Alone before the God: Gender, Status, and Nefertitis Image

Jacquelyn Williamson

Abstract

Two architectural elements from Akhenatens early buildings at Karnak temple, a gateway and a
set of pillars, are decorated with scenes of Nefertiti worshipping the Aten alone with only her daugh-
ters in attendance. Assumed to be examples of Nefertiti acting independently in the Aten cult, these
monuments are sometimes hailed as precursors to the Sunshade of Re/sun temple structures so pop-
ular at Tell el-Amarna, most of which are associated with Akhenatens female family members. In
this article these monuments are studied in the context of scenes reconstructed from Kom el-Nana, a
Sunshade of Re at Tell el-Amarna, and other examples of women shown as the sole ritualist before a
deity. It is proposed that images of Nefertiti acting alone are an indication of her lower status in the
early part of Akhenatens reign, and that her status was elevated after the erection of the gateway
and pillars. Nefertiti did not yet have enough status to act along side Akhenaten before year 6, and
the gateway and pillars from Karnak cannot be considered precursors of Sunshade of Re temples,
or as evidence for her independence in the Aten cult. In conclusion it is suggested that conversa-
tions about ancient women in religious hierarchies should be shifted from discussions about agency
and power to discussions about importance, as a means to avoid the anachronistic application of
western feminist thought to ancient evidence.

Barry Kemp and the Egypt Exploration Society began excavations at a site called Kom el-Nana in the
southern city of Tell el-Amarna in the 1980s. The excavations established that the site was once the lo-
cation of an Amarna period pharonic complex, approximately the size of five American football fields.
Kemp and his team recovered several thousand fragments of the relief decoration of two stone build-
ings, called shrines, at the site. Starting in 2005 the author undertook the task of correlating these
fragments with their find spots to reconstruct the artistic program starting at the North Shrine. At this
time the author has finished drawing reconstructions of the relief that decorated of the North Shrine at
Kom el-Nana.1 The reconstructions have intriguing implications regarding the general iconography of
women in religious or cultic settings. Particularly these reconstructions reveal new ways to contextualize
the iconography of Nefertiti in relation to gender and status in the art of ancient Egypt.
Figure 1 is from one of the scenes from Kom el-Nanas north shrine.2 Akhenaten and Nefertiti are
represented before an offering table, holding up objects to the Aten overhead. Nefertiti is represented
at an unnaturally small height to Akhenaten, who towers over her and dominates the scene. Most of the
scenes from Kom el-Nana represent a similar height variance between the king and queen, a surprising
discovery considering the fact that Kom el-Nana is a Sunshade of Re, associated with the regenerative
aspects of the rebirth of the king and the sun god as overseen by the queen. Height indicates importance

1
For additional discussion of the issues covered in this article, see the authors forthcoming book Nefertitis Sun Temple: A New
Cult Complex at Amarna, to be published by Brills Harvard Egyptology Series.
2
Note that this is a detail image from the larger reconstruction, which was cut down to illustrate the points argued in this
article.

Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 51, pp. 179192
http://dx.doi.org/10.5913/jarce.51.2015.a008
doi: 179
Fig. 1. Detail of a scene from Kom el-Nanas North Shrine (drawn by the author).
 WILLIAMSON 181

Fig. 2. Nefertitis Gateway at Karnak (reconstruction drawn by the author).

in Egyptian art, and these images appeared to undermine Nefertitis status within her Sunshade of Re,
which at first seemed out of place with other examples of her iconography.
Many scholars suggest that the iconography of Nefertiti, particularly in her representations at Karnak
in the early years of Akhenatens reign, indicates she had an unusually significant cultic status.3 Evidence
for this lies in Nefertitis representation as a sole participant in the cult of the Aten on a pylon gateway4

3
Nicholas Reeves The Royal Family, in Rita Freed, Sue DAuria and Yvonne Markowitz , eds., Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenat-
en, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, (Boston 1999), 8791; Rita Freed Art in the Service of Religion and the State, in Freed, DAuria and
Markowitz, Pharaohs of the Sun, 11516.
4
Henri Chevrier, Rapport sur les travaux de Karnak 19531954, ASAE 53 (1955), 2142, pl. 11; Ray Smith and Donald Red-
ford, The Akhenaten Temple Project, vol. 1 (Warminster, 1976), 3336, fig. 6, pls. 19, 20 (1,2), 23 (1, 9), 28, 29, 30, and 31; M. Azim,
La structure des pylons dHoremheb Karnak, Cahiers de Karnak 7 (1982), 12734; Christian E. Loeben, Nefertitis Pillars: A
Photo Essay of the Queens Monument at Karnak, Amarna Letters 3 (1994), 4145.
182 JARCE 51 (2015)

Fig. 3. Nefertitis Pillars at Karnak (reconstruction drawn by the author).

and the so-called Nefertiti Pillars (figs. 2 and 3)5 These images are interpreted as a key item of evi-
dence for her possessing an unusually high status6 underlining her role as a prime ritualist in the cult
of the Aten as early as their residence in Thebes.7
The gateway or pylon is associated with a structure called the temple of the Benben (Hwt bnbn) in the
gm-pA-itn within the pr-itn constructed by Akhenaten. The gateway could have been erected around year
5 or 6 because Meritaten, their first born daughter, is present but Meketaten, their second daughter, is
absent.8 Like the gateway, the pillars, approximately 2 meters on each side and 10 meters high, show

