Kiya was one of the wives of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record, in contrast to those of Akhenaten's 'Great royal wife', Nefertiti. Her unusual name suggests that she may originally have been a Mitanni princess. Surviving evidence demonstrates that Kiya was an important figure at Akhenaten's court during the middle years of his reign, when she had a daughter with him. She disappears from history a few years before her royal husband's death. In previous years, she was thought to be mother of Tutankhamun, but recent DNA evidence suggests this is unlikely.

Name and titles

The name Kiya itself is cause for debate. It has been suggested that it is a "pet" form, rather than a full name, and as such could be a contraction of a foreign name, such as the Mitanni name "Tadukhipa," referring to the daughter of King Tushratta. Tadukhipa married Amenhotep III at the very end of his reign, and the Amarna Letters indicate that she was of marriageable age at that time. In particular, Amarna Letters 27 through 29 confirm that Tadukhipa became one of Akhenaten's wives. Thus some Egyptologists have proposed that Tadukhipa and Kiya might be the same person. In fact, Cyril Aldred proposed that her unusual name is actually a variant of the Ancient Egyptian word for "monkey," making it unnecessary to assume a foreign origin for her.

In inscriptions, Kiya is given the titles of "The Favorite" and "The Greatly Beloved," but never of "Nobelwoman (iryt-p‘t)" or "Great Royal Wife", some believe this indicates that she was not of royal Egyptian blood, but in fact the two are not causally related. Many queens of royal descent have not been shown to bear these titles, such as Mutnofret, the Younger Lady, and Tanedjemet. Her full titles read, "The wife and greatly beloved of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on Maat, Neferkheperure-waenre, the beautiful child of the living Aten, who shall live forever continually, Kiya." All artifacts relating to Kiya derive from Amarna, Akhenaten's short-lived capital city, or from Tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings. She is not attested during the reign of any other pharaoh.

Life

Kiya's existence was unknown until 1959, when her name and titles were noted on a small cosmetic container in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It had been bought almost thirty years previously, without provenance, from Egyptologist Howard Carter.

The British Egyptologists Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton wrote:

:Kiya is named and depicted on various blocks originating at Amarna, on vases in London and New York, four fragmentary kohl-tubes in Berlin and London, and a wine-jar docket. She may also be depicted by three uninscribed sculptor's studies. Her coffin and canopic jars were taken over for the burial of a king (probably Smenkhkare), which was ultimately discovered in tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings. Almost all of Kiya's monuments were usurped for daughters of Akhenaten, making it fairly certain that she was disgraced some time after Year 11 [of Akhenaten].

Akhenaten and his family were based in Thebes for the first four years of his reign, establishing the new capital city at Amarna in Year 5. Kiya is not attested during this early period. Only after the move to Amarna does she emerge through inscriptional evidence as one of Akhenaten's wives.

Kiya's name appeared prominently in the temple installation known as the Maru-Aten, at the southern edge of the city, according to epigraphic studies.

The most spectacular of Kiya's monuments is a gilded wooden coffin of costly and intricate workmanship that was discovered in Tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings. The coffin's footboard contains an Atenist prayer that was originally intended for a woman, but was later revised to a refer to a man – with enough grammatical errors to betray the gender of the original speaker. The style of the coffin and the language of its surviving inscriptions place its manufacture in the reign of Akhenaten. Scholarly opinion now makes Kiya its original owner. The richness of this coffin, which is comparable in style to the middle coffin of Tutankhamun, provides further evidence of Kiya's exalted status at Amarna.

Many Egyptologists have tried to produce an explanation for her prominence. Numerous scholarly discussions of Tutankhamun's parentage during the late twentieth century, and the early years of the twenty-first, have mentioned the hypothesis that Kiya was Tutankhamun's mother. If she had indeed borne a male heir to Akhenaten, this distinction might well merit unique honors. However, genetic studies of the Egyptian royal mummies, led by Zahi Hawass and Carsten Pusch, have now established that Tutankhamun's biological mother was KV35YL, the "Younger Lady" discovered in the mummy cache in the tomb of Amenhotep II.

Disgrace or death?

Kiya disappears from history during the last third of Akhenaten's reign. Her name and images were erased from monuments and replaced by those of Akhenaten's daughters. The exact year of her disappearance is unknown, with recent authorities suggesting dates that range from Year 11 or 12 to Year 16 Having argued that Kiya was Tadukhipa, daughter of the King of Mitanni, Marc Gabolde suggests that she "paid the price" for a deterioration in the alliance between Egypt and Mitanni and was sent back home.

It is uncertain whether Kiya ever used the rich funerary equipment that was prepared against her death. If her disappearance resulted from disgrace or exile, the answer would be no. On the other hand, if she died in good standing with Akhenaten, she probably would have received a lavish burial appropriate to her station. In the latter case, a likely site for her interment would be the Amarna Royal Tomb, which includes a suite of three chambers evidently used to house female members of Akhenaten's family. At least two and possibly as many as three different individuals were interred in this suite, including Akhenaten's daughter Meketaten, the only one whose name survives.

Further, the conventional interpretation of the mourning scenes is that they represent the death in childbirth of the deceased, although this view has recently been challenged. The conventional interpretation has encouraged speculation that Kiya died bearing Akhenaten a child, but again, no clear-cut evidence is available.

DNA test results published in February 2010 have shown conclusively that the Younger Lady mummy was the mother of Tutankhamun, and by extension a wife of Akhenaten. She views as improbable that such important lady as Akhenaten's sister would be ommited in sources from Amarna had she been mother of his heir, and ignoring genetic results, she still considers it is plausible that Tutankhamun was son of Kiya.

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Image:Kiya-UnguentJarWithName_MetropolitanMuseum.png|Unguent jar depicting the name of Kiya - on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image:KV55-CanopicJar-AmarnaQueen-CloseUp MetropolitanMuseum.png|Close-up of an Egyptian alabaster canopic jar thought to depict a likeness of Kiya, from tomb KV55 - on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image:QueenKiya-PurificationCeremony_MetropolitanMuseum.png|An Amarna relief depicting a woman undergoing a purification ritual, while the figure has been partially re-carved, the large earrings and style of wig are thought to be representative of Queen Kiya - on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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References

  • Egypt, 2000–1000 B.C. - Canopic Jar Lid, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, late reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1340–1336 B.C. Egyptian; From KV55, Valley of the Kings, western Thebes. Egyptian alabaster with glass and stone inlays; H. 20½ in. (52.1&nbsp;cm); Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915 (30.8.54) | Object P.
  • Kiya The Favorite - Includes a few photos of reliefs which may depict her.