Women in Ancient Egypt [Illustrated] 0674954696, 9780674954694

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Women n Ancient Egypt GAY ROBINS

ARCHBISHOP MITTY LIBRARY

T

16013

KW ^

Arch

ilty

Hlgh Scho° l

San Jose, CA 95129

MAR

Women

in

Ancient Egypt

2 4 2000

nr

£0£

Women

in

Ancient Egypt GAY ROBINS

£a.>*

w

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS Archbishop Miity High School Library v

N

5000 Mitty Way San Jose, CA. 95129

©

Copyright

1993 by Gay Robins

All rights reserved.

Printed in Great Britain

Second printing, 1996 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robins, Gay.

Women p.

Ancient Egypt/Gay Robins,

in

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-674-95468-8 1. I.

Women

(pbk).

—Egypt—History.

2.

Egypt

— History—To 322

B.C.

Title.

92-38221 CIP

HQ.1137.E3R63 1993 305. 4'0932—dc20

Cover. Gilded

wooden inner

coffin

of the Theban priestess Henutmehit.

Contents

Acknowledgements

page 6

Chronology of Ancient Egypt Introduction

page 7

page 11

CHAPTER ONE Royal women and queenship

page 21

CHAPTERTWO Qiieens, power,

and

the assumption

of kingship

page 42

CHAPTERTHREE Marriage

page 56

CHAPTER FOUR Fertility,

pregnancy, and childbirth

page 75

CHAPTER FIVE The family and the household

page 92

CHAPTERSIX

Women

outside the

home

page ill

CHAPTER SEVEN The economic and legal position of women

page 127

CHAPTEREIGHT Women and

temple ritual

page 142

CHAPTER NINE Personal religion and death

page 157

CHAPTERTEN Images of women

in literature

and

Conclusion

page 190

References

page 192

Bibliography Illustration

page 176

page 195

acknowledgements Index

art

page 202

page 200

Acknowledgements

I

owe thanks

everyone

to

writing this book.

suggesting that like to

book

in

I

am

who

has in any

way helped and encouraged me

especially grateful to Vivian Davies

undertake the project in the

I

first

place. In addition,

thank John Baines for helpful discussions while

Oxford; Annette Depla for allowing

'Women

in ancient

McDowell

for

all

I

in

for

would

I

was working on the

to read the draft of her

paper

Egyptian wisdom literature' before publication; Andrea

my

her help in answering

prior to publication

me

and Celia Clear

questions and for letting

me

two papers of hers, 'Women's economic position

read

in the

New Kingdom' and 'Agricultural activity by the workmen of Deir el-Medina'; Malcolm Mosher, Jr. for information about Late Period Books of the Dead owned by women; Richard Parkinson for numerous interesting discussions; Geraldine Pinch for

me

with

a

all

her help and stimulating discussions, and for providing

copy of her paper

Quirke who provided

me

with

'Fertility

many

another project connected with kindly gave

me

a

copy of

his helpfulness in

women

his lecture

delivered at the Metropolitan

of Art,

me on Romano who

New

in ancient

Egypt'

York; Donald Spanel for

providing references and answering questions, and who, as

comments.

Finally,

I

is

under discussion, offered interest-

must thank

for reading the various drafts of the typescript

many important

Egypt; Jim

in ancient

on 'Mother and child

Museum

always whatever aspect of ancient Egypt ing and valuable

magic' before publication; Stephen

interesting insights while helping

my

suggestions for improvement, and

for seeing the project

through to

fruition.

husband, Charles Shute,

innumerable times and making

my

editor,

Carolyn Jones,

Chronolog}'

(after J.

Baines and

dates are bc.

Malek Atlas of Ancient Egypt, Oxford, 1980, 36-37.

J.

Those before 664

All

are approximate.)

2920-2649

Early Dynastic Period (First - Second Dynasties)

2649-2150

Old Kingdom (Third - Sixth Dynasties)

2649-2575

Third Dynasty

2575-2465

Fourth Dynasty

2465-2323

Fifth

2323-2150

Sixth Dynasty (including Nitiqret)

2289-2255

Pepy

2150-2040

First Intermediate Period (Seventh

Dynasty

i

- Theban Eleventh

Dynasties) 2040-1640

Middle Kingdom

2040-1991

Eleventh Dynasty

1991-1783

Twelfth Dynasty

1991-1962

Amenemhat

1971-1926

Senusret

1929-1892

Amenemhat n

1897-1878

Senusret

n

1878-1841

Senusret

m

1844-1797

Amenemhat

ill

1799-1787

Amenemhat

tx

1787-1783

Xefrusobk

1783-1640

Thirteenth Dynasty

1640-1550

Second Intermediate Period (Fifteenth - Seventeenth

1555-1550

Kamose

I

i

Dynasties)

8

CHRONOLOGY

1550-1070

New Kingdom

1550-1307

Eighteenth Dynasty

1550-1525

Ahmose

1525-1504

Amenhotep

1504-1492

Thutmose

1492-1479

Thutmose n

1479-1425

Thutmose

1473-1458

Hatshepsut

1427-1401

Amenhotep n

(Eighteenth - Twentieth Dynasties)

i

i

tit

1401-1391

Thutmose iv

1391-1353

Amenhotep in

1353-1335

Amenhotep iv/Akhenaten

1335-1333

Smenkhkara

1333-1323

Tutankhamun

1323-1319

Ay

1319-1307

Horemheb

1307-1196

Xineteenth Dynasty

1307-1306

Ramses

1306-1290

Sety

i

i

1290-1224

Ramses u

1224-1214

Merenptah

1214-1204

Sety

u

Amenmessu (usurper during 1204-1198

Saptah

1198-1196

Tausret

1 1

96-1 070

Twentieth Dynasty

1196-1194

Setnakht

1194-1163

Ramses in

1163-1156

Ramses

1156-1151

Ramses v

1151-1143

Ramses

1143-1070

Ramses vii-xi

i\

VI

reign

of Sety u)

CHRONOLOGY 1070-712

Third Intermediate Period (Twenty-First - Theban Twenty-Fifth Dynasties)

978-959

Saamun

(Twenty-First Dynasty)

m/n

777-749

Osorkon

770-750

Kashta (Theban Twenty-Fifth Dynasty)

750-712

Piy (Theban Twenty-Fifth Dynasty)

712-332

Late Period (Twenty-Fifth - Thirty-First Dynasties)

712-657

Twenty-Fifth Dynasty

712-698

Shaba ko

698-690

Shabitko

690-664

Taharqo

664-657

Tanutamam

664-525

Twenty-Sixth Dynasty

664-610

Psamtek

525-404

Twenty-Seventh Dynasty (Persian)

404-399

Twenty-Eighth Dynasty

399-380

Twenty-Xinth Dynasty

(Twenty-Third Dynasty)

i

380-343

Thirtieth

343-332

Thirty-First Dynasty (Persian)

332

Conquest of Alexander

Dynasty

Introduction

The aim

of this book

is

to provide a study of

women

in ancient

accessible to the general reader. This raises the question:

necessary?

Since

why

Egypt which is

such

is

book

a

We do not, after all, find books specifically on men in ancient Egypt.

women must

have formed approximately half the population of Egypt,

any book concerned with ancient Egypt should automatically be concerned with

women.

Why

then single

group within society,

The

explanation

which was dominated by

Thus women

found

to be

is

women

out as though they formed some special

one might write about mourners, weavers, or dancers?

as

a king,

Egypt,

in the political structure of ancient

governing through an all-male bureaucracy.

scarcely get a mention in political histories of Egypt, which have

been the staple of Egyptological research since the discipline began century. This did not

public

life (political,

and where the granted.

to scholars in

religious, military,

affairs

Women

seem odd of

men Any

societies the

last

whole of

and academic) was dominated by men,

represented the

were regarded

treated as a special case.

whose own

as deviating

norm which could be taken

from

this

norm, and so were

for

to be

study of ancient Egypt could also be assumed to

be concerned with the male norm unless otherwise stated. Prevailing attitudes are hard to change, but challenges to this domination of

the male have gathered the feminist

momentum

movement and

This has led to

a

during the twentieth century, giving

to the

continuing reassessment of the roles of

new understanding of the vital of humankind. The present book

past and today, and to a

made this

in the history

newly awakened interest

rise to

academic discipline of women's studies.

by

to the parts played

women

both in the

contributions they have is

an attempt to extend

women

in the

world of

ancient Egypt.

A number problem total

is

of difficulties hamper this endeavour.

that, despite the

One

very fundamental

wealth of source material, Egyptologists

still

lack a

understanding of the workings of Egyptian society, of the general func-

tioning of government, law and the economy.

It is

hard to examine the place

We

can,

though, draw some meaningful conclusions and the picture of women's

lives

and importance of

which emerges It is

is

women

vivid

in a

system we do not

and fascinating,

if

fully

comprehend.

necessarily incomplete.

helpful to begin with a brief account of the

main problems which

arise in

WOMEN

12

\N(

IN

II

NT EGYPT

any studv of ancient Egypt. There are two:

first,

the nature of the source

material; second, the interests and biases of Egyptologists.

The major

sources for any study of ancient Egypt divide into three main

and representational. All three contain

types: archaeological, textual,

biases

in-built

and lacunae which have to be circumvented before the material can be

meaningfullv used. Archaeological evidence consists of the physical remains of a culture that

what

is

can be retrieved through excavation. Scholars can only study

recovered, so

we begin with

a

gap

our knowledge

in

appearance of perishable items. Archaeology

left

by the

dis-

essentially a destructive pur-

is

although in recent times an emphasis on non-destructive methods has

suit,

been developing. As soon

as the

evidence begins to be destroyed.

ground

To

put

is

any way disturbed, however,

in

simplistically, the past

it

is

buried in

the ground in layers which increase in age with depth, so that the lower one digs, the further

must be peeled

back

off

in

time one goes. In the excavation of a

one by one

pline of archaeology

until the

demands

bottom

is

reached.

these layers

site

The modern

that every stage of the process

disci-

meticulously

is

recorded so that future scholars can turn to the written report and find

all

the

information that was revealed in the course of the excavation, since by the very act of excavating, the site itself has

been irretrievably destroyed.

Unfortunately, archaeology as a scientific discipline is still

developing and refining

its

methods.

The

relatively recent,

is

history of archaeology

and

began

with looting and treasure hunting, and only gradually did the idea of controlled excavation develop.

Thus many

sites in

Egypt were plundered

in the last

Even more scientific approach at the end of beginning of this, many of his colleagues ignored it.

century, and the evidence that they might have yielded was destroyed.

when last

Sir Flinders Petrie introduced a

century and the

much

Slowly, Petrie's ideas took a hold, but in spite of this,

evidence has been

lost, partly

the past by each generation change, and partly because

more

archaeological

because the interests and questions asked about it is

only in recent years

So evidence now thought important was ignored or discarded in earlier decades. The vast number of small undecorated pottery sherds which turn up on most sites that

seemed a

refined archaeological techniques have been developed.

to

have no

interest:

now

there are sophisticated

methods

for extracting

wide variety of information from these fragments, which can help, for

example,

in establishing the functions of different parts

of a

site.

At one time

animal bones were hardly rated as important finds, while the idea of taking

soil

samples to look for plant remains or the presence of parasites that could have

been passed specialists

in

human

or animal faeces

whose function

is

was unknown.

Now

to study just these things.

most digs include

From them we can

obtain evidence concerning animal husbandry, slaughtering practices, animal

and human food supplies, parasite infestation concerning

site

function.

Where

in a population,

and information

excavations were conducted before such

questions were even considered, this information has been lost forever.

1\

Other gaps

our archaeological knowledge come from the geographical

in

The

peculiarities of Egypt. area,

Delta, in the north,

very poorly

it is

makes excavation occupation.

A

difficult

a well-watered, fertile, flat

similar

known

problem

it is

valley that ancient

towns and

of Thebes, of which its

quarters.

archaeologically since the high water table

and expensive, and access

the Nile valley. Yet

about

is

which during much of its history formed the economic centre of the land.

However,

city

TRODLC IION

afflicts

story

is

limited by present-day

precisely in these agricultural areas of the Delta and the villages

we seem

to

were

know

so

situated.

the

is

same everywhere: there

temples and tombs but a dearth of settlement that the Egyptians built their temples

sites.

and tombs

the cultivated area. Here, in the dry sand,

Even the

great southern

much, has only yielded knowledge

temples and tombs; virtually nothing

The

is

attempts to dig in the cultivated area of

it is

known is

no

The

of the city's living

lack of excavations of

reason

lies in

the fact

edge of the desert, not

at the

in

not only easy to excavate, but the

immediate rewards seem greater because of the splendour of the stone monu-

tomb goods, and

ments unearthed, the chances of discovering

rich

good preservative properties of the sand.

How much more

appears compared to digging

a

water-logged

preserved mud-brick buildings and

little

site

the generally

rewarding

this

with unimpressive, poorly

likelihood of precious or artistic finds.

We should be grateful that occasionally, for special reasons,

the Egyptians built

settlements in desert terrain, for these are the only such sites to have been extensively excavated: the city of Akhenaten at close to the entrance to the

Faiyum

basin,

Amarna, the tow n of Kahun,

and the w orkmen's

and Deir el-Medina. Although there are good reasons

villages at

Amarna

for believing that these

are not representative of settlements as a whole, they provide our only source of

information in this area and for this reason w

ill

be referred to frequently

in this

They do not, however, fill the vast lacunae in our know ledge of settlements, and we are left knowing virtually nothing about the villages and towns

book.

where the ancient Egyptians habited. Since a major part of a

house, this loss

is

lived their daily lives

woman's

and the houses they

especially grievous in any study of

Textual material presents

a different set of

women.

problems which derive from the

purposes for which the Egyptians composed their

was is

scribal

illiterate

First, only a tiny

texts.

proportion of the population, perhaps one per cent, was

formed the

in-

responsibility lay in the running of the

literate.

