Biography of Queen Nefertiti, Ancient Egyptian Queen

Biography of Queen Nefertiti, Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti (c. 1370  BCE–c. 1336 or 1334  BCE) was an Egyptian queen,  the chief wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhenaten. She is perhaps best known for her  appearance in Egyptian art, especially the famous bust discovered in 1912 at Amarna (known as the Berlin Bust), along with her role in the religious revolution centering on monotheistic worship of the sun disk Aten. Fast Facts: Queen Nefertiti Known For: Ancient queen of EgyptAlso Known As: Hereditary Princess, Great of Praises, Lady of Grace, Sweet of Love, Lady of The Two Lands, Main Kings Wife, his beloved, Great Kings Wife, Lady of all Women, and Mistress of Upper and Lower EgyptBorn: c. 1370  BCE in ThebesParents: UnknownDied: 1336  BCE, or perhaps 1334, location unknownSpouse: King  Akhenaton  (formerly Amenhotep IV)Children: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, and Setepenre (all daughters) The name Nefertiti has been translated as The Beautiful One  Is Come. Based on the Berlin bust, Nefertiti is known for her great beauty.  After the death of her husband, she may well have ruled Egypt briefly under the name pharaoh Smenkhkare (ruled 1336–1334 BCE). Early Life Nefertiti was born about 1370 BCE, probably in Thebes, although her origins are debated by archaeologists and historians. Egyptian royal families were always tangled by the intermarriage of siblings as well as by children and their parents: Nefertitis life story is difficult to trace because she went through several name changes.  She may have been a foreign princess from an area in what became northern Iraq. She may have been from Egypt, the daughter of the previous Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his chief wife Queen Tiy. Some evidence suggests that she may have been the daughter of Ay, Pharaoh Amenhotep IIIs vizier, who was a brother of Queen Tiy and who became pharaoh after Tutankhamen. Nefertiti grew up in the royal palace at Thebes and had an Egyptian woman, the wife of a courtier of Amenhotep III, as her wet nurse and tutor, which suggests she was of some importance in the court.  It seems certain that she was brought up in the cult of the sun god Aten. Whoever she was, Nefertiti was set to marry the Pharaohs son, who would become Amenhotep IV by the time she was about 11 years old. Wife of the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV Nefertiti became the chief wife (queen) of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (ruled 1350–1334), who took the name Akhenaten when he led a religious revolution that put the sun god Aten at the center of religious worship. This was a form of monotheism that only lasted as long as his rule. Art from the time depicts a close family relationship, with Nefertiti, Akhenaten, and their six daughters depicted more naturalistically, individualistically, and informally than in other eras. Images of Nefertiti also depict her taking an active role in the Aten cult. For the first five years of Akhenatens rule, Nefertiti is depicted in carved images as being a very active queen, with a central role in ceremonial acts of worship. The family most likely lived at the palace of Malkata in Thebes, which was grand by any standard. Amenhotep Becomes Akhenaten Before the 10th year of his reign, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV took the unusual step of changing his name along with the religious practices of Egypt. Under his new name of Akhenaten, he established a new cult of Aten and abolished the current religious practices. This undermined the wealth and power of the cult of Amun, consolidating power under Akhenaten. Pharaohs were divine in Egypt, no less than gods, and there are no records of public or private dissent against the changes Akhenaten instituted- during his lifetime. But the modifications he made to the hide-bound religion of Egypt were vast and must have been deeply unsettling to the populace. He left Thebes, where pharaohs had been installed for millennia, and moved to a new site in Middle Egypt that he called Akhetaten, the Horizon of Aten, and which archaeologists call Tell el Amarna. He defunded and shut down temple institutions at Heliopolis and Memphis, and co-opted elites with bribes of wealth and power. He established himself as a co-ruler of Egypt with the sun god Aten. Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images In court artwork, Akhenaten had himself and his wife and family depicted in strange new ways, images with elongated faces and bodies and thin extremities, hands with long fingers curving upwards and extended bellies and hips. Early archaeologists were convinced that these were true representations until they found his perfectly normal mummy. Perhaps he was presenting himself and his family as divine creatures, both male and female, both animal and human. Akhenaten had an extensive harem, which included two of his daughters with Nefertiti, Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten. Both had children by their father. Disappearance- or the New Co-King After 12 years of reigning as the beloved wife of the pharaoh, Nefertiti seems to disappear from recorded history. There are multiple theories about what may have happened. She may, of course, have died at that time; she may have been assassinated and replaced as a Great Wife by another, perhaps one of her own daughters. One tantalizing theory growing in support is that she might not have disappeared at all, but rather changed her name and become Akhenatens co-king, Ankhkheperure mery-Waenre Neferneferuaten Akhetenhys. The Death of Akhenaten In the 13th year of Akhenatens rule, he lost two daughters to the plague and another to childbirth. His mother Tiy died the next year. A devastating military loss deprived Egypt of its lands in Syria, and after that, Akhenaten became a fanatic for his new religion, sending his agents out into the world to remake all the Egyptian temples, chiseling out the names of the Theban gods on everything from the temple walls and obelisks to personal objects. Some scholars believe Akhenaten may have forced his priests to destroy the ancient cult figures and slaughter the sacred beasts. A total eclipse occurred on May 13, 1338 BCE, and Egypt fell into darkness for more than five minutes. The effect on the pharaoh, his family, and his kingdom is unknown but may have been seen as an omen. Akhenaten died in 1334 during the 17th year of his reign. Nefertiti the Pharaoh? The scholars who suggest Nefertiti was Akhenatens co-king also suggest the pharaoh that followed Akhenaten was Nefertiti, under the name of Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare. That king/queen quickly began the dismantlement of Akhenatens heretical reformations. Smenkhkare took two wives- Nefertitis daughters Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten- and abandoned the city of Akhetaten, bricking up the temples and houses of the city and moving back to Thebes. All the old cities were revived, and the cult statues of Mut, Amun, Ptah, and Nefertum and other traditional gods were reinstalled, and artisans were sent out to repair the chisel marks. She (or he) may also well have selected the next sovereign, Tutankhaten- a boy of just 7 or 8 who was too young to rule. His sister Ankhesenpaaten was tapped to watch over him. Smenkhkares rule was short, and Tutankhaten was left to complete the re-establishment of the old religion under the name of Tutankhamen. He married Ankhesenpaaten and changed her name to Ankhesenamun: she, the last member of the 18th dynasty and Nefertitis daughter, would outlive Tutankhamen and end up married to the first of the 19th dynasty kings, Ay. Legacy Tutankhamens mother is noted in records as a woman named Kiya, who was another wife of Akhenaten.  Her hair was styled in the Nubian fashion, perhaps indicating her origin. Some images (a drawing, a tomb scene) point to the pharaoh mourning her death in childbirth.  Images of Kiya were, at some later time, destroyed. DNA evidence has surfaced a new theory about Nefertitis relationship to Tutankhamen (King Tut)- he was clearly the child of incest. This evidence might suggest that Nefertiti was the mother of Tutankhamen and a first cousin of Akhenaten; or that Nefertiti was his grandmother, and Tutankhamens mother was not Kiya but one of Nefertitis daughters. Sources Cooney, Kara. When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt. National Geographic Books, 2018.  Hawass, Z.  The Golden King: The World of Tutankhamun.  (National Geographic, 2004).Mark, Joshua J. Nefertiti.  Ancient History Encyclopedia, 14 Apr 2014.Powell, Alvin. A different take on Tut. The Harvard Gazette, Harvard University, February 11, 2013.  Rose, Mark. Wheres Nefertiti? Archaeology Magazine, September 16, 2004.Tyldesley, Joyce. Nefertiti: Egypts Sun Queen. London: Penguin, 2005.Watterson, B.  The Egyptians.  (Wiley-Blackwell, 1998).

