Meritneith

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Meritneith in hieroglyphics
Proper name
U6 D21
R24

Mer (it) neith (Mer (it) Neith)
Mr (jt) Nj.t
Lover of Neith
Real name
Neith-fetisch1.png
U7
U7
Srxtail2.svg
Mer (it) neith
Mr (jt) Nj.t
Lover of Neith
title
M23 G14

Mut-nesut
Mwt-nswt
mother of the king

Meritneith (also Merneith, Meret-Neith ) was an ancient Egyptian queen of the 1st Dynasty ( Early Dynasty ), who lived around 2900 BC. Lived at the side of King ( Pharaoh ) Wadji .

Queen Meritneith is considered a key figure in Egyptology in understanding the succession to the throne and rulership in the 1st dynasty, as archaeological finds suggest that she may have ruled Egypt as an independent ruler.

Name and identity

The name of Meritneith is based on the Egyptian goddess Neith , who was especially worshiped in the early half of the 1st dynasty. Their cult center was in Sais in Lower Egypt . In addition to Meritneith, monuments and artefacts contain the names of some, especially female, people with links to the goddess Neith: Queen Neithhotep and the royal ladies Qaneith , Herneith , Nachtneith , Ahaneith and Iret-Neith.

Her title, " Mother of the King " ( mwt nswt ), appears repeatedly on clay seal inscriptions of King Hor Den , according to which he is to be regarded as her son. Jean-Philippe Lauer submitted that Meritneith could already have been in a relationship with King Djer , but the findings so far only allow her person to be assigned as the wife of Wadji . Meritneith is much more likely to have been Djer's daughter. Even Peter Kaplony suspected daughter of Djer (objects with their name were found in his grave) and wife of djet was.

Contemporary evidence

Grave stele of Meritneith from Abydos (detail)

Meritneith is best known for the discovery of a large memorial stele made of polished sandstone , which was discovered around 1900 by Flinders Petrie near her grave in Umm el-Qaab . Other important finds are unrolled seals from her and Den's grave in Abydos . Outside of Abydos, Meritneith is rather sparsely occupied. Several fragments of vessels and an ivory bowl come from a grave in Saqqara . This grave was initially assigned to her, but this is hardly maintained today; of unknown origin, on the other hand, is a small alabaster vase with a raised relief in the form of your name on it. Finally, there is the statue of a baboon that bears the name of Meritneith.

The oldest evidence of the title of governor or mayor , Hatia , can be found on seals dated under Meritneith . This title was held by the high official Sechka . Another high official among her was Sechemkasedj , who ran the royal domain " Horus flourishes" ( Hr-w3dj ) and was buried in Saqqara . Likewise, the career of the Amka , who survived the rulers Djer, Wadji and Den, falls into the time of Meritneith.

Other seals show the rare determinative (Deutzeichen) of a domestic pig that was apparently fattened and slaughtered. Thus, domestic pigs were already important meat suppliers in Meritneith's time. The naming of a domain called "Haus der Rinder" ( Hwt-jhwt ) with the ideogram of a bull provides further evidence of meat production . Meritneith may be depicted on an ivory fragment from Abydos. On this fragment there are the remains of two seated people who can be reconstructed as King Den and Meritneith.

Later evidence

The name and title of the Meritneith are no longer mentioned on the grave seals of King Qaa (eighth ruler of the 1st dynasty), on which all rulers of this era are listed. It seems that since Qaa at least it has not been assigned a special role in royal history.

Meritneith appears on the Palermostein , a fragment of a former memorial plaque from the 6th Dynasty . On this annal stone, among other things, the annual events of King Den are preserved in the second table. On the right breaking edge of the stone tablet, the name syllable "... (mer) rit" ( [mr] rj.t ), followed by the simple determinative of a crouching woman, is preserved, which Kurt Sethe and Silke Roth reconstruct as the Neith-Merit . The Palermostein thus confirms the family position of the Meritneith as the mother of Den.

Possible autocracy

The Meritneith memorial stele gave and still gives rise to the theory that her family and political rank exceeded the norm. Steles of this size were usually reserved for kings in the early days, which early on led Flinders Petrie to suspect that Meritneith must have been more than just a royal wife. The determinative of a crouching woman as an indication of a female name, which was already common at this time, is also missing on the stele and the clay seals.