This group

bureaucracy that ran the country; the rest of the population

and therefore incapable of producing textual material. Further,

unclear whether

women

of the scribal class also were

literate,

and

it

if so,

some of them acquired the skills of reading and writing. know ledge, there is no text that can be unequivocally shown to have been penned by a woman. Therefore surviving w hether

all

or only

Certainly, in the present state of our

texts have an in-built bias in that they

predominantly

if

were produced by

a

small elite group,

not wholly male, that w as not representative of the Egyptian

population as a whole.

WOMEN

14

1\

VNCIENT EGYPT

Although writing was fundamental to Egyptian limited to specific types of use,

civilisation,

be properly interpreted. Monumental texts written in hieroglyphs on

texts can

temple and tomb walls were usually composed according

Their contents were made

and so cannot be read in the

officials are

to

conform

at face value.

main

to the

Thus

the

we can expect

of the individual

life

is

to confirm that the

biographies were not written for

little

of

a significant fact that similar auto-

women. This

lack

means

comparable record of accepted standards of behaviour for

Non-monumental

Once we know

something of what these standards were but

official. It is also

ideals,

the so-called autobiographies of

stereotypic. Their purpose

to learn

models.

to traditional

Egyptian world-view and

subject lived his life in accordance with accepted standards. this,

remained

it

whose purposes must be understood before

we have no

that

women

in society.

texts usually written in hieratic, or later demotic, script

on papyrus or ostraka provide important information on the functioning of temple and government institutions, on legal matters, and economic

affairs,

remember that the selection of texts that we have is due to the chance of survival, and many more have been lost. The majority of private economic and legal documents come from the atypical workmen's village at Deir el-Medina dating to the New Kingdom. There is a dearth of comparable

but

we have

to

material from other periods and places.

making them

plete

difficult to

Very often documents survive incom-

understand, and

we

usually lack the context that

would have been clear when the document was written. The same letters that

true of the

is

have survived. They tend to be concise and assume the recipient's

personal knowledge of a situation, so that the

modern reader

is left

in the

dark

about their meaning.

The Egyptians

did not develop a tradition of expressing personal opinions or

of self-examination in their writing. Letters do not other events.

They do not

comment on

give accounts of the writer's daily

of travels, or observations of what

is

life,

going on around. Nothing

notebook or diary has ever been found. Neither their thoughts or a record of events at the

men

nor

political or

descriptions

like a

women

personal

down

jotted

end of the day before lying down

to

Thus we seldom encounter individual personality in Egypt because the Egyptians do not seem to have been concerned with perpetuating themselves sleep.

as they actually were, but only as they

In

many

ten texts. as far as

It

conformed

to society's ideals.

ways, representational material presents similar problems to writ-

was commissioned mostly by the male

we know, by male

represent the ideal, and like

artists.

The aim

monumental

in

texts,

scribal elite,

and executed,

temple and funerary it

cannot be taken

art

was

to

at face value.

Seldom did Egyptian artists simply sketch life around them as they saw it. Each piece of art was made for a particular purpose which must be understood before

it

can be used as evidence.

If the source material carries in-built biases, so also

of

modern

Egyptologists.

However

do the presuppositions

objective scholars try to be in

their

INTRODUCTION

15

approach, they carry with them sets of assumptions embedded in their

immediate cultural outlook, of which they may well be unaware.

women

written before the

A

book on

women's movement of recent years was bound

to

take a different approach and ask different questions from a book written today.

When

the accepted ideal for a

absence of

failed to notice the

writing about

woman was

work or take part

did not go out to

women

women

model wife and mother who

that of a

in public life,

it is

no wonder that scholars

they tended to concentrate on dress,

lery, despite the fact that all these

were

Egypt. If in

in public life in ancient

also

worn by men,

makeup and

it

women

scholars were the product of a society that associated such things with

and regarded

a

male interest

in

them

as unhealthy.

Another area where modern prejudice seems to the issue of father-daughter

great passions

among

modern

bias based

to

have come into play relates

This has aroused

in the royal family.

who wish

to

deny that the marriages

However, these strenuous objections seem

existed as real unions. a

marriages

those scholars

on ingrained notions of incest

mated brother-sister marriage

jewel-

was because those

modern

also breaks

in

to arise

from

our society. Consum-

incest taboos, but

pres-

its

ence in the royal family of ancient Egypt has had to be accepted because of the

overwhelming evidence

for

it.

Father-daughter marriage, on the other hand,

not only violates our society's definition of incest, but

it

also cuts across

generations and raises the stereotypic image of a lascivious old

himself on an innocent young king's daughters that they

who

girl.

forcing

title

to

mark

the fact

for the actual king's wife in ritual functions.

then be regarded as a fiction to give rank to the king's

daughters, and the distasteful idea of a

consummated marriage between

and daughter can be avoided. The problem with is

man

scholars, then, prefer to believe that

are also king's wives received the

sometimes substituted

The marriage can

Many

this line

of reasoning

is

father that

based on today's prejudices and not on evidence from ancient Egypt.

it

We

have no idea how Egyptians would have regarded sexual relationships between kings and their daughters.

Another area where ancient sources and modern scholars combine an opportunity for error

inducement

is

in the

to

for scholars to read evidence

backwards and forwards

in time,

sometimes over centuries. The history of Egypt from the First Dynasty conquest of Alexander

in

to the

332 bc spans nearly three millennia, and during

time Egyptian society, and the position of ing.

form

unevenness of the material, providing an

women

within

it,

this

was not unchang-

Surviving sources, however, are not constant over this time span and

become more or less prominent at different periods; more evidence surviving from later than from earlier certainly the case with material relating to the study of women.

different kinds of material in general, there

periods. This

Much

of

it

is

is

comes from

the

although tempting, to read

it

New Kingdom backwards

to

or later, and

supplement

it

is

a dearth

dangerous,

from

earlier

times. In addition, because the Egyptians so often did not record the sort of

WOMEN

16

WCII. NT EGYPT

l\

we want

things

know, we are forced

to

many

piece together

to

of our

hvpotheses from a fragment of evidence here and a few scattered ambiguous facts there.

With so

material,

little

it

is

essential to avoid the temptation to

extrapolate from the particular to the general, a practice which can only too easilv introduce error.

It

where much

mav be

also

important not to gloss over lacunae. Re-

is like

trying to repair a tapestry with gaping holes

is

searching into ancient Egypt of the design

From what is left some idea of the pattern much has gone to be recovered it is no good just

is lost.

gained, but where too

pulling together the remaining threads to cover the hole as though nothing

were missing. One can the risk of going far

mav be

new design from

in a

fill

beyond the

original. In the

for scholars to present a

one's imagination, but only at

same way, however tempting

known

evidence or by imaginative

either by pulling

which may produce an interesting account

infilling

over time, the present book

reality.

Because of

New Kingdom,

this

imbalance of material

arranged along thematic lines rather than taking

is

chronological approach. Since so

from the

it

Egypt,

facts into a story that ignores all deficiencies in the

but which has no firm basis in

a strict

in ancient

them up,

thev must acknowledge the gaps and not try to patch together the few

women

coherent account of

much

of the available evidence comes

the text will concentrate on this period. Earlier

material, however, will be introduced

where

it

exists, as will

more recent

evidence from the Third Intermediate and Late Periods.

Before attempting to understand the place of ary to

know something about the

women

in society,

it is

social structure of Egypt. In the

necess-

Egyptian

world-view, the organisation of society was hierarchical. At the top was the divine world, itself strictly ordered but clearly ranking above king, at the pinnacle of

human

and stood as mediator between the divine and

human

family who, by association with the king, shared

formed

a close-knit

class, consisting

group

humankind. The

society, shared certain attributes with the

at the

spheres.

Members

gods of his

some of his separateness came the elite scribal

top of society. Next

of the one per cent or so of the population

who formed

the

male ruling bureaucracy of Egypt together with their family members. This tiny

group was responsible

for

most of our source material concerning ancient

Egypt. Below these were artists and craftsmen, and minor professionals

were probably

some

artists

illiterate.

were

From

literate

the evidence at Deir el-Medina,

and that the dividing

line

it is

who

clear that

between scribe and

artist

was not always clear-cut. The vast majority of the population was presumably of the peasant class, working the land to produce a surplus to feed the non-

food-producing elements of society. to

It is likely

that this vast class of peasants,

which most of the population belonged, was

itself hierarchically structured.

However, we know very little about this group, since its members - being illiterate - have left no records of their own. At the very bottom were slaves, including foreign captives,

who

could be bought and sold.

said about the lower classes has to be gleaned

The

little

that can be

from the sources pertaining

to

INTRODUCTION

who

the elite,

usually had

no

17

interest in recording information about their

inferiors.

Thus

it

can be seen that any study of Egyptian society

the elite scribal group.

It

follows that a study of

almost wholly concentrate on

women

women

of the royal family about

whom

Above the human world stood the As

deities.

way

a

construct of the

to reflect the

of this

women

is

elite class,

a certain

basically a study of

in ancient

Egypt must

together with the

amount of material

survives.

by male and female

divine, inhabited

human mind, the divine world is bound in some human world. However, the interaction

workings of the

between divine and human spheres was always extremely complex,

for while

human originated the divine, the human world in turn modelled itself on its own construct, so that the two worlds came to reflect and interact with each other. In the Egyptian view of the universe, both the divine and the human worlds had come into being at the time of the creation, before which there was only undifferentiated matter. The act of creation took place when this matter was separated into the myriad different forms that make up the created world. the

In one of the major creation myths, associated with the religious centre of Heliopolis, the creator god,

who was

self-generated, began the process of

creation by producing through masturbation the

Shu

deities,

pair,

(air)

first

pair of

male and female

and Tefnut (moisture). Their interaction produced another

Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), who

in their turn

produced

Isis

and

Osiris,

and

Nephthys and Seth. Thus the creation of the universe was begun by the interaction of the male and female principles

creator god

separated out into the

came

first

be distinguished as

to

embodied

in pairs of deities.

must have contained both male and female

potential

The

which then

divine couple. Later the female aspect of the god a

goddess called 'the god's hand', regarded as the

instrument of masturbation. By the Eighteenth Dynasty she was identified with Hathor, the goddess of sexuality. Other myths were also used to give expression to the miracle of creation, and

it is

interesting that in these too the

creator god, although logically combining male and female, was usually con-

ceptualised as male.

The

interactions of the male and female principles not only set the workings

of the universe in motion, but were also

This

is

embodied

in the

a

means of perpetual cosmic renewal.

concept of Kamutef 'the bull of his mother', in which

the setting sun impregnates the sky goddess and

morning. Thus she

is

both father and son. In ations

is

set

up

like a

is

born of her again

in the

both the god's consort and his mother, while the god this

way

a self-perpetuating cycle of successive

is

gener-

loop tape, by which age can be transformed into youth,

and the universe constantly renewed.

The

female principle was embodied in the goddesses worshipped by the

Egyptians.

The study

of these deities

distinct identities often

epithets,

merge

into

is

complex because even goddesses with

one another, sharing

and functions. One of the major female

deities

attributes, insignia,

was

Isis, sister

and

WOMEN

18

EGYPT

\N( II.NT

IN

When Osiris was murdered by his mourned him and searched throughout Egypt for his body.

consort of the god of the dead, Osiris.

brother Seth,

Isis

When

she eventually found

to life

and

Isis

to conceive a

it,

she used her great magical

son by him

gave birth to her child Horus in

skills to restore Osiris

who would grow up to avenge his father. the marsh of Khemmis in the Delta where

she kept him hidden from the destructive plotting of Seth and from other

dangers that threatened the child, through the strength of her magic.

Isis

became the embodiment of motherhood and many images survive from about 1000 bc onwards showing her with her infant son. In magical spells she is frequently invoked for the protection of children. She was also an important funerary goddess, bringing the hope that she would resurrect the deceased as she had resurrected Osiris.

was the

If Isis

ment of female bringer of

ideal wife

and mother, the goddess Hathor was the embodi-

sexuality, love,

connection with

music and dance, and inebriation. She was

and protected

fertility

fertility

women

in childbirth.

and childbirth, she was

cerned with rebirth into the

afterlife.

Together with other goddesses

like

Egypt and had

wished

to

the goddess had

goddess con-

Mut and Sakhmet,

Tefnut,

she could be

and eye of Ra who,

in a rage,

be pacified and brought back by a male god.

When Ra

mankind, he sent Hathor

to destroy

slaughter. Later the

also a funerary

But Hathor was not always benevolent.

identified with the angry goddess, the daughter left

a

Because of her close

god changed

become out of

his

mind and

control,

as his

eye to carry out the

tried to halt the destruction, but

and only by using

her

a trick to get

drunk could Ra make her stop.

Hathor and goddesses associated or having

dual nature.

a

and new

life;

On

identified with her

were perceived

as

the one hand they were beneficent, bringing fertility

on the other hand they were dangerous, bringing destruction

their wake. In their cults, part of the ritual

was aimed towards pacifying

perilous side, and the sistrum, the rattle sacred to Hathor,

in

their

was shaken

to

achieve this end. In fact, the essence of divine being, whether manifested in

male or female

deities,

could be dangerous to

the use of the sistrum as a

means of

humans who approached

it,

and

control spread into other divine cults.

The duality manifested in goddesses was human nature, where women were seen side. They were honourable if they met the of

also reflected in the

as incorporating a

Egyptian view

good and

a

bad

standards of society, but there was

always the danger that they would break the rules, in which case they were

dishonourable and to be condemned.

