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ROYAL WOMEN (queens, princesses) IN EARLY EGYPT (Dynasty 0-3)

by Francesco Raffaele


A. Introduction

Women have always enjoyed a remarkable role in the ancient Egyptian culture: at all levels of the society, both in life and death, in religion and myths, in literature, art and history. The importance and independence of Egyptian women looked strange even to the eyes of the ancient Greek (Diodorus Siculus) (cf. LÄ II, 281).
The place of woman in Egypt was indeed very different than in other ancient (and modern !) societies in the Mediterranean and in the Orient. I've found striking parallels to the Egyptian 'female world', and particularly with respect to queens and princesses' social ambit and paraphernalia, in the Precolumbian classic Maya civilization (c. 200-900AD).
Nevertheless, even if more egalitarian than elsewhere, the status of ancient Egyptian women cannot be directly compared -at the same social level- with that of men [0], and it must be always premised that, during millennia of history, any society is of course subject to sensible transformations.

The aspects of kinship, court life and royal family ties, as most of the characters of Egyptian society, are known since the Late Predynastic and Early Dynastic sources: but these attest to them only in a very embrional dimension which just makes us comprehend when and where did they originate, yet fuller data are not available until the IVth dynasty.
For this reason the present short intro will not deal with the basic concepts and the nouances of the royal women reality as known it from the Old Kingdom (which one could only start to comprehend with a study of the major researches on the argument, eventually starting from those quoted in the general bibliography provided below) but I am limiting to the crude evidence of the Fruhzeit and to the conclusions which its analysis can suggest.

Since the oldest cultures of the Nile Valley, which preceded and influenced the 'Dynastic Egypt', artifacts as women figurines were modelled in clay, ivory and other materials (Badarian) [1]. In Naqada I-II painted vessels (C- and D- ware) the representation of females (deities?) is quite frequent and sometimes the vessels decorative style is found on painted figurines too [2].
Late Predynastic artifacts show that the eminent role of women -mainly royal persons and goddesses- was retained in that period (Naqada IIIA-B); female statuettes of the period of the 'Unification', from Hierakonpolis, Abydos or of unknown provenance, are kept in various museums [3]; it is difficult to be sure about what do the females portrayed in these remote periods' objects ultimately represent: the interpretation as supernatural beings is generally the prevailing one, but not without some exceptions.
The attestations become more numerous with the proliferation of archaeological sources of Early Dynastic Period (Dynasty 1-2) [4] and in the Third Dynasty, where a main role seems to have been played by the royal mother Njmaathapy, by Djoser's women, and perhaps by Huni's wife, if she really was Snofru's mother Meresankh I. In the IVth dynasty Khufu's mother Hetepheres and the contemporary and later pricesses and queens were buried in mastabas and satellite pyramids of the Giza cemeteries; this is already a fairly distinct age, clearer to our eyes, with more inscriptional and 'artistic' evidence; yet it will inherit many characters from its darker past (as it occurs in every period) and the women status is -despite some alterations- one of these elements of evident continuity.
It seems that, as it was at the end of the Second and of the Third Dynasty, also later royal accessions heavily relied on the female blood-line as a powerful element of legitimation for the royal succession: this can be inferred from the importance of Khentkaues at the end of the IVth Dynasty (probably echoed in the literature by the character of queen Redjedet, in Pap. Prisse).
However it must also be precised that there is absolutely no firm clue for the interpretation of Egyptian society as matriarchal/matrilineal one, rather than a bilineal, as it could be more correctly defined. The same role of royal women (especially of the Great Wife of the king, Hmt wrt nswt) in the legitimacy of the play of succession was certainly not as fixed and regular as it might be thought (G. Robins, 1983, 71 apud L. Troy, 1986, 104).
The distinction between male and female can also be interpreted as another element of the Egyptian phylosophical dualism, on the level of earthly and divine spheres: the relationship between the god and the priestess is duplicated in the relationship between the king and the royal women (L. Troy, 1986, 102). [For possible hints to male-female dualism cf. the pairs of ivory tusks mentioned in n. 2].