5
Many of the talatat that made up the Nefertiti pillars had been found in the 2nd Pylon, built under Horemheb, and more
were found under the Great Hypostyle Hall between the second and third pylons. It is possible they originally were erected in
the area that is now the Great Hypostyle hall, due to the fact that so many of the talatat from these pillars were located in the 2nd
Pylon and under the floor of the Hall arranged in their original square formats. However it is also possible they were moved there
by Akhenatens successors. For a good discussion in favor of placing the pillars in the Great Hypostyle Hall see Jean-Franois
Carlotti and Philippe Martinez, Nouvelle observations architecturales et pigraphiques sur la grande sale hypostyle du temple
dAmon-R Karnak, Cahiers de Karnak 14 (2013), 23177.
6
Gay Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt (London, 1993), 5354.
7
Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt, 5556.
8
Smith and Redford, Akhenaten Temple Project, pl. 32, nos. 2 and 7.
 WILLIAMSON 183

Nefertiti offering to the Aten without Akhenaten. The inscriptions on the pillars indicate they were as-
sociated with the gm-pA-itn and the pr-itn. They may have been built slightly later than the gateway, as
some appear to include both Meritaten and Meketaten. Both the gateway and the pillars feature unique
scenes of Nefertiti followed by one or both daughters as she worships under the rays of the Aten. Stand-
ing before an offering table Nefertiti wears an Hathoric crown and her daughters hold up sistra, further
underlining the Hathoric ritual aspects of the scenes on both monuments.
The current consensus is that these early images of Nefertiti offering to the Aten without her hus-
band indicate she had high status within the reign of Akhenaten. Her solitary access to the Aten is as-
sumed to signal her power and independence in the Aten cult as early as years 5 or 6, able to access the
Aten without her husbands guidance. It has also been suggested that these monuments are a precursor
to Nefertitis Sunshade of Re temple, where the queen is assumed to also act alone in the Aten cult.9
In the early Eighteenth Dynasty women are rarely shown as sole or primary ritualists in temples:
instead they function as important support personnel responsible for the creation of sacral music, as
priestesses or chantresses, often playing sistra.10 Outside of royal temple relief, if a private woman acts
as the primary owner of a monument dedicated to a deity (such as a votive stele) or acts as the primary
officiant before a deity, her husband is represented as performing the ritual for her, as otherwise his
status would be subordinated to hers.11 For this reason Egyptian art rarely represents a woman as the
primary ritualist without her husband.12 As Gay Robins observes, women may have yielded to the repre-
sentational custom of depicting their husband as primary ritualist on the monument, even if the woman
commissioned it for her own use.13
In some rare cases the husband is omitted from the scene completely to assure that his status will
not be undermined.14 These rare examples of women offering to deities on their own illustrate issues
of gender and religion that shed a different light on Nefertiti in her Karnak relief. For example on a
stele in the Bankes Collection, the inscription describes a women named Bukhanefptah as the one
who commissioned/dedicated the monument. In the lunette she is shown worshipping alone before
the Hathoric goddess Nebethetepet.15 In the next register below, her husband Kasa is at the front of
a procession of musicians. Not only is he smaller than his wife in the lunette, he does not offer to the
deity directly. Nevertheless, to reinforce proper gender hierarchy, the woman directly behind him in
the procession, who is smaller in scale, is labeled as his wife, mistress of the house, Bukhanefptah.
Bukhanefptah is thus shown a second time on her stele, but in the second instance she is in the proper
place behind her husband.
As this stele illustrates, when a woman is shown directly offering to a deity, her husband is not shown
with her in order to maintain proper hierarchy. Kasas status and position is maintained in the stele by
showing him before his wife in the lower register, while allowing Bukhanefptah to have primacy before
the deity at the same time in the lunette. If he had been shown behind her in the lunette his position

9
Dimitri Laboury, Akhnaton, Nfertiti, El-Amarna, Aton, Karnak (Paris, 2010), 154.
10
Gay Robins, Some Principles of Compositional Dominance and Gender Hierarchy in Egyptian Art, JARCE 31 (1994),
3340; idem, Women in Ancient Egypt, 145.
11
Robins, Some Principles of Compositional Dominance, 3340.
12
Robins, Some Principles of Compositional Dominance, 3340.
13
Robins observes the interesting example of a stele from Deir el-Medina, Louvre E 13084, where a man named Merira is
given credit for the dedication of the stele in its inscription, but does not appear on the monument. Instead a woman named
Tarekhan, whose relationship to Merira is unclear, is shown kneeling before Meretseger in the lunette. Thus, although the stele
may have been paid for by Merira, its primary ownership is held by Tarekhan, who is likely his wife, although this is not made
clear. E. Bruyre, Mert Seger Deir el Mdineh (Cairo, 1930), fig 12; Gay Robins, Some Principles of Compositional Dominance,
3340.
14
Note for example CG 34117 and JE 20221, B. Bryan, The Reign of Thutmose IV (Baltimore, 1991), fig. 6a; Gay Robins Wom-
en and Votive Stelae in the New Kingdom in Jackie Phillips, ed., Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, and the Near East: Studies in Honor of
Martha Rhoads Bell (San Antonio, 1997), 44554.
15
No. 7 in the Bankes Collection, From Deir el-Medina, Nineteenth Dynasty. Jaroslav Cern, Egyptian Stelae in the Bankes
Collection (Oxford, 1958), no. 7; Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt, fig. 50; idem, Some Principles of Compositional Dominance,
3340.
184 JARCE 51 (2015)

