Neferneferuaten

Neferneferuaten was a female ruler of the late Eighteenth Dynasty who governed from the capital at Akhetaten between about 1334 and 1332 BC, with dates uncertain by about a decade. She held the throne for approximately two years during the turbulent transitional period between Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun.

Surviving records regarding Neferneferuaten remain sparse, and her exact identity continues to divide modern historians. While some scholars propose she was Queen Nefertiti ruling in her own right, others suggest one of Akhenaten's daughters assumed royal power. She ruled as a fully titled pharaoh, using feminine epithets within her royal names, but she left behind no confirmed major monuments or intact tomb.

Scholars know of her existence primarily through epigraphic evidence, including inscribed jar dockets, small private tomb inscriptions, and reused funerary equipment later discovered in other royal burials. Her short tenure concluded just as traditional religious practices began to be restored.

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