Men,

the rules were different. Since society

was male-dominated, the norms were

by

men

for the benefit of

of married

women

was of advantage

men

had

men. For instance, these

to their

to

too,

to

conform, but for them

insisted

set

on the faithfulness

male partners, but not the other way round, which

because only then could they be sure that they were

the fathers of their wives' offspring.

motherhood, and therefore had

By

contrast,

less to gain

women had no doubt

by the arrangement.

of their

INTRODUCTION Because of their dominance

men

19

could perpetuate their control of the pub-

women, however able, could not officially gain entrance into the ruling bureaucracy. Whether women were consciously aware of the many gender distinctions in their society and, further, resented them can never be known, since we have no surviving record expressing their attitudes lic,

while

political sphere,

and opinions. Probably most

women

accepted

life

as they found

and did not

it,

who refused to conform would The modern feminist movement may have become

question time-honoured custom, while any

simply have been rejected.

possible only through increasing value being placed on the individual as a

separate entity, instead of as a single part of the social machine with a prescribed place and function. In ancient Egypt, conformity not individuality was prized, and both

men and women had predetermined

looked to the past for

its

unchanging, change was slow and to

roles in a society

which

models. Although Egyptian society was by no means at

any given time the status quo was unlikely

be questioned.

From

the standpoint of our

own

we can

times, then,

look back at ancient

Egypt and see something of the structure of Egyptian society over three mil-

how

lennia: affairs.

from

king,

it

was

built

Not only was

Horus.

whom

all

on gender inequality with

men dominant

the official bureaucracy staffed exclusively by

power derived, was male,

identified with the

as objective an account as possible of the position of tian society. If I

want

I

women

my aim is to give in ancient

address issues which are of concern to us today,

of an intellectual need to understand today. Further, the study of

and approached problems

it

Egypis

not

Egyptians for perceived failures in their society,

to criticise the

more

or because their solutions to problems were not

own

male deity

true that four female kings occupied the throne at one time or

It is

another, but their position was an anomalous one. In this book

because

in public

men, but the

how

still

how we

like

our own, but because

ourselves got to where

we

are

other societies have organised their worlds

of concern to us adds an extra perspective to our

attempts to understand the complexities of our modern multicultural

world.

To

women

talk of

as

leading. Since ancient

was female,

women

though they were

Egypt was

peasantry would have had

them

While

this set

for female not

wide disparities class as a

homogeneous group

little

women

minor professional

common

them apart from

male roles

in the

in

of the royal

class,

and of the

male counterparts and destined

their

women

mis-

except their ability to bear

in society, class distinctions

experiences of

is itself

and half the population

too were ranked hierarchically, and

family, of the elite scribal class, of the

children.

a

a hierarchical society

would have caused

of different classes.

The

peasant

whole, though largest in terms of numbers, was the poorest econ-

omically and had the least power, because

it

had no input into government

processes and could only obey the ordinances imposed upon

woman knew

only the receiving end of authority.

By

contrast, a

it. A peasant woman of the

WOMEN

2ll

I\

VNCIEN1 EGYPT

elite scribal class

not only had access to greater economic resources but was

also close to the bureaucratic

have been

power wielded by the men of her family and may

in a position to influence their decisions.

the ultimate

power source

in

Royal

women had

access to

Egypt, the king, and a weak ruler might be

controlled by a strong wife or mother. Further, while the king was by origin

human,

his office

in relation to the

non-royal

A

of kingship was divine and thus the status of the royal

women

king also carried elements of divinity, setting them apart from

women.

study of royal

women alone could easily fill a volume. In this book, where women have to be considered, the text is divided so that

both royal and private the

first

relate

two chapters deal with royal women, while the subsequent chapters

mostly to

women

of the

elite class.

considered whenever the material allows.

Women

lower

in the social scale are

CHAPTER ONE

Royal women and queenship

The king and kingship

women

Royal

in ancient

tionship to the king,

According

Egypt derived

who was

to tradition,

office

occupying

fact of

importance from their

Egypt had been ruled by successive male gods

creation, but later, in 'historical' times,

However, the

their

rela-

always, apart from a very few exceptions, male.

human

of kingship remained divine, and

a divine office,

was

set apart

after the

kings governed the country. its

holder, by the very

from other humans and took on

aspects of divinity. This transformation was effected by rituals performed at the time of a king's accession.

and provides

The Egypt.

for

The

Much

of royal iconography reflects this event

continual renewal.

of kingship was essential to the very existence of the state of

office 1

its

king stood between the divine and

human

worlds, acting as the

point of contact and mediator. In theory, he performed the rituals in the

temples which were necessary to keep the universe functioning. the

gift

temple

of

life

rituals

from the gods and

in turn

dispensed

it

He

received

to his subjects. In reality,

throughout the land were carried out by

priests, but

temple

decoration always showed the king and not priests interacting directly with deities.

Just as the king was responsible to the divine world, so he was responsible for

human. He embodied the state and was ultimately liable for the government of the country through the elite scribal bureaucracy. When the world was created, the creator god had established the correct order of things, known in the

Egyptian as maat.

governed

in

The

authority of the king sprang from the belief that he

accordance with maat.

Since kingship was intended to pass from father to son, kings married and fathered families in order to provide their successor. Within the king's

immediate

circle, therefore,

we

find a

number of

royal

women:

the king's

mother, wives, and daughters. Because of the impersonal nature of the source material,

we know

little

about these

women

as individuals, but

we can

learn

something of their importance and the various roles that they played. The surviving evidence, which spans nearly three millennia from the First to the

Thirty-First Dynasties, shows a titles

and insignia and

number of changes over time

to the contexts in

which the

relating to their

women were

represented.

Archbishop MHty Hioh School Library

San Jose,

California

It

11

\\()\ir.\

l\

W(

II

NT EGYP1

'— ^T! jUfci" ** " mai Jmi " w *^ "* '

'

1

i

'

v»* »> >

^ -M^-" ', l

-

Queen Ahmose, pregnant with Hatshepsut,

vulture headdress.

is

-»

'

l

** U

'' l .

--g *'v

^r-'

'

'

t'f"

led to the birthroom.

"

She wears the

ROYAL WOMEN AND QUEENSHIP is

unclear

how

regarded, and

far these

how

way

represent basic changes in the

far they

royal

23

women were

simply reflect different and developing ways of

portraying the same fundamental truths.

Most of what

I

say in this chapter will

draw on evidence from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.

The divinity of queenship

From

early times the status of royal

king through the

titles 'king's

also 'king's principal wife'

and

women was

defined by reference to the

mother', 'king's wife', 'king's daughter' and later 'king's sister'.

The

question must be asked:

king was to a certain extent divine, how did this affect the associated with him? divine,

was there

Or

also a

women

if

the

closely

to put a slightly different question: if kingship

was

concept of divine queenship? 2

One way to approach this question is to look at the insignia worn by queens. By 'queen' I refer specifically to the 'king's mother' and 'king's principal wife'. King's daughters may have been potential queens, but they do not share the

common iconography One of the oldest close-fitting cap

and

of king's mothers and principal wives.

titularies

items of queenly insignia

formed from the body of

is

the vulture headdress, a

a vulture

w ith the two w ings of the

bird spread against the sides of the wearer's head, while the head of the vulture juts

forward from the wearer's forehead

Old Kingdom.

It

was

originally

(fig. 2).

Upper Egypt, when she appeared

tress of

The uraeus The headdress

(royal cobra) could

(fig. 1).

is known from the worn by the vulture goddess Nekhbet, protec-

be substituted for the vulture head

in

human

rather than vulture form.

Nekhbet was paired with Wadjyt, the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, and by analogy,

when Wadjyt appeared

in

human form

she adopted the vulture head-

dress of Nekhbet, only substituting a uraeus for the vulture head. Later the vulture headdress asty

it

was

became used by other goddesses

too.

also depicted as an item of queenly insignia,

worn by queens throughout pharaonic crown and continued

to

history. Since

be used by female

transferred to queens suggests that

it

From

Dyn-

the Fifth

and from then on it

it

was

originated as a divine

deities, the fact that

may have marked

it

was

also

a divine aspect

of

queenship. In addition to substituting the uraeus for the vulture head

when

the vulture headdress, queens could also wear the uraeus alone

though

The

this

does not seem to have become

common

until the

they wore

(fig.

3), al-

Middle Kingdom.

uraeus had wide associations, of which one of the most basic was with the

cobra goddess Wadjyt mentioned above. Like the vulture headdress, the

uraeus was also taken over by other goddesses.

The

uraeus was also associated

with the sun god Ra, and with the goddess Hathor as the eye of Ra, which

through

its

fierce aggression protected the king

and the gods against

their

enemies. In addition, the uraeus w as the most characteristic mark of the king.

Thus It

the use of the uraeus by the

queen may have carried

a

range of meanings.

could have derived partly through her connection with the king and thus be a

WOMEN

24

IN

mark of her

\NCIENT EGYPT But

'royalty'.

could also have carried references to Wadjyt and

it

other female deities on the one hand, and to solar mythology on the other,

queen with Hathor

linking the

as the

daughter and eye of Ra.

From

the late

Eighteenth Dynasty, the uraeus might be decorated with the cow horns and solar disk of

Hathor

(fig. 4),

thus strengthening the Hathoric connection.

In the Eighteenth Dynasty, queens began to wear two uraei side by side, a

combination usually called the double uraeus that

it

and Lower Egypt, and

this

is

(figs. 5,

Evidence suggests

12).

Nekhbet and Wadjyt, and thus

referred to the two goddesses

confirmed by the

fact that

Upper

to

one snake sometimes

wears the white crown of Upper Egypt and the other the red crown of Lower Egypt. Like the single uraeus, the double uraeus also possessed

a solar

connec-

and the two snakes were often

tion through identification with the eyes of Ra,

The From

decorated with the Hathoric horns and sun disk instead of the two crowns.

double uraeus was not limited to queens but was worn by goddesses too. the

Dynasty

Eighteenth

later

on,

elaborate

increasingly

combinations

developed between the vulture headdress, the vulture head, and the single or double uraeus

(fig. 6).

This probably reflected

a general stylistic elaboration in

iconographic elements; the range of meaning represented by the insignia probably stayed

From

much

straight falcon

The

5).

the same.

the Thirteenth Dynasty onwards, queens appear wearing a pair of

plumes mounted on

a circular

origin of the queen's double feathers

goddesses

at that time,

the

unclear.

Dead dating from

Min and

the

identified with the double uraeus.

the male

Theban god Amun.

New Kingdom,

They

Ra, and an Eighteenth Dynasty sun

are also

hymn

mentioned

identifies

in

connection with

them with

the eyes of Ra.

deities, their solar

connections, especially with the double uraeus and eyes of Ra, bring

same sphere of reference

as the uraeus

queen. In addition, the goddess Hathor wears

In the

the double feathers are

Although the associations of the feathers are with male

the

(fig.

They were not worn by

but similar feathers were characteristic of male falcon

gods, and of the male fertility god

Book of

support resting on the head

is

them

into

and double uraeus worn by the a pair

of curved ostrich feathers.

While these were always carefully distinguished inconographically from the double falcon feathers worn by male gods and queens, the Egyptian term 'double feathers' {shuty) was applied to both types of paired feathers.

Egyptians

may

and the queen's falcon ones, since their names were the same. This

more

The

thus have seen a connection between Hathor's ostrich feathers

plausible by the fact that in the reign of

Amenhotep

ill

made

is

of the Eighteenth

Dynasty, queens began to wear Hathor's cow horns and sun disk in combination with the double falcon feathers

(fig.

7), just as

Hathor frequently com-

bined them with her paired ostrich feathers.

From

the

Old Kingdom onwards, there are representations

holds the ankh sign (the sign of life;

of the queen, and the ankh

is

fig. 5).

This

is

in

which

a

queen

not, of course, a special

more commonly held by

deities

and kings.

mark

It is,

by

R

in

possibility that the title

mm'^m \*

that

no evidence

rarely given for queens, in cases

Ahmose showing Amun-Ra.

shows

have had non-royal

Nefertari with their son before the god

\

cited,

of royal birth can be

enhance the status of non-royal women.

queens of the Eighteenth Dynasty, some bear the

The

most often

Women

4

daughter', since there

title 'king's

the Eighteenth Dynasty of

a woman of women in direct

marry

study of the situation in the Eighteenth Dynasty,

the period in connection with which this theory

3

to

should be possible to trace a line of royal

descent from one another.

identified

the office of kingship was

were correct, each king would have had it

according to

to the throne,

//)

Egyptian with the meaning of bringing booty or

Egypt, then, Amenhotep's marriage with Gilukhepa was expressed

though she were an item of tribute or booty brought from Mitanni

to the

king of Egypt.

This formulation

is

made even clearer in the Egyptian sources concerning Ramses II. According to these, the first marriage

the two Hittite marriages of

took place because Egyptian armies had ravaged the land of Hatti where the Hittites lived.

great

'Now

power of the

his soldiers

and

strip ourselv es

after thev

lord of the

his courtiers:

of

all

saw their land

Two Lands, "Now

in this miserable state

under the

then the great prince of Hatti said to

see this!

Our

our possessions, and with

land

my

is

devastated

.

.

.

Let us

oldest daughter in front of

WOMEN

14

them,

let

INCIENT EGYPT

IN

us carry peace offerings to the

we may

he

may

to

be brought, the costly tribute before

give us peace, that

live"

Good God [i.e. the king of Egypt], that Then he caused his oldest daughter her consisting of gold and silver, many .

.

.

great ores, innumerable horses, cattle, sheep and goats

Eventually this

.' .

.

great procession reached Egypt and the daughter of the Hittite king 'was led into the presence of his majesty, with the very great tribute

was given the name Maathorneferura, may she the palace of the king's house.' stvle

except that the princess

is

live

.

.

The second marriage

behind her

and caused

.

is

.

.

.

She

to reside in

described in a similar

called the 'other daughter' of the Hittite king.

