Ahmose Nefertari

Ahmose Nefertari in hieroglyphics
Ahmose Nefertari ( Ah mose Nefert ari) Jˁḥ ms Nfrt jry The moon (god) is born, the most beautiful of them
Wooden statue (posthumous veneration) in the Egyptian Museum Berlin (Inv.-No. 6908)

Ahmose Nefertari , also Iahmose Nefertari or Ahmes-Nefertari (* around 1562 BC; † around 1495 BC) was an ancient Egyptian queen of the 18th dynasty and sister wife of Pharaoh Ahmose I.

family

The origin of Ahmose Nefertari is not clearly established. With the title "daughter of a great king consort" she probably belonged to a main line of the Ahmosids , so was either the daughter of Seqenenre and Ahhotep I or Kamose and Ahhotep II. Her husband and half-brother was Ahmose I. As a full sister, she can be excluded , because the skeletons of both mummies showed clear differences. Three sons and two daughters are definitely recorded, although most of the children probably died at a very young age. Ahmose Nefertari survived her son Amenophis I. She died during the reign of Thutmose I at the age of about 70 years.

position

Ahmose Nefertari and Amenophis I.

Queen Ahmose Nefertari had numerous titles: She was “King's Daughter”, “King's Sister”, “ Great Royal Wife ”, “ King's Mother ” and “Lady of the Two Countries”. Under her brother and husband Ahmose I, her title " Wife of God of Amun " is documented for the first time , which perhaps was introduced to secure claims to the throne through divine descent, with the imperial god Amun in the form of the earthly consort as the heir to the throne. Later, Ahmose Nefertari was also given the priesthood of a " God's hand of Amun ".

A stele found in the temple of Karnak tells of the sale of her high priesthood of a "Second Prophet of Amun" to her brother, King Ahmose, through which she came into possession of her own lands. Her personal wealth enabled her to perform unprecedented ritual sacrifices across Egypt. References to this can be found in Abydos , Thebes , Serabit el-Hadim and even in Sinai .

Ahmose Nefertari survived her brother husband Ahmose I and presumably took over the reign for the still underage son Amenophis I. After the death of Amenophis I, who had no descendants, she had a decisive influence on the appointment of Thutmose I as successor due to her dominant position , so that the succession to the throne took place without any confusion when the dynasty changed.

Representations and worship

Representation of Ahmose Nefertari in grave TT359

After the deaths of Ahmose Nefertari and Amenophis' I, both were worshiped as protective deities in the Deir el-Medina region . There lived the "servants at the place of the mate ": craftsmen and artists who created the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and later also in the Valley of the Queens . There are images of the queen in around fifty private graves, depicting her as the “mistress of heaven” or “noble of the west”, and thus depicting her as the goddess of rebirth. For this reason, she is often depicted, for example in grave TT359 , the grave of Inihercha, with black skin, which symbolizes fertility and rebirth. In addition, Ahmose Nefertari received cultic care from her own college of priests in her mortuary temple in Dra Abu el-Naga . She is also depicted as a deity in royal cult buildings: in Karnak , where she promises Ramses II "life and health", further in the Ramesseum and in Abydos, as well as in the mortuary temple of Seti I in el-Qurna , where she is on her divine barque at the valley festival participates. The last evidence that mentions the divine Ahmose Nefertari comes from the 21st Dynasty.

Burial place and mummy

The coffin of Ahmose Nefertari was at its discovery in the so-called " Cachette of Deir el-Bahari " (DB / TT320). Tomb robbers had damaged the mummy in its earlier, actual tomb in Dra Abu el-Naga ( AN B ) and broke off its right hand, which they put back after removing the jewelry. Her coffin is a monumental Rishi coffin almost three meters long and is one of the most important works of art of the early 18th dynasty. It depicts the queen with the crown of feathers of the imperial god Amun. Her arms are crossed over her chest and hold ankh symbols.

Emil Brugsch unwrapped the mummy of Ahmose Nefertari in September 1885, but initially buried it on the museum grounds in Cairo because the remains of the queen smelled unpleasant. The investigation followed some time later and it was found that Ahmose Nefertari had died at the age of approximately 70. Artificial braids were partially woven into the thin hair to make it appear fuller. The mummy Ahmose Nefertaris is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo .

See also

• List of Amun's wives of God

literature

• Christiane Desroches Noblecourt : La femme au temps des Pharaons. Éditions Stock, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-234-01941-9 .
• Aidan Dodson , Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, London 2004, ISBN 0-500-05128-3 .
• Michel Gitton: Ahmose Nefertiti. In: Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). Volume I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 , Sp. 102-109.
• Michel Gitton: L'Épouse du Dieu Ahmes Néfertary. Documents sur sa vie et son culte posthumously. In: Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon (= Center de recherches d'histoire ancienne. Vol. 15). Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1981.
• Alfred Grimm, Sylvia Schoske: In the sign of the moon. Egypt at the beginning of the New Kingdom (=  writings from the Egyptian collection . Volume 7 ). State Collection of Egyptian Art, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-87490-691-4 .
• Gay Robins: Women in Ancient Egypt. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1993, ISBN 0-674-95468-8 .
• Hermann A. Schlögl : The ancient Egypt (= Beck'sche series 2305, CH Beck knowledge ). 3rd, revised edition. Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-48005-8 .
• Joyce Tyldesley : The Queens of Ancient Egypt. From the early dynasties to the death of Cleopatra. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-7338-0358-2 , pp. 88-90.

Web links

Commons : Ahmose Nefertari  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Thierry Benderitter: The cult of Amenophis I and Ahmes-Nefertari. Queen Ahmes-Nefertari. www.osirisnet.net, July 27, 2012, accessed February 17, 2013 (English). 
• British Museum: Ahmose-Nefertari

Remarks

1. ↑ Hermann Ranke : The Egyptian personal names. Volume 1: Directory of Names. Augustin, Glückstadt 1935, pp. 12 and 201 ( online as PDF ).
2. ↑ Alfred Grimm, Sylvia Schoske: In the sign of the moon. P. 42.
3. ↑ Ahmose-Ankh, Amenophis I , Siamun, Satamun and Meritamun : Aidan Dodson, Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Egypt. Pp. 126-129.
4. ↑ Neither the mother of Hatshepsut, Queen Ahmose, nor Mutemwia, mother Amenophis III., Had this title. See: Gay Robins: Women in Ancient Egypt. P. 151.
5. ↑ Constantin Emil Sander-Hansen: Das Gottesweib des Amun (= Historisk-filologiske skrifter. Vol. 1, No. 1, ZDB -ID 204516-3 ). Munksgaard, København 1940, p. 11.
6. ^ Christiane Desroches Noblecourt: La femme au temps des Pharaons. S. 67. So also: Michel Gitton: La résiliation d'une fonction religieuse: Nouvelle interprétation de la stèle de donation d'Ahmès Néfertary. In: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie Orientale. Vol. 76, 1976, ISSN  0255-0962 , pp. 65–89, p. 71, online (PDF; 2.46 MB) : " [Appartenait] la fonction de deuxième Prophète d'Amon à l'Épouse du Dieu " . Since the text has a gap in one essential point, it can also be a question of a transfer of ownership of the priesthood including the domain and staff: Bernadette Menu: La "stèle" d'Ahmès Néfertary dans son contexte historique et juridique. In: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie Orientale. Vol. 77, 1977, pp. 89–100, here p. 89, online (PDF; 1.05 MB) : “ Le roi Ahmosis investit son épouse Ahmès Nefertary d'une fonction religieuse afin de la doter. "
7. ↑ From Thutmose I's message to Turi, the viceroy of Nubia: “This is a message to let you know that the royal house is safe and sound. Year I, month 8 of the winter season, day 21, on the day of the feast of the coronation. ”(= Documents of Egyptian antiquity. German department. IV (Urk IV), p. 81).
8. ↑ Michel Gitton: L'Épouse du Dieu Ahmes Néfertary. Pp. 80-82.
9. ↑ Michel Gitton: L'Épouse du Dieu Ahmes Néfertary. P. 59 and 76.
10. ↑ Michel Gitton: L'Épouse du Dieu Ahmes Néfertary. P. 91.
11. ↑ picture of the coffin
12. ↑ Joyce Tyldesley: The Queens of Ancient Egypt. P. 90