y overseen by pharaoh), giving "gold" as a reward to dedicated citizens, and she also appeared in smiting scenes, which were traditionally considered an exclusively pharaoh action. The smiting scene " shows Nefertiti, ... raising her right arm to dispatch a female enemy who kneels in submission with her faced turned towards the queen" (Nefertiti 62). This pose is a very common image that dates back to the Narmer palette, and is meant to show "the pharaoh triumphant rather than a specific event" (Nefertiti 62). It is unusual for a Queen of Egypt to be portrayed as a warrior, and the only other confirmed scene of a woman smiting the enemy is that of Hatchepsut. This shows that even in the 18th Dynasty where "women enjoyed a legal freedom [making] them unique in the ancient world" that Nefertiti had gained a position of importance that was unheard of for a consort-queen. While Nefertiti may have been given a higher
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