Ok, so if Tutankhamen IS really Akhenaten's son, why doesn't Akhenaten mention him?

Question

Follow up to my "Why is the popular opinion that Tut was Akhenaten's son, not his brother?" question. I did get helpful replies, but the facts still don't make sense to me.

Of course, we're pretty much left with guessing about this. So why do you think a pharaoh would ignore his son and represent himself in stone images with only his wife (Nefertiti) and their daughters? It doesn't make any sense to me for a man not to acknowledge having a son, especially when sons are the offspring of choice among men (even now, and certainly in ancient times). I can only imagine that a pharaoh would be more likely to promote, if anyone, his future male heir, rather than a number of his daughters.

Of course, Akhenaten was an unusual guy, to say the least...

Best guesses are about all that we're left with, I think. So, what would your best guess be?

Answer 1

I don't know whether or not Akhenaten mentioned his son anywhere. A few things have to taken into account:

1. Priests and others destroyed much of artifacts, depictions etc. of this Pharaoh.

2. Tut was young when he became Pharaoh.

So, if there were any depictions of his son at all (since he was so young), there is the possibility that that was erased.

These are just guesses of mine.

Answer 2

The records from this period are spotty at best, especially since later pharaohs sought to destroy them. The stone images you are referring to are from early in Akhenaten's reign. Tutankhaten as he would have been known as a child, simply wasn't born yet.



Also, Tutankhamun was the son of a minor wife and did not become pharaoh immediately after Akhenaten's death. Smenkhkare was Akhenaten's direct successor.



Overall we know very little about the late Amarna period.

Answer 3

I wasn't aware of this. It seems inexplicable. If he was 'out of favour' there should be some record of it, and even when they tried to 'erase history' it didn't fully work, as in the case of Hatshepsut.

So no...I guess I do'nt have an answer.

Answer 4

Tut didn't worship aten exclusively. He worshipped amun-ra. Akhenaten could not have been pleased.