Naqada mastabaAs far as the sources can attest, the titles for queens and princesses appear early in the First Dynasty (see part B and LÄ IV, 473-5). To this period dates the giant mastaba of Naqada [5] once called the tomb of Menes, but more probably the burial of the wife of Horus Aha, queen Neith-hotep.
Her name has been also found at Heluan (tomb 728H5) and especially at Abydos (B cemetery).
It has been proposed that a regent queen (Athothis I), which could have been the person just mentioned, should have reigned for one or two years between Aha and Djer, but there is not much to substantiate this theory except for the Greek period lists (Dreyer, MDAIK 43, 1986, tomb B50; also cf. MDAIK 46, 1990, 71).
It is more possible that a later queen, Merneith, might have reigned some years after her husband, Horus Djet, before the accession of their son, Horus Den. She was buried in Abydos tomb Y, where her name was found by Petrie on a pair of round topped stelae and on small objects. She also built the funerary/ceremonial enclosure in North Abydos (possibly the one east of the Western Mastaba) and one or two great tombs of North Saqqara (3503, 3507) have been dated to her 'reign' [6].
Late in the reign of Horus Qaa, at the end of the First Dynasty, there could have been a numebr of interregni by ephemeral rulers. One of them, Sneferka, might perhaps also be read as a female name Neferkaes, as I have recently proposed [7].
In the reign of the third king of Manetho's 2nd Dynasty, Binothris (Njnetjer), the priest of Sebennytos reports it was decided that the women could eventually reign.
After Njnetjer at least three rulers are attested by Nswtbity/Nebty name only, but the lack of serekh-names cannot be a sufficient clue to hypothesize that they were female rulers at all (which no Egyptologist has indeed ever supposed) and their names do not indicate feminine attributes or terminations.
Late in the 2nd Dynasty the position of Nimaathapy (especially known from Abydos and Bet Khallaf, but also from Saqqara) seems prominent as ancestress of the following dynasty; she must have survived to her husband (?) Khasekhemwy and died in Netjerykhet's reign (Beit Khallaf K1 has been often considered her own monumental brick tomb)[8]. Netjerykhet/Djoser females are represented (at minor scale) embracing the king's legs on the Heliopolis temple limestone relief fragments; their names and main titles interestingly appear on all of Netjerykhet's complex boundary stelae and markers [9]. At least some of the 11 pits underneath the eastern side base of Djoser pyramid (indeed phase M3) contained the alabaster sarcophagi for the burial of princesses [10]. In the reign of the successor, Sekhemkhet, it seems that the feminine royal entourage of the king would retain their importance, for gold jewels certainly belonging to a queen were found in the incomplete pyramid of this king [11].
Much telling is the fact that Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom did include the name of the king's mother at the end of the band of the royal titulary [12].

Conclusions.
The female royal figures only rarely emerge from the oblivion of the oldest documents of early dynastic Egyptian history.
It has been much debated and speculated on the role of queens and royal marriages for the Unification of Egypt and as a powerful means of cohesion (alliances) between the factions and regional polities of Late Predynastic age.
...


