Internal Developments: Changing Role and Contributions of Queens

Question 1

Roles and contributions of queens context

Answer 1

• Queens traditionally provided a female equivalent for the male aspects of kingship in a practical and religious sense. They were divine consorts to kings
• Royal wives’ most important role was to produce heirs
• Gay Robins: “The queen presented the female principle of the universe through which the male king could renew himself…Both the king’s mother and the king’s principal wife had important roles to play”

Overview of changes

• Queens gained an extremely prominent political and religious role in the late 18th dynasty, beginning with the reign of Amenhotep III. In the early 19th dynasty, they were relegated back to more conventional roles, but continued to maintain important diplomatic and religious roles, as evidenced by Tuya and Nefertari
• Hatshepsut:

Question 2

Women during Amenhotep III’s reign context

Answer 2

• Seems that his reign was a turning point in the role of royal women, as monuments from this time prominently depict women of the royal family, including Tiye and Mutemweia

Question 3

Mutemweia

Amenhotep III

Answer 3

• Mother of Amenhotep III, acted as his regent when he was very young
• Given prominence in Amenhotep III’s divine birth scene in the Temple of Amun at Luxor
• Amenhotep’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings contains a relief showing his mother Mutemwiya standing behind him, adorned with a queen’s headdress, with her hands on his arm and shoulder → shows that she had an influential role in guiding him as a king

Question 4

Tiye

Amenhotep III

Answer 4

• Amenhotep III’s Great Royal Wife
• “the Great Royal Consort Tiyi, may she live. The name of her father is Yuia, the name of her mother is Thuia. She is the wife of a mighty king.”
• Assumed prominence immediately as her husband issued a set of commemorative scarabs to mark the event → not a common practice
• Frequently depicted with the same proportions as Amenhotep III on royal monuments, indicating an almost-equal status in political and religious significance
• Lake scarab: “His Majesty commanded to make a lake for the Great Royal Consort Tiyi”

Military + religious

• Shown as a sphinx trampling her enemies in the tomb of her steward, Kheruef → depicted with pharaoh-like qualities that indicate her great political importance
• Deified by her husband: in the Temple at Sedeinga in Nubia, Amenhotep III had her depicted as a goddess

Political (foreign relations): Letter from King Tushratta of Mitanni addressed directly to Tiye after Amenhotep III’s death shows that she was recognised as a key political figure by foreign rulers

• “To Teie, Queen of Egypt. Thus saith Tusratta, king of Mitanni: With me it is well. May it be well with thee. With thy house, with thy son may it be well.”
• “And all the words, which I have spoked with thy father, thy mother, Tiy, knows them. No one else knows them. But thou mayest ask thy mother, Tiy, about them.” (Tushratta to Akhenaten)

Question 5

Sitamun

Amenhotep III

Answer 5

• Daughter of Amenhotep III
• She was granted the title of ‘Great Royal Wife’ by him, although it does not appear that she was her father’s physical wife
• Title is more likely an indication of her high position in Amenhotep III’s court

Question 6

Nefertiti

Akhenaten

Answer 6

Seems to have had an extremely vital role in Akhenaten’s reign

Religious role

• Hewet-benben temple, East Karnak: Depicted making offerings to the Aten alongside her daughter, Meritaten. Akhenaten is not depicted, he makes Nefertiti the focus of the temple
• Nefertiti is depicted twice as often as her husband in the East Karnak temples, suggesting that she held a central religious role
• Had the title of “The High Priestess-Musician” and “The One who makes that Aten rests through the sweetness of her voice” → illustrating her centrality to the religious worship of the Aten

Political role

• S. Tawfik: Nefertiti’s full name ends with a symbol of the seated queen wearing the crown with ureus and holding insignium of power in her hands, demonstrating her divinity, sovereignty, and royal authority (usually only pharaohs are depicted with the ureus)
• On her cartouches, the two names inscribed are “The Great Wife of the King” and “The Lady of the Two Lands”. The “two lands” name (also usually given to pharaohs, to symbolise the union of Upper and Lower Egypt under their kingship) → Nefertiti had significant royal authority that rivalled that of her queenly predecessors
• Like Tiye, she was given pharaonic qualities in depictions of her. Talatat from East Karnak and Akhetaten show her in traditional poses of smiting the enemy, and trampling enemies in sphinx form. Scenes from private and public buildings and tomb paintings at Akhetaten show her driving her own chariot in state processions, worshipping the Aten alongside her husband, and receiving foreign envoys
• Bust of Nefertiti wearing a blue crown echoing the war crown (khepresh) worn by the king → powerful queen