The first problems with researching Meritneiths identity had already triggered the excavations of her grave complex around 1900. The evaluations of the excavations and finds in Tomb Y were carried out by WM Flinders Petrie. Already at the beginning of the excavation he suspected that the mastaba must be a royal tomb. This consideration was based on the knowledge that the mastabas and graves of simple servants and courtiers were rather small and simply built. The Tomb Y grave, however, was very large and had its own cult area, which was more in favor of a royal burial. The found stele also supported this theory. Only the lack of the Horus falcon, the animal closely related to the Egyptian kings, made the researcher a little puzzled. In his time, the goddess Neith was also considered a male deity, which Petrie - and initially also Walter Bryan Emery - interpreted as an indication that Meritneith must be a still unknown king. Only when research became aware over time that Neith was a female goddess did the first doubts about the gender of Meritneith arise. Later research also showed that the goddess Neith was reserved for queens and princesses in the early days as the patron goddess.

Furthermore, several clay seals were discovered in her grave, which at the current state of research feed the assumption that Meritneith ruled independently as a female ruler for a short period of time. The main proponents of this thesis are Jean-Philippe Lauer , Flinders Petrie , Silke Roth and Toby Wilkinson, who refer to the clay seals from Meritneiths grave. On several of these seals her name is written within a serech , above which the emblem of the goddess Neith is located instead of the Horus falcon . The many contradictions caused confusion, which culminated in the fact that Narmer was to leave the first dynasty as the first regent. But the clay seals of Meritneith and Den - they list the first five kings of this era - begin unanimously with Narmer. Clay seals from the tomb of King Qaa also present a list of kings and name Narmer as the first regent. Only the clay seals, which Meritneith's mother and queen titles name, dispelled the doubts.

It is now believed that Meritneith had to take over the government for her deceased husband because her son, who later became King Den, was too young to accede to the throne. Such approaches were not uncommon in early Egypt and a possible pioneer might have been Queen Neithhotep , whose identity is controversial. Later queens, such as Nofrusobek and Hatshepsut , also became known for their roles as female pharaohs.

Grave complex

Meritneith (Egypt)
Abydos (tomb)
Abydos ( tomb )
Saqqara
Saqqara
Sites and grave complex
Plan of the grave of Meritneith in Abydos

Meritneith was buried in the tomb Tomb Y in Abydos . Her grave measures 19.2 × 16.3 meters and has a high level of precision and uniformity in its construction. The layout of the tomb corresponds to the tombs of the kings Djer, Wadji, Den, Anedjib , Semerchet and Qaa. As with all kings, there was a large wooden shrine in the central burial chamber . Eight storage rooms were evenly arranged around the burial chamber. The main and storage rooms are surrounded by 41 secondary graves . There higher officials, male and female servants of the queen and dogs and pygmies were buried. In the rows of graves there was a gap at the southwest corner of the underground facility, which allowed a clear view between the burial chamber and a rock cut behind Umm el-Qaab . Toby Wilkinson refers in this context to Rita Friedman's assumption that the Egyptians at this time could have viewed those rock cuts as a transition to the afterlife .

The design of the royal tombs, as well as the layout of Meritneith, refer to the subject of heavenly cosmology due to the gap taken into account and the transition to the afterlife after death . The ivory comb of King Waji from the same epoch already shows the associated worldview, which depicts heaven and earth. The falcon and the name of King Wadji registered in the Serech filled the gap between the two regions. Two heavenly supports can be seen on the sides of the ivory ridge. The power of the king was effective on both the earthly and the heavenly plane. This means that the king is in his own stage, which should only be described in more detail in writing in the pyramid texts .

A so-called valley district with a total of 71 additional graves in the neighboring Umm el-Qaab with an estimated circumference of 66.5 × 25.5 meters also belonged to the Abydenean grave complex of the Meritneith. The side graves on the northwest side were intended for the royal servants of the lower rank, who were therefore buried in poorer wooden coffins. All persons and animals buried with the queen were killed to serve her in the afterlife. This burial practice ended with Qaa as the last king of the 1st Dynasty, with 26 additional burials still taking place. In the Meritneith secondary graves on the northwest side there were also large quantities of ivory and stone objects. The assignment of the enclosure to Meritneith was initially based solely on the discovery of a vase with the queen's name. Hence, there have been doubts about the allocation and debates about it. Researchers like Werner Kaiser were drawn to assign the enclosure to König Den. More recent excavation work, however, strengthens Meritneith as the owner. On the one hand, the tomb area is very close to the tomb of King Djer, on the other hand, both architectural designs and arrangements are similar.

