outline the evidence for the role and position of queens in the early 18th dynasty

7/30/2019 Outline the evidence for the role and position of queens in the early 18th Dynasty

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Introduction

My aim in this work is to present facts about queenship and power attested to kings mother or

kings principal wife. It was rare for Kings mother to become queen but it happened when they

were regents for young king, who wasnt yet of age to claim the throne. I will try to get into the

core of the issue, by examining most known and best established queens of 18th dynasty.

There are two questions which shall be addressed and are very important in outlining the

evidence for role and position of queens in early 18th dynasty.

First of all we have to understand how much power was vested in actual position of kings

mother or kings principal wife. We have evidence showing us, that queens were given their own

estate, their own officials such as stewards in their service1.

Having assets to begin with, this would be great starting point for something more. This leads us

to second question about how much power could strong willed individual additionally acquire?

Unfortunately we cant really much on evidence from monuments and temple depictions. As we

know, female rulers were abnormality and their successors tried to wipe out the memory by

erasing their names from monuments they build, or rather replacing it with their own. Lucky

enough for us, some of these queens, had more power than usual or equal to those of the

kings, so their monuments and depictions of themselves had remained pretty much untouched.

Ahhotep II

Great wife of king Kamose, more importantly a mother, of Pharaoh Ahmose who is to this day

considered as founder of 18th dynasty2

. He is the one who conquered Nubia, unifying Upper

and Lower Egypt once more, beginning of New Kingdom.

Ahmose had, apparently, great respect for his mother, based on solid evidence we might

assume that she had great influence and power during reign of her son. He erected great stelae

at Karnak, this stelae includes passage praising her:

One who cares for Egypt. She has looked after her soldiers, she has guarded her soldiers, she

has brought back her fugitives, and collected together desserts, she has pacified Upper Egypt,

and expelled her rebels3

.

1Robins, Gay, Women in Ancient Egypt (London, 1993)

2Robins, Gay, Women in Ancient Egypt (London, 1993)

3Graciela Gestoso Singer, Ahhotep I and the "Golden Fly", CCdE 01/2009, pp.75-88


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As many other Egyptian texts we have in our possession, this one too is relatively short and

gives us just a brief overview of her doing. Even thou this passage isnt as precise as one could

hope for, it is indeed very informative. First of all it was very rare to find a passage praising

queen or as in this case, a mother. Together with fact, that similar passage appears in other

documents, gives us a good reason to believe, that content of it is based on real events. This

could mean two things, either she led an army as kings mother and thus had considerably

similar position as king himself or there is possibility, unfortunately for us, this is unclear from

archaeological record, that when Ahmose succeeded previous king, he was still too young and

so Ahhotep, his mother, acted as a regent for him.

Ahmose-Nefertari

Principal wife of Ahmose, also his sister or half sister. She was also mother of Ahmose

successor Amenhotep I. As for the queen, we dont have textual evidence regarding her power

and importance but that doesnt mean she wasnt.

Her husband Ahmose bestowed a title upon her, Gods wife of Amun. This is the first time we

can see this title in Ancient Egypt so we can assume, and we know that Ahmose created this

title for his wife. We can only speculate about his reasons, but in my opinion, when we look into

nature of this title we might assume he gave her this title to extend her normal set of powers and

involve her in temple functioning. Apart from legal role, she was given lands and goods, and

right to pass this title to her heirs.

Nature of the office is depicted on several scenes from 18th dynasty showing priestess bearing

title Gods wife of Amun, functioning within the context of temple ritual alongside a male priest.

She appears as part in procession of priests, she is depicted being purified in a sacred lake

outside of the temple. She takes part in the rite called calling the god to his repast. She plays a

role in execration rites, burning the image of the enemy. She is also present when boxes of

clothes are offered to the goddess Wadjit4. Earliest of these scenes are from reign of

Amenhotep I and priestess is called Ahmose Nefertari5. Priestess in these pictures wears short,

close fitting wig with a thin fillet tied at the back of the head with ends falling down which derives

from the costume of Middle Kingdom priestesses.

4Bryan, Betsy, Property and the Gods Wives of Amun, in Lyons D., and R. Westbrook (eds),

4Women and Property (Harvard), 1-12.

