Smenkhkare

{{Infobox pharaoh

|Name=Ankhkheperure
Smenkhkare Djeser Kheperu |Image=Relief of a young pharaoh and a queen holding flowers 02.jpg |ImageSize=300px |Caption=Young prince Tutankhaten (later called Smenkhkare) betrothed to Meritaten, depicted in Amarna style

|NomenHiero=

|Nomen=Smenkhkare-Djeserkheperu
Vigorous is the Soul of Re, Holy of Forms

|PrenomenHiero=

|Prenomen=Ankhkheperure
Living are the Manifestations of Re |Reign=1335–1334 BC |Predecessor=Akhenaten |Successor=Ankesenamun |Spouse=Meritaten |Dynasty=18th Dynasty |Died=1334 BC |Father=Ay |Children=Two, stillborn
|Burial=KV35}, as Tutankhamun} Smenkhkare (alternatively romanized Smenkhare, Smenkare, or Smenkhkara; meaning "Vigorous is the soul of Re") was a name used by an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who lived and ruled during the Amarna Period of the 18th Dynasty. Smenkhkare has been identified as a name used by the husband to Meritaten, the daughter of Akhenaten.

Origin and family

"Smenkhkare," however, was not a distinct, independent individual, but instead was simply the coronation name taken by Tutankhamun, originally known as Tutankhaten, when he became husband to Akhenaten's eldest daughter, Meritaten, who became Pharaoh after the deaths of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

Reign as pharaoh

Length of reign

A wine docket from "the house of Smenkhkare" attests to Regnal Year 1. A second wine docket dated to Year 1 refers to him as "Smenkhkare, (deceased)" and was thought to indicate that he died during his first regnal year, but the inscription simply refers to the end of his reign under that name, while he was official husband of Meritaten and before he was renamed Tutannkhamun when after her death he was remarried to her youger sister Ankesenamun.

Some Egyptologists have speculated about the possibility of a two- or three-year reign for Smenkhkare based on a number of wine dockets from Amarna that lack a king's name but bear dates for regnal years 2 and 3. However, they could belong to any of the Amarna kings and are not definitive proof either way.

Smenkhkare Hall

While there are few monuments or artifacts that refer to "Smenkhkare," there is a major addition to the Amarna palace complex that bears his name. It was built in approximately Year 15 and was likely built for a significant event related to him.

Tutankhaten/Smenkhkare and Meritaten appear together in the tomb of Meryre II at Amarna, rewarding Meryre. There, the prince wears the khepresh crown, however he is called the son-in-law and beloved of Akhenaten, not his son. Which is appropriate because Tutankhaten was not son of Akhenaten (otherwise he, not Meritaten, would have inherited the throne upon Akhenaten's death). Further, his name appears only during Akhenaten's reign without certain evidence to attest to a sole reign. The names of the king have since been cut out but were recorded around 1850 by Karl Lepsius. Additionally, a calcite "globular vase" from Tutankhamun's tomb displays the full double cartouches of both pharaohs. However, this is the only object known to carry both names side-by-side. This evidence has been taken by some Egyptologists to indicate that Akhenaten and Smenkhkare were co-regents. However, the truth is much simpler and that is that both names were used by the same person at different times -- Tutankhamun took the coronation name Smenkhkare while officially married to Meritaten, then his name was changed again to Tutankhamun when after Meritaten's death he married her younger sister Ankesenpaaten.

The scene in Meryre's tomb is undated and Akhenaten is neither depicted nor mentioned in the tomb. The jar may simply be a case of one king associating himself with a predecessor. The simple association of names, particularly on everyday objects, is not conclusive of a co-regency.

Work is believed to have halted on the Amarna tombs shortly after Year 13. Therefore, the depiction of Smenkhkare in Meryre's tomb must date to no later than Year 13. For him to have succeeded Neferneferuaten (Nefertiti) means that aside from a lone wine docket, he left not a single trace over the course of five to six years. This is of course understandable as there was no separate person who used only the name Smenkhkare all his life; the name was used by Tutankhaten as a coronation name only during the reign of Queen/Pharaoh Meritaten.

Wild speculation among historians and fiction writers has existed for many years based upon the erroneous assumption that because someone using the name Smenkhkare briefly ruled as husband to Queen Meritaten, that this person cannot have used other names as other pharaohs did (Wa'enre/Akhenaten, Nefertiti/Neferneferuaten, etc.) or been born under another name and been called "Smenkhkare" only when Pharaoh. But no portraits of some young prince other than Tutankhaten/Tutankhamun existed in Amarna, and "Smenkhkare" had no separate tomb, either, and he wasn't depicted in reliefs, had no throne, etc. Items with the name Smenkhkare on them were found, in Tutankhamun's tomb -- unsurprisingly, because they had belonged to him.

Eliminating "Smenkhare" the fictional separate individual from Egyptian history/mythology be disappointing to some people who enjoy engaging in fantasy or fictionalized historical novels in which he can be assigned the part of someone's lover, even homosexual lover as some have imagined, but if one wants to use evidence, and not speculation, on which to base history, this imaginary individual who some conclude lived and died without a trace or mummy must be understood to have been only a secondary name, a title, and not the name of an individual who used no other.

The relief of Queen Meritaten offering the young prince with the walking stick flowers, who is correctly identified as the one who became known as "Smenkhkare" when she married him and he became pharaoh, proves definitively that the prince with the walking stick and "Smenkhkare" were one and the same person. Therefore "Smenkhkare" was Tutankhaten, the young man who had to walk with the aid of a walking stick, renamed, and so it had to have been Tutankhamun who had been the husband of Meritaten, previously known by the name "Smenkhkare."

Tutankhaten was given the name when Meritaten took him, when he was only a young boy, probably at the insistence of his father, Ay, as an official husband, then after she died and he remarried he used the name Tutankhamun, to go along with the return to the old Amun religion in the country, when Anksesenpaaten was also renamed -- to Ankesenamun.

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