her back to life, and dies again at the end of the movie. Her original name was Ankhsenpaaten,

and her name meant “living through Amun” or “living through Aten”. She was the third daughter

of Akhenaton and Nefertiti, the couple who introduced religion and cultural innovations during

the Armana period (Britannica). She was the queen of ancient Egypt and shared the throne with

Tutankhamen whom she married when she was 13 years old, and he was 8 years old from 1332–

22 BCE. The age difference might’ve been weird, but they had a close friendship and enjoyed

each other’s company. Unfortunately, it wasn’t unusual for incest to occur to preserve

bloodlines; Ankhsenamun was both Tutankhamen’s half-sister and wife. According to All that is

interesting, it wasn’t her first inter-family marriage and not her last either which is crazy now but

normal back then. Historians believe that Ankhsenamun’s father was trying to conceive children

with her sister which shows on the walls of the family’s tombs. The tombs suggest that those

pregnancies probably ended up in miscarriages and death. If you’re trying to have kids with your

siblings, of course it’s going to end up very badly. Tutankhamen was a product of incest and due

to that, there was evidence of clubfoot and health issues; his immune system was weak and
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couldn’t fight any infections. After he died, she took a role in international affairs, that is known

only in the Hittie documents.

Ankhsenamun and her husband ruled Egypt together for about 10 years and bore him two

daughters but were born prematurely and died after birth. They moved away from Amun-Ra to

quickly get away from her father’s radical religion and they casted out Amun-Ra. Before all this

came back into place, If I was Ankhsenamun, I would also want to escape my father’s radical

religion if his dynasty was in a vulnerable position. At the time before Ankhsenamun and

Tutankhamen ruled Egypt, the royal family didn’t have any friends because her father turned his

back on the old Gods and embraced Aten, another supreme being. It was dangerous because it

dismantled the authority of the priests, and the central government was corrupted. (All That is

Interesting).

Unfortunately, it was very frightening for the both of them since they were so young and

in charge of running the entirety of Egypt, but they were guided by powerful advisers. I would

also be very scared if I was at that age and had to run the country all on my own with my

husband who’s also just a kid. As I said before, they tried many, many times to have kids but all

resulted in death. In his tomb, there were mummies of two female fetuses who were five to eight

months in age. If they were born, they would come out with a plethora of disorders. In addition,

they never figured out why they had all these issues; but let me guess…Oh, right. You’re having

kids with your own family. After Tutankhamen’s death, she was apparently married to Ay who

was possibly her grandfather which sounds absolutely insane and disgusting. According to

Ancient Egypt Online, the marriage was against her for-which is very wretched. (Ancient Egypt

Online).
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Fast forward and Ankhsenamun is 28 years old. Going into further detail about the Hittie

documents, it was said that she didn’t want to marry Ay, her grandfather, so she wrote a letter to

the Hittie king asking for help. The letter states, “My husband has died, and I have no sons. They

say about you that you have many sons. You might give me one of your sons to become my

husband. Never shall I pick out a servant of mine and make him my husband.” Sad to say that the

Hittie king was very suspicious by this, so he sent an emissary to Egypt to meet with

Ankhsenamun. He returned with another letter, and it reads, “Had I a son, would I have written

about my own and my country's shame to a foreign land… They say your sons are many; so,

give me one of your sons. To me he will be husband, but in Egypt he will be King “ (World

History). The Hittie king was satisfied with the offer and sent his son to Egypt to marry

Ankhsenamun, but the sad fact is that before he reached the border, he was killed. I couldn’t

imagine the horror Ankhesenamun could’ve felt that the person she was to marry died just like

that and now she had to get married to her grandfather.

It was long before they could find out who killed him and as soon as they did, a general

named Horemheb killed him. Horemheb was suspected to be cooperating with Ay, the

grandfather of Ankhsenamun. Hawass says, “Perhaps the two men decided together to stop the

Hittite prince, because it would have brought shame on the nation for an Egyptian queen to

marry a foreigner…” I honestly think it brings shame and disgust on everyone to marry and have

children with someone who’s blood related to you, but it was a different time then, so it was seen

as normal. I truly think Ankhsenamun slowly realized that marrying her family members was

disgusting as soon as the grandfather came into the picture.

A thing that leads me to believe that she wasn’t married to her grandfather is that when it

said, “Her name is not mentioned in Ay's tomb, which is located in the Valley of the Kings,
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where we see only the name of his principal wife, Tiye.” Or even if they were married, she

wouldn’t want to be in a tomb next to him, but then again, there was so clear indication that they

were married. After then, Ankhesenamun disappeared, and nobody can locate where her mummy

is. In the historical record sometime between 1325 and 1321 B.C., Ankhesenamun disappears.

Historians and scholars don’t know what happened to her, doesn’t know where she was buried,

and referred to her as Egypt’s lost princess. They said it was possible for her to have been

murdered by Ay and Horemheb for her to be in contact with the Hittie king, but it can’t be

confirmed and is just a theory. The only thing that is known is her letters to the Hittie king. If

you think about it , I wholeheartedly think that she was murdered in some way, and nobody

wouldn’t know about it hence her tomb and mummy not being found. After she was murdered,

maybe they burned her body so nobody could find her mummy but it’s just a thought. If they

killed the man that was supposed to go across the border and marry Ankhsenamun, then I’m so

sure they could’ve killed her, too. The fate of Ankhsenamun is a mystery and hopefully one day

someone can find her tomb and mummy after all these years to find out what actually happened

to her.
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Works Cited

Ankhesenamun (Ankhesenpaaten). Ancient Egypt Online. (n.d.). Retrieved May 25,

2022, from https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/ankhesenamun/

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Ankhesenamen. Encyclopædia Britannica.

Retrieved May 25, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ankhesenamen

Mark, Joshua. “Ankhsenamun.” World History Encyclopedia, 24 May 2022,

www.worldhistory.org/Ankhsenamun.

---. “The Story of Ankhesenamun, King Tut’s Wife — And Half-Sister.” All That’s

Interesting, 3 Aug. 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/ankhesenamun.