General Notes

Although some historians have wondered whether she might have been a foreign
princess, Dr. Redford points out that Nefertiti is an Egyptian name, and that
there is no reason to think that she might have been a foreigner. He comments
that she had a high-ranking Egyptian wet-nurse, and therefore was probably of
noble birth (78). One suggestion is that Nefertiti was Akhenaten's cousin.
Her wet nurse was the wife of the vizier Ay, who could have been Tiye's
brother. Ay sometimes called himself "the God's father," suggesting that he
might have been Akhenaten's father-in-law (Redford 78, 151; Dodson 96-97).
Redford also notes, however, that Ay never specifically refers to himself as
the father of Nefertiti (151), although Aldred mentions that Nefertiti's
sister, Mutnojme, is featured prominently in the decorations of the tomb of Ay
(222). Unfortunately, whether because of lack of funds or some other problem,
very little has been done in the way of genetic testing on the mummies of the
Amarna period. Egyptologists and archaeologists have now discovered the bodies
of Smenkhkare, Tutankhaten, a young boy who is possibly Akhenaten's older
brother, Tuthmose, Akhenaten's grandparents, Yuya and Thuya, a woman who is
thought to be Tiye, Akhenaten's father, and an unidentified burnt man found
lying outside of Akhenaten's tomb. However, until more scientific investigation
has been carried out on these people, many of the questions surrounding them
will remain unanswered.
Note:
!Other views, After Akhenaten's death she may have renamed herself as
Nefermnefruaten Smenkhhare and then Smenkhkare, and assumed the unpresedented
title of Pharoah. In the past it was assumed these were separate but related
male pharoahs ruling in the short three-year period between Akhenaten and
Tutankhaten. On the other hand, another theory is that Smenkhkare in Zannanza,
son of the Hittite king, to whom an Egyptian queen (Nefertiti?) had written
asking for a son since her husband had died.