The Flag of the United States of Mexico

The Flag of the United States of Mexico There have been a few looks for the flag of Mexico since its independence from Spanish rule in 1821, but its overall look has remained the same: green, white and red and a coat of arms in the center that is a nod to the Aztec Empires capital of Tenochtitlan, formerly based in Mexico City in 1325. The flag colors are the same colors of the national liberation army in Mexico. Visual Description The Mexican flag is a rectangle with three vertical stripes: green, white and red from left to right. The stripes are of equal width. In the center of the flag is a design of an eagle, perched on a cactus, eating a snake. The cactus in on an island in a lake, and beneath is a garland of green leaves and a red, white and green ribbon. Without the coat of arms, the Mexican flag looks like the Italian flag, with the same colors in the same order, although the Mexican flag is longer and the colors are a darker shade. History of the Flag The national liberation army, known as the Army of the Three Guarantees, officially formed after the struggle for independence. Their flag was white, green and red with three yellow stars. The first flag of the new Mexican republic was modified from the armys flag. The first Mexican flag is very similar to the one used today, but the eagle is not shown with a snake, instead, it is wearing a crown. In 1823, the design was modified to include the snake, although the eagle was in a different pose, facing the other direction. It underwent minor changes in 1916 and 1934 before the current version was officially adopted in 1968. Flag of the Second Empire Since independence, only on one occasion has the Mexican flag undergone a drastic revision. In 1864, for three years, Mexico was ruled by Maximilian of Austria, a European nobleman imposed as the emperor of Mexico by France. He redesigned the flag. The colors stayed the same, but golden royal eagles were put in each corner, and the coat of arms was framed by two golden griffins and included the phrase Equidad en la Justicia, meaning   Equity in Justice.† When Maximilian was deposed and killed in 1867, the old flag was restored. Symbolism of the Colors When the flag was first adopted, the green symbolically stood for independence from Spain, the white for Catholicism and the red for unity. During the secular presidency of Benito Juarez, the meanings were changed to mean green for hope, white for unity and red for the spilled blood of fallen national heroes. These meanings are known by tradition, nowhere in Mexican law or in the documentation does it clearly state the official symbolism of the colors. Symbolism of the Coat of Arms The eagle, snake, and cactus refer back to an old Aztec legend. The Aztecs were a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico who followed a prophecy that they should make their home where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus while eating a snake. They wandered until they came to a lake, formerly Lake Texcoco, in central Mexico, where they saw the eagle and founded what would become the mighty city of Tenochtitln, now Mexico City. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Lake Texcoco was drained by the Spanish in an effort to control continuous lake flooding. Flag Protocol February 24 is Flag Day in Mexico, celebrating the day in 1821 when different rebel armies joined together to secure independence from Spain. When the national anthem is played, Mexicans must salute the flag by holding their right hand, palm down, over their heart. Like other national flags, it may be flown at half-staff in official mourning upon the death of someone important. Importance of the Flag Like people from other nations, Mexicans are very proud of their flag and like to show it off. Many private individuals or companies will fly them proudly. In 1999, President Ernesto Zedillo commissioned giant flags for several important historical sites. These banderas monumentales or â€Å"monumental banners† can be seen for miles and were so popular that several state and local governments made their own. In 2007, Paulina Rubio, famous Mexican singer, actress, TV hostess, and model, appeared in a magazine photo shoot wearing only a Mexican flag. It created quite the controversy, although she later said that she meant no offense and apologized if her actions were viewed as a sign of disrespect of the flag.