Amenhotep III, king of Egypt 1390-1352 BC

A 49-minute unscripted talk about Amenhotep III, one of the later pharaohs of Egypt's 18th Dynasty. This is just a reflection of work in progress on a book I am writing about the 18th Dynasty, called The Climax of Egypt. How Ambition, Greed and Despotism drove the Rise and Fall of Tutankhamun's Egypt, to be published in late 2022 by Little, Brown. Nothing definitive - just my thoughts about whether he was the real deal or something of a puppet.
NAMES (all dates only approximate)
1. Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC)
2. His queen, Tiye, the daughter of Yuya and Thuya
Amenhotep and Tiye were the parents of:
3. Akhenaten (1352-1336 BC) who was married to his queen:
4. Nefertiti, also known as Neferneferuaten who seems to have become a joint king with her husband later in the reign with the throne name Ankhetkheperure
Akhenaten had sisters, among whom where:
5. Sitamun
6. Bekatetan

[@SwedeEad]

"I could go on about this for hours" Guy, please do! This is riveting stuff and the parallels with modern events and dynasties are quite disturbing "nowt changes" as they say where I live.

[@ideletemyinbox]

Thank goodness for 49 minutes of calm and intelligent discussion. Great to see Guy appearing in some of the new official Time Team re-uploads too.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Very pleased to see this, I have been enjoying this channel over the last few weeks. New book sounds great.

[@greendragonreprised6885]

Thank you very much. That was wonderful. I learned so much that I didn't know before. Maybe do more of these unscripted brain dumps, please. Stuck at home, trying to find ways to stimulate my brain even though the body is going to hell. This helps wonders.

[@fetus2280]

I concur

[@donwilliams8357]

Guy possesses a gift for sharing the stories of the past in an understandable, warm and meaningful manner. His appearances on Time Team were the absolutely best episodes. Thank you, sir, and I look forward to reading all of your books soon.

[@frankbaxley]

Welcome back, and thank you.

[@stevedouglas175]

Guy, I have just added your new book to my must read list. You are an excellent writer, Gladius was hard to put down.

[@marting652]

Absolutely fascinating, and upon something I knew and indeed know very little of. Thank you Guy, wonderful educational stuff.

[@harrybailey6297]

Haven't even watched it yet and I know its gonna be good

[@mishawillatt4846]

Absolutely fascinating! Thank you

[@fetus2280]

I saw the Tut exhibit when i was a kid and it got me even More interested in it .. I have gone so far as to Name my cat Hatshepsut .. So today i get 2 favorite things in one video,,, My favorite former Time Team member and one of my favorite times in history, Ancient Egypt ... Thank you Guy .. really enjoyed listening to you .

[@RaimoKangasniemi]

Considering 21:00 where it's said that Egypt had no cavalry: The study of the skeletons of several kings of the so-called Abydos Dynasty(c. 1650 - c. 1600 BCE) shows that they likely had spent much of their life on horseback, and also king Senebkay's injuries are interpreted that he was attacked while on horseback. This has been used to argue that there was some kind of, if only very limited, cavalry before the adoption of the use of chariots.

[@thomaskeil89]

As fascinating as ever Guy thanks for these uploads could listen to them all day

[@DavidSmith-qb1hc]

I'm really loving this series of talks on the Egypt of the eighteenth dynasty. thankyou so much for an intelligent discussion of this fascinating subject

[@rymerster]

Great lecture. About Yuya and Thuya, I would like to propose that Thuya’s acknowledged son the priest Anen is an overlooked figure. He was married and although now damaged one of his tombs showed he had a wife, son and multiple daughters. I think it’s possible that Nefertiti and Mutenberet were his daughters. Anen died before the second Sed festival of Amenhotep III, which would explain why the two sisters appear to be in the household of Ay and Tey. They are never called the girls parents but the four individuals were closely associated. Ay could either be an uncle or older brother of Nefertiti and Mutenberet. The “smoking gun” for me is the unusual reversed glyph in Nefertiti and Anen’s names. As you say in your lecture, Tiye must have had a say in who her son chose as great royal wife; if Nefertiti was her niece this choice would make a lot of sense, especially as her brother had died. Ay is never described as Nefertiti’s father, but they are clearly close.

