2854491 Introduction My aim in this work is to present facts about queenship and power attested to kings mother or kings

principal wife. It was rare for Kings mother to become queen but it happened when they were regents for young king, who wasnt yet of age to claim the throne. I will try to get into the core of the issue, by examining most known and best established queens of 18th dynasty. There are two questions which shall be addressed and are very important in outlining the evidence for role and position of queens in early 18th dynasty. First of all we have to understand how much power was vested in actual position of kings mother or kings principal wife. We have evidence showing us, that queens were given their own estate, their own officials such as stewards in their service1. Having assets to begin with, this would be great starting point for something more. This leads us to second question about how much power could strong willed individual additionally acquire? Unfortunately we cant really much on evidence from monuments and temple depictions. As we know, female rulers were abnormality and their successors tried to wipe out the memory by erasing their names from monuments they build, or rather replacing it with their own. Lucky enough for us, some of these queens, had more power than usual or equal to those of the kings, so their monuments and depictions of themselves had remained pretty much untouched. Ahhotep II Great wife of king Kamose, more importantly a mother, of Pharaoh Ahmose who is to this day considered as founder of 18th dynasty2. He is the one who conquered Nubia, unifying Upper and Lower Egypt once more, beginning of New Kingdom. Ahmose had, apparently, great respect for his mother, based on solid evidence we might assume that she had great influence and power during reign of her son. He erected great stelae at Karnak, this stelae includes passage praising her:

One who cares for Egypt. She has looked after her soldiers, she has guarded her soldiers, she has brought back her fugitives, and collected together desserts, she has pacified Upper Egypt, and expelled her rebels3.

1 2

Robins, Gay, Women in Ancient Egypt (London, 1993) Robins, Gay, Women in Ancient Egypt (London, 1993) 3 Graciela Gestoso Singer, Ahhotep I and the "Golden Fly", CCdE 01/2009, pp.75-88

2854491 As many other Egyptian texts we have in our possession, this one too is relatively short and gives us just a brief overview of her doing. Even thou this passage isnt as precise as one could hope for, it is indeed very informative. First of all it was very rare to find a passage praising queen or as in this case, a mother. Together with fact, that similar passage appears in other documents, gives us a good reason to believe, that content of it is based on real events. This could mean two things, either she led an army as kings mother and thus had considerably similar position as king himself or there is possibility, unfortunately for us, this is unclear from archaeological record, that when Ahmose succeeded previous king, he was still too young and so Ahhotep, his mother, acted as a regent for him.

Ahmose-Nefertari Principal wife of Ahmose, also his sister or half sister. She was also mother of Ahmose successor Amenhotep I. As for the queen, we dont have textual evidence regarding her power and importance but that doesnt mean she wasnt. Her husband Ahmose bestowed a title upon her, Gods wife of Amun. This is the first time we can see this title in Ancient Egypt so we can assume, and we know that Ahmose created this title for his wife. We can only speculate about his reasons, but in my opinion, when we look into nature of this title we might assume he gave her this title to extend her normal set of powers and involve her in temple functioning. Apart from legal role, she was given lands and goods, and right to pass this title to her heirs. Nature of the office is depicted on several scenes from 18th dynasty showing priestess bearing title Gods wife of Amun, functioning within the context of temple ritual alongside a male priest. She appears as part in procession of priests, she is depicted being purified in a sacred lake outside of the temple. She takes part in the rite called calling the god to his repast. She plays a role in execration rites, burning the image of the enemy. She is also present when boxes of clothes are offered to the goddess Wadjit4. Earliest of these scenes are from reign of Amenhotep I and priestess is called Ahmose Nefertari5. Priestess in these pictures wears short, close fitting wig with a thin fillet tied at the back of the head with ends falling down which derives from the costume of Middle Kingdom priestesses.