would have been undermined, so she had to be represented alone. This does not mean to imply that
the first person before a deity blocks entirely the other figures access to that deity, but rather that the
person shown first is singled out and given particular notice. The first person is the main recipient of
the deitys benefaction, and the others shown on the monument benefit in a peripheral and less direct
manner; their benefits are perhaps mediated or enabled by the main actor. If a wife is shown before her
husband, then the honor and active stance implied by this distinction detracts from his authority and
significance.
This distinction may not be entirely gender based. On another stele from the Bankes Collection,
the lunette depicts a solar deity riding in a boat. Underneath, a large figure of a woman kneels with
her arms raised in praise.16 Behind her is a much smaller man, standing with his arms also raised in
the gesture of praise. The inscription indicates that the woman dedicated the stele herself.17 Her name
is Iyneferti, known to be wife of the workman Sennedjem, whose tomb no. 1 at Deir el-Medina is well
known. The smaller man behind her is Anhotep, Iynefertis grandson.18 Sennedjem is not represented
or named in the inscription. The absence of Sennedjem but the presence of Anhotep suggests that fac-
tors other than gender were at play in the representation of direct access to deities. Instead it appears
family hierarchy was more important than gender. A male child would not usurp the priority of his
mother, or in this case grandmother, on a stele intended for her use, nor would his own status be un-
dermined. If Iynefertis grandson overshadowed her in rank, he would either be absent from the stele
entirely to avoid diverting the gods attention from her, or would be shown in front of her to preserve
his status. In this instance, gender was not the factor determining status, rather in artistic representa-
tions family hierarchy ranked a mother above her descendants.
A similar restriction is seen in the Old Kingdom mastaba of Mereruka, which has several chapels
and rooms dedicated to different members of his family. Mereruka is not represented in the chapel that
belongs to his wife, Watetkhether.19 His absence gives her complete formal ownership of the area and
primary access to the benefits of her mortuary chapel. If Mereruka were represented in her chapel, he
would become the primary owner and beneficiary of its rituals. As Robins says That Watetkhether has
her own section of the mastaba at all marks her out as exceptional, but the fact that she appears alone,
unaccompanied by her husband is not because of her high rank but because there could be no place
for him in the scenes if she was to be shown formally as the owner.20
The same may be said of the first stelae in the Bankes Collection; if Kasa appeared in the lunette
with his wife, his superior status would undermine, although not entirely block, her access to the deity.
His absence allows Bukhanefptah to have unadulterated access to a deity on her own. The other way
to guarantee her access would have been to place her husband behind her, but that would reduce his
status. To preserve his authority he could not be present. However, the other stele from the Bankes col-
lection depicting Iyneferti with her grandson demonstrates that family hierarchy is the key issue, not
sex or gender. By omitting the husband, the mostly highly ranked member in the family unit, Iyneferti
is assured iconographic ownership of the monument and unadulterated access to the deity. Although
she remains subordinate in status to her husband, she outranks her male offspring.
In the scenes of Nefertiti offering to the Aten on the gateway and in the pillared hall from Karnak,
Akhenatens absence is necessary to preserve his superior status as husband and, especially, king. It ap-
pears likely these images may have been meant to call the Atens attention to Nefertitis piety, similar to
the intent to call Nebethetepets attention to Bukhanefptah to in the lunette of her stele in the Bankes
Collection. Akhenatens presence would take priority over Nefertitis, rendering her access to the deity

16
Nineteenth Dynasty, reign of Seti I, from Deir el-Medina. Cern, Egyptian Stelae in the Bankes Collection, no. 6.
17
The woman is seeking healing for her blindness, which she indicates is caused by negative talk from those women who
are sadly not named or described in the inscription.
18
He is called her son in the usual Egyptian tendency.
19
Sakkarah Expedition, The Mastaba of Mereruka III , OIP 31 (Chicago, 1938); PM III2 ii, 53435.
20
Robins, Some Principles of Compositional Dominance, 38.
 WILLIAMSON 185

diminished.21 Akhenatens absence in the pillared hall and gateway at Karnak aligns more with family
hierarchy than with traditional sex or gender divisions regarding access to deities in Egyptian art.
On the other hand like Watetkhethers chapel in the mastaba of Mereruka, the pillars and gateway
may have been part of a structure set aside for Nefertiti within the Aten complex. A location where she
could have access to the Aten and conduct rituals of offering to the deity without the undermining
presence of Akhenaten. Although the Hwt bnbn, the gm-pA-itn, and the pr-itn all have parallels at Tell el-
Amarna, none of the scenes from those buildings feature images of Nefertiti alone before the Aten like
these Karnak reliefs. It therefore seems unlikely there was a space set aside for her exclusive use for ritu-
als unknown, as such a space would likely have also been transplanted to Tell el-Amarna. No matter the
original use of the space, whether to indicate the piety of the queen or to serve as a private ritual space,
it was not decorated to indicate her equality of rank or equality of access to the Aten. Instead the king
had to be absent both to preserve his higher status and to ensure that his presence did not overwhelm
or minimize Nefertitis access to the Aten.22
Certainly Akhenaten appears to be concerned about representing himself as independent from
Nefertiti in the cult of the Aten. Around the time Nefertitis gateway and pillars were carved, Akhenaten
announced his decision to move the court to his new city Akhetaten at Tell el-Amarna. On the Bound-
ary Stelae at Tell el-Amarna he says:

