Dakhamunzu

Dakhamunzu (sometimes Dahamunzu) is the name of an Egyptian queen known from the Hittite annals The Deeds of Suppiluliuma, which were composed by Suppiluliuma I's son Mursili II. The identity of this queen has not yet been established with any degree of certainty and Dakhamunzu has variously been identified as either Nefertiti, Meritaten or Ankhesenamen. The identification of this queen is of importance both for Egyptian chronology and for the reconstruction of events during the late Eighteenth Dynasty.

The episode in The Deeds of Suppiluliuma that features Dakhamunzu is often referred to as the Zannanza affair, after the name of a Hittite prince who was sent to Egypt to marry her.

The Dakhamunzu episode should be seen against the background of Egypt's relations with the other major powers in Western Asia during the second half of the 14th century BC, more specifically the three-cornered struggle for power between Egypt, Mitanni and the newly arising power of the Hittites under Suppiluliuma I. During the late-Amarna period and its immediate aftermath we are almost totally dependent on the Hittite records for information on these matters.

While involved in war with Mitanni, the Hittites are attacked by Egyptian forces in the region of Kadesh, which only recently came under Hittite control. Suppiluliuma retaliates by simultaneously besieging Mitanni forces at Carchemish and sending forces into the Amqu region, at that time an Egyptian vassal state. At this point the annals inform us that:

"[The Egyptians] were afraid. And since, in addition, their lord Nibhururiya had died, therefore the queen of Egypt, who was Dakhamunzu, sent a messenger to [Suppiluliuma]."

The annals then recount the message the Egyptian widow queen wrote to Suppiluliuma:

My husband died. A son I have not. But to thee, they say, the sons are many. If thou wouldst give me one son of thine, he would become my husband. Never shall I pick out a servant of mine and make him my husband. I am afraid.

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