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| ==Possible Identification== | ==Possible Identification== | ||
| In Feb 2010, a DNA study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association | In Feb 2010, a DNA study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association put the lid finally on the old speculation that once | ||
| identified the ] mummy as the remains of the ]. The reasoning lies with the tested DNA alleles from Locus D7S820, where the nother of Tutankhamen's two fetuses must have had alleles 6 and 13. As Kate Phizackerley first pointed out (in <ref> News From The Valley Of The Kings</ref>), the KV55 mummy only has a duplicate allele 15 at that locus (which is neither 6 nor 13), so he could not have been her father. But Akhenaten was indeed the father of Queen Ankhesenamun, mother of the fetuses, ergo, Akhenaten is not KV55. What the DNA analysis did confirm is that KV55 (usually identified with King Smenkhkare) could have been the father of the ]. The mummy KV35YL was identified as being Tutankhamen's mother. The study suggested that Tutankhamen's parents were full brother and sister, but this assertion remains unproven and is more likely to be untrue <ref> Study: Malaria, Not Murder, Killed King Tut, Time Magazine, Feb 16, 2010</ref>. This raises the possibility that mummy KV35YL might be Sitamen, a Great Royal Wife of Amenhotpe III, but is more likely the wife of King Smenkhkare, Queen Meritaten, eldest daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. | |||
| identified the ] mummy as the remains | |||
| of the ]. It also confirmed him as the father of the | |||
| ]. The mummy KV35YL was identified as being Tutankamen's mother. As the | |||
| study concluded that Tutankamen's parents were full brother and sister | |||
| <ref> Study: Malaria, Not Murder, Killed King Tut, Time Magazine, Feb 16, 2010</ref>, this | |||
| raises the possibility that KV35YL is Sitamun, the daughter of Amenhotep III | |||
| and ], and the sister of Akhenaten. | |||
| ==Titles== | ==Titles== | ||
Revision as of 05:46, 5 May 2010
| Sitamun | |
|---|---|
 A relief from Amenhotep III's mortuary temple depicting Sitamun, on display at the Petrie Museum, London. | |
| Other names | Sitamen, Satamun |
| Title | Princess of Egypt, later Queen of Egypt |
| Spouse(s) | Amenhotep III possibly Akhenaten |
| Children | possibly Tutankhamun |
| Parent(s) | Amenhotep III and Tiye or Thutmose IV and Iaret |
Sitamun (also Sitamen, Satamun; c. 1370 BCE–unknown) was an Ancient Egyptian princess and queen consort during the 18th dynasty. She is often described as the eldest daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye who was later married to her father by Year 30 of Amenhotep III's reign, by whom she might have been the mother of Smenkhkare. However, it is more likely that Sitamun is Amenhotep III's half sister. Sitamun was probably the daughter of Thutmose IV and Iaret.
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| Sitamun in hieroglyphs | |||||
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The suggestion that she was a daughter of Amenhotep and Tiye are the presence of objects found in the tomb of Yuya and Thuya, Queen Tiye's parents, especially a chair bearing her title as king's daughter.
Biography
Sitamun is very well attested in several contexts, most notably in the tomb of Yuya and Thuya where a series of three finely made chairs was discovered. As these chairs were used, and are of progressively larger size, it is assumed they belonged to Sitamun herself as she was growing up. They were then placed in her grandparents' tomb in the tradition of placing objects which had meaning in the deceased's life. She is also depicted on the stele of her nurse Nebetkabeny.
Almost nothing is known of her life beyond being the oldest daughter of a powerful (and long-lived) queen. In the last decade of her father's reign, she was promoted to the status of Great Royal Wife. The evidence for this marriage consists of a blue-faience kohl-tube with the cartouches of Amenhotep III and Sitamun, an alabaster bowl found at Amarna with the same cartouches and jar-label inscriptions from Malkata palace. Sitamun's elevation to her role as Great Royal Wife of her father, Amenhotep III, is attested as early as Year 30 of the latter from jar label inscription No.95 discovered from the royal palace.
She maintained her own estate in the Malkata palace complex, and Amenhotep, son of Hapu was appointed as the steward of her properties here. She is attested on a Karnak statue of Amenhotep, son of Hapu (now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) where she is mentioned as the king's Great Royal Wife. She also appears on a relief from Amenhotep III's mortuary temple, found by William Matthew Flinders Petrie, currently in Petrie museum. Sitamun is among a handful of figures that appear near the end of the reign of Amenhotep III. This was an era of Egyptian history in which women assumed far more prominent and powerful roles than ever before; Amenhotep III's wife Tiye, Sitamun's mother, is the obvious example. Prior to Tiye's reign, "no previous queen ever figured so prominently in her husband's lifetime." Tiye regularly appeared besides Amenhotep III in statuary, tomb and temple reliefs, and stelae while her name is paired with his on numerous small objects, such as vessels and jewellry, not to mention their large commemorative scarabs. Sitamun herself, as the eldest daughter of a powerful queen would have been groomed for a political role but never fulfilled this potential, despite having her own estate at Malkata and her high position at court. One possibility is that she was married to an heir who never assumed the throne. Another is that she died prematurely or went into seclusion after her brother Akhenaten became king.
She vanishes at the end of Amenhotep III's reign and is not mentioned in the reign of the next Pharaoh, Akhenaten. A separate chamber was carved for her in Amenhotep III's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but there is no evidence she was ever buried there.
Possible Identification
In Feb 2010, a DNA study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association put the lid finally on the old speculation that once identified the KV55 mummy as the remains of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The reasoning lies with the tested DNA alleles from Locus D7S820, where the nother of Tutankhamen's two fetuses must have had alleles 6 and 13. As Kate Phizackerley first pointed out (in ), the KV55 mummy only has a duplicate allele 15 at that locus (which is neither 6 nor 13), so he could not have been her father. But Akhenaten was indeed the father of Queen Ankhesenamun, mother of the fetuses, ergo, Akhenaten is not KV55. What the DNA analysis did confirm is that KV55 (usually identified with King Smenkhkare) could have been the father of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The mummy KV35YL was identified as being Tutankhamen's mother. The study suggested that Tutankhamen's parents were full brother and sister, but this assertion remains unproven and is more likely to be untrue . This raises the possibility that mummy KV35YL might be Sitamen, a Great Royal Wife of Amenhotpe III, but is more likely the wife of King Smenkhkare, Queen Meritaten, eldest daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
Titles
- Singer of the Lord of the Two Lands
- King’s Wife
- King’s Great Wife
- King’s Daughter
- King’s Daughter Whom He Loves
- Eldest Daughter of the King
- Great Daughter of the King Whom He Loves
References
- O'Connor, David & Cline, Eric. Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign, University of Michigan Press, 1998, p.7
- Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), pp.146
- http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/sitamun.html
- Dodson & Hilton, p.157.
- O'Connor & Cline, p.7
- W.M. Flinders Petrie: Six Temples at Thebes 1896, London 1897, pl. VI.8
- O'Connor & Cline, p.6
- Arielle Kozloff and Betsy Bryan, Royal and Divine Statuary in Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and his World, (Cleveland, 1992) nos. 1, 2, 12, 22, 27, 29, 56, 60, 100 & 129
- News From The Valley Of The Kings
- Study: Malaria, Not Murder, Killed King Tut, Time Magazine, Feb 16, 2010
Significant books on Sitamun:
- H. Schäfer's "Amarna in Religion und Kunst", Leipzig 1931.
- E. Riefstahl "Thebes in the Time of Amenhotep III", NY 1964.