Nor shall the Kings Chief Wife say to me, Look there is a nice place for Akhet-Aten someplace
else. Nor shall I listen to her. Nor shall any officials in my presencebe they officials of favor or
officials of the outside, or the chamberlains, or any people in the entire land say to me, Look
there is nice place for Akhet-Aten someplace else. Nor shall I listen to them I will not say I
shall abandon Akhet-Aten so that I may hasten and make Akhet-Aten in this other nice place. 23

This speech on Akhenatens stele diverges from the stylized royal statements typical to ancient Egypt,
and offers an unusual view into the politics of Akhenatens identity as king and Sole Prophet of the
Aten. In declaring that the opinions of Nefertiti and his officials are irrelevant to his decisions suggests
that, true or not, Akhenaten wanted others to believe that he was a lone visionary guided only by the will
of the Aten. Nefertitis influence, along with the rest of the court, is relegated to the sidelines. Consider-
ing that he identified himself as operating independently, we might assume that Akhenatens art would
devalue Nefertitis image, choosing to celebrate only the king, but that is certainly not the case. She is
represented more than any other queen, particularly at Tell el-Amarna.
At Kom el-Nana and many of the private tombs at Tell el-Amarna, Nefertiti appears behind Akhenat-
en, she mimics his gestures and holds up objects to the Aten along side her husband. She is frequently
even clothed identically.24 Rather than merely hold a sistrum or stand passively, as she usually does at
Karnak, she and Akhenaten both make offerings. She also appears to take an active role in the Window
of Appearance scenes, handing objects to Akhenaten and leaning forward with him.25 At Tell el-Amarna
she appears to have a more active role in the cult to have enough status within it to be represented

21
In this instance Akhenatens presence may have entirely blocked her access to the Aten, as even at this early stage he is
resolute in claiming sole and complete access to the Aten.
22
There are only a few tatalat with evidence of Nefertiti holding up offerings to the Aten alongside her husband. Images of
the queen holding a sistrum or a flabellum, or simply observing the king with her hands raised up in praise are far more frequent.
The talatat that do show Nefertiti offering alongside Akhenaten are unclearly labeled and the precise content of these scenes can
be questioned. See Smith and Redford, Akhenaten Temple Project, pl. 8, no. 4.
23
The early proclamation of on Boundary Stelae X, M, K, see William Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt (Atlanta,
1995), 7677.
24
In the tomb of Panehesy both she and Akhenaten wear floor length draped garments and hem-hem crowns. He offers in-
cense and she a bouquet of flowers, see Davies, Amarna II, pl. 8. Although not a religious offering scene, in the tomb of Meryra II,
Akhenaten and Nefertiti overlap and hold hands in one of the foreign tribute scenes. She is not shown behind him or at a smaller
size, instead her identity and status seems one and the same as Akhenatens, see Davies, Amarna II, pl. 38.
25
At Karnak Nefertiti merely stands to one side during the Window of Appearance ceremony and holds up one hand in the
gesture of praise, like a courtier to the king, see Robert Verginieux, Recherches sue les monuments Thbains dAmenhotep IV laide
186 JARCE 51 (2015)

beside her husband. By appearing together in the images they signal that her active presence in front of
the Aten no longer threatens Akhenatens status. This may indicate that Nefertitis position or identity
changed in the Aten cult some time between years 5/6, when the gateway and pillars were erected at
Karnak, and the time she is representated at Kom el-Nana, where carving started around year 8.26 It is
possible then that Nefertitis status was elevated after their relocation to Tell el-Amarna. This question
will be elaborated further below.
The size of Nefertitis image at Kom el-Nana in relationship to Akhenaten must be considered as well.
The height difference between the two seems to belie her importance, because height in the art of an-
cient Egypt indicated status and importance.27 The viewer is meant to understand the tallest and largest
figures in any given scene were the most active and important. Logically, figures descending in height
were understood to also descend in status and importance.28 Many have suggested, using the Amarna
tombs of the nobles as a primary reference, that Nefertiti is usually represented at a more natural height
to Akhenaten after their move to Amarna,29 in contradiction to her earlier representations at Karnak,
where she is shown unnaturally diminutive. The change in relative size is also used as further proof
that Nefertitis religious importance was nearly equal to Akhenatens standing before the Aten.30 Her
iconographic change in height and active stance is seen to underline her presence and participation in
the new Aten ideology and is often correlated with the appearance of her distinctive blue crown, which
is unique to her, setting her apart from other queens.
But Kom el-Nana, which was likely one of the first buildings at Tell el-Amarna, shows no evidence
that her relative height had changed.31 Only one scene preserved from the north shrine represents
Nefertiti at a natural height to Akhenaten, all the others show her as unnaturally small.32 In addition, no

