Nefertari (18th dynasty)

Nefertari
Queen consort of Egypt
The great royal wife Nefertari - from the Egyptian Museum in Leipzig, Germany
Spouse	Tuthmosis IV
Religion	Ancient Egyptian religion

Nefertari in hieroglyphs
Era: New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC)

Nefertari was a queen of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, the first Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose IV.^[1]

Her origins are unknown, it is likely that she was a commoner. On several depictions she and queen mother Tiaa are depicted as goddesses accompanying Thutmose. For unknown reasons, in Thutmose's 7th year Nefertari was replaced by Thutmose's sister Iaret as the Great Royal Wife; it has been suggested that she either died or was pushed into the background when Iaret was old enough to become Thutmose's wife.^[2]

Nefertari was depicted on 8 stelae from Giza together with her husband before various deities. She was also shown on a stela found in the Luxor Temple and was mentioned on a scarab found in Gurob.^[3] It is not known whether any children were born either to Nefertari or to Iaret; after Thutmose's death the next pharaoh was Amenhotep III, the son of a secondary wife called Mutemwia.

Sources

1. Dodson, Aidan; Hilton, Dyan (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05128-3., p.140
2. Ian Shaw (ed.) The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. p.241. Oxford University Press. 2000. ISBN 0-19-280458-8
3. Dodson & Hilton, p.140