Ahhotep I

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.^{[citation needed]} She was the royal wife of the seventeenth dynasty king Seqenenre Tao^{[note 1]}, 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.^[5] 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.

Ahhotep is mentioned on the Kares stela (CG 34003) which dates to year 10 of Amenhotep I, and her steward Iuf 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]

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]}

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.^{[6]: 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.^{[6]: 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.^[4]

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.^[4]

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

References

• Eaton-Krauss, Marianne. 2003. "Encore: The Coffins of Ahhotep, the wife of Seqeni-en-Re Tao and mother of Ahmose". Pages 75–89 in E. Graefe and other editors. Ägypten-Münster. Otto Harrassowitz.

External links

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