doutils informatiques. (Geneva, 1999), fasc. 2, pl. 1. At Amarna she is much more actively engaged, such as in the tomb of Ay,
where she is the same size as he, and is helping Akhenaten distribute shebyu collars, Davies, Amarna VI, pl. 29.
26
Although Kom el-Nana was one of the first built at Tell el-Amarna, the first three daughters are shown in the North Shrine,
suggesting the structure was decorated in relief around year 8. It appears that, like many of the structures at Tell el-Amarna, the
buildings were erected first in mud brick which was replaced with decorated stone work as the occupation continued. There is
one example of the late version of the Aten cartouche at Kom el-Nana, thus carving could have resumed or continued into year 11.
See also Jacquelyn Williamson, The sunshade of Nefertiti, EA 33 (2008), 57; also see forthcoming monograph idem, Nefertitis
Sun Temple: A New Cult Complex at Amarna.
27
Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt (Cambridge, 1997), 21. It also had a gendered component as well, but hierarchy or
status trumped gender, as will be discussed below in more detail, see Robins Women and Votive Stelae in the New Kingdom,
44554.
28
Lyn Meskell suggests the size differences between men and women are indicative of disparity in gender status. Ann Roth
disagrees and suggests the differences in size between a nonroyal husband and wife is more complex than simple gender status.
However, as this is a discussion of royal individuals, this argument has a limited application. As Roth points out, size differences
become more pronounced in the royal sphere due to the need to reference the status of the king. Lyn Meskell, Size Matters: Sex,
Gender, and Status in Egyptian Iconography, in Mary Casey, Denise Donlon, Jeanette Hope, Sharon Wellfare, eds., Redefining
Archaeology: Feminist Perspectives (Canberra, 1998), 17581; Ann Macy Roth, Little Women, Gender and Hierarchic Proportion
in Old Kingdom Mastaba Chapels, in Miroslav Brta, ed., The Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology, Proceedings of the Conference Held
in Prague, May 31 June 4, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Prague, 2004), 28196.
29
Dorothea Arnold, Aspects of the Royal Female Image During the Amarna Period, in Dorothea Arnold, ed., The Royal
Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt (New York, 1996), 85. However this is not always the case in the relief at Tell
el-Amarna. Balustrade fragments Cairo 87300 and Cairo Temporary Number 30.10.26.12 have images of the royal couple offer-
ing to the Aten. In each scene, Nefertitis image is almost as reduced in natural size as she is on the Karnak reliefs. It is particularly
noteworthy that although Akhenaten is represented in the body cartouches on these balustrades, she is not.
30
Arnold, Aspects of the Royal Female Image, 85.
31
There is no question these images of a small royal female from Kom el-Nana are indeed Nefertiti. The images of the prin-
cesses are even smaller still, and the only names or titles of any royal woman are those of Nefertiti and her first three daughters.
There are no documented examples of the names or titles of Tiye or Kiya.
32
In fact she is rarely shown exactly the same height in proportion to the king. Roth points out that this is actually quite
typical, although the exact reasoning for this variance in size in a single monument in this way is unclear. I would suggest that
the variance in height may have to do with different work gangs who did not coordinate their drafts, as well as other influencing
factors like ownership and status within a particular scene. Roth, Little Women, 28196.
 WILLIAMSON 187

conclusive evidence suggests that Nefertiti wears her tall blue crown at Kom el-Nana, despite evidence
for the Nubian wig and the bag-style wig.33
Roth has observed that the comparative heights of male versus female tomb owners vary, in some
cases dramatically, in the same monument, increasing and decreasing depending on proximity to par-
ticular chapels or scenes.34 The balustrades of the central city of Amarna preserve several scenes of the
king and queen together where the top of the queens head does not clear the small of the kings back.
The two sides on balustrade JE 87300 contrast in terms of her height relative to Akhenaten: on one side
she is smaller than on the other (fig. 4 A, B).35 Nefertiti is also shown unnaturally small on many monu-
ments, including Boundary stele N,36 and the tomb of May, the tomb of Parennefer, and the tomb of
Tutu.37 The tomb of Meryre shows an interesting height variance in the queens image, more extreme
than the one seen on JE 87300. In the chariot procession in Meryres pillared hall, Nefertiti barely clears
the small of the Akhenatens back and she drives a chariot similarly reduced in scale. But in the same
room, on the eastern side of the southern wall, she is more naturally proportioned.38 A similar variance
is seen at the tomb of Panehesy: the lintel of his tomb shows the queen at a natural height to the king;39
her eyes are equal to the height of Akhenatens lower neck. But inside on the eastern thickness of the
door she is shown significantly reduced in height, her eyes align with Akhenatens breast.
Roth observed that the height of female figures in private mastabas of the Old Kingdom show a
similar variance in height, increasing and decreasing in relationship to the men in the scenes.40 In some
cases an increase in the womans height could be correlated with her proximity to a chapel dedicated
specifically to her in the mastaba, as in the mastaba of Mereruka mentioned above. A similar correla-
tion is not observed at Tell el-Amarna, as the focus of an Amarna private tomb is not the tomb owner
and their family, but the king and queen. Roth indicates that context did not always easily explain the
height of the women in the scenes she studied, and that the full reasoning behind such height variances
is not always evident. Roth further observes that the owners of the tomb and their family exhibited these
height variations, but the nameless men and women in the tomb scenes, such as the offering bearers
or the workers in the field, did not vary in height.41
Amarna scenes are similar, but the height of the women and men who are identified as having di-
rect contact with the royal family are drawn with clear height variances. For example, in the tomb of
Meryra in the pillared hall on the west side the royal couple approaches a temple.42 In several registers
the people of the temple are arranged in front, with their arms outstretched, praising the arriving royal
retinue. Two registers show women wearing long pleated garments, taller than or of equal height to the
male priests, and taller than the men in charge of the cattle in the lowest register of the scene. On the
lower half of the eastern wall, where the king and queen reward Meryre, the princesses and their female
attendants are taller than Meryre, and are in fact taller than most of the male attendants in the scene.
In the examples just described, rank trumps gender: the higher ones rank the taller one is depicted,
without regard to gender. Although height can certainly indicate gender hierarchy, height is a better
predictor of rank or significance. The king will by proxy be the highest-ranked person in any scene, with