NOTES:
[0] The subordinate role of women in contemporary European society has made the status of ancient Egyptian women seem, in contrast, to be of an exceptionally exalted nature (L. Troy, 1986, 103).
[1]
Cf. P. Brunton - G. Caton Thompson, Badarian Civilisation, 1928, 29, pl. 24-25 (from Badari tombs 5107, ivory figurine, 5227, red painted pottery, and 5769, unbaked clay); Vandier, Manuel d'archéologie ègyptienne, 1952, 221ff.
[2] W.M.F. Petrie, Prehistoric Egypt, 1920, pl. 19ff. (D-ware); M. Murray, JEA 42, 1956, 86ff. ('early goddesses'); Vandier, op.cit.; for D-ware paintings with representations of human beings cf. the checklist by S. Hendrickx, in: CCdE 3/4, 2002, 29-50.
For statuettes: Petrie, op. cit., pl. 3-6; Baumgartel, The Cultures..., 1955, 36f., 46f.; Vandier, op. cit., 421-435; B. Adams, Predynastic Egypt, 1988, 53-56; J. Crowfoot Payne, Catalogue of the Predynastic Egyptian Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, 1993, 12ff., fig. 7ff.
Ivory tusks -'bearded men'- which are often found coupled, one hollow and the other one not, have been not seldom associated with the female and male principles (W.F. Petrie - J.E. Quibell, Naqada and Ballas, 1896, 47, pl. 62; Petrie, Diospolis Parva, 1901, 21-22, pl. 3; id., Prehistoric Egypt, 1920, pl. 1; G.D. Hornblower, JEA 13, 1927, 240ff., pl. 63; E. Baumgartel, op. cit., 35f., J. Vandier, op. cit., 416ff.; E. Finkenstaedt, ZAS 106, 1979, 51-59; Crowfoot Payne, op. cit., 236f., fig. 81).
[3] Quibell, Hierakonpolis pt. I, pl. 9-10; E. Baumgartel, JARCE 7, 1968, 5-14; id., JARCE 8, 1969, 9-10; B. Adams, Ancient Hierakonpolis, 1974.
In general on the statuettes of this period cf. J. Capart, Les Débuts de l'art en Égypte, 1904, 155ff.; W.S. Smith, A History, 1949, 1-12, pl. 1c-e; J. Vandier, op. cit., 966-970 (fig. 636-640); H. Sourouzian, Concordances et écarts entre statuaire ..., in: Grimal (ed.), Les Criteres de datation..., 1998, 305-352 (see fig. 1-3, 5-6); B. Fay, in: C. Ziegler (ed.), L'Art de l'Ancien Empire Égyptien, 1999, 109ff. (?) (not consulted).
[4] In non-royal ambit, we know about the foundations owned by Nebes-Neith, mother of the dignitary Metjen (late IIIrd Dynasty- early Fourth), who transferred her properties to the sons by means of an Jmyt-per (K.B. Gödecken, in: LÄ IV, 118-120; H. Goedicke, MDAIK 21, 1966, 1-71; Urk I, 1-7; LD II, 3-7); also cf. note 9.
For female statues of this period cf., Sourouzian, op. cit. (fig. 22, 24, 25c, 37); B. Fay, 1998 (cf. bibl.).
[5] This tomb was discovered in 1897 by J. de Morgan whose excavations were followed, few years later, by those of J. Garstang (L. Borchardt, Das Grab des Menes, in: ZÄS 36, 1898, 87-105). For recent informations cf. J. Kahl -T. Bagh -E.M. Engel -S. Petschel, Die Funde aus dem 'Menesgrab' in Naqada: ein Zwischenbericht, in: MDAIK 57, 2001, 171-85; J. Kahl - E.M. Engel, Vergraben, verbrannt, verkannt und vergessen. Funde aus dem "Menesgrab", Münster 2001.
Also cf. Kaplony, IAFS, nr. 1082 (pl. 30; Sma-Nbwy Neith-Hotep); id., BK, 1973, 4 (arm ring, nr. 22, pl. 18.22), id., Steingefasse, 1968, 55, nr. 27-28; id., IAF I, 66-68, 588-592 for the epigraphic attestation from the Naqada tomb and for all those known with the name 'Htp-Nt'.
[6] For the "Talbezirke" cf. D. O'Connor, JARCE 26, 1989, 51-86 with full bibliography (or also bibl. here); for Saqqara 3503 cf. W. Emery, GT II, 1954, 128-170. Kaplony (IAF I, 90ff.) dated Saqqara tomb 3507 (Emery, Great Tombs III, 1958) to the same period as Abydos, Umm el-Qaab Y (Merneith). It might be somewhat later, dated to the period when Den's reign had already begun.
For more objects with Merneith's name cf. P. Kaplony, IAF I, 494-496; T. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, 1999, 74-5, to which it should be added the unprovenanced granite baboon statuette (h. 23cm) in Kaplony, KBIAF 1966, 91ff., (nr. 1133) pl. 20-23, the unprovenanced copper blade id.; KBIAF, 99; two sherds of stone vases (Mer-Neith; Kaplony, IAF III, 863-4), an (elephant) ivory and an alabaster unprovenanced vase (Michailidis collection; Kaplony, IAFS, 34, pl. 8, 1073*, 1075; Meret-Neith: on the alabaster cylindrical vessel the t of her name has been scratched; * see also KBIAF, 98-99), a basalt cylindrical vessel (Kaplony, Steingefasse, 1968, 54, nr. 24).
Her name is on Horus Den's necropolis seals (published by G. Dreyer, in: MDAIK 43, 1986, 33ff.) preceded by the title Mwt-nswt and not surmounted by Horus. It is partly preserved on the Palermo Stone, above line III (only the final rt). See also Kahl, Das System..., 1994, 254ff. (Quellen 1176ff.).
[7] See my site page here.
[8] Baud, Famille royale, 1999, 477-8; Kaplony, IAF I, 588-592 (s.v. Nj-Hpt-Maat); Helck, Thinitenzeit, 120; S. Roth, Königsmütter, 2001, 59ff.
For Beith Khallaf Mastabas cf. J. Garstang, Mahasna and Bet Khallaf, 1903, 8ff.; R. Weill, La IIe et la IIIe dynasties, 1908, 363ff., Vandier, Manuel I, 1952, 867ff.; also note that J. Kahl -to whom I am grateful for having presented me this paper- has recently published two important fragments of reliefs of divinities from K1 Garstang's excavations: Zwei änigmatische Relieffragmente aus Beit Khallaf, in: A.I. Blöbaum, J. Kahl, S.D. Schweitzer (eds.), Kulturwissenschaftliche Studien zu Ägypten... FS E. Graefe, 2003, 149-166. Kahl (op. cit., 149) follows Kaplony (IAF I, 167f.) in the attribution of the Beit Khallaf tomb K1 to an important local administrator of Khasekhemwy and Djoser's reigns, rather than to queen Njmaathapy.
[9]
For 'Djéser et ses femmes' cf. M. Baud, Djéser et lla IIIe dynastie, 2002, 83-88. For the stele/markers cf. Quibell-Green, Step Pyramid, 1935, pl. 87; J.P. Lauer, La Pyramide à degrés, 1936, 187-190; M. Ali, in: MDAIK 54, 1998, 224ff.
In the second part of the Third Dynasty also non-royal women start to emerge from finds as the statues of Neset and the twin mastaba 3073 at Saqqara, burial of Khabausokar and his wife Hathor-Neferhotep [A. Mariette, Les Mastabas, 1889, 71-9; M. Murray, Saqqara Mastabas I, 1905, pl. I-II; R. Weill, IIe et IIIe dynastie, 1908, 242-255; N. Cherpion, Or. Lov. Per. 11, 1980, 79-90; id., in: C. Ziegler (ed.), L'art égyptien..., 1999, 83-86; W. Helck, Untersuchungen zur Thinitenzeit, 1987, 261-265; Kahl et al., Die Inschriften der 3. Dynastie, 1995, 186-197; M. Baud, op. cit., 231-232; PM III.2, 449-450].
[10] Cf. Lauer, op. cit., 1936,
[11] Z. Goneim, Horus Sekhemkhet, 1957 (also see below, at the end of part B).
[12] Cf. below part B. On the Cairo fragment (recto) the names of the mother-queens of Djer and Semerkhet (above line 2 and 3 respectively) and on the Palermo Stone (rc) those of Den and Snofru (above line 3 and 6 respectively).