21

We can contrast these accounts with a letter written by Ramses to the Hittite queen, Pudukhepa: 'See, the great king, the king of Hatti, written to me, saying:

of my daughter, and

of Egypt".' 22

To

"Have people come

let

to

pour good,

my

fine oil

brother, has

upon the head

her be brought into the house of the great king, the king

the Egyptians, Egypt was the centre of the world and

Any goods coming into were represented on the monuments as

all

foreigners were theoretically subject to her.

Egypt,

whether

tribute

as gifts or trade,

signifying submission to the king of Egypt. Clearly, meaningful diplomatic relations could not have

been sustained with foreign

had insisted on conducting them according their dealings with foreign rulers, they

form that

own

fitted into their

Egyptian kings

adopted the diplomatic forms that had

long been established in the ancient Near East, but into a

states if

to these premises. In reality, in

at

home, they

cast events

ideological framework.

For the most part diplomatic negotiations w ere conducted by male ambassadors between male kings except for the occasional participation of a royal

woman,

like

the Hittite

queen Pudukhepa

whom Ramses

to

Ramses' queen Nefertari who sent greetings of her own whole, though,

women had

little

to

II

wrote, and

Pudukhepa.

On

the

active part to play in diplomatic negotiations;

they were important only in that they provided through marriage the means to

cement international once they arrived

in

alliances.

But what happened

Egypt, having

left

to all these foreign

women

behind everything with which they were

and come

to a country with an unknown language and strange The answer is that we have very little idea. The three wives of Thutmose m, Mertit, Menway and Menhet, received an honourable Egyptianstyle burial, but of their life before that we know nothing. Kadashman Enlil of Babylon wrote an extraordinary letter to Amenhotep in questioning the fate of his sister who had been sent to Egypt years before. While the letter no longer survives, Amenhotep quoted some of it in his reply. The Babylonian king had

familiar

customs?

written: 'Indeed, sister,

her

whom my

now

or

you want

my

daughter to be

father gave you,

knows whether she

of the people sent by

is

is

alive or dead.'

Kadashman

a

bride for you even while

my

there with you, although no one has seen

Enlil to

23

Amenhotep

replies that

none

Egypt had ever known the princess,

how would they be able to recognise her? He suggests that someone who did know her should be sent to speak with her, which implies that she was still so

WOMEN AND

ROYAL.

alive.

The impression

given

is

that the Babylonian princess

OJUEENSHIP

had become

35

a fairly

obscure figure.

By

when Ramses n married

contrast,

the

an Egyptian name, Maathorneferura, and

we know, no

first

made

other foreign princess achieved

this. It is

Shuppiluliumash had

As

daughter

earlier given his

far as

possible that the Hittite

king had insisted on this rank as part of the marriage agreement. Hittite king

was given

Hittite princess she

'king's principal wife'.

in

When

of the kings of Mitanni, part of the contract ran: 'You shall not bring

daughter into the position of a second wife. In Mitanni she queen.' 24 Perhaps Hattusilis It is clear,

made

the

same

stipulation to

the

marriage to one

my

shall rule as

Ramses

II.

however, that the case of Maathorneferura was an exception, and

we shall never know much about these foreign wives of Egyptian kings. In we have no idea how many such marriages any one king might enter into. Two of Ramses Il's foreign wives are known purely from a chance reference in a that

fact,

and go unmentioned

Hittite source

in

Egyptian

no record survives. While Egypt was

texts.

We

cannot, then, rule

made diplomatic marriages

out the possibility that he and other kings

at the

of which

height of her imperial power, there

rulers who saw an advantage in having an alliance may have been compelled to send daughters as part of Egypt demanded. What did the king do with all these women? In the royal brides there were the women who made up their entour-

must have been many minor with her, while others the tribute

addition to

ages. Gilukhepa, for instance, brought

more than three hundred with

Further, subject rulers sometimes sent batches of non-royal

women

her.

as gifts to

the king as part of their tribute. Abdikheba of Jerusalem records in one

Amarna

letter:

'I

gave 21 maidens

another city ruler writes: 'Indeed, king,

my

lord, and, indeed,

All these

women had

to

I

I

... as a gift for the

king

my

lord',

while

have paid very close heed to the word of the

have given 500

cattle

and 20 maidens'. 2 '

be housed, clothed and fed. While some

may have

had sexual relations with the king, many may never even have seen him. probable that rather than being allowed to

work.

We

know

that

Maathorneferura lived

in a palace at

in the

was involved

production of cloth and that

26

in the

many

Spinning and weaving had been one

worked since the Old Kingdom, and

women was

Miwer, modern

Faiyum. Documents suggest that the establishment

Medinet el-Ghurab foreigners.

It is

they were put to productive

sit idle,

it

seems

of the personnel were

craft in

likely that

channelled into textile production. Others

which

some of

women had this influx

may have been

of

assigned

household duties within the various palaces that the king had throughout Egypt.

The

lot

of

society, far

many

from

of these

women may

their families,

not have been pleasant. In a strange

perhaps not proficient

in the language, they

would have had no natural protector against exploitation and abuse. ruler subject to ter or sister.

A

minor

Egypt could hardly question the king's treatment of his daugh-

So long

as powerful rulers sent greetings

and

gifts

to their

WOMEN

36

l\

ANCIENT EGYPT

daughters and their ambassadors enquired after the women, they would have

had

to be well-treated or risk

an international incident. However, once outside

concern for their well-being was In fact, such

and an cogs

women were

alliance.

in the

little

They had no

lost, their

position was potentially vulnerable.

more than commodities

be traded for peace

to

say in their fate, and yet they

became important

workings of the international diplomatic system: while the system

women were needed

was run by men, the

Royal children and the

to

make

it

work.

succession

we might expect them to have had a large number of children. In fact there is little sign of this until the reign of Ramses ii, when that king departed from previous custom and depicted long proSince kings had a plurality of wives,

cessions of his children in various temples throughout Egypt and Xubia. In addition, royal sons appear in their father's battle scenes, taking part in

cam-

paigns and bringing in prisoners. In keeping with earlier traditions, a few of the

shown with him on

king's daughters are

royal

monuments. Altogether more 2

Most of them are known only from the processions, and we have no idea who their mothers were. The royal daughters who appear elsewhere with the king are children either of than

a

hundred children are associated with Ramses

Xefertari, Ramses' to the children

first

who

principal wife, or of Asetnefret, his second. In addition

stillborn or died in infancy. Clearly,

many

could not have produced so

that

Ramses was

two

Hittite princesses, a Syrian princess

that there It is

were

also

still

'

survived long enough to be attested on monuments, there

must have been others who were

women

n.

married to his

more

sister

royal wives

We

children between them.

Henutmira, three of

and

a

his daughters,

Babylonian one, and

whose names are today

two

know

totally

it is

likely

unknown.

strange that while secondary royal wives must have been given burials, as

in the case

of Mertit,

Menhet and Menway

in the reign of

Thutmose

ill,

we

have hardly any evidence for them.

we know that kings made multiple marriages Ramses II, very few royal offspring for each king are known. In general they are not shown in temples or on royal monuments. Most are known from private monuments belonging to their nurses, tutors, or other officials, and from some funerary objects. Some king's daughters are better known because they married the king, their brother, and became In the Eighteenth Dynasty,

but, in contrast to the children of

his principal wife.

A

few princesses

appear with the king in

who are not attested The best known is

ritual scenes.

as principal wife

Neferura,

depicted with her mother Hatshepsut after she had claimed the

Two

titles

who

is

of king.

daughters of Thutmose in accompany their father in a temple offering

scene, and the daughters of

Amenhotep

in are

shown with

that king in various

sed festival scenes relating to his ritual renewal in the kingship.

A

unique series of royal children of the Eighteenth Dynasty

mummy

labels

found

in a

Theban tomb, which were

is

known from

written in the

Twenty-

ROYAL WOMEN AND OJUEENSHIP

6

of

37

Colossal statue

Amenhotep

in

and queen Tiy.

The queen wears

a

vulture headdress

with

a

vulture

head between two uraei.

First

Dynasty

at the

time of their owners' reburial after their original tombs

had been plundered. 28 Most are

totally

unknown from

elsewhere, a circum-

stance which underlines the paucity of our information about royal offspring. It is likely

When

that

many

royal children have left

a royal child

child's place in

life.

A

was born,

its

no record of

their existence.

sex would immediately determine the

son was a potential heir to the throne

given an upbringing appropriate to a possible future king.

who needed

A

to be

daughter had no

kingly expectations because Egyptian tradition did not accept female kings; that a

woman

that this

was

very occasionally succeeded in gaining the throne did not a

normal option

for royal daughters.

potential queens, and with the king's

formed

a triad of

mother and

king's principal wife they

mother, consort and daughter which was

a reflection

combined within the person of the goddess Hathor in her tionship with the sun god Ra. It was this close connection between the similar triad

women in ritual

mean

Daughters were, however, of a rela-

royal

that allowed king's daughters occasionally to appear with their fathers

scenes where normally one would expect the king's mother or wife.

King's sons, by contrast, had no ritual role during the reigns of their fathers

and are unattested from the reigns of their brothers. This

is

because although

WOMEN

38

VNCIENT EGYPT

IN

every son was a potential heir, there was in the mythology of kingship only one heir.

Egyptian kingship was deeply rooted

Horus,

which Horus claims the kingship

in

in the

myth of

Osiris and his son,

as the son of Osiris; the living king

of Egypt was identified as Horus and his dead predecessor as Osiris. So on this level, the

throne always passed from Osiris to Horus, and this was the

view perpetuated on monuments, where kings with no place for other king's sons

myth of the divine

god Amun-Ra impregnates the king's Of course, no one would know that this had

birth of the king, the

mother and so fathers the happened

king.

had ascended the throne, when

until a king

the one fathered by the god. Here, too, there plicity

official

we see only an endless succession of who failed to win the throne. In the

it

was no

followed that he was

ritual role for a multi-

of sons.

Officially, there

was

scope for

little

women

to play a part in the succession to

However, we should not confuse the

the throne.

official

framework within

which the mechanics of the succession functioned with the dividual to affect the working of the system unofficially.

ability

A

mother, king's consort, or even king's favourite might have found

There

influence the choice of heir.

is

of an in-

powerful king's

also evidence that royal

a

way

to

women some-

times went outside lawful processes and conspired to alter the legitimate succession.

The best-known

Museum

Egyptian

ment

is

of such cases, recorded in hieratic on in

concerned with the

up enmity

in

order to

trial

make

papyrus now

women, and

in.

of a group of people caught out in

rebellion against their lord

conspiracy seems to have been hatched between a royal son, other palace

a

Turin, occurred in the reign of Ramses

small group of palace

a

[i.e.

in the

The docu-

a plot 'to stir

the king].'

woman

officials.

29

The

called Tiy, her

Others, mainly

with duties in the 'harim', were drawn into the plot. In addition, some outside the palace, including a

commander of

Sekhmet, became involved;

a

the

army and an overseer of priests of Xubia is specifically men-

captain of archers of

who was in the 'harim'. we can deduce that the aim of the

tioned as having been brought into the plot by his sister,

Although

it

is

never explicitly stated,

conspiracy was to assassinate

Ramses

instead of the rightful heir. If this

in

gained the position of king's mother, and

presumably have been well-rewarded by unfortunate prince had to commit suicide.

allowed to take their

own

one that the examining

Nothing

in the

lives,

and put Tiy's son on the throne

move had been all

successful,

a grateful king. In the event, the

Some

of the other plotters were also

but for most of them

officials

Tiy would have

the supporters of the plot would

we

are simply told for each

'caused his punishment to overtake him'.

document mentions

a trial for

Tiy or the other palace women,

nor what their punishment was.

From the Middle Kingdom there comes evidence of an attempt on the life of Amenemhat I, founder of the Twelfth Dynasty; scholars dispute whether it was successful or not. An account of the affair is given in a text known as the

ROYAL WOMEN AND QUEENSHIF ''Teaching

ofAmenemhat P.

his successor Senusret

Amenemhat

The document was

but

cast in the

it is

all

Amenemhat warns Senusret

against life: 'It

when

after supper,

my

was asleep upon

As

follow sleep ...

actually written in the reign of

form of an address from the dead

quarters, and goes on to describe the attack on his

to his son. In his teaching,

I

treachery from

was

I,

39

I

night had fallen, and

I

had spent an hour of happiness.

my

bed having become weary, and

came

to, I

awoke

and

to fighting,

I

I

heart had begun to

found

it

was an attack of

Had any woman previously raised troops? Is tumult raised ."° The attack clearly came from within the palace and the in the residence? question 'Had any woman previously raised troops?' suggests that the conspiracy may have involved one or more of the royal women. the bodyguard

.

.

.

.

.

Kingdom, the autobiography of an official includes information queen of Pepy I. 31 While we are never what her crime was, it was plainly serious, and she may have been caught

In the Old

that he presided over the secret trial of a told

conspiring against the king.

We

cannot, however, rule out other possibilities,

such as adultery.

The

institution

of the 'harim'

Important queens had their administered by male her

own

A

officials.

establishments,

endowed with

estates,

and

favourite wife might also be given estates in

own name. Most

'harims' situated in

royal women, however, were housed in one of several Memphis, Thebes, and Medinet el-Ghurab located at the

entrance to the Faiyum. 32 Each 'harim' was an independent institution on a level with the

The

households of the king, of his mother, and of his principal wife.

establishments were

network of male

amounts of grain,

endowed with lands and

a

Fragmentary administrative documents record

and

delivered as provisions to the 'harim' at Medinet

oil

fish

el-Ghurab. Other texts suggest that the they would contribute

textiles, so that

and administered by

cattle,

officials.

to,

women were

involved in producing

and perhaps even cover, the cost of

their upkeep.

