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K-if^n^ip",-.. -™-.fT,i^',-?-^'-.- % .̂>-vi ^i—;vf^ IL •,«• iinT^:r-i;Tj

/ A t n A oucctv WHO T^itpA l

• magine that you areI Ankhesenamunf (ankh-se-NAH-mun),the young queen of Egypt.Your husband Tutankhamun—the well-known King Tut—hasjust died unexpectedly leavingyou widowed and alone.Surrounded by court intrigueand older men all wanting totake your husbands place asking, what do you do?

If you said, "Find anotherhusband, and quickly!" you'd be

• right. And, that is exactly whatAnkhesenamun tried to do. Whenshe lived about 3,500 years ago,Egyptian kings frequently marriedthe daughters of foreign rulersin order to cement a diplomatic

alliance or even just a friendship.Why should she not do the same?

But, to whom?

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> V

The answer comes from anunexpected source—the

The artisan who craftedthis aiabaster head—

possibiy of Ankhesenamun—paid ciose attention to detaiis,

especially the carefuiiy fashionedwig and the kohi eyepaint.

archives of the Hittites, a war-like kingdom based in what isnow modern Turkey TheEgyptians and the Hittites hadbeen fighting on and off fordecades. Nevertheless, ina most astonishing move,Ankhesenamun wrote to theHittite king Suppiluliuma(SHOOP-ee-loo-lee-eew-ma),to ask if he had an extra sonwhom he could send to herand who could become herhusband: ''My husband isdead. I have no son. But the\say that you have many sons.If you would give me one ofyour sons, he would becomemy husband. I will nevertake a servant of mine andmake him my husband!"

Not surprisingly Suppiluliuma was suspicious.Wbat kind of a proposal was this? Never beforebad such an offer been made! Pharaohs hadmarried the daughters of kings, but neverhad they married their daughters to foreigners.He iinmediatel)- sent a messenger—a trusteddiplomat—to Eg>'pt to ask the queen in personif she meant what she had written. It took themessenger nearly a year to travel back and forthto Egypt, but, eventually, he returned to theHittite court and reported that the offer wasindeed valid. The queen wanted a Hittiteprince to be her husband and to rule allof Eg>pt with her.

A hm\ fmIn fact, the queen was furious thatSuppiluiiuma had even doubted her intentions.She sent an angry letter back with the HitLitemessenger: "Had I a son, would I have writtenabout my own and my country's shame to aforeign land? You did not believe me, andyou even spoke thus to me! He who was myhusband is dead. I have no son! Never shallI take a servant of mine and make him myhusband! I bave written to no other country.Only to you I have vvritten. They say you have

\

Egyptians and Hittites often warred with each other. Here, Egyptian troops stormthe Hittite city of Dapur (from a relief dating to around Tut's reign).

many sons; so give me one son of yours. To me,he will be husband. In Egypt, he will be king!"

Suppiluliuma, persnaded that the Egyptianqueen's marriage proposal was genuine, sentone of his sons, Zannanza (zah-NAN-zah),to Egypt to marr)' Ankhesenamun.

But the royal marriage never took place.Zannanza and his companions were ambushedon their way to Egypt, and the young Hittiteprince was killed.

WHO DIP \J\Ankhesenamun was devastated. Not only wouldthe Hittite king want revenge for his son's death,but now she would have to marr}' one of theolder men who had been pressuring her eversince Tutankhamun had died. Sure enough, notonly did Suppiluliuma immediately declare waron the Egyptian forces stationed in North Syria,but Ankhesenamun was forced to marry Ay, aman old enough to be her grandfather.

Yet one question still remains unanswered—a mystery that remains unsolved. Who murderedthe Hittite prince Zannanza?

Historians and archaeologists are stillarguing about the answer. Some think theambush and murder were carried out on the

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Around his necic, Ay wears the gold of honor" chains given him by King Aichenaten for his outstanding service. Atop tiie wigon his head is a perfume cone, the significance of which is stiii not cieaHy understood.

orders of Ay, who married Ankhesenamunand became pharaoh of Egypt. Others thinkthe plot might have been the work of theEgyptian general Horemheb (hor-EM-heb),an ambitious middle-aged man. Horemhebsucceeded Ay, who died after only four yearson the throne.

THE 1mm (ONTINUESAnd what happened to Suppiluliuma? He wasrewarded as he deserved, some would sayAfter declaring war on Egypt following hisson's death, his army captured some Egyptiansoldiers in North Syria. Those soldiers weresent to the Hittite homeland as prisoners ofwar. But they brought with them a plague,perhaps something similar to the bubonic

plague, or "black death" that ravaged Europeduring the Middle Ages. The plagtic lastedmore than 20 years, devastating the Hittitekingdom.

Suppiluliuma and many members of theHittite royal family died as a result, promptinghis son Mursili (mcr-SHE-lee) to write aseries of prayers to the gods known as thePlague Prayers 0/Mursili. Mursih also wrotea chronicle of his fathers life and reign, titledThe Deeds ojSwppWuWuma. It is from ancienttexts such as these that we read of themysterious case of the widowed Egyptianqueen and the murdered Hittite prince.

Eric H. Cline is chair of the Department of Classical andSemitic Languages and Literatures at The GeorgeWashington University, in Washington. DC.

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