In Saqqara there is the mastaba S3503 , which in the past was also considered by some research as the grave of Meritneith. However, this assignment is controversial, because a second tomb would be unusual for a queen in this era and was based on the idea that every king had a tomb there with another in Abydos. This thesis is less and less popular today. The grave superstructure was divided into niches and showed remains of a painting during the excavation. The grave substructure consisted of an adobe clad chamber measuring 14.25 × 14.50 meters and was divided into five rooms. The burial chamber measured 4.80 x 3.50 meters and contained the remains of a wooden sarcophagus , as well as bone fragments and very small pieces of gold foil . There were also clay seals with the names of King Wadji and Queen Meritneith. The tomb was looted and then set on fire.

literature

Web links

Commons : Meritneith  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ The hieroglyph
    X1
    - the feminine ending X1 ( t ) - has been omitted here.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ After Walter Bryan Emery; Peter Kaplony: Inscriptions of the early Egyptian period. Vol. III, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1963, ISBN 3-447-00052-X , p. 495 - however, rejects this reading of the characters on a Djer's seal
  2. ↑ see Günter Dreyer, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologische Institut, Cairo Department. (MDIAK) Vol. 43, von Zabern, Mainz 1986, pp. 115-119.
  3. ^ Toby Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . London / New York 1999, p. 291.
  4. ^ Jochem Kahl, Markus Bretschneider, Barbara Kneissler: Early Egyptian dictionary. Volume 1. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-447-04594-9 , p. 46.
  5. ^ Nicolas Grimal : A history of ancient Egypt. P. 50.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Toby Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . London / New York 1999, pp. 74-75.
  7. ^ Hermann Alexander Schlögl: The Ancient Egypt. ... Munich 2006, p. 27.
  8. ↑ Peter Kaplony: Inscriptions of the early Egyptian times . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1963, Volume III, ISBN 3-447-00052-X , p. 495.
  9. ^ A b c Walter Bryan Emery: Egypt, history and culture of the early days . Pp. 60-63 and 202.
  10. ↑ Roth: The royal mothers of ancient Egypt. Pp. 296-300.
  11. ↑ Kathryn Ashley Bard et al. a .: Encyclopedia of the archeology of ancient Egypt . P. 700.
  12. ↑ Matthieu Bégonː Une probable représentation de la reine Meret-Neith en tant que régente du roi Den , in̊ː ENiM 13, 2020, p. 211-215
  13. ↑ a b c d Silke Roth: The royal mothers of ancient Egypt . Pp. 18-23.
  14. ^ William Matthew Flinders Petrie , Francis Llewellyn Griffith : The royal tombs of the first dynasty: 1900 Part 1 (= Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Volume 18, ISSN  0307-5109 ). The Egypt Exploration Fund, London 1900, digitized , pp. 85 & 86.
  15. ↑ Joyce Tyldesley: Daughters of Isis. Penguin Putnam, New York 1994, pp. 215-216.
  16. ^ Toby Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . London / New York 1999, p. 291.
  17. ^ Walter B. Emery: Great Tombs of the First Dynasty. Volume 2, London 1954, p. 169, Fig. 226.
  18. ^ Sarah M. Nelson: Ancient queens . Pp. 94-95.
  19. ^ A b c Günter Dreyer: Abydos Umm el-Qa'ab . In: Kathryn A. Bard, Steven Blake Shubert: Encyclopedia of the archeology of ancient Egypt . Pp. 111-112.
  20. ^ A b Toby Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . London / New York 1999, p. 236.
  21. ↑ Susanne Bickel: The combination of worldview and state image. Pp. 88-89.
  22. ^ Hermann Schlögl: The old Egypt. ... Munich 2006, p. 72.
  23. ↑ Laurel D. be stock: Early dynastic funerary enclosures of Abydos . In: Archeo-Nile. No. 18, March 2008, pp. 53-54.
  24. ^ Walter B. Emery: Great Tombs of the First Dynasty. Volume 2, London 1954, p. 128.
  25. ^ Walter B. Emery: Great Tombs of the First Dynasty. 2nd Volume, London 1954, pp. 128-170.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 3, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Meritneith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mother of King Hor Den
DATE OF BIRTH 30th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 30th century BC Chr.