The It

'harim' at

Medinet el-Ghurab was founded

was not an adjunct

ment, where royal

to a palace of the king, but

women and

their attendants

seen that the Hittite queen of Ramses here.

It is

II,

in the reign of Thutmose in.

was an independent establishwere housed.

not clear whether the king would

visit periodically,

where he sent surplus women or those of whom he was that the royal children a

were brought up

Ramesside prince, who had died

We

have already

Maathorneferura, became a resident or whether

it

was

tired. It

can be assumed

in the various 'harims',

and the tomb of

in his twenties,

was found

cemeteries near Medinet el-Ghurab, which provided the

in

one of the large

final resting places

of

the inhabitants.

Documents children'. It

is

also record an institution called the 'household of the royal

unclear whether this was a part of the 'harim', or comprised a

separate administrative unit of

its

own. Nothing

is

known of

the lives of the

UOMl

VNCIENT KGYPT

\ l\

7

Statuette of queen Tiy wearing the

double feathers together with the horns and

majority of royal offspring.

Did they

live in the 'harim' or 'the

Were

royal children' until they died?

household of the

they allowed to marry, and

might their partners have been? Evidence n's sons

disk.

exists

if so,

married and produced children during their father's lifetime.

extraordinary that despite the vast

who

showing that some of Ramses

number of Ramses'

children, within

It is

two

generations of his death, there was a crisis in the succession and the dynasty

ended

The

after the brief rule of a

ritual role

Of all

the royal

principal wife.

woman.

of the king's mother and king's principal wife the most important were the king's mother and

women,

Although we can say

little

king's

about them as individuals, we have

already seen that the evidence suggests that these

women

held a position that

some extent divine. Ritually, they were the most important of the royal women, and they were singled out from the rest by their insignia, titles, and the was

to

contexts in which they were depicted. Because there

made between

the

Queens most frequently appear following the king in

is

virtually

two women, they can both be referred

who performs

in scenes in

a ritual action.

no distinction

to as queens.

temples or on royal

stelae,

Since the presence of the king

temple scenes does not refer to specific occasions, the presence of a queen

is

ROYAL WOMEN AND QUEENSHIP unlikely to refer to a particular event either.

queens could be depicted

in a ritual context,

Normally queens are inactive shake a sistrum.

when

in these scenes,

possible that a

It is

them

the king performed

However,

which may but they

demonstrates that

it

reflect a real ritual role.

may

offer to a deity or

queen actually took part

in the

41

in

some

rituals

temple himself, which was probably

rarely.

Scenes showing the divine birth of the king are of a different character from other temple scenes. First, they claim to represent a specific occasion king's

when

the

mother conceived the king through impregnation by the god Amun-Ra.

In fact, their reality lies on a mythological not a

mundane

level.

Second, the

queen achieves direct contact with the gods without the mediation of the king, which rarely happens elsewhere.

Two

complete birth cycles survive from the

Eighteenth Dynasty together with fragments of others from later periods. 33 In

them

the king's

mother

visited

is

by the god Amun-Ra, who

is

said to take

on

the form of her royal husband, and she conceives and later gives birth to the heir to the throne.

The whole

birth cycle can only be depicted retrospectively,

knew for certain until he came to the throne who the next king would be. Once the king was crowned, it followed that his mother had been visited by the god and that the king was the son of Amun-Ra. This meant that since no one

every king's mother had been on one occasion the earthly consort of the god

Amun-Ra, and

may have been one

this

reason for her importance.

Several king's mothers in the Eighteenth Dynasty were not the principal

wives of their royal husbands, but in the reigns of their sons they were given, in addition to the

mother', that of 'king's principal wife'. This, to-

title 'king's

gether with their identical use of other roles

were somehow

the divine

identified.

Kamutef myth

in

titles

and

insignia, suggests that the

two

This can perhaps be explained by analogy with

which the sun god impregnated the sky goddess

every night and was born of her again in the morning, thereby perpetually

renewing himself. The sky goddess

is

thus both mother and consort to the god.

In royal mythology, the king hoped to achieve renewal through a similar

model, in which mother and wife had to be conceptualised as identical. In reality, the role

ritually the

was

split into

women were

two parts and played by separate women, but

identified as

one

entity. Ideally, every principal wife

should have become king's mother, but in practice this did not happen, so instead any king's

mother who had not been the principal wife of the previous

king was given the

title in

the reign of her son.

FURTHER READING K. A. Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramses chapter

//,

Warminster, 1978,

6.

A. Schulman, 'Diplomatic marriage in the Egyptian

New

Kingdom', Journal of Xear

Eastern Studies 38 (1979), 177-93.

L. Troy, Patterns of Queenship in Ancient Egyptian

Myth and

History, Uppsala, 1986.

CHAPTER TWO

Queens, power, and the assumption of kingship

human, they were divine aspects.

to

women

some extent removed from

The

without the other. actual

answer

this fully,

but

queen have been able

a

we can

gain

some

idea.

how much power was vested

levels:

the mortal sphere and given

notion of queenship was complementary to that of

meant

that

Thus queens were very important

power would

mythology

in

occupying the position of queen w ere

kingship, and the interconnection of the two

two

was rooted

clear that the position of queen, like that of king,

It is

and the divine world. Although

one could not

ritually,

to exercise? It

The

but how

is

exist

much

impossible to

question needs to be posed on

in the actual position of king's

mother

how much power could a strong-w illed individual know that queens were given their own estates and

or king's principal wife, and additionally acquirer that they also

We

had male

officials

might thus have enjoyed not only

such as stewards in their service. a certain

but also the service of men loyal to her and her interests.

have had the potential,

at least, to

provide

a

power base

However, Egyptian monuments only record the fit

A

queen

amount of economic independence

ideal

The combination may

for an ambitious queen.

and omit what does not

the official model, which had no interest in individual personalities. Thus,

we can never expect

to find

evidence of the careers of individual queens and

their possible manipulation of

Nor do

power.

the

monuments

yield a pattern

suggesting that power was vested in queens on a regular basis. This notwithstanding,

Ahhotep

it

is

possible to say something

more about

a

few queens.

II

When King Ahmose,

founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, came to the throne,

the northern part of Egypt was

still

occupied by the foreign Hyksos rulers,

who was allied with the Ahmose conquered Nubia, suppressed two upris-

while Xubia to the south was controlled by a ruler

Hyksos. During his reign, ings,

and

and drove the Hyksos out of Egypt. difficulties for the

mother Ahhotep played

up

a great stela at

'one

who

Theban

ruler,

a crucial role in

Karnak

in

cares for Egypt.

It

must have been

and there

is

a

these stirring events.

which he included

She has looked

time of tension

evidence that the king's

Ahmose

a passage praising

after her

[i.e.

later set

Ahhotep

as

Egypt's] soldiers;

she has guarded her; she has brought back her fugitives, and collected together

QUEENS, POWER AND KINGSHIP

43

^

8

Stela of

Thutmose n

showing the king followed by queen Ahmose, widow of

Thutmose

i,

and

his

own

U~ r tudy

of these objects has shown that their supposed effectiveness was

derived from an identification between the child concerned and the young sun god.

61

The wands were presumably

placed in the pregnant woman's bedroom

or in the nursery after birth, and perhaps used with spells recited for protection. In

two tombs, similarly shaped wands are shown carried by nurses, and

secondary use of the objects was

a

funerary one.

The wands

burials to protect the deceased during the rebirth into the next off the

dangers that threatened

Also dating to the Middle

life

by warding

at this time.

Kingdom

tion for children, cylindrical

a

could be placed in

charm

are examples of another form of proteccases.

Sometimes these

are solid, but

others are hollow and have been found with garnets or balls of copper wire inside.

They were designed

undoubtedly relate

to the

to

be strung and worn round the child's neck, and

amulets over which the spells of the magico-medical

papyri were to be spoken. Later, in the

New Kingdom,

it

became customary

write protective spells on pieces of papyrus which were folded

up so

to

that they

could be placed in small cylindrical cases. These again would be hung round the neck of a child. Called oracular amuletic decrees by spells take the

form of a decree issued by

a god,

modern

and cover every

scholars, the

sort of disaster

—

,

w mil \ i\

\\


it

was important that the milk supply, whether

nurse or by

also contain

own mother, should

its

ways

is

and include

is

not a

common

subject in Egyptian art, al-

though examples, including ostraka from Deir el-Medina can be found

fertility figurines,

(fig.

22) and

rarely belong to the elite class but are

woman

tomb chapels

which the mother suckles her child while continuing

in

some

The women shown, however, mainly peasants and servants.' Some-

at all periods.

times a nursing

is

papyri

tests to help

good or bad.

human mothers

Suckling by

child.

was suckled by

a child

The magico-medical

not dry up.

to stimulate the production of milk,

recognise whether milk

own

once. Whatever

at

1

included in subsidiary 'daily

scenes in private

life

to carry

The same subject is occasionally represented on a small scale in statuary. Usually the woman is unnamed, showing that a generic type rather than an individual is being depicted. The nursing woman often out her normal job

26).

(fig.

kneels or squats on the ground, supporting the child against her thigh or raised

knee, or she

may

sit

hanging down one her

left

on

arm while she

on her lap with both

a seat holding the child

side. In other

tions.

For instance, one papyrus recommends:

finely

ground and mixed with the milk of

healthy sleep.''

squatting

of it

litre) 1

is

holding

being suckled, but the

perhaps squeezing

it

'tips

woman who

a

in

some

prescrip-

of papyrus, sepet grains, has born a boy.

A

kin

given to the child and he will pass a day and night in a

A number of pottery

woman

legs

offers her breast with her right hand.

Mothers' milk was regarded as an efficacious ingredient

(about half a

its

examples she stands and carries the child on

vessels have

a child (fig. 27).

2

woman sometimes

to express milk.

The

been found child,

in the

however,

is

shape of a not shown

holds her breast with her hand,

She wears

a skirt

and

a

shawl draped over

her shoulders to give easy access to her breasts. In addition she wears a distinctive hairstyle (fig.

31

20),

which

is

different

from that on the mother

from that of the pregnant

in the birth pavilion (fig. 22),

Market scene on the banks of the Nile

in the

tomb of

Ipy.

woman

vessel

and from the

AND CHILDBIRTH

FERTILITY, PREGNANCY

32

Tomb

model showing

a

woman

grinding grain.

The

light colour

of the skin

identifies the sex of the figure.

styles

worn by married

body of hair

falls

down

one either side of the

round the neck and 1

1-17

cm

produces

women

found

the back, while face.

An

at

one

formal art

3

It is

(figs.

57, 77).

amulet representing the rising

relates to the production of milk.

feed'.'

to hold

in

The main

two long thin locks hang down

in height with a capacity that

were used If

elite

'is

These

in front,

moon

is

vessels range

worn from

roughly the amount that one breast

generally surmised by scholars that these vessels

mothers' milk for medical purposes.

human mothers

are only rarely

shown nursing,

it is

otherwise in the divine

sphere, where goddesses are frequently depicted suckling the king or the

deceased, as a means of renewal and to aid the passage from one state of being to another. In addition, texts place the king in a

range of

and thus

deities.

By

filial

relationship with a whole

the act of suckling, a goddess confirms the king as her son

ratifies his divinity.

FURTHER READING J.

Baines, 'Society', morality, and religious practice'

in:

B. Shafer (ed.) Religion

in

Ancient

Egypt, Ithaca, 1991, 164-72 (Magic and divination). J.

Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, Leiden, 1978.

R. Janssen and

J.

Janssen, Growing up in Ancient Egypt,

G. Pinch, 'Childbirth and female figurines (1983), 405-14. G. Pinch, lotive

offerings to

at

London

1990.

Deir el-Medina and el-Amarna' Oricntalia SI

Hathor, Oxford, 1993.

CHAPTER FIVE

The family and the household

The house and home of the commonest

One

titles

on the monuments

the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty per). It

seems

have indicated

to

proved absolutely. Taken

a

married

at face value,

of running the household, and this

women from

at least

woman

although this cannot be

implies that the bearer was in charge

it

is

for elite

that of 'mistress of the house' {nebet

is

supported by a passage

in the

New

Kingdom Instruction ofAny: 'Do not control your wife in her house, When you know she is efficient; Don't say to her: "Where is it? Get it!" When she has put it in the right place. Let your eye observe in silence, Then you recognise her skill."

In the Nineteenth Dynasty story of the

Two

Brothers, the

the fields, while the wife of the elder brother (the younger in the house.

when he

Her husband

is

two men work

clearly expects her to be waiting for

returns in the evening. 2 This gender distinction would

idealised world of the

tomb chapel scenes where women

male owner when he

is

in

unmarried) stays

rarely

him fit

at

home

in with the

accompany the

Nor is he commonly accompanied by a woman when he goes hunting, and again this has an echo in the story of the Two Brothers where we are told that Bata's wife 'sat in his is

engaged

in activities outside

on

his estates.

house while he spent the day hunting desert game'. 3 Although the evidence

sparse,

we can

thus deduce that while

men

of

elite families

expected to hold

bureaucratic office, to administer estates, and go hunting in the desert,

women

did not take part in these activities but were, rather, in charge of household affairs for at least part

of their time.

Although houses and settlement ologically, a

excavated.

few such

sites

sites in

The Middle Kingdom town

entrance to the

general are not well-known archae-

from the Middle and

Faiyum on

New Kingdoms

of Kahun, which

lies

have been

close to the

the edge of the desert, was built to house the

personnel responsible for the funerary cult of Senusret n whose pyramid

complex was

laid

new foundation

out nearby.

built

The Eighteenth Dynasty

by Akhenaten for

claimed by any god or goddess. Since

his all

city

god the Aten on

of

a site

Amarna was

a

not previously

the desirable land along the Nile had

long been settled, the city was built on an unoccupied

Middle Egypt where the desert runs almost down

site

on the east bank

to the river.

in

Amarna was

THE FAMILY AND THE HOUSEHOLD

93

Harvesting grapes and trapping and preparing birds for eating.

