Queen Meritaten (Scotia), Was her Voyage to Ireland Possible?

The character know to mythology as Queen Scotia, or in her own country, Queen Meritaten, is perhaps most famously linked to her half-brother Pharaoh Tutankhamun, who is probably the most famous ancient Egyptian, since the discovery of his tomb in 1922, by Howard Carter and his team. She is of course linked to Moses and Ramses II by Manetho of the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, writing around 1000 years after her death, but this association is of course an expected error, caused by the erasure of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Aye II from the Egyptian Kings List, by Horemheb, the final Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty.

Meritaten’s Family and Historical Context                    

Meritaten is also linked to Nefertiti, perhaps the most famous Egyptian queen, although she must perhaps share that title with  the Ptolemaic (and final) ruler of Egypt, Cleopatra.  Meritaten was the eldest daughter of Nefertiti and her husband Akhenaten, the pharaoh who changed his name from Amenhotep IV, in a startling and unprecedented departure from the Egyptian Polytheism of his own father (Amenhotep III) and all previous rulers of over 1000 years before him.

Akhenaten’s Religious Revolution

It was Akhenaten’s radical actions in raising the Aten, the solar symbol of the power of the creator to prominence that no doubt led Meritaten to attempt to leave Egypt. One could argue that Akhenaten’s transition from polytheist to henotheist and finally monotheist was the logical conclusion of a religious progression from his own father’s more than passing interest in the Aten. Not all academics and historians agree that Akhenaten was eventually a monotheist, but like Dr. James K. Hoffmeier, I am convinced that this was ultimately what he became.

Queen Nefertiti iii (Berlin, Neues Museum) by Egisto Sani (public domain)

The Zannanza Affair and Meritaten’s Disappearance

We know that an Egyptian queen wrote to the ruler of the Hittites, begging for rescue (The Zannanza Affair), while Tutankhamun remained alive, stating that “My husband died. A son I have not.”in her Akkadian script letter, copied in the account “The Deeds of Suppiluliuma” written by his son Mursilli II. At this point, this could only have been one of the six daughters born to Akhenaten - Meritaten, who ruled along with her husband Smenkhkare, for a very brief period before Tutankhamun became Pharaoh. An actual rescue was attempted, leading to the death of Prince Zannanza and war between Hatti and Egypt, but what actually happened to Meritaten is not recorded anywhere in either the Hittite or Egyptian records.

Like this Preview and want to read on? You can! JOIN US THERE ( with easy, instant access ) and see what you’re missing!! All Premium articles are available in full, with immediate access.