Ahhotep I
Queen consort of Egypt
| Ahhotep I | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen consort of Egypt Great Royal Wife Queen Regent | ||||
 Ring of Ahhotep I, Louvre. | ||||
| Died | Thebes? | |||
| Burial | Thebes? | |||
| Spouse | Seqenenre Tao | |||
| Issue | Kamose? Ahmose I Ahmose-Nefertari Ahmose Sapair Binpu Ahmose-Henutemipet Ahmose-Nebetta Ahmose-Tumerisy | |||
| Egyptian name |
| |||
| Dynasty | Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt | |||
| Father | Senakhtenre | |||
| Mother | Tetisheri | |||
| Religion | ancient Egyptian religion | |||
Ahhotep I (Ancient Egyptian: jꜥḥ-ḥtp(.w), alternatively Anglicized Ahhotpe or Aahhotep, "Iah (the Moon) is satisfied") was an ancient Egyptian queen who lived circa 1560–1530 BC, during the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the daughter of Queen Tetisheri (known as Teti the Small) and Senakhtenre Ahmose, and was probably the sister, as well as the queen consort, of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao.[1] Ahhotep I had a long and influential life. She ruled as regent for her son Ahmose I for a time.
Her titles include Great Royal Wife and "Associate of the White Crown Bearer" (ẖnmt nfr-ḥḏt).[2] The title "King's Mother" (mwt nswt) was found on the Deir el-Bahari coffin.[3]
Family
Ahhotep I was the daughter of Queen Tetisheri and Pharaoh Senakhtenre Ahmose.[4][note 1] She was the royal wife of the Seventeenth Dynasty king Seqenenre Tao, also believed to be her brother.[1]: 124
Ahhotep was probably the mother of Pharaoh Ahmose I. Her exact relationship to Pharaoh Kamose is not known, but he may have been her brother-in-law (the brother of Seqenenre Tao) or her son. Ahhotep's other children include Princess Ahmose-Nebetta and the later Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, who was married to her brother, Pharaoh Ahmose I.[1]: 124 While Prince Ahmose Sapair, Prince Binpu, Princess Ahmose-Henutemipet, and Princess Ahmose-Tumerisy may also have been children of Ahhotep, their maternity is less certain.[1]: 126
Life
A stela from the reign of Ahmose I describes Ahhotep I as ruling Egypt and uniting its people, attributes that are normally only reserved for kings.[6] It is not known when these events took place but presumably after the death of Seqenenre Tao and Kamose, when Ahmose I was too young to rule.[citation needed] The stela can be translated as follows:[6]: 366–367
Give jubilation to the Mistress of the Land, the ruler of the riverbanks of Hau-nebu, with a renowned name in every land, and who does the will of the masses. The King’s Wife, the Sovereign’s Sister, life-prosperity-health, the King’s Daughter and the august King’s Mother, who knows matters, and upholds Egypt; she has united its officer class; and she has protected it; she has returned its deserters and she gathers its dissidents; she has pacified Upper Egypt and she quells its rebels, the King’s Wife, Ahhotep, living.