33

founded and abandoned within

which site

it

was reclaimed by the

from Thebes

to

Amarna, and he

even further into the desert, for the royal

a period of

desert.

to

approximately two decades, after

Akhenaten

government

a

the royal burial

house the workmen who were to be responsible

foundation,

established

at

Deir el-Medina. This was

near

the

Eighteenth Dynasty in the desert on the west bank

workmen who artificial

moved

tomb. This village has also been found and excavated. Finally, we

have already come across the workmen's village also

also

built a special village to the east of the city,

built the royal

tombs

nature of this village and

at

beginning

Thebes

to

of the

house the

The somewhat Amarna is shown, for

in the Valley of the Kings. its

counterpart

at

example, by their distance from the river and the lack of a local water supply; a service had to be laid

From

on by the

these various sites

state to bring

we can

gain

some

water up from the river every day. idea of what housing was like in

ancient Egypt for both the wealthy and the less well

The

plans recovered for the large houses at

off.

Kahun show

that the actual

rooms and courtyards, including a 4 colonnade. In the house there was a central

living space consisted of a central area of

garden court entered through a reception

room where

the roof was supported on four columns and a principal

WOMEN

94

\\CIF.\T EGYPT

I\

bedroom recognisable by the alcove

for the bed, a feature

known from other

Egyptian houses. This central area was surrounded by groups of other rooms

and courts, one of which can be recognised as Intermediate Period through the

customary

first

on their

During the Dynasty

tombs models of various

for officials to include in their

that took place

a granary.

half of the Twelfth

First

was

it

activities

Granaries for the storage of grain are not

estates.

uncommon. One of the most extensive set of models comes from the tomb of Meketra at Thebes. If we look at the various 'workshops' shown in the models, we can suggest the sort of activities that might have taken place in the outer areas of the Kahun houses. In addition to the granary, we find a cattle shed, a 1

building where the animals were butchered, a bakery and brewery, a weaving

shed

28),

(fig.

and

a carpenter's

workshop.

The type of layout that we see at Kahun was Amarna which belonged to high officials, but

still

used

in the large

houses

at

here the elements were more

spread out in the spacious grounds of the properties than they had been in the

compact town houses

at

Kahun. 6

A

large

compound was enclosed by

a wall,

within which stood the house itself surrounded by other buildings functioning as granaries, animal sheds, a kitchen,

and areas

for craft production.

Evidence

has been found which shows that spinning and weaving were carried out

somewhere on the premises. In the grounds, there was also a well, a garden with trees where flowers and vegetables may have been grown, and a shrine dedicated to the cult of the king and his family.'

A

porter's lodge stood at the

entrance to the compound, and there was a separate small house within the enclosure whose purpose

The main received.

8

The

up on

ted high

ceiling

one end, where

visitors

were

was raised on wooden columns and windows were

inser-

room, which had

living

unknown.

is

house, roughly square in plan, was laid out round a central square a

low brick dais

the walls. Other

at

rooms were grouped round the

central one

and

included an outer reception room, storage rooms, and the family quarters in

which we can recognise the principal bedroom by

where

wooden

a

single

small bathroom and lavatory but no drainage. staircase sat,

which must have led

to the roof,

worked, eaten their meals, and slept

year. It built

is

its

raised alcove at the back

bed would have been placed. Beside the bedroom was

possible that in

some of

There was

a

also an internal

where people would probably have at

appropriate times of the day and

the houses an upper

room may have been

over the front of the house which would have somewhat increased the

living space.

The housing provided by el-Medina was

built

on

workmen at Amarna and Deir The walled villages were laid village enclosure. Rows of houses

the state for the

a rather different plan.

out along streets running the length of the

fronted onto the streets, and each house was rectangular rather than square (fig.

29).

At Amarna each house occupied an area of slightly under

by ten, and was divided into three unequal parts from front to back. 9

five

metres

A doorway

THE FAMILY AND THE HOUSEHOLD at

95

one end of the frontage led from the street straight into the front room which

measured about wall into

two

by two or two and

five

The presence

parts.

that animals could be kept here."

1

metres and was often divided by

a half

of feeding troughs

There was often

a

a

some houses showed

in

limestone mortar sunk into

the floor for pounding grain with a pestle, and a milling

emplacement for some houses shows that various

grinding the broken grain." Evidence from

types of craft production might take place there, including possibly spinning

and weaving, which were certainly carried out somewhere

Although there

is

some evidence

paintings on plaster,

the front

little

in the houses.

were decorated with wall

that the houses

remains. However, fragments of scenes survived in

rooms of two houses

at the

time of excavation.

One showed

A

women

other

led directly into the square living

room

apparently dancing. 13

doorway from the front room

which was approximately central

wooden column, and

high, ran around one or

by

five

group of

a

The

dancing Bes figures facing towards a figure of the goddess Taweret. depicted a procession of

12

five

metres.

a brick dais,

The

roof was supported by a

some seven

two sides of the room.

It

more centimetres

or

would have been covered with

mats on which stools and chairs might be placed. In one house an upturned limestone table was found on the dais. 14 that people of high status sat

on stools or

From tomb

scenes

we can

conjecture

chairs, while others squatted directly

on the mats. The usual type of stool found

in the village

was semicircular, with

made of stone. b At night most of the One of the commonest features of this room

three legs and a slightly hollowed seat

family

was

may have slept on the dais. made from a large pottery

a hearth

Egypt temperatures can drop

bowl, since in winter in this part of

to near freezing.

pottery vessels stood in this room,

1

'

16

There

is

up

hold's supply of water that had to be specially brought village.

with

At night the room could be

a wick, that

ground or

The

were placed

else set

also evidence that

and these may have contained the house-

lit

to the waterless

by lamps, saucers containing

in niches in the walls

on a bracket consisting of two pegs driven into the

rear part of the house

was divided into two

areas.

a

bedroom. In one house 'patches of the

traces of

wear

... It is

tempting

mud

bed-leg supports having stood here originally.' 19 tained a staircase with a cupboard beneath

it,

fat

wall.

18

may have

plaster [on the dais]

to see this as a

or

One, which some-

times had support for shelves and a low dais against the long wall,

been

oil

about one metre above the

showed

consequence of limestone

The

other area often con-

the stairs running up to the roof.

Alternatively the staircase could be in the front room, in which case the layout

of the house was somewhat different. 20

Ovens, necessary for baking bread, were sometimes found rooms, but in

many

cases there

house, however, there

is

was no oven

built into the

one of the rear floor. In

one

evidence that the bread oven, which never reached

high temperatures, was on the roof. 21 As in the city

made of

in

ground

itself,

use would have been

the roof to expand available living space, and for instance, spindles

UO\lh\

46

l\

ANCIENT KGVPT

s*J&SLa

Two

34

of the tomb owner's daughters play the harp.

were often found by the excavators on top of debris from the roof suggesting that spinning

had sometimes been carried out there. Other evidence suggests

some of the houses possessed a second Such an extra room would have increased the that

living space,

storey over part of the house. rather

and possibly provided an area of privacy not possible

room below. The houses at Deir el-Medina were

22

meagre amount of roofed in the

main

living

Amarna, but there were larger,

measuring approximately

doorway

was

at

similar in

For

also differences (fig. 30). five

metres by

some ways a start they

one

slightly

fifteen instead of ten.

one end of the facade led into the front room from the

a rectangular raised platform against

to those at

were

wall,

street.

surrounded by

A

2

There

low para-

a

pet or a screen reaching to the ceiling, with three to five steps leading up to

The

it.

outside might be decorated with the figure of a deity, often Bes, but

sometimes Horus or

Isis.

The room might

also

have niches for offerings,

stelae,

and ancestral busts.

A

doorway from the front room

ceiling

was supported by

a

wooden

led directly into the pillar in the centre.

main room where the

As

at

Amarna,

a

low dais

ran along one wall, and a stela or false door was set into the wall. Sometimes a stairway beneath a trap door near the dais led children

who had

The back

failed to survive

down

to a cellar.

New-born

were occasionally buried under the

floor.

part of the house divided into three areas, two lying side by side

transversely and the third situated behind.

One

of these was the bedroom,

entered directly from the main room, while the second lying beside

it

was

THE FAMILY AND THE HOUSEHOLD from the main room

really a passage leading fitted

and

a staircase leading letter

The

latter

with grinding equipment, an oven, another cellar in the back wall,

was

A

to the kitchen behind.

97

from

a

onto the roof.

house owner

in

Deir el-Medina gives us

a

glimpse of the sort

of furniture found in one of these houses. This included two beds, a clothes

hamper, two couches for box.'

a

man,

two

five stools,

footstools,

one chest, and

a

4

The family

in the

house

Archaeology has provided us with the physical plans of houses and some

The problem remains how to relate these who actually lived there. Obvious questions are: what who occupied these houses? Where did they all sleep?

evidence of the use of space in them. findings to the people

were the families

size

Were

there areas specific to gender and

and small houses, or were they

if so,

a luxury

did these apply equally in large

of the wealthy? Unfortunately these

questions are extremely difficult to answer, although they clearly have a direct

women within the household. From the New Kingdom Instruction ofAny we learn that the ideal was for a man to have many children. On stelae of both the Middle and New Kingdoms we find large family groups depicted, and one stela of the Theban Eleventh

bearing on our understanding of the position of

Dynasty actually

Documents from tion of the

tells

2 us that the owner's wife had had twelve children. '

the early

household of

Middle Kingdom allow us

a small landholder called

to

work out the composi-

Heqanakht, which seems

to

have consisted of more than sixteen people. 26 In addition to Heqanakht him-

whom had his own who was Heqanakht's mother; her maidservant; a woman called Hetepet, who may have been a female relative or a servant; Iutenheb, the wife of Heqanakht; and Senen, a maid who was to be dismissed because of her attitude to Iutenheb. The unidentified women called Nefret and Satweret may also have been female relatives, perhaps even daughters. In self,

there were five men, almost certainly his sons, one of

Then

family.

there was Ipi,

addition there was another called

May, and

Heti's son

woman

gether with his family. These were for

and

to

whom

called Hetepet, the daughter of

Nakht who was all

a subordinate of

someone

Heqanakht, to-

people that Heqanakht was responsible

he gave grain rations. Whether they

all

lived in

one house

is

unclear.

A

Middle Kingdom document from Kahun

household of a soldier called Hori which

At

first

Then

later

lists

over a

became

number of years

the

that of his son Sneferu.

2

there was only Hori, his wife Shepset, and their new-born son Sneferu.

Hori's mother and her five daughters were added.

We

can surmise that

widow was without a home and moved into her son's house, together with five daughters who were presumably unmarried at the time. The final entry that we have was made after the death of Hori. Sneferu must have inherited the house and become head of the

Hori's father had died and that for

some reason

his

WOMEN

S

He was

household. father's

1NCIENT EGYPT

IN

not yet married, but had living with him his mother, his

mother, and three of his father's

either died or got married.

sisters;

The household

years from three to nine, and then to

six.

the other two had presumably

number over

thus changed in

have had only one surviving child, while Hori's parents had at least

shows

everybody achieved large families. In

that not

was not due

the death of Hori, the change in size

The

nuclear family.

this

Khakaura-Sneferu, to

come

next alteration would presumably have later

have been divorced or widowed as no wife

son and one daughter, together with

mentioned.

is

Sneferu

if

Middle Kingdom It

mortuary temple of Senusret

a priest in the

to

This

household, except for

household of very different composition. 28

a

lists

six.

to increase or decrease in the

had married and had children. Another papyrus from

Kahun

the

However, Hori and Shepset appear

headed by

is

who

n,

He is listed

appears

with one

twenty-one servants.

at least

Stelae and other material from Deir el-Medina caused one scholar to remark that 'the families of the necropolis 50).

29

This

workmen were

perhaps puzzling when

is

very numerous'

set against the small size

(e.g. fig.

of the houses in

the village and the information that can be gleaned from a fragmentary house

by house register of the inhabitants. reasonably well-preserved, there

is

Of

the thirty households that are

still

only one couple registered with four

children, five couples have three, there are

two fathers who each have three

children by different mothers, six couples with two children, seven with one child, four with none,

and

male householders who are unmarried. 30 While

six

any given time in the village we might expect to find

men who were

marry or who were widowed, newly married couples, and couples their

we might

families,

families; yet

no household

ible explanation

is

also

just starting

expect evidence of large, well-established

registered with

is

at

yet to

more than four children. A possmoved away in their teens.

that older children in the family

Since only one son could take over his father's job, others

pursue careers elsewhere. Daughters could have

left

home

may have to get

left to

married or

possibly to hire themselves out as servants in larger households outside the village. In this

time.

There

is

the village and

way

to live

all have lived at home at one workmen had property outside Excess family members may have

would never

many

may even have farmed

been dispatched been sent

the whole family

also evidence that

of the

land.

31

to help in this activity, but

even young children could have

with their nurses outside the village.

Of course, many

children

probably did not outlive infancy, so there would have been gaps in age between

members of the family, which would reduce the number of home at any one time. However, the offspring shown as adults on monuments must be assumed to have survived childhood. It is also possible

the surviving

children at the

some families appear members labelled with the

that

'son'

larger than they actually were, if

kinship terms sa and

some of

sat, traditionally

the

translated

and 'daughter', were actually 'grandchildren' or the spouses of children,

since the two terms can also

encompass these

relationships. In the

same way

THE FAMILY AND THE HOUSEHOLD

when numerous terms sen and all

owner of a monument by

figures are related to the

rendered as 'brother' and

senet, traditionally

'sister',

99

the kinship

they

may

not

be siblings of the owner, but could be other collateral relatives equivalent to

'cousins', 'uncles', 'aunts', 'nephews', 'nieces',

Thus, families occupying on the monuments. have

house may not have been as large

modern Western

to

lived outdoors in the street or

become sleeping

Any

space.

how

indeed, hard to imagine

It is,

one of the houses

fitted into

may be due

a

and In-laws'. 32

at

Amarna roof,

appear

or Deir el-Medina, although this

ideas on privacy.

on the

as they

very big families would

and

Much

of life could have been

at night, the floor

would have

expectation of privacy might simply not have

existed.