4 4

Bryan, Betsy, Property and the Gods Wives of Amun, in Lyons D., and R. Westbrook (eds), Women and Property (Harvard), 1-12. 5 Robins, Gay, The gods wife of Amun in the 18th Dynasty in Egypt, in Cameron, A and A. 5 Kuhrt (eds), Images of Women in Antiquity, (London, 1983), p.71.
5

2854491 Thanks to this title and apparent power, that was tied to it, it gave way to birth of a theory, that right for throne in Ancient Egypt passed through the female line in 18th dynasty. Theory was mostly based on titles of royal woman, especially the title principal wife. One of the other reasons for this theory was to shed light on brother sister marriages. But soon later on, it was found out that this is not working and reason for brother and sister marriages between king and his sister, step sister was purely due the divine reasons. As we know Gods married their brothers or sister to create their divine offspring, who would then have their own and so on. So we can assume, that their decision to marry their siblings came from believe, that, that way they will get closer to real Gods6.

Apart from her title we have textual evidence where we found her name, alongside her husbands at different building projects around Egypt. As example we can use reopening of limestone quarries or alabaster quarries near Assiut. When Ahmose decided to build cenotaph at Abydos for the mother of his father and mother of his mother Tetisheri, he left stelae recording his decision, where he speaks about seeking approval of Ahmose Nefertari for his plans. This piece of evidence is highly unusual when it comes to queen, it may reflect her interest in religious building process or simply means, that Ahmose had respect for his principal wife and required her opinion on the matter of new monument.

Funny enough, she outlived her husband and also her son Amenhotep I. But even after her death she was still highly honoured, even in reign of Thutmose I. We know this thanks to stelae in Karnak, erected by Thutmose I to promulgate her titulary.

Date of her death is unknown,but most likely in fifth or sixth year of Thutmose I reign. We just have fragment of stelae with inscription. Ahmose Nefertari justified with great god, lord of the west, flew to heaven.7

Even long after her death, she was being worshiped by workmen of Deir el-Medina as their patron. Regarding her death some scholars proposed, that the annual cult holiday (II Shemu 14) dedicated to Ahmose-Nefertari at Deir el-Medina may have commemorated the day of her
6 6

Robins, Gay, A critical examination of the theory that the right to the throne of ancient Egypt passed through the female line in the 18th Dynasty, Gttinger Miszellen 62 (1983), 67 -77 7 Louise Bradbury, Nefer's Inscription: On the Death Date of Queen Ahmose-Nefertary and the Deed Found Pleasing to the King, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 22 (1985), pp. 73-95

2854491 death. Her cult survived through the whole New Kingdom, testifying status of this queen. As a result of this she overshadowed her sons principal wife and sister Meritamun who also had title after her Gods wife of Amun. Hatshepsut We know very little about her when it comes to period of reign of her father and husband Thutmose II. From stelae we know that she indeed was his principal wife and same as Ahmose Nefertari, had title of Gods wife of Amun. Sudden outburst and change to this comes when Thutmose III comes to throne. fortunately for her he is too young to take the throne, she gets to act as regent for him. Her most common title she used during early period of her reign was Gods wife, later on she creates titles for herself which are only used by king. Here we get to the question I mentioned in introduction part, how much power could strong willed individual additionally acquire? She was put into position as a mere regent for young king as it happened many times before. But she took all the power into her own hands and changed everything regarding kingship so it would suit her as a female. To gain more authority with public she depict herself in kingly activities, such as offering to the gods. Additionally she is shown in scenes that are drawn from kingly iconography and as mentioned earlier, uses titles modelled on those of kings8. While she was still a regent, she had quarried two obelisks which were to be set up at Karnak. This action was not only unusual but unique since she wasnt a true king yet and most of all she was just a queen. This wasnt enough for her, so she depicted herself at temple wall offering to the gods, which once again, was only allowed by king. Among other things, she had depicted myth of her divine birth at temple in Thebes. At one point,after approximately 7 years of her reign as a regent , she stopped using her Gods wife of Amun title and took on herself names of true male king. The Horus name - wsrt-k3w powerful of kas normal name was k3 nHt but that means strong bull and that would more represent male individual rather than be neutral or female. The Nebty name - w3Dt-rnpwt flourishing of years very unusual or rather uncommon name combination. w3D had been used in names before in 12th dynasty by Sebekhotep IV and in 17th dynasty by Rahotep. This particular combination was found on Karnak Obelisk done by Thutmose I but in full male version without t ending.

