Meritites I.

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Meritites in hieroglyphics
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Meritites (Merit ites)
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The beloved of her father

Meritites I. was a queen of the ancient Egyptian 4th Dynasty . For a long time she was thought to be a daughter of Pharaoh Sneferu , but is now seen more as his wife. The only reliable evidence that mentions the names and titles of the Meritites is a now-lost false door fragment and relief fragments from the double mastaba G 7110-7120 in Giza . A few other relief fragments that were found within the chapel of the queen pyramid G Ib, which is part of the Great Pyramid, as well as in its immediate vicinity, are probably also to be attributed to Meritites .

family

Three kings are mentioned in Meritites' title. It bears the titles "'The great honor' of Sneferu" and "'The great honor' des Cheops ". Although she was considered the daughter of Snefru for a long time, since she bears the same title both in relation to him and his successor Cheops, it is now assumed that she was originally a concubine of Snefru and passed into Cheops' harem after his death and was made queen by him. She must have been very young when Snefru took her as his wife, because her second marriage to Cheops has at least two children.

One of these children was a daughter named Hetepheres II , which can be reconstructed from relief fragments from her mastaba . Hetepheres was initially married to Kawab , a son of Snofru, and after his death to Cheops' son and successor Radjedef .

As the second child of Meritites and Cheops, the later King Chephren can be adopted, as this is the third king who appears in a title of the Meritites ("Venerable by Chephren"). Her death, which probably only overtook her in old age, also fell during his reign.

tomb

The queen pyramid G Ib

The tomb of the Meritites is probably the middle of the three queen pyramids (G Ib) east of the Cheops pyramid. This is indicated by relief fragments with a title typical of them, which were found in the chapel of this pyramid and its immediate vicinity. The pyramid consists of limestone blocks and has a side length of around 48 m. The original height was around 30.5 m.

literature

  • Michel Baud : Famille royale et pouvoir sous l'Ancien Empire égyptien. Tome 2 (= Bibliothèque d'Étude. Volume 126/2). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1999, ISBN 2-7247-0250-6 , pp. 468–469 ( PDF; 16.7 MB ).
  • Aidan Dodson , Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt . The American University in Cairo Press, London 2004, ISBN 977-424-878-3 , pp. 52-61.
  • Roman Gundacker: A Contribution to the Genealogy of the 4th Dynasty . In: Sokar, No. 16, 2008, pp. 22-51.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Silke Roth: The royal mothers of ancient Egypt . Page 386.
  2. ^ Gundacker: Genealogy . P. 46, note 8
  3. ^ Gundacker: Genealogy . Pp. 24-26
  4. ^ Gundacker: Genealogy . P. 24
personal data
SURNAME Meritites I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of the ancient Egyptian 4th Dynasty
DATE OF BIRTH 27th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 26th century BC Chr.