The

'mistress

The

various documents listing households

of the house'

this unit consisted

relatives,

show

that the Egyptian concept of

of a male head, his wife and children, and possibly female

such as mother or grandmother,

sisters or aunts.

from sons are not included because they are most households.

own In

It is

interesting that other

houses, but in the

what sense, then,

is

women

that all

own

could

belong to men.

woman 'mistress of the house'? Can we make women of the household, particular areas of the

women

played in the household?

We can start by attempting to conjecture of the house' married to

relatives apart

married

any correlation between the house, and the part

documents indicate

houses or households virtually

lists,

a

Male

likely to establish their

a

high ranking

with, if we take the biggest houses at

something of the

Amarna

life

of

a 'mistress

with a large household.

official

as a

To begin

model, for instance the house

of the vizier Nakht, there would have been plenty of space within the central living quarters for separate

male and female areas,

was customary. Additional rooms

included a ladies' reception room, so that gregated separately. of banquets in

tomb

men and women shown

ever, are

The

if

such gender segregation

to the central reception

only evidence

room might have

men and women

we have of social

could have con-

occasions are scenes

where from the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty single shown grouped separately. Married couples, how-

chapels,

are often

in pairs

and not separated according

to gender.

Unfortunately

the scenes give us no idea of the physical location of the groups of

women,

so that they could be in separate

separately within the If these scenes are

went on

men and

rooms or they could simply be seated

same room.

on the whole uninformative, others give us an idea of what

in large households,

showing work

in the kitchen, the

bakery and

brewery, the granary, the butchery, and very rarely within the private rooms of

These belong to the repertory of tomb owner is shown overseeing and official duties. They show us house'. She rarely accompanies the

the house itself in such scenes as bedmaking. so-called daily activities

life

scenes, in which the

connected with

his private life

nothing of the role of the 'mistress of the

Archbishop Mttty Hiah School

San Jose,

California

Ubwy

omen

ion

\\

male

o\\

is

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I

ner in his activities, but neither

because the vast majority of

is

she

tomb chapels

may be

shown doing her own thing. This owned by men and, although

are

female

members of the

in the

tomb, the decoration of the chapel revolves around the male owner.

family

However, no repertory of scenes

depicted

funerary scenes and be buried

women was

relating to

few tomb chapels that do seem to have had

in

a

ever developed for the

female owner.

The prime example

tomb of Senet at Thebes." She was the mother of the vizier Intefiqer, who built his tomb in the region of the capital in the north of Egypt. In Senet's tomb chapel it is the figure of her son which is prominent. He is shown hunting in the desert without his mother, and he appears with his wife to receive offerings. It is not surprising that the tomb was originally thought to is

the Twelfth Dynasty

have belonged to Intefiqer.

Does

this

mean

that

all

the activities overseen by the

tomb owner

the mistress of the house's sphere of responsibility? This

need

be careful

to

reality. If

in

women had

in

lay outside

possible, but

we

equating the idealised male world of the tomb chapel with

former. For instance,

and that

is

a role in the latter,

we know

it

may have been

that female servants

irrelevant in the

were involved

in

baking

smaller households the mistress of the house was responsible for

producing food. So when tomb scenes show baking and brewing for the house-

we cannot be

hold overseen by the tomb owner, life.

Other considerations may come

of Egyptian

life,

and thus of the

into play.

afterlife. It

sure that this reflects actual

Bread and beer were the staples

was, therefore, desirable to have a

scene showing their manufacture in the tomb chapel. However, in the tomb chapel the male owner held primacy of place, so he might be shown overseeing the baking and brewing because

35

Musicians and dancers perform

—*

,&

it

at a

would go against decorum

banquet

to yield his

THE FAMILY AND THE HOUSEHOLD vr

y u IT y vr y \j y

l_r

101

y -y y

36

Scene showing agricultural

wife

making an

activities

on the estate of Nakht, and Nakht and

his

offering.

dominant position

in the chapel decoration to his wife.

From elsewhere there is evidence that women tended to work more indoors and men outside, so we might not expect to find the high class mistress of the house

in the

with some or

which

as

open all

fields. It is

quite possible, however, that she

was concerned

of the activities that went on within the household compound,

we have

seen, included not only baking and brewing, and cooking, but

also weaving, grain storage, animal husbandry,

and possibly

craft production.

Duties in the home In the

tomb scenes

the actual

work

is

carried out by servants, so one can

conjecture that the mistress of the house did not get her hands dirty.

was rather

to organise

and oversee the

activities

Her

role

of the servants and to ensure

that the household ran smoothly. In the highest ranks of society

it is

possible

that servants enabled the mistress of the house to be released entirely

from

physical household tasks. Although a fertile mistress of the house probably

spent

many of her

childbearing years pregnant, the employment of wetnurses

and nannies would have also freed her from the burden of child-rearing. There

WOMEN

102

ANCIENT EGYPT

IN

could, therefore, have been a group of

women

with spare time

who

could not

take part in the formal bureaucratic administration of the country which was

reserved for men, but who would presumably need to occupy themselves in some way. This may be why, in the Old and Middle Kingdoms, many women

from high-ranking families were priestesses of Hathor and,

dom, providers of music in temple cults. Turning to families somewhat lower down the still

be called the

lifestyle.

elite,

we can

Here the evidence

social scale within

women had

conjecture that the

New

in the

it

must be remembered

what can

a rather different

mainly from the workmen's villages

is

and Deir el-Medina, although

King-

at

that these

Amarna

were not

communities, since they were state foundations that continued

typical

to

be

The houses were much smaller than the mansions of high officials, as would be the number of servants employed. Without numerous servants the mistress of the house may have been more closely involved with food preparation. The basic food supply was grain, emmer wheat and barley, which had to be turned into bread and beer. We have seen that the houses at Amarna and Deir el-Medina were fully equipped for bread-making. The grain was broken up in a mortar and then ground into flour. maintained and serviced by the

state.

This was then mixed with water, and other ingredients

paintings, grinding grain

involving

women

women,

models and tomb activities usually

who

workmen

special status they

belonged to the

in fact

on the

identify these tasks as ones occupying the

of small households. Because the

government employees with slaves,

desired, and baked in

and baking are one of the few

we can probably

so

if

roof. In

the bread oven at the back of the house or

state.

at

Deir el-Medina were

were provided with female

Their sole purpose seems

to

have been

Each household was allocated so many days' work from one of

to grind grain.

these slaves, but the allocation could be sold to another person. While financially beneficial, this transaction left the

grain, a duty

traditionally a

woman's

In models and it is

household having to grind

which would presumably have

fallen to the

women,

own

its

since

it

was

job.

tomb scenes showing

mainly male servants

who

the brewing of beer in large households,

are involved. Although there

is

less

obvious

evidence for brewing than for baking in the workmen's villages, one can hardly

doubt that beer was prepared there, as

There

is little

or whether

it

to

it

was the

staple drink of ancient Egypt.

show whether men remained responsible

story of the Eloquent Peasant the peasant tells his wife to

brew beer from

for

its

manufacture

within the realm of female tasks. In the Middle

fell

34 it.

Kingdom

measure out grain and

At Deir el-Medina the men were away from the

village for

days at a time and beer did not keep, so either some of the male servants

employed by the

villagers did the brewing, or

it

fell to

the lot of the mistress of

the house or a female servant.

We

also find in

Kingdoms

tomb models and scenes from

the Old, Middle and

New

depictions of the preparation and cooking of meat in large house-

THE FAMILY AND THE HOL

SI.

HOI. I)

holds in which the activities are carried out by male servants. There to

show who did the cooking Textile manufacture

activities.

A number

is

Kingdom

women

(fig.

production on a large estate, these

members of the householder's

scenes and models show that the

28). Since

women

family.

number of settlement

a

depicted in tomb scenes than other

less often

of Middle

personnel involved were

A

what

is

represented

them

Middle Kingdom papyrus gives

3 are connected with weaving.'

rule out the possibility that the

women

women

woven

in his

by

37

this large

would

all

fields

from the

a

servants, others belonged to the family.

:-:

textiles

&« -V

-•

:i

It is

part in temple ritual.

*v;-v.w

..•-

->.:

of

used

surplus to cover the rent of land.

Male and female musicians and dancers taking ';>

sale

members were

have had to be involved to produce the

household, with

list

cannot, however,

household, 36 of which at least ten

women. While some of these were possible that they

One

a

are pre-

of the family also took part in textile

manufacture. Heqanakht was able to pay for the rent of cloth probably

textile

is

are probably servants rather than

of house servants in which the occupations of twenty-nine served; twenty of

nothing

households.

in smaller

Evidence of spinning and weaving has come from sites.

is

103

.,\.

.

a/>-priest. Fin-

marks

women

a provincial

married to minor functionaries.

governor rather than the king, so

held in the capital.

The

third

this

group of women contains

WOMEN

116

those

who

In the

ANCIENT EGYPT

IN

bear

titles

of minor professions, household servants, and attendants.

Old Kingdom women with high

part of a

10

who

status

were marked by the use of titles

known to the king' used by high officials. 'Noblewoman

that refer to the king. title

'She

feminine counterpart of a male

is

title.

the feminine counter-

is

of the king'

used in the Sixth Dynasty, but the female version continued

first

Eleventh Dynasty, while the male form died out

dom. Finally the

titles

in

another

is

Both male and female forms of

were

this

use into the

end of the Old King-

at the

'lady-in-waiting' and 'sole lady-in-waiting'

were used

from, the Fifth Dynasty on. In addition to these ranking

dom which

titles,

there were female

Women

are clearly administrative."

titles in

as stewards

the

were

Old Kingcharge of

in

storehouses and supplies of food and cloth, perhaps as an extension of their responsibility for these items within the family sphere. itions relating to

They

also held pos-

weaving, wigs, singing and dancing, doctors, tenant land-

Many of these women seem to have been in the women and may not have been part of the state bureaucracy.

holders, and funerary cults. service of other

Two

queens had female stewards, while

who was

a princess

Mereruka had not only

official called

the wife of a high

female steward, but also

a

female

a

The

'inspector of treasure', 'overseer of ornaments', and 'overseer of cloth'.

one female overseer of doctors known was possibly

who

attended

a

in

charge of female doctors

queen mother. Otherwise doctors were normally male.

Women

singers and dancers were often supervised by female overseers, but alongside

them there were

men

male overseers. The evidence seems to show that while women, women probably did not oversee men. In com-

also

could oversee

parison with male administrative

titles,

frequently and in far less variety.

The

for a

woman

is

those used by

women

occur far

only high administrative

that of vizier once in the Sixth Dynasty.

It is

title

less

attested

unclear whether

its

use was honorary or functional, but the very fact that the example stands alone

and causes such surprise underlines the overwhelming absence of women from the administration.

In the Middle

Kingdom, women

still

had

they seem to have been fewer and even less

We

have already discussed the

chamber', these are

'butler', 'overseer

title

in the

and perhaps belong

titles in

the

women

'sealer'.

masculine form, held by men. to

women

but

also find 'keeper of the

in private

woman. 12 Henry

of the Middle

All

They

not government

Fischer, in a study of

Old and Middle Kingdoms, concludes

to avoid the impression that

titles,

than in the Old Kingdom.

We

'female scribe'.

service, possibly responsible to another

women's

few administrative

of the kitchen', 'major-domo', and

more commonly found

relate to households,

a

common

that

'it is

Kingdom were

difficult

less fre-

quently and significantly engaged in administering people and property than

was previously the case - not

that their role

was ever of great importance

except, of course, in the case of mother, wife, or daughters of kings.'

The

title

'lady-in-waiting'

is

also

found

in the

New

13

Kingdom, where

it is

WOMEN OUTSIDE THE HOME used by the wives and sometimes the daughters of high time the

was taken

title

out the unlikelihood of this, since so officials.

14

of the

women were

a long

pointed

married to high

hardly seems possible that the king would have relinquished his

It

sexual rights over these rejects'.

many

For

officials.

Two scholars have

to signify a royal concubine.

117

Instead

it

is

women and handed them on

now proposed

to his officials as 'royal

some

to see the title as signifying

sort of

court position. Such an appointment would confer status and be appropriate

By

for the wife of a high official.

form, which

the Eighteenth Dynasty the form 'sole

was no longer used, leaving iady-in-waiting'

lady-in-waiting'

now

There

carried high status.

also another

is

as the

main

form found,

'great

lady-in-waiting' {khekeret nesu weret).

An

important

New Kingdom

title

which related the holder

of 'wetnurse of the king' (meriat nesu and variants). These

known from

the

high-ranking ally

monuments of their husbands and

officials.

sons,

to the king

women

who

is

that

are mostly

are in the

main

This intimate connection with the royal family, especi-

with a future king, could bring royal favour to the whole family, and

advancement

for the

male members within the bureaucracy, since

as children

of the king's wetnurse and thus milk brothers of the king, they were likely to

have formed part of the king's intimate circle of 'wetnurse of the king' was not an

in his childhood.'

office within the state

was one which carried the potential

The

1

position

bureaucracy, yet

for influence with the king himself,

it

and

therefore was a likely avenue of power. Literacy was unnecessary since the

was the

qualification for the position

function that only a

woman

remained with her charge

could after

fulfil.

it

ability to

produce milk,

We do not know how

a biological

long

a royal

nurse

had been weaned.

