In the 33rd year of his reign, while he was in the Armenian Highlands in 1446 BC, Thutmose III of Egypt, referred to the people of Ermenen (Armenians), and says in their land “heaven rests upon its four pillars”. Under the reign of Tuthmosis IV, friendly relations were established between the Egyptians and the Mitanni. The daughter of King Artatama was married to Tuthmosis IV.
Thus, Artatama may have been the father of Queen Mutemwiya and the maternal grandfather of Amenhotep III (Hellenized as Amenophis III; Egyptian Amāna-Ḥātpa; meaning Amun is Satisfied), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty.
According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died. Amenhotep III was the son of Thutmose by a minor wife Mutemwiya.
His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendour, when Egypt reached the peak of her artistic and international power. When he died (probably in the 39th year of his reign), his son initially ruled as Amenhotep IV, but later changed his own royal name to Akhenaten.
It was also suggested that Yuya was the brother of queen Mutemwiya, who was the mother of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and may have had Mitannian royal origins.
Cyril Aldred has suggested Mutemwiya may have been a sister of Yuya, based solely upon the assumption that since Mutemwiya was present during the early years of her son’s reign that she somehow engineered the marriage between Tiye and the young king, thus solidifying a family connect to the royal house.
Yuya (sometimes Iouiya, also known as Yaa, Ya, Yiya, Yayi, Yu, Yuyu, Yaya, Yiay, Yia, and Yuy) was a powerful Egyptian courtier during the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt (circa 1390 BC).
Yuya came from the Upper Egyptian town of Akhmim, where he probably owned an estate and was a wealthy member of the town’s local nobility. He was a non-royal, wealthy landowner from the Upper Egyptian town of Akhmin, where he served as a priest and superintendent of oxen or commander of the chariotry.
His origins remain unclear. The study of his mummy showed that Yuya had been a man of taller than average stature and the anatomist Grafton Elliot Smith considered that his appearance was not typically Egyptian.
Taking the features of his mummy, his unusual name and the many different spellings of his name, which might imply it was a non-Egyptian name in origin, into account it is sometimes suggested that Yuya was of Asiatic or Nubian descent.
The name Yuya may be spelled in a number of different ways as Gaston Maspero noted in Theodore Davis’s 1907 book—The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou. These include “iAy”, ywiA”, yw [reed-leaf with walking feet]A, ywiw” and, in orthography—normally a sign of something foreign—”y[man with hand to mouth]iA”.
It was not typical for an Egyptian person to have so many different ways to write his name; this may suggest that Yuya’s ancestors had a foreign origin. In “The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt” one solution is that Yuya had some Mitannian ancestry; this argument is based on the fact that the knowledge of horses and chariotry was introduced into Egypt from Asia and Yuya was the king’s “Master of the Horse.”
However, this hypothesis can not be substantiated, since nothing is known of Mutemwiya’s background. While Yuya lived in Upper Egypt, an area that was predominantly native Egyptian, he could have been an assimilated descendant of Asiatic immigrants or slaves who rose to become a member of the local nobility at Akhmin. If he was not a foreigner, however, then Yuya would have been the native Egyptian whose daughter was married to Amenhotep III. Yuya is believed to have died around 1374BC in his mid 50s.
Yuya was married to Tjuyu (sometimes transliterated as Thuya or Thuyu), an Egyptian noblewoman associated with the royal family, who held high offices in the governmental and religious hierarchies. She is believed to be a descendant of Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, and she held many official roles in the interwoven religion and government of Ancient Egypt. They are the grandparents of Akhenaten, and great grandparents of Tutankhamun.
Their daughter, Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Taia, Tiy and Tiyi), became the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. Her mummy was identified as The Elder Lady found in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) in 2010.
Yuya was an influential nobleman at the royal court of Amenhoteb III who was given the rare privilege of having a tomb built for his use in the royal Valley of the Kings presumably because he was the father of Tiye, Amenhotep’s chief Queen. There are also noted similarities in the physical likenesses of monuments attributed to Ay and those of the mummy of Yuya, and both held similar names and titles.
Some Egyptologists, believe that Tiye is of Mitanni (Armenian) origin, and she brought the Aten religion to Egypt from her native land, and taught her son, Akhenaten. Some suggest that the queen’s strong political and unconventional religious views might have been due not just to a strong character, but to foreign descent.