33
However this absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. It is possible that her blue crown was present at
Kom el-Nana, but diagnostic fragments of it have not yet been identified.
34
These variances are observed in the Old Kingdom, and in non-royal mastabas, and thus a correlation between these data
sets must be approached with caution. Roth, Little Women, 28196.
35
Gnther Roeder, Rainer Hanke and Deutsche Hermopolis-Expedition, Amarna-Reliefs Aus Hermopolis, Vol. 6 (Hildesheim,
1969), pls. 1-2; Freed, DAuria and Markowitz, Pharaohs of the Sun, 226.
36
Davies, Amarna V, pls. 3 and 33.
37
Davies, Amarna VI, pls. 3 and 16.
38
Davies, Amarna I, pl. 17.
39
Davies, Amarna II, pls. 5 and 8.
40
Roth, Little Women, 28196.
41
Roth, Little Women, 28196.
42
Davies, Amarna I, pl. 10a.
188 JARCE 51 (2015)

Fig. 4. A and B: two sides of balustrade JE 87300 (photograph by the author).

his queen ranked next, indicating the king will always be the tallest figure and the queen the next tallest,
even if she is short in comparison to the king.43
To summarize these points, if Nefertiti had been shown worshipping the Aten alone at Kom el-Nana,
like on her Karnak pillars and gateway, her status in the religion would have been undermined, not
elevated. Images of her alone at the Sunshade would communicate that she did not possess sufficient
status to act alongside the king in rituals before the Aten, as his presence would detract from her ability
to interface with the deity. Small or not, the image of her standing with the king and copying his ritual
gestures is a far more powerful statement regarding her status in his new religion. And although she is
small, she is the next tallest person after Akhenaten, her status is thus emphasized and this underlines
her participation in the cult.
Nefertitis new identity in the cult of the Aten may have had a role in this change. Akhenatens belief
in the reviving capacity of Nefertiti as a goddess is explicit on his sarcophagus, where Nefertitis image
takes the place of Isis as the regenerative presence that embraces the sides of the royal sarcophagus to

43
At first I considered the idea that she was shown small as a means to indicate her ritual actions at the Sunshade, the locus
of the renewal of the sun god, benefitted not only the Aten but the King as the tit of the sun god. However the fact that her height
variance appears all over the city demanded a more uniform approach to the issue, instead of a solution that was applicable to
one area only.
 WILLIAMSON 189

grant resurrection to the king inside.44 This reference to the rejuvenation of Osiris and the rebirth of
the divine king through the medium of his sister/wife/queen is reinterpreted within Atenism: Nefertiti
endows Akhenaten with rebirth. As Nefertiti is represented on all four sides of the sarcophagus, she
also takes the place of Nephtys and the protective goddesses Selket and Neith.45 By replacing those god-
desses, Nefertiti is understood to protect the reborn pharaoh and to replace the female deities who were
removed under the gender-neutral/male Aten.
The house stelae found at Amarna are statements regarding the hermetic identity of the divine triad
of Amarnathe Aten as creator god is shown with his twin offspring Shu/Akhenaten and Tefnut/Nefer-
titi who control access to the creator.46 By worshipping the divine/royal family on the house stele the
owner invoked their intercession with the Aten. Akhenaten, assisted by Nefertiti, was the active means
by which the Atens gifts came to the world, the intermediary between his subjects and the god, and the
purveyor of the divine to the entire world.47
At Karnak Nefertitis equation with Hathor and Maat is emphasized as well, perhaps originally in-
spired by the role Queen Tiye played in the Heb-Sed scenes in the Tomb of Kherouef. Despite these as-
sociations Nefertiti is rarely shown actively partaking in rituals at Karnak. When she is shown, Akhenat-
en cannot be shown with her because his status will be threatened, and he will usurp or minimize her
access to the Aten. This is not the case at Tell el-Amarna, where Akhenaten is shown with her offering
to the Aten, and a great deal of effort is taken to make them look as alike as possible, correlating with
their identities as the divine twins, Shu and Tefnut. By identifying her as his divine twin, Nefertiti no
longer threatened his images at Tell el-Amarna. Instead her presence supported and enforced his au-
thority, and in turn, her ability to access the deity was increased to a level that could not be usurped by
his presence.