Occupations offemale servants

There

are

wetnursing

some in

areas of

employment outside

the individual's

which, throughout Egyptian history,

home

women seem

to

besides

have been

heavily involved: milling and baking, spinning and weaving, and music and

dance. In other areas the evidence suggests that they had less involvement:

brewing, preparing and cooking meat, craft production, and agricultural activities

to see

We

on large

how

far

estates.

gender

I

shall

have already seen that

had administrative

women or private

examine representational and textual material

effects the division of labour. in the

Old and Middle Kingdoms

and that they were probably

titles,

few

a

women

in the service of royal

households rather than in the state bureaucracy. Their status

would depend on that of what we may conjecture

Below such

their employer.

to

be

titles

ants, including female hairdressers. In the

been about twenty such

titles,

titles

are a

number of

of female household servants and attend-

Middle Kingdom there may have

though unfortunately we know

functions they signify. 16 At least eight

women from

Intermediate Period are recorded with the

title

the

little

of the

Old Kingdom and

of 'sealer'.

First

Thev served women

I

WOMEN

IX

ANCIENT

IN

KGVP'I

*
7. "II 72. 75. 191 Marriage, definition of 56 62 Marriage, purpose of .Marriage contracts

75

1)7.

I'll.

75

63, 65, 70,

WOMI-.N l\ \NCIENT F.GYPT

204

Marriage partners 74

\akht. vizier 99

Qenna, workman 68

Marriages, multiple 64—67

Naunakht (0 67. 132 Nebuisu (m) 160

Queen

Married woman,

hemel tjay

see

Medinet el-Ghurab 35,

39, 149 Meketaten, king's daughter 29

Mcketra (m)

Memphis

king's wife 30, 34,

36

/Wffllt-necklace 146, 147, 164, 57, 72, 77

Meniupu (m) 133 Menstruation 78, 79

Menway,

45—16,

47, 48,

per, see mistress

Queenship, divinity of 23-25, 52,

of the

house Nebethetepet, goddess 159, 162

94, 28

39, 44, 118, 157, 164,

168

Menhet.

Nebet

regent 43,

150

king's wife 30, 34,

36

Nebetnehet (0 160 Nebetta (0 56, 59 Nebettawv, daughter of Ramses

Ramose, goldsmith 61 Ramose, scribe 77

Neferhotep. chief workman 77

Merikara, king 138

Nefertiti,

Ra, e\ es of 24

Ramses

Nebsemen, workman 133 Nebsenet, mother of Metjen 127 Neferkara, king 72

Meritamun (0 160 Meritamun, daughter of Thutmose III 150

Ra. eye of 18. 23, 24 II

29 Nebnefer (m) 58, 77 Nebnefret (0 136

Merenptah, king 29 Mereruka (m) 1 16 Meresger, goddess 160 Merit, wife of Sobekhotep 148

Ra, god 18, 23, 24, 37, 87

queen 34, 36 queen 53-55; 13-16 Neferura, daughter of Hatshepsut 36, 45, 48-50, 149-150, 151, Nefertari,

152; 2, //

II,

king 29, 32, 33, 35,

36, 39,40, 121, 136, 145, 147,

160

Ramses III, king 38, 139, 163 Ramses V, king 124, 131 Ramses VI, king 153, 156 Rav (0 169 Rebirth 72, 76, 164, 187, 188, 189 see queen regent Remarriage 64, 65, 67, 70-72, 74

Regent,

Nefrusobk, king 50

Renenutet, goddess 160

\ekhbet, goddess 23, 24 Nekhemmut, scribe 77 Neni (m) 133

Rennefer (0 58, 59, 77 Renseneb, vizier 129 Representation of male and

Meritaten, king's daughter 29, 54

Nephthys, goddess 17, 82, 164 Nesamenemipet (m) 70, 72, 124

Representational sources, see

Meritaten junior, king's daughter

Nesmut, wife of Perpetjau

.Meritamun, daughter of Ramses 29

II

Meritamun, queen of Amenhotep I

44-45, 150

sources, representational

61

Nitemhat, daughter of Padiaset

29 Meritra, queen 150

Men

Retjenu 30

58, 59

Mertit, king's wife 30, 34, 36

Keby (m) 128 Merysekhmet (m) 70 called

Meshanefer (f) 125 Meskhenet, goddess 82, 83 Mesopotamia 31 Metjen (m) 127 Min, god 24 Min, father of Sobekhotep 148 Miscarriage 80-82, 85 Mistress of the house (nebet per) 62, 87, 92, 99-101, 104, 105,

Royal children,

176

see king's

children

Royal nurse 27, 36, 89, 117, 149;

Nitiqret, divine adoratrice

154-156, 44

24

Nitiqret, king 50

Rudjedet (0 82, 83, 84, 87

Non-elite, see lower classes

Nubia 31, 36, Nudity 186

Sa (protection) 87 Saamun, king 32

38, 42, 52, 122

Nut, goddess 17

Sabastet (m) 56, 59

Offering formula (hetep

di nesu)

175 Oracular amuletic decrees 87-88 Osiris 17, 18, 27, 38, 77, 79, 147,

106, 110, 145. 157, 159, 160,

female figures 180-181; 77, 78

164, 166, 172. 175. 187, 188

Sailors 120 Sakhmet, goddess 18 Sasenet (m) 72 Satamun, daughter of Amenhotep III 29 Satioh, queen 27, 49-50

Satire of Trades, see Teaching of

Mistress of the

Two

Lands 46

Duaf's son Khety

Mitanni 31, 33, 35, 52

Paaemtawemet, watchman 65

Sattepihu

Miwer 35 Mose (m) 136

Padiaset (m) 58, 59

Sawadjit. son of Tanehesv 133

Motherhood 18-19. 106-107, 191 Mourners 164; 58 Mummification 166

Paneb, chief

Musical troupe (thener) 120, 146,

Payom, workman 60

Padiu (m) 58, 59, 62

148-149

37-38, 40 148. 149, 186;

Mut, goddess

Pep>

I,

37-38

king 39

18, 145, 156,

160

Mutemheb, w ife of Ramose 62

the goldsmith

Mutemw ia, mother

of Amenhotep

165, 168

Nesmut

154

Polygamv

,

see

wife of the scribe

marriages, multiple

Pregnancy 78-82, 83, 85, 180 Pregnant woman vessels 80, 90,

185-186. 189.

Nakht (m) 36

girl

motif

I,

Sennedjem (m) 160 Senusret

I,

Senusret

II,

king 39

king 92, 98

Serabit el-Khadim 44

Priestess of

Psamtek

Thutmose

45

Hathor (hemel

neljer

enl Hulhur) 102. 115, 142

Ramose 77

Senel (wife) 61, 62

Seniseneb, mother of

185, 20

151

Naked adolescent

61

Piay (m) 134 Pi\, king

Sealer 117, 118

Sed festival 36, 52, 146; 4, 38 Seh (0 77 Senebtisy (0 128-9 Senenmut (m) 47; // Senet, mother of Intefiqer 100,

48

Pendua (m) 68 Perpetjau, husband of

Musicians, male 120, 145, 146,

III

1

5-/

Peasants 16, 19, 64, 60, 107

Musicians 120, 124. 125, 145-148, 149, 157. 185; 34-35,

Mutemw ia,

68, 77, 104

Sobekhotep

Pay, scribe 160-161;

148

School 106, 111, 191

workman

Paser, son of

(f)

king 58, 154

Sesh (scribe

I

1

13

Seshet (female scribe :

,

cosmetician?) 111-113

Ptah, god 157

Sesh-sehemet (female scribe)

Ptahmose (m) 169 Pudekhepa, Hittite queen 34 Punt 47-48

Seth, god 17, 18, 79, 80, 188

Pyramid

texts

79

Setnakht, king 68

Setne Khaemwaset 78, 88 Setv

1,

king 118, 122

1

13

I

9

205

Sex and sexual allusion 179, 187-190; 85 Sexual intercourse 65-66, 67, 68, 85, 179, 187, 189-190 Sexuality 18, 76, 83, 182. 185.

Tutankhamun, king

Taiemniut (0 58, 62 Takemet (f) 56, 59 Takharu (f) 136 Tale of

Two

Two

Brothers 69, 92, 104,

Shabako, king 154

65

Shabitko, king 154

Tanehesy, mother of Sawadjit 133

Shabtis 122. 166

Tanutamani, king 154 Tarkhundaradu, ruler of Arzawa 32

Sheath dress 181-182, 183

Shemayet 148, see also musician Shep en sehemel 60

Shepenwepet

I,

divine adoratrice

154

Shepenwepet

II,

divine adoratrice

Shepset (0 97-98 Shu, god 17, 153

Taweret, goddess 75, 80, 84-85, 87, 95, 163; 19 Teaching of Amenemhat 39

of Trades) 78, 107, 109-110, 120

Tefnut, goddess 17, 18, 153

Shuttarna. king of Mittani 31, 33

Temple Temple

ritual 142, 145,

146-147

Sidelock 183-184, 185

162-163 Tetisheri, queen 44

Sinai 44

Textile production 35, 64, 94, 95,

Shuty, see double feathers

visits

96, 103-104, 110, 117,

Single persons 72-74

119-120, 126, 135; 28

18, 41, 145. 146, 147,

148, 156, 164, 189; 37, 45, 57,

85

Slaves 16, 58. 59, 77. 102. 104, 110, 129-130,

137-138

Snefru (m) 97-98 Sobek, god 148

Textual sources,

see sources,

Theban tomb 19, 146-147 Theban tomb 31, 147 Theban tomb 51, 147; 39 Thebes 13, 28, 39, 44, 47,

114-115

145, 152,

Thutmose Thutmose

I,

king 44, 45, 147, 150

II,

king 45, 46, 47, 48;

Thutmose

watet) 115, 116, 117 Israel

32

Sources, archaeological 12-13

Sources, representational 14 Sources, textual 13-14 see textile

production

Statues, funerary 157, 164, 165,

68-71, 74-76

Stelae, funerary 89, 164, 165,

166, 171-172, 175; 25,56,64, 72-73 Stelae, votive 157-161;

47-54

Succession 37-39 Suckling 88-91, 106, 156; 26 Syria-Palestine 30, 51

III.

king 27, 28, 30, 34,

36, 39, 45,46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 56, 146, 147, 149, 152,

153, 184; 9

Thutmose

Statues 157, 162, 175 172";

Votive cloths 161-162; 55 Votive stelae, see stelae, votive

Vulture headdress 23, 54, 156; 1-2, 6, 10, 45

IV. king 31, 52, 148,

150, 183

Ti (m) 148 Tiaa, queen 150 Tilapia fish 188

Tiy (0 38 Tiy, queen 27, 28, 29, 33, 52-53, 55, 146; 4-7, 12

Tjenti (m) 127

Tjuvu, mother of queen Tiy 28,

31

142-144

Webkhet

see textile

production

129

(f)

Wedjat eye 87, 88 Wennefer, workman 160; 53 H'eret khener, see Great one of the troupe of musical performers

Wetnurses 89, 101. 106. 117, 118, 149; 24-25

Widows

73, 136, 138, 141

Wife 56, 61,

see also hehsut, hemet,

senel

52

Tomb

Wilbour Papyrus 124, 131. 135

Wisdom

texts 75, 113, 138,

176-177. 178

Wiy (0 147

Women

and business transactions 104-106

Women

as landholders 104, 124,

127-129, 135-136

Women Women

as servants 90,

1

17-120

exercising their husbands"

authority 124-125

Women W omen

in

authority 116

in

New Kingdom,

economic position of 129-131 honourable and dishonourable 18, 177-178 Women, priestly titles of 142-145 Women, titles of 114—117

W omen, chapel 65, 66, 89, 90, 92,

99-101, 107. 119, 120, 145. 164-166. 168-169, 171, 175,

Tadukhepa, Mitannian princess

iVabfetJ-priestess 115,

Wadjetrenpet (f) 160-161 Wadjyt, goddess 23. 24 Wah (m) 127-128

Wife, terminology for 60-62

Sole lady-in-waiting (khekerel nesu

169-170,

12

Wernero (0 136 50, 52,

154, 156, 161, 162, 163. 164

Social structure 11, 16-17, 19-20,

Spinning,

5,

Webkhet, daughter of Hunero 68 Webkhet, wife of Neferhotep 77

textual

65,93,94, 100, 131,

Sobekhotep (m) 148

Solomon, king of

54, 156; 2-4. 14,

Uraeus, double 24. 54, 156; Userhat (m) 147

Weaving,

Singers, see musicians

62, 72-73, 77,

Uraeus 23-24, 43-46

(Satire

Shuppiluliumash, Hittite king 35

Sistrum

Two

Brothers

Valley of the Kings 27. 93

Tausret, king 50

Teaching of Duaf's son Khety

154, 155

Brothers, see Tale of

120, 178

Taneferv, wife of Paaemtawemet

185, 187

32, 146

Tuy, citizeness 68

185, 187 Traders (shuty) 105-106

Tagemy, mother of Huy 132-133

Tripartite hairstyle 184

Taharqo, king 154 Tahenwet (0 128-129

Tushratta, king of Mitanni 31

W ork

on the land,

see agricultural

activities

W orkshops

1 1

Truth and Falsehood 79, 178

Vuya, father of queen Tiy 28, 52

Archbishop Mitty High School \

Library

\

5000 Mitty

Way

San Jose, CA 95129

ARCHBISHOP MITTY LIBRARY

Arin idealised versi T 17820 the true nature of these women's lives has long remained hidden. Gay Robins' book, gracefully written and copiously illustrated, cuts through the obscurity of the ages to show us what the archaeological riches of Egypt really say about how these women lived, both in the public eye and within the family.

everywhere

The

art

and

in