Through an analysis of royal officials who worked during the early Eighteenth Dynasty, Beatriz Noria Serrano notes that officials who are explicitly linked to Ahhotep I (e.g., through titles, inscriptions, and artifacts) generally held positions connected to civil administration, such as "overseer of the double house of gold", "overseer of the double granary of the (royal wife and) king's mother Ahhotep", or "senior steward of the king's mother".[7]: 108 In contrast, officials explicitly linked to Ahmose I were generally involved with border administration or the cult of the god Amun. Noria Serrano suggests this could indicate a clear division of ruling responsibilities between Ahhotep I and her son: Ahhotep may have managed administration of the palace and city of Thebes, along with other internal affairs, while Ahmose I focused his attentions on issues of border administration and solidifying royal power abroad.[7]: 108
Although dates are uncertain, scholars generally agree that Ahhotep I had a long life, outliving her son Ahmose I.[8] Ahhotep is mentioned on the Kares stela (CG 34003), which dates to year ten of the reign of her grandson Amenhotep I, and her steward Iuf also mentions her on his stela (CG 34009). Iuf refers to Ahhotep as the mother of Ahmose I, and would later be the steward of Queen Ahmose, wife of Thutmose I. This suggests Ahhotep I may have died at a fairly advanced age during the reign of Thutmose I.[3]
The cult of Amenhotep I continued to remember Ahhotep after her death, along with Ahmose-Nefertari and Ahmose-Meritamun (Amenhotep's queen), up until at least the Twenty-first Dynasty.[9]
Tomb
Ahhotep I's outer coffin was eventually reburied in TT320 in Deir el Bahari. The coffin shows the queen with a tripartite wig and a modius. The body is covered in a rishi-design (feathers) and is similar to the outer coffins of Ahmose-Nefertari and Ahmose-Meritamon.[citation needed] No funerary equipment belonging to Ahhotep I was found with the coffin.[10]: 101
Ahhotep I's original tomb is not known, unless this queen is identical to Ahhotep II. Measurements of the coffin found in Dra' Abu el-Naga' however show that it is too large to have belonged with the Deir el Bahari coffin. This has been used to argue that Ahhotep I cannot be identical to Ahhotep II.[3]
Different Ahhoteps
In 1859, a team of Egyptian workers employed by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette discovered a coffin at a dig site in Dra' Abu el-Naga'. The coffin was identified as belonging to a queen named Ahhotep and inscribed with the titles "Great Royal Wife" and "She who is joined to the White Crown". While the coffin contained a mummy when first discovered, the body and bandaging was destroyed or disposed of soon afterwards, leaving behind little evidence to confirm the identity of the coffin's inhabitant.[11]: 131–134
In 1881, a separate team at Deir el-Bahri unearthed another coffin also belonging to a queen named Ahhotep. This coffin had a longer, more elaborate set of titles inscribed, including the addition of "King's Daughter", "King's Sister", and "King's Mother", but did not contain the body of an individual named Ahhotep. Instead, this coffin had apparently been reused to bury a high priest named Pinudjem I.[11]: 134–135 The discovery of this second coffin raised new questions about the identity of the Ahhotep from the Dra' Abu el-Naga' burial site, igniting a longstanding scholarly debate over whether there was one, two, or even three distinct Egyptian queens named Ahhotep.[5]
The naming and numbering of the queens named Ahhotep has changed over the years:
Late 19th century: Ahhotep I was thought to be the wife of Seqenenre Tao. The coffins of Deir el-Bahari and Dra' Abu el-Naga' were both thought to be hers by some experts. Ahhotep II was thought to be the wife of Amenhotep I. Some thought the coffin from the Deir el-Bahari cache belonged to the queen called Ahhotep II in this scheme.[citation needed]
Late 20th century: In the 1970s, it was commented on that the Deir el-Bahari coffin bears the title "King's Mother" and Amenhotep I has no son. The title must refer to the mother of Ahmose I. In 1982, Robins suggests that Ahhotep I is the owner of the gilded coffin from Dra' Abu el-Naga', Ahhotep II is the queen mentioned on the Deir el-Bahari coffin and Ahhotep III is the queen mentioned on the statue of a prince Ahmose.[3]
21st century: Following Dodson and Hilton (2004), Ahhotep I is the wife of Seqenenre Tao and mother of Ahmose I. Ahhotep II is the queen known from the gilded coffin found at Dra' Abu el-Naga' and possibly a wife of Kamose. (There is no Ahhotep III).[1] Taneash Sidpura, mainly on the basis of the King's Daughters Satkamose and Satdjehuty, concluded that there was only one Ahhotep at this time.[5]
Alternative theory
An alternative interpretation has been developed by Ann Macy Roth.[3] This suggests that Seqenenre Tao had three queens:
- Ahhotep I, who was the mother of a Prince Ahmose (not the future pharaoh) and several princesses named Ahmes.