(Mis)Conceptions of Gender and Power in the Amarna Period and Beyond

The statue of the sculptor Bak bears an inscription indicating that Akhenaten played an active role
in crafting his new artistic style.48 However no similar evidence indicates that Nefertiti played a role in
her representations either at Karnak or at Amarna. In fact the only information we have about her is
the public identity Akhenaten fashioned to fulfill the needs of Atenism. We cannot assert with confi-
dence details of her life before she became queen. Her name was popular at the time, and may in fact
have been given to her at her crowning to reinforce her association with Hathor and to gender her as
the female element lacking in Atenism, emphasized by her wearing of Hathors crown at Karnak.49 As
a queen she needed to manifest the Hathoric elements of beauty and love to guarantee Akhenatens
regeneration, and her representations in tombs at Tell el-Amarna also served Akhenatens theological

44
The reconstructed sarcophagus is currently in the Cairo Museum, but a corner fragment with the image of Nefertiti as Isis
in a double plumed Hathor crown is in the Berlin museum, M 14542.
45
Sayed Tawfik, Aton Studies, 3. Back again to Nefer-Neferu-Aton, MDAIK 31 (1975), 15968, pls. 5152. He notes her pres-
ence on the sarcophagus from the royal tomb, where it appears Nefertiti is standing in for, and plays the role of, the traditional
protective goddesses.
46
Jan Assmann, A New State Theology The Religion of Light, in Friederike Seyfried, ed., In the Light of Amarna, 100 Years
of the Nefertiti Discovery (Berlin, 2012), 7983; Arnold, Aspects of the Royal Female Image, 97100. She also suggests that these
stelae represent the royal family in a birth bower, to take the place of the traditional household deities that would have previously
watched over the welfare of women and children. Also note Salima Ikram, Domestic Shrines and the Cult of the Royal Family at
El-Amarna, JEA 75 (1989), 89101; Rolf Krauss, Die Amarnazeitliche familienstele Berlin 14145 unter besonderer bercksich-
tigung von massordnung und komposition, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 33 (1991), 736, http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4125873.
47
James Allen, The Natural Philosophy of Akhenaten, in William Simpson, ed., Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt
(New Haven, CT, 1989), 98.
48
gyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung Berlin 31009. Rolf Krauss Der Oberbildhauer Bak und sein Denkstein in Ber-
lin, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 28 (1986), 546; Rita Freed, Sue DAuria and Yvonne Markowitz, Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten,
Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, 244, catalogue number 131
49
Claude Traunecker, Nfertiti, la reine sans nom, 13544.
190 JARCE 51 (2015)

needs,50 Nefertitis identity, like all royal images from ancient Egypt, was carefully controlled to rein-
force the kings reign.
However, the profusion of images of Nefertiti accompanying Akhenaten in offering to the Aten,
with gestures identical to his, communicates her importance to Akhenatens religion. No other queen is
showcased to this extent, or given such eminence.51 These images have caused many to speculate about
Nefertitis character without considering the context within her time.52 For example:

I believe that Nefertiti would be a great feminist leader in todays times. Nefertiti was not afraid
to voice her own opinions, even in a time when women were supposed to be seen not heard. She
took her own initiative to make things she believed needed to happen, happen. Nefertiti would
definitely help get equal rights for women. In a time where it was not unheard of a pharaoh
treating his wife as an equal, Nefertiti accomplished just as much if not more than her husband.
Nefertiti would be appalled at the pay gap between women and men in the workplace, especially
since most of the women do the same work if not more than their male counterparts. Nefertiti
would empower women to take a stand for their beliefs. She would encourage women to move
out of the shadow of their husbands or male superiors and make changes for themselves. Nefertiti
would be a great advocate and leader for that issue because she conquered it in her own time.53

Obviously such popular (mis)conceptions about Nefertiti are extreme extrapolations of the evidence
and anachronistic deductions imposing modern values onto the past.54 The assumptions underlying
these ideas spring from some modes of Western thought and Enlightenment philosophies that cel-
ebrate individuals who act independently from tradition and sometimes in defiance of convention,55
to assert their inalienable rights and resist an established power structure. Western scholarship and
feminist thought accord women agency, or the independent ability to act, when they rebel against social
norms that proscribe their equality.56
The assumptions underlying these ideas spring from Enlightenment philosophies that are grounded
in a notion of the sovereign individual, seen to exercise free will only when the individual acts inde-
pendently from traditions. When a subject acts within a tradition, the individual is thought to be con-
strained. Inheriting and expanding upon Kant and Descartes, who did not accord women this type
of agency, one of the objectives of the early Feminist movement in the 1970s was to identify women
as having agency, the independent ability to act. As the movement grew, ideas of agency were consoli-
dated and systematically assigned by Feminist theorists only to actions that rebel against social norms.
This imbued agency with political and moral imperatives. This approach often dismisses women who
support social structures that appear to keep them subordinate. These women are often defined in
Western scholarship as lacking the ability to make their own decisions, i.e., lacking in agency, or brain-
washed by their culture, rendering them too disempowered to rebel.
Many popular interpretations seem to look for Nefertitis identity in these terms of Western individu-
alism or modern Western feminist notions of agency. The Nefertiti Pillars were discovered in the 1970s,
when a prime component of Feminist scholarship focused on identifying and restoring women to the
pages of history. The reception of Nefertitis image on the Pillars was seen through that lens. Not only
did they provide further information on an historic woman, they appeared to fit within the Enlighten-