Tiye was married to Amenhotep III by the second year of his reign. He had been born of a secondary wife of his father and needed a stronger tie to the royal lineage. He appears to have been crowned while still a child, perhaps between the ages of six to twelve. They had at least seven, possibly more children:
Tiye wielded a great deal of power during both her husband’s and son’s reigns. Amenhotep III became a fine sportsman, a lover of outdoor life, and a great statesman. He often had to consider claims for Egypt’s gold and requests for his royal daughters in marriage from foreign kings such as Tushratta of Mitanni and Kadashman-Enlil I of Babylon.
The royal lineage was carried by the women of Ancient Egypt and marriage to one would have been a path to the throne for their progeny. Tiye became her husband’s trusted adviser and confidant. Being wise, intelligent, strong, and fierce, she was able to gain the respect of foreign dignitaries. Foreign leaders were willing to deal directly through her. She continued to play an active role in foreign relations and was the first Egyptian queen to have her name recorded on official acts.
Tiye may have continued to advise her son, Akhenaten, when he took the throne. Her son’s correspondence with Tushratta, the king of Mitanni, speaks highly of the political influence she wielded at court. In Amarna letter EA 26, Tushratta, king to Mitanni, corresponded directly with Tiye to reminisce about the good relations he enjoyed with her then deceased husband and extended his wish to continue on friendly terms with her son, Akhenaten.
Yuya and Tjuyu also may have been the parents of Ay, an Egyptian courtier active during the reign of pharaoh Akhenaten, who eventually became a successor of Tutankhamen as pharaoh after the latter’s death, as Kheperkheprure Ay. There is no conclusive evidence, however, regarding the kinship of Yuya and Ay, although certainly, both men came from the town of Akhmim.
All that is known for certain was that by the time he was permitted to build a tomb for himself (Southern Tomb 25) at Amarna during the reign of Akhenaten, he had achieved the title of “Overseer of All the Horses of His Majesty”, the highest rank in the elite charioteering division of the army, which was just below the rank of General.
Prior to this promotion he appears to have been first a Troop Commander and then a “regular” Overseer of Horses, titles which were found on a box thought to have been part of the original furnishings for his tomb.
Other titles listed in this tomb include Fan-bearer on the Right Side of the King, Acting Scribe of the King, beloved by him, and God’s Father. The ‘Fan-bearer on the Right Side of the King’ was a very important position, and is viewed as showing that the bearer had the ‘ear’ of the ruler. The final God’s Father title is the one most associated with Ay, and was later incorporated into his royal name when he became pharaoh.
This title could mean that he was the father-in-law of the pharaoh, suggesting that he was the son of Yuya and Tjuyu, thus being a brother or half-brother of Tiye, brother-in-law to Amenhotep III and the maternal uncle of Akhenaten.
If Ay was the son of Yuya, who was a senior military officer during the reign of Amenhotep III, then he likely followed in his father’s footsteps, finally inheriting his father’s military functions upon his death.
Alternatively, it could also mean that he may have had a daughter that married the pharaoh Akhenaten, possibly being the father of Akhenaten’s chief wife Nefertiti.
Ultimately there is no evidence to definitively prove either hypothesis. The two theories are not mutually exclusive, but either relationship would explain the exalted status to which Ay rose during Akhenaten’s Amarna interlude, when the royal family turned their backs on Egypt’s traditional gods and experimented, for a dozen years or so, with monotheism; an experiment that, whether out of conviction or convenience, Ay appears to have followed under the reign of Akhenaten.
Other Egyptologists speculated that Ay also might have been descended from Tiye. No clear date or monument can confirm the link between the two, but these Egyptologists presumed this by Ay’s origins, also from Akhmin, and because he inherited most of the titles that Tiye’s father, Yuya, held during his lifetime, at the court of Amenhotep III.
Another theory that gained some support identified Nefertiti with the Mitanni princess Tadukhipa, in the Hurrian language Tadu-Hepa, the daughter of Tushratta, king of Mitanni (reigned ca. 1382 BC–1342 BC) and his queen, Juni and niece of Artashumara, a Hurrian pretender to the throne of Mitanni in the fourteenth century BC.
The reign of Artashumara was very short, or non-existent, before he was murdered. He was the brother of Tushratta, who succeeded him. Tadukhipa’s aunt Gilukhipa (sister of Tushratta) had married Pharaoh Amenhotep III in his 10th regnal year. Tadukhipa was to marry Amenhotep III more than two decades later.