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

2854491 The Golden Horus name - nTrt-H`w divine of appearances/manifestations/crowns this combination of names pretty common and was used many times before by rulers before her. The first cartouche name - m3`t-k3-r` The true of the ka of Ra first time used in 5th dynasty and used ever since and almost always contains r`-Ra this makes statement about kings relationship to Ra while referring to king9.

Apart from taking on kingly titles, she started depicting herself on monuments, and possibly even in real world, in a male costume of the king. As we know, there was no prevision of female king in Egyptian Ideology10, she had to alter how statues of her going to look like. Even thou they had female features, statue had more of male figure.

We have no evidence to say for sure, what was her reason to overtake kingship on herself and why all male officials and whole bureaucracy tolerated this and we can only speculate, it is in my opinion very simple and can be easily seen in todays society. One of the reason for her stability might be rooted to fact, that all officials were carefully chosen and loyal to her cause. Of course reward for their loyalty must have been very good. On the other hand, they just might have been scared of the transition to new king. As it is often seen, even today, when new king, political party, comes to power they tend to change officials for new ones whom they can trust.

When young Thutmose III become of an age to claim the throne, Hatshepsut used loophole in the system so she could stay on throne side by side with him. During this period she was dominant ruler but depictions from this period often depict them both side by side.

After her death, Thutmose III had her names removed from many monuments which were build by her, as some kind of a protest against her being a female king. He not only tried to erase her from history, but he replaced her name with his or by names of his predecessors.

Conclusion

9 9

Robins, Gay, The names of Hatshepsut as king, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 85 (1999), 10312. 10 Kemp, Barry J.,Ancient Egypt : anatomy of a civilization, London : Routledge, 2006

2854491 Queens in early 18th dynasty are strikingly powerful and influential, apart from Hatshepsut who overshot what she "should" do, all of them continued to be worshiped and mentioned in text by other kings because even that, they had power, they didnt try to make a king of themselves. Hatshepsut name replaced by names of earlier kings, and removed after her death by Thutmosis III only shows us how they couldnt cope with her reign and how it didnt suit their ideology.Still, strongest and most influential person in Egyptian history considering what she achieved and how much she changed during her reign. Fact itself that we have enough evidence to know so much about these women, tells us, that they were exceptional. Evidence is strong when to comes to their actions and decisions. They were consistent and most of all punctual!

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

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

Graciela Gestoso Singer, Ahhotep I and the "Golden Fly", CCdE 01/2009, pp.75-88 Bryan, Betsy, Property and the Gods Wives of Amun, in Lyons D., and R. Westbrook (eds), Women and Property (Harvard), 1-12 Robins, Gay, The gods wife of Amun in the 18th Dynasty in Egypt, in Cameron, A and A. Kuhrt (eds), Images of Women in Antiquity, (London, 1983), p.71. Robins, Gay, A critical examination of the theory that the right to the throne of ancient Egypt passed through the female line in the 18th Dynasty, Gttinger Miszellen 62 (1983), 67-77

Louise Bradbury, Nefer's Inscription: On the Death Date of Queen Ahmose-Nefertary and the Deed Found Pleasing to the King, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 22 (1985), pp. 73-95 Robins, Gay, The names of Hatshepsut as king, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 85 (1999), 10312.

Kemp, Barry J.,Ancient Egypt : anatomy of a civilization, London : Routledge, 2006 Bryan, Betsy, Property and the Gods Wives of Amun, in Lyons D., and R. Westbrook (eds), Women and Property (Harvard), 1-12.

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

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