Ancient Egyptian Queens Meritamun and Muntofret

Ancient Egyptian Queens Meritamun and Muntofret

Ancient Egyptian Queen Meritamun

Egypt had been blessed with three generations of increasingly influencial queens. Now there was a lull as Ahmose-Nefertari's forceful personality completely eclipsed that of her daughter Meritamun. Meritamun took over the position of God's Wife of Amun from her mother, but we know little else about her, beyond the fact that she died young, before she could provide her husband with a living male heir. This failure, humiliating though it may have been for the queen, was not a dynastic disaster; the royal harem existed to cover such an eventuality. However, it seems that there was no suitable son in the harem either and, unlike all his fellow kings, Amenhotep was not inclined to marry again. So as Ahmose-Nefertari reassumed the vital role of consort, Tuthmosis I was adopted into the royal family.

Meritamun's mummy, found lying in two cedarwood coffins and a cartonnage outer case in her Deir el-Bahari tomb (TT 358), had been desecrated in antiquity and re-bandaged during the 21st Dynasty. The queen's body shows that although she had died as a relatively young woman, she had suffered from both arthritis and scoliosis.

Tuthmosis I already had at least four sons, Wadjmose, Amenmose, Ramose and Thutmose, and last of whom would eventually succeed his father as Thutmose II. Both Amenmose and Wadjmose survived into their late teens, making their mark on the archaeological record before predeceeasing Thutmose I.

Ancient Egyptian Queen Mutnofret, First Wife of Thutmose I

Wadjmose and the little-known Ramose feature in their father's badly damaged Theban funerary chapel where a side-room served as a shrine for the mortuary cults of various family members including the King's Sister Mutnofret, a lady who wears the vulture headdress and uraeus, and whose name is written in a cartouche. It is nowhere spelt out, but it seems that the four sons are the children of Muntofret, an earlier wife of Thutmose I who must have died before her husband became heir to the throne. In an inscription recoverd from Karnak a lady Mutnofret (whom we assume to be identical with the lady from Thutmose's chapel) is described as King's Daughter. It may therefore be that Mentuforet is a daughter of King Ahmose.

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