50
Laboury Akhnaton, Nfertiti, El-Amarna, Aton, Karnak, 235.
51
Note in particular the remarkable image of Nefertiti smiting enemies of Egypt on MFA 64.521.
52
Dominic Monterrat, Akhenaten History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt, (London 2003), 122, 145.
53
Queen Nefertiti, A Woman for Change, http://queennef.wordpress.com/about/ (accessed May 21, 2015).
54
In classes on the Amarna period students often suggest that Akhenaten loved Nefertiti and his daughters so much that
he demanded their inclusion in his art. This suggests that the hundreds of kings before and after Akhenaten did not love their
families, or somehow valued them less, which seems unlikely. Instead the importance of supporting Atenism should be seen as
the motivator for the emphasis of the royal family in his art.
55
Saba Mahmood, Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Reviva,l
Cultural Anthropology 16.2 (2001) 20236.
56
It is for this reason that Akhenaten has also been called the first individual in Egyptian history.
 WILLIAMSON 191

ment format that guided the definition of agency: it appeared that they represented a woman acting
against a social structure that aimed to remove her independence, to constrain her in the Kantian sense.
However these are paradigms that obfuscate. As Saba Mahmood observed, power and agency can be
located in many places.57 When studying the new Islamic movements so popular among contemporary
Arab women, the voluntary struggle to achieve docility is seen itself to be powerfully charged and agen-
tive. Thus agency can be found in the conscious, educated support of a traditional power hierarchy. For
agency to have an analytical application in studying gender, particularly in the ancient world, it must
therefore be divorced from political notions irrelevant to a culture 3,500 years removed.58
If Akhenaten decided to abrogate tradition and emphasize Nefertiti and her daughters as a means
to communicate that abrogation, Nefertiti may have been obliged to complement and support her hus-
bands desires no matter her own opinion. No evidence suggests she was either pro or con Atenism. The
gateway and pillars at Karnak suggest a degree of piety toward the Aten, but it is impossible to deter-
mine if she played a role in their construction. Akhenatens support of traditional gendered hierarchy
in his art and the lack of Nefertitis voice in the textual record from the era could indicate that Nefertiti
was a dutiful supporter, rather than a firebrand individualist. This does not to indicate a lack of power
on Nefertitis part, but rather it places her within the context of the hierarchy of her society.
Akhenaten likely married Nefertiti around the same time he began his extreme Atenist changes at
Karnak.59 He may have decided to marry at that time because Atenism needed the Hathoric element
of queenship. Traditional Egyptian queenship is complex; the queen is both the kings semi-divine
equal, but she also ultimately serves as the creative principle, the locus through which the eternal cycle
of kingship is renewed and guaranteed.60 Akhenaten emphasized this identity within the restrictions
of Atenism, which needed to replace the divine female principle that had been eradicated by expelling
many of the key female deities.
The gender roles assumed by the king and queen, predicated by their identities as gods such as Shu,
Tefnut, and Hathor in Atenism, required that the art of Amarna show them performing those roles.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti appear by bedsides, embrace, hold hands, and fondle their children, performa-
tive actions that all reinforce their gendered, highly sexualized, relationship.61 In this way they create
the gendered, sexual identities of their reigns. These repeated actions reinforce a type of gender per-
formance, thus creating a hierarchy and identity.62
Hatshepsut could rule as a woman, but had to be a king. She had to be represented as a male be-
cause she adopted male rulership. As Judith Butler would say, Hatshepsut was performing a male
gender role and her artistic representations had to show her performing as a male. Nefertitis image
also performed a complex role, gendered as an equal opposite in the form of Tefnut operating for the
recreation of the universe, as well as the supportive divine queen whose creative capacity for renewal
served the kings needs.
Instead of looking for power in the western sense, it is more fruitful to look for importance. Us-
ing this paradigm shift, from power to importance, issues of gender and status can be seen in a more
productive light. The agency and power of an ancient person often cannot be determined due to a
lack of evidence, and even more problematic most theories of agency and power are predicated on a
modern Western model of thought. If we seek to go beyond the modern reception of Nefertiti to view
her identity in the past, we must place her in her time period and in her context. Nefertitis image at

57
Mahmood Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent, 20236.
58
For example, it has been theorized that Sheryl Sandberg, the noted CEO of Facebook and author of a popular book on
women in the business world, does not herself possess agency as she is acting within an established patriarchal system. This dem-
onstrates the problem of using agency burdened by post-Enlightenment Western notions.
59
Laboury, Akhnato1n, Nfertiti, El-Amarna, Aton, Karnak, 233.
60
For an excellent discussion of the role of the office of the queen, see Lana Troy, Patterns of Queenship in Ancient Egyptian
Myth and History (Uppsala, 1986).
61
Traunecker, Nfertiti, la reine sans nom, 11734.
62
Rosemary Joyce, Feminist Theories of Embodiment and Anthropological Imagination: Making Bodies Matter, in Pamela
Geller and Miranda Stockett, eds., Feminist Anthropology, Past, Present, Future, (Pennsylvania, 2006), 4354.
192 JARCE 51 (2015)

Kom el-Nana needed to walk a delicate line in the performance of a conflicting set of identities: she
was Akhenatens near equal in the cult of the Aten, but that male role could potentially undermine
the kings authority. All of Nefertitis titles focus on her beauty and her ability to inspire love, recalling
Hathor and reinforcing her gendered status. The object is not to usurp or threaten the authority of
the king, but to reinforce and renew his power. In this way Nefertitis importance to Akhenaten and to
Atenism cannot be understated.
Gender and status are not universal and ahistorical givens, but rather ways to account for social
relations that are different in every society. By trying to look not for power or agency, but for what a
specific culture valued as important, we can start to reveal women in more roles of significance, instead
of consigning them to the single heading of disempowered. Nefertitis image is specific to its cultural
and historical moment and its reception by its ancient audience is similarly specific. Her image served
the king and was created to serve his religious agenda, but it cannot be understood to represent an
ancient feminist.

Harvard University