5Robins, Gay, The gods wife of Amun in the 18th Dynasty in Egypt, in Cameron, A and A.

5Kuhrt (eds), Images of Women in Antiquity, (London, 1983), p.71.

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Thanks to this title and apparent power, that was tied to it, it gave way to birth of a theory, that

right for throne in Ancient Egypt passed through the female line in 18th dynasty. Theory was

mostly based on titles of royal woman, especially the title principal wife. One of the other

reasons for this theory was to shed light on brother sister marriages. But soon later on, it was

found out that this is not working and reason for brother and sister marriages between king and

his sister, step sister was purely due the divine reasons. As we know Gods married their

brothers or sister to create their divine offspring, who would then have their own and so on. So

we can assume, that their decision to marry their siblings came from believe, that, that way they

will get closer to real Gods6.

Apart from her title we have textual evidence where we found her name, alongside her

husbands at different building projects around Egypt. As example we can use reopening of

limestone quarries or alabaster quarries near Assiut. When Ahmose decided to build cenotaph

at Abydos for the mother of his father and mother of his mother Tetisheri, he left stelae

recording his decision, where he speaks about seeking approval of Ahmose Nefertari for his

plans. This piece of evidence is highly unusual when it comes to queen, it may reflect her

interest in religious building process or simply means, that Ahmose had respect for his principal

wife and required her opinion on the matter of new monument.

Funny enough, she outlived her husband and also her son Amenhotep I. But even after her

death she was still highly honoured, even in reign of Thutmose I. We know this thanks to stelae

in Karnak, erected by Thutmose I to promulgate her titulary.

Date of her death is unknown,but most likely in fifth or sixth year of Thutmose I reign. We just

have fragment of stelae with inscription.

Ahmose Nefertari justified with great god, lord of the west, flew to heaven.7

Even long after her death, she was being worshiped by workmen of Deir el-Medina as their

patron. Regarding her death some scholars proposed, that the annual cult holiday (II Shemu 14)

dedicated to Ahmose-Nefertari at Deir el-Medina may have commemorated the day of her

6Robins, Gay, A critical examination of the theory that the right to the throne of ancient Egypt

6passed through the female line in the 18th Dynasty, Gttinger Miszellen 62 (1983), 67-77

7Louise Bradbury, Nefer's Inscription: On the Death Date of Queen Ahmose-Nefertary and the Deed

Found Pleasing to the King, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 22 (1985), pp. 73-95


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death. Her cult survived through the whole New Kingdom, testifying status of this queen. As a

result of this she overshadowed her sons principal wife and sister Meritamun who also had title

after her Gods wife of Amun.

Hatshepsut

We know very little about her when it comes to period of reign of her father and husband

Thutmose II. From stelae we know that she indeed was his principal wife and same as Ahmose

Nefertari, had title of Gods wife of Amun.

Sudden outburst and change to this comes when Thutmose III comes to throne. fortunately for

her he is too young to take the throne, she gets to act as regent for him.

Her most common title she used during early period of her reign was Gods wife, later on she

creates titles for herself which are only used by king.

Here we get to the question I mentioned in introduction part, how much power could strong

willed individual additionally acquire? She was put into position as a mere regent for young king

as it happened many times before. But she took all the power into her own hands and changed

everything regarding kingship so it would suit her as a female. To gain more authority with

public she depict herself in kingly activities, such as offering to the gods. Additionally she is

shown in scenes that are drawn from kingly iconography and as mentioned earlier, uses titles

modelled on those of kings8.

While she was still a regent, she had quarried two obelisks which were to be set up at Karnak.

This action was not only unusual but unique since she wasnt a true king yet and most of all she

was just a queen. This wasnt enough for her, so she depicted herself at temple wall offering to

the gods, which once again, was only allowed by king. Among other things, she had depicted

myth of her divine birth at temple in Thebes.

At one point,after approximately 7 years of her reign as a regent , she stopped using her Gods

wife of Amun title and took on herself names of true male king.

The Horus name - wsrt-k3w powerful of kas normal name was k3 nHt but that means strong

bull and that would more represent male individual rather than be neutral or female.