Relatively little is known about this princess of Mitanni. She is believed to have been born around Year 21 of the reign of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III, (c. 1366 BC). Fifteen years later, Tushratta married his daughter to his ally Amenhotep III to cement their two states alliances in Year 36 of Amenhotep III’s reign (1352 BC). Amenhotep III died shortly after Tadukhipa arrived in Egypt and she eventually married his son and heir Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten).
Tadukhipa is referenced in seven of Tushratta’s thirteen Amarna letters, of about 1350-1340 BC. Tushratta requested that his daughter would become a queen consort, even though that position was held by Queen Tiye.
The gifts sent to Egypt by Tushratta include a pair of horses and a chariot, plated with gold and inlaid with precious stones, a litter for a camel adorned with gold and precious stones, cloth and garments, jewelry such as bracelets, armlets and other ornaments, a saddle for a horse adorned with gold eagles, more dresses colored purple, green and crimson and a large chest to hold the items.
In return Amenhotep III never sent the golden statues he offered and after his death Tushratta sent some missives complaining about the lack of reciprocity.
Some scholars tentatively identify Tadukhipa with Kiya, a queen of Akhenaten. It has been suggested that the story of Kiya may be the source for the New Kingdom story called the Tale of Two Brothers.
This fable tells the story of how the pharaoh fell in love with a beautiful foreign woman after smelling her hair. If Tadukhipa was later known as Kiya, then she would have lived at Amarna where she had her own sunshade and was depicted with the pharaoh and at least one daughter.
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 (and chief) royal wife, Nefertiti. Her unusual name suggests that she may originally have been a Mitanni princess.
Surviving evidence demonstrates that Kiya was an important figure at Akhenaten’s court during the middle years of his reign, when she bore him a daughter. She disappears from history a few years before her royal husband’s death. In previous years, she was thought to be mother of Tutankhamun, but recent DNA evidence suggests this is unlikely.
The name Kiya itself is cause for debate. It has been suggested that it is a “pet” form, rather than a full name, and as such could be a contraction of a foreign name, such as the Mitanni name “Tadukhipa,” referring to the daughter of King Tushratta. Thus some Egyptologists have proposed that Tadukhipa and Kiya might be the same person.
However there is no confirming evidence that Kiya was anything but a native Egyptian. In fact, Cyril Aldred proposed that her unusual name is actually a variant of the Ancient Egyptian word for “monkey,” making it unnecessary to assume a foreign origin for her.
Others such as Petrie, Drioton and Vandier have suggested that Tadukhipa was given a new name after becoming the consort of Akhenaten and is to be identified the famous queen Nefertiti, or Neferneferuaten Nefertiti (ca. 1370 BC – ca. 1330 BC), the Great Royal Wife (chief consort) of Akhenaten.
This theory suggests that Nefertiti’s name Nfr.t-jy.tj, original pronunciation approximately Nafteta, for (“the beautyful one has come”) refers to Nefertiti’s foreign origin as Tadukhipa. Seele, Meyer and others have pointed out that Tey, wife of Ay, held the title of nurse to Nefertiti, and that this argues against this identification. A mature princess arriving in Egypt would not need a nurse.
Nefertiti and her husband were responsible for the creation of a whole new religion which changed the ways of religion within Egypt and known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of Ancient Egyptian history. Some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as Neferneferuaten after her husband’s death and before the accession of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate.
Nefertiti’s parentage is not known with certainty, but one often cited theory is that she was the daughter of Ay, later to be pharaoh. Scenes in the tombs of the nobles in Amarna mention the queen’s sister who is named Mutbenret (previously read as Mutnodjemet).
Yuya and Tjuyu also are known to have had a son named Anen, who carried the titles Chancellor of Lower Egypt, Second Prophet of Amun, sm-priest of Heliopolis, and Divine Father.
The tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu was, until the discovery of Tutankhamun’s, one of the most spectacular ever found in the Valley of the Kings despite Yuya not even being a pharaoh. Although the burial site was robbed in antiquity, many objects not considered worth plundering by the robbers remained. Both the mummies were largely intact and were in an amazing state of preservation. Their faces in particular were relatively undistorted by the process of mummification, and provide an extraordinary insight into the actual appearance of the deceased while alive.
Filed under: Uncategorized
