Coregency Stela

{{Short description|Ancient Egyptian stela}}

File:Reverse (Face B) of a limestone private co-regency stele showing the cartouches of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. From Amarna, Egypt. 18th Dynasty. Petrie Museum. The cartouches of the god Aten appear to be effaced.jpg

The Coregency Stela is an ancient Egyptian stela dating from the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. It consists of seven limestone fragments, which were found in a tomb at Amarna. The tablet shows the figures of Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Meritaten. At some time after the stela was made, Nefertiti's name had been chiselled out and was replaced with Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten, the name of Akhenaten's co-regent. At the same time Meritaten's name was replaced with that of Ankhesenpaaten, Akhenaten and Nefertiti's third daughter.

The stela might shed light on the events of the little-known late-Amarna Period and the question of Akhenaten's immediate succession.{{cite web|url=http://cassian.memphis.edu/history/murnane/Allen.pdf |title=The Amarna Succession |author=James P. Allen |accessdate=2015-12-31 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722084838/http://cassian.memphis.edu/history/murnane/Allen.pdf |archivedate=July 22, 2012 }} Restoration and interpretation of the stela vary, but it has been suggested that it supports the claim that Nefertiti should be identified as Akhenaten co-regent and successor.{{cite web|url=http://www.nicholasreeves.com/item.aspx?category=Writing&id=71|author=Nicholas Reeves|accessdate=2008-06-22|title=Book Review: Rolf Krauss, Das Ende der Amarnazeit (Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge, 1978)|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531232226/http://www.nicholasreeves.com/item.aspx?category=Writing&id=71|archivedate=2009-05-31}}

The stela is currently in the Petrie Museum in London.{{cite web|url=http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/detail/details/index.php?objectid=UC410o|title=Stelae UC410|accessdate=2008-06-22|publisher=Petrie Museum}}