- Sitdjehuti, who was the mother of a princess named Ahmes.
- Tetisheri, who was the mother of Kamose, Ahhotep II and Ahmose-Henuttamehu.
In this interpretation, Kamose married his sister Ahhotep II and then were the parents of Ahmose I, Ahmose-Nefertari and Ahmose-Sitkamose.
Notes
- ^ Due to a prior belief that there were two pharaohs with the same name of Seqenenre Tao, many scholarly sources name Ahhotep's father as Seqenenre Tao I and her husband as Seqenenre Tao II – but there is now wider recognition that the pharaoh considered to be Seqenenre Tao I was actually named Senakhtenre Ahmose. [5]: 27
References
- ^ a b c d e Dodson, Aidan; Hilton, Dyan (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. The American University in Cairo Press.
- ^ W. Grajetzki, Ancient Egyptian Queens: a hieroglyphic dictionary, 2005
- ^ a b c d e Roth, Ann Macy (1999). "The Ahhotep Coffins: The Archaeology of an Egyptological Reconstruction". In Teeter, Emily; Larson, John A. (eds.). Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. pp. 361–378. ISBN 1-885923-09-0.
- ^ Ochwada, Hannington; Gates, Henry Louis (2011). "Ahhotep (1560–1530 BCE)". In Gates, Henry Louis; Akyeampong, Emmanuel; Niven, Steven J. (eds.). Dictionary of African Biography (Online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
- ^ a b c Sidpura, Taneash (2016). Gregory, Steven R. W. (ed.). "Where is my Mummy…Who is my Mummy? A Re-Evaluation of the Dra Abu-el Naga Coffin of Queen Ahhotep (CG 28501) with Queen Satkamose'" (PDF). Proceedings of the Second Birmingham Egyptology Symposium. 2: 21–46.
- ^ a b Sidpura, Taneash (2022). Flies, Lions and Oyster Shells: Investigating Military Rewards in Ancient Egypt from the Predynastic Period to the New Kingdom. Manchester: University of Manchester: PhD thesis. pp. 93–98.
- ^ a b Noria Serrano, Beatriz (2021). "Officials Under Queen Mother Ahhotep". In Arranz Cárcamo, Marta; Sánchez Casado, Raúl; Planelles Orozco, Albert; Alarcón Robledo, Sergio; Ortiz García, Jónatan; Mora Riudavets, Patricia (eds.). Current Research in Egyptology 2019: Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Symposium, University of Alcalá, 17–21 June 2019. Archaeopress. pp. 98–113. ISBN 978-1-78969-907-4.
- ^ Eaton-Krauss, Marianne (2003). "Encore: The Coffins of Ahhotep, Wife of Seqeni-en-Re Tao and Mother of Ahmose". In Blöbaum, Anke Ilona; Kohl, Jochem; Schweitzer, Simon D. (eds.). Ägypten-Münster: kulturwissenschaftliche Studien zu Ägypten, dem Vorderen Orient und verwandten Gebieten [Egypt-Münster: Cultural Studies on Egypt, the Near East and Related Areas]. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 75–90. ISBN 978-3-447-04633-6.
- ^ Troy, Lana (2005). "New Kingdom: Eighteenth Dynasty to the Amarna Period". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5.
- ^ Jánosi, Peter (1992). "The Queens Ahhotep I & II and Egypt's Foreign Relations" (PDF). Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum. 5: 99–105.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ a b Betrò, Marilina (2022). "The Identity of Ahhotep and the Textual Sources". In Miniaci, Gianluca; Lacovara, Peter (eds.). The Treasure of the Egyptian Queen Ahhotep and International Relations at the Turn of the Middle Bronze Age (1600-1500 BCE). Golden House Publications. pp. 131–152. ISBN 978-1906137724.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ahhotep.
- Hatshepsut: from Queen to Pharaoh, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Ahhotep I (see index)
- AEGEAN LB I-II POTTERY IN THE EAST: ‘WHO IS THE POTTER, PRAY, AND WHO THE POT?’, Hankey and Leonard
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