[@awuma]

Finally a spotlight on Yuya and Thuya! The comparison with the Woodvilles is brilliant. You never mentioned the possibility that Mutemwiya was the sister of Yuya. Another possibility is that Nefertari was also Ay's grand-daughter (a walking stick with Ay's cartouche was found in Nefertari's fabulous tomb). If Ay was Yuya's son, then isn't it possible that the Yuya-Thuya clan was still powerful during the early 19th dynasty, and that Ramses II was married to Nefertari to reconcile the Paramesse and Yuya clans, to reinforce the Ramesside claim to the throne? And note, Nefertari was as powerful as Tiye was, even Nefertiti, who may have been Ay's daughter or possibly neice. The power of Yuya's clan may have lain in its educated women, of which Thuya surely was one. Note the complexity of DNA analysis should Mutemwiya have been Yuya's sister (or perhaps Thuya's, after all Thuya was descended from royalty)... the Younger Lady may not have been Akhenaten's sister after all if she really is Nefertiti and the daughter of Ay or Anen (after all, Ay's wife Tey is called the nurse and tutor of Nefertiti, not mother). I have long thought of Yuya as the key figure of the later 18th dynasty, a sort of non-royal John of Gaunt. As for Horemheb, a most remarkable figure who put Egypt back on the rails for over another century of greatness, his choice of Paramesse as successor was astute in that Paramesse had an accomplished son (later Seti I) and a strapping young grandson (Ramses II), unburdened by inbreeding, but very likely the Yuya clan was still powerful and with a hereditary claim to the throne possibly rivalling that of the Ramessides. So, was Nefertari related to Nefertiti? Possibly a piece of bone is all that remains of Nefertari, but getting all these 18th dynasty relationships sorted out is absolutely fascinating. And let's not forget the shadowy Mutnodjmet, second wife of Horemheb (the first being Amenia, so beautifully shown in the double statue with Horemheb at the British Museum). Perhaps Horemheb's claim to the throne needed a Yuya descendant at his side...

[@ClassCiv]

Thank you for your stimulating comment. Impossible to jam in all these possibilities to a talk like that, but in principle I agree with you. The Tutankhamun DNA argument makes far more sense if a) the YL is Nefertiti and b) the whole family was riven with DNA overlaps because of one cousin marrage after another with Yuya's clan. This removes the necessity of believing the YL was an anonymous sibling of Akhenaten, which is a ludicrous argument since it's inconceivable another sister-queen and mother of a male heir had totally escaped ever being recorded. Unfortunately, it's impossible to prove most of these unions because there simply isn't the specific evidence (like Mutemwiya, but yes, if she was Yuya's sister that would make a lot of sense). Yuya's significance also onle makes sense if Amenhotep III was a borderline half-wit. I think the Nefertari connection to Ay is a stretch too far - heirloom objects were not uncommon in royal tombs - but one could not discount it.

[@lifeschool]

Great stuff! Made my night!

[@jahuti5065]

Great talk. I loved the lining up of Tiye's and Akhenaten's faces and I loved your parallels with English history. You say that we get little impression of Amenhotep iii but for me, one thing does come across and that was that he was a sick man, at least towards the end of his reign. Two things especially point to this; the first being that when, during the co-regency, Tiye moves to Akhetaten ( if I remember my Aldred correctly) He stays behind, and secondly that she takes over the job of royal correspondence. It would have looked strange for a royal wife to have done this, so the implication is that he was no longer capable. His mummy shows severe dental abscesses which would have been both painful and debilitating. Perhaps either the pain or whatever he took to ease it (alcohol? opium?) got the better of him.The Amarna style depiction of him as old and rather wilted looking adds weight to such a hypothesis.

[@bamadave6324]

Enjoy your lectures Guy- well done and interesting. I do hope we will also see you on the new TT?

[@davemarks7322]

Very much enjoyed. Thank you. Was great.

[@HerrGesetz]

Very interesting stuff. I'm sure you must be sick of getting questions about time team but,,, are you going to be involved in the new episodes they are making? Cheers

[@ClassCiv]

I am not involved in the revived version of Time Team.

[@fenham]

Would love a lecture dealing with Hatshepsut

[@markbrailsford7502]

Much enjoyed thank you

[@annascott3542]

Amarna worker’s burials 90% btwn 9-20 yrs ☹️

[@ladypip]

Thank you 🤗