 

B. Attestations of other queens and princesses of Egyptian Dynasties 0-3

DYNASTY 0
Evidence for royal women in the Predynastic is inconsistent, for only in the very late Dynasty 0 (Naqada IIIB-early C1) the royal titles start to recur in a partly canonized way. So the development of queen titles can have occurred in the reigns of Irj-Hor/Ka/Narmer, but only during Aha's own one they are reported in written sources.
It could be hypothesised that the sitting women in the Scorpion's macehead second register (on the left, above the dancers) could be queens, as does the woman sitting in a sedan chair facing Narmer on his macehead relief representation. These seem to parallel the ceremony of Djer's label above [Mace-Heads].
It has been proposed that, on Narmer palette/macehead, the person designate by the hieroglyphs Tjet would be a female royal individual, Narmer's queen or mother. But this is in my opinion unlikely, for the personage is distinctly a man, despite his hair style.......

 

DYNASTY 1
There are some stelae from the royal tombs' satellite burials where the titles MAA-Hrw and wrt-Hts (or Hrw-Hts) appear (see Petrie, Royal Tombs II, 1901, pl. 27; P. Kaplony, IAF I, 357ff., 372ff.; L. Troy, 1986, 152; PM III:2, 441; Helck, Thinitenzeit, 119ff.).
- pl. 27, nr. 26 the name should be ketj-Ka or rather Seshemet-Ka (sSmt-Ka) (Djer, tomb O), Maa-Hrw, a-Seth, Hrw/Wr-Hts. (Kaplony, op. cit., 638)
- pl. 27, nr. 95, Nakht-Neith (Djer), titles: a-Hrw, Hr/Wr Hts (Kaplony, op. cit., 552)
- pl. 27, nr. 129, Semat (Den),titles: Maa Hrw, a-Seth ('-Setesh) (Kaplony, op. cit., 612)
- pl. 27, nr. 128, Uncertain reading of her name, Hpj-Hor Khastj-Skr (