The Nebty name - w3Dt-rnpwt flourishing of years very unusual or rather uncommon name

combination. w3D had been used in names before in 12th dynasty by Sebekhotep IV and in

17th dynasty by Rahotep. This particular combination was found on Karnak Obelisk done by

Thutmose I but in full male version without t ending.

8Roehrig, Catharine (ed.), Hatshepsut, from Queen to Pharaoh (New York, 2005).


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The Golden Horus name - nTrt-H`w divine of appearances/manifestations/crowns this

combination of names pretty common and was used many times before by rulers before her.

The first cartouche name - m3`t-k3-r` The true of the ka of Ra first time used in 5th dynasty

and used ever since and almost always contains r`-Ra this makes statement about kings

relationship to Ra while referring to king9.

Apart from taking on kingly titles, she started depicting herself on monuments, and possibly

even in real world, in a male costume of the king. As we know, there was no prevision of female

king in Egyptian Ideology10, she had to alter how statues of her going to look like. Even thou

they had female features, statue had more of male figure.

We have no evidence to say for sure, what was her reason to overtake kingship on herself and

why all male officials and whole bureaucracy tolerated this and we can only speculate, it is in my

opinion very simple and can be easily seen in todays society.

One of the reason for her stability might be rooted to fact, that all officials were carefully chosen

and loyal to her cause. Of course reward for their loyalty must have been very good. On the

other hand, they just might have been scared of the transition to new king. As it is often seen,

even today, when new king, political party, comes to power they tend to change officials for new

ones whom they can trust.

When young Thutmose III become of an age to claim the throne, Hatshepsut used loophole in

the system so she could stay on throne side by side with him. During this period she was

dominant ruler but depictions from this period often depict them both side by side.

After her death, Thutmose III had her names removed from many monuments which were build

by her, as some kind of a protest against her being a female king. He not only tried to erase her

from history, but he replaced her name with his or by names of his predecessors.

Conclusion

9Robins, Gay, The names of Hatshepsut as king, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 85 (1999),

910312.

10Kemp, Barry J.,Ancient Egypt : anatomy of a civilization, London : Routledge, 2006


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Queens in early 18th dynasty are strikingly powerful and influential, apart from Hatshepsut who

overshot what she "should" do, all of them continued to be worshiped and mentioned in text by

other kings because even that, they had power, they didnt try to make a king of themselves.

Hatshepsut name replaced by names of earlier kings, and removed after her death by

Thutmosis III only shows us how they couldnt cope with her reign and how it didnt suit their

ideology.Still, strongest and most influential person in Egyptian history considering what she

achieved and how much she changed during her reign.

Fact itself that we have enough evidence to know so much about these women, tells us, that

they were exceptional. Evidence is strong when to comes to their actions and decisions. They

were consistent and most of all punctual!


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Bibliography

Kemp, Barry J.,Ancient Egypt : anatomy of a civilization, London : Routledge, 2006

Robins, Gay, Women in Ancient Egypt (London, 1993)

Graciela Gestoso Singer, Ahhotep I and the "Golden Fly", CCdE 01/2009, pp.75-88

Bryan, Betsy, Property and the Gods Wives of Amun, in Lyons D., and R. Westbrook (eds),

Women and Property (Harvard), 1-12

Robins, Gay, The gods wife of Amun in the 18th Dynasty in Egypt, in Cameron, A and A.

Kuhrt (eds), Images of Women in Antiquity, (London, 1983), p.71.

Robins, Gay, A critical examination of the theory that the right to the throne of ancient Egypt

passed through the female line in the 18th Dynasty, Gttinger Miszellen 62 (1983), 67 -77

Louise Bradbury, Nefer's Inscription: On the Death Date of Queen Ahmose-Nefertary and the

Deed Found Pleasing to the King, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 22

(1985), pp. 73-95

Robins, Gay, The names of Hatshepsut as king, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 85 (1999),

10312.

Kemp, Barry J.,Ancient Egypt : anatomy of a civilization, London : Routledge, 2006

Bryan, Betsy, Property and the Gods Wives of Amun, in Lyons D., and R. Westbrook (eds),

Women and Property (Harvard), 1-12.

Roehrig, Catharine (ed.), Hatshepsut, from Queen to Pharaoh (New York, 2005)

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outline the evidence for the role and position of queens in the early 18th dynasty

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