Historiographical issues

• Some historians argue that Nefertiti was Smenkhare, the pharaoh who succeeded Akhenaten, while others argue that Smenkhare was not Nefertiti but a young male pharaoh

Question 7

Smenkhkare

Answer 7

• Julia Samson and J.R. Harris postulate that Smenkhkare assumed the role of pharaoh after her hustand’s death

1. Nefertiti’s special name, Neferneferuaten, was the same as the first name used by co-regent Smenkhkare
2. Nefertiti’s ephithets (“beloved of Neferkheperure”) were also used by Smenkhkare
3. An unfinished stela showing two kings usually believed to be Akhenaten and a co-regent, is now thought to depict Akhenaten and Nefertiti as co-regents

• Unfinished stela belonging to a soldier named Pase was though to depict Akhenaten and Smenkhkhare in a homosexual relationship; others argue that it depicts the king with Nefertiti as co-regent wearing a king’s crown

Question 8

Ankhesenamun

Tutankhamun

Answer 8

• Ankhensenamun is often shown in a variety of poses revealing her religious role in the rebirth of her husband and her association with Hathor
• Tut’s gold throne: Ankhensenamun is the same size as Tut, representative of Hathor
• A golden shrine in Tut’s temple: depicts her holding arrows to her husband, carrying out her symbolic duty of ensuring his happiness in the afterlife

Letters in the Hittite archives show that she extended an invitation to the Hittite king Suppililiumas to send her one of his sons to marry after Tutankhmaun’s death, revealing that she tried to rule Egypt as a queen after her husband’s death

• “My husband has died. A son I have not. But you have many sons. If you would give me a son of yours, he would become my husband” → Ankhesenamun to Hittite king
• “I have written to no other country…so give me a son of yours; to me he shall be my husband, but in Egypt he will be king” → Ankhesenamun to Hittite king
• Young queen’s initiative and courage to challenge society’s expectations and seek out her own destiny → changing nature and role of women during the time
• The Hittite prince was murdered en route to Egypt, and Ankesenamun herself disappeared soon after, suggesting that Egypt was not ready for a queen to wield so much political power without her pharaoh husband

Question 9

Women in the early 19th dynasty

Answer 9

• Queens of the early 19th dynasty played more conventional roles

Question 10

Tuya (Seti I)

Answer 10

• Not prominent during Seti I’s reign, but when her son Ramesses II came to the throne, he had statues of her erected throughout Egypt and constructed a temple in her honour
• Tuya is depicted with Ramesses II in front of his temple at Abu Simbel, albeit on a much smaller scale. This reveals a backwards devolution in the political importance given to queens in the early 19th dynasty
• Wrote personally to the Hittite king on the occasion of the peace treaty between Hittite and Egypt, evidencing that she had a diplomatic role at court
• A temple dedicated to her and her daughter-in-law Nefertari in western Thebes records her “sacred wedding” with Amun, showing that although diminished in political importance compared to the 18th dynasty queens, Tuya still had an important religious role

Question 11

Nefertari

Ramesses II

Answer 11

• Change: 19th Dynasty queens played a more traditional role compared to the progressive 18th Dynasty queens

Religious

• Depicted officiating jointly with her husband Ramesses II, to whom she was Great Royal Wife, in religious ceremonies on the walls of a shrine at Gebel el Silsila
• Shown accompanying Ramesses II on royal processions up the Nile and presiding over religious festivals, including the investiture of a high priest, with him
• Provided an exquisitely painted tomb in the Valley of the Queens
• Depictd alongside her husband in reliefs and also in colossol statues of equal size to Ramesses II at Karnak and Luxor
• Ramesses II dedicated an entire temple to her and the goddess Hathor next to his own temple at Abu Simbel, revealing her high political status at court
• Tomb: vibrant colours depicting Osiris, Anubis etc.

Political (foreing relations):

• Wrote to Hittite King Hattusili III and sent gifts: fine linen for the king and a gold necklace for his queen
• Exchanged greetings with the Hittite queen, Pudukhepa, as evidenced by remaining letter. “I am in friendship and sisterly relations with my sister the Great Queen of Hatti, now and forever.” Also “May the sun-god and storm-god bring you joy” → Reference to one another in filial terms reveal cordial diplomacy between Nefertari and the Hittite queen, probably written after the Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty
• Clay cuneiform tablets from Hittite capital Hattusas (modern day Turkey) show she was involved in Egyptian diplomacy
• Karnak relief: Ramesses II has the crook and ankh, with Nefertari immediately behind him