Royal Identity Reconfiguration and Religious Governance across Three Amarna Generations

This independent preprint examines the reconfiguration of royal identities and the continuity of religious governance across three generations of the Amarna royal family, from Amenhotep III to Tutankhamun. It evaluates five distinct working hypotheses: H1, Akhenaten and Smenkhkare as successive royal identities of one individual; H2, Sitamun and Nefertiti as one individual; H3, Nefertiti and the female king Neferneferuaten as one individual; H4, a coordinated accession and functional division between two royal identities; and H5, dynastic continuity through Meritaten and the younger royal couple. Evidence from TA2, TT139, wine-jar dockets 35 and 279, KV62 objects, royal tombs, and restoration-era material is compared with alternative succession models. The paper distinguishes primary evidence, published observations, modern scholarly interpretations, and the author's hypotheses. H3 receives relatively stronger cumulative support, while the explanatory superiority of H1, H2, and H4 remains unestablished. This is an independently published, non-peer-reviewed research paper, not a claim of scholarly consensus. Outstanding limitations, including access to the full text of Allen 2016, additional original photographs, and external professional English-language editing, are disclosed. AI-assisted work is acknowledged in the manuscript.