Pharaohs

But not so in the early days. For that reason there are quite a few graves marked with the same names. That's one of the things that make sorting out the genealogies very difficult.

During a dynasty the family picked one god as the highest. One as second etc. Then names derived from those god-names where used as a title.

Often two, or even three, pharaoh's ruled at the same time. The lesser co-Pharaoh had a title based a lesser god-name. The leading Pharaoh had a title based on the name of the highest god. So during his career a Pharaoh had several names which actually were titles. He started for example with Thutmosis which was based on the lesser god Thot's name. The later he became Amenhotep (Amen) or Ramesses (Ra) which both where names of the same supreme god that created all other lesser gods.

2. Pinpointing a pharaoh

We have the following info for pinpointing the correct pharaoh

The start of the Exodus is pinpointed accurately at 1446 BC. Because we know Moses was 80 years old at the start of the Exodus he was born in 1526 BC.
The Pharaoh had a daughter who was unable to get children.
Her adoptive son Senmut was “son of humble parents” (Hebrew slaves)
Senmut means “adopted”.
Senmut was suddenly stripped of all privileges. Moses fled to Midean.

When Moses is finally appointed co-ruler at the age of 33 years (1493 BC he becomes Thutmosis II.

The next date is given by a medical papyrus, to which a calendar is added, possibly to insure a correct conversion of dates used in the receipts to the actual timetable. Here it is said that the 9th day of the 11th month of year 9 of King Amenhotep I was the day of the helical rising of Sothis, i. e. 1538 BC. This date, however, is only accurate provided the astronomical observations were taken at the old residence of Memphis; if observed at Thebes in Upper Egypt, the residence of the 18th dynasty, the date must be lowered by 20 years, i. e. 1518 BC.”

Encyclopedia Britannica

3. Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun is the most well known Pharaoh because his grave wasn’t robbed and the world could see the vast amount of treasures he was buried with. But why was the 18 year old co-Pharaoh buried with such wealth? He only ruled for 8 years and even during those 8 years other did most of the work for him as a 10 year old simply can’t rule a nation.

Some say, that amount of wealth was just standard for all Pharaohs.

Another view is that Tutankhamun is buried in his father’s grave because his body was lost in the Red Sea. One of the few things that was from Tutankhamun is his famous death mask and his sarcophagus.

The young king was buried in the tomb originally prepared for Ay in the Valley of Kings.

F. Tiradritti (1999) The Cairo Museum Master Pieces of Egyptian Art, Thames and Hudson, London, England.

It can be debated if Ay should be replaced with Amenhotep III, in the above quote.

Ay was an army officer that in great haste married Tutankhamun’s wife because both the Pharaoh and co-Pharaoh were dead. Tutankhamun’s wife

Ankhesenamun, couldn’t be a Pharao because the gods only dwelled in males.

(Pharaohs were reborn gods). Personally I doubt that interpretation because a grave of an army officer would nevr be that luxurious and certainly wouldn’t be in the valley of kings.

Above I wrote the only stuff found in Tutankhamun’s tomb was his death mask and sarcophagus; that’s not entirely true. There were also remains of flowers. Flowers that grew bloomed mid March to late April. That’s exactly the period the Exodus started.

3. The Tel-Amarna letter

“...When the people of Misra (Egypt, author’s comment) learned the destruction of Amqa, they were afraid, for to make matters worse their master, Bibhuria had just died and the widowed queen of Egypt sent an ambassador to my father and wrote to him these terms:

My husband is dead and I have no son. People say that you have many sons. If you send me one of your sons he will become my husband for it is repugnant to me to take one of my servants to husband. When my father learned this, he called together the council of the great: Since the most ancient times such a thing has never happened before.

He decided to send Hattu-Zittish, the chamberlain, Go, bring me information worthy of belief; While Hattu-Zittish was absent on the soil of Egypt, my father vanquished the city of Karchemish.... The ambassador of Egypt, the lord Hanis, came to him. Because my father had instructed Hattu-Zittish when he went to the country of Egypt as follows: Perhaps they have a prince, they may be trying to deceive me and do not really want one of my sons to reign over them; the Egyptian queen answered my father in a letter in these words;

Why do you say they are trying to deceive me? If I had a son, should I write to a foreign country in a manner humiliating to me and to my country? You do not believe me and you even say so to me! He who was my husband is dead and I have no son. Should I then perhaps take one of my servants and make of him my husband? I have written to no other country, I have written to you...”

The above letter was written by the mother of Tutankhamun, the drowned Pharaoh’s wife. She tried to forge an alliance by marriage with the Hittie king to avoid to be overrun because Egypt’s army was destroyed.

Shortly afterward the 18th Dynasty suddenly ended.

Pharaoh’s of the same color are the same person.

The one on the left is the co-Pharaoh, named after a lesser god.

The one on the right is the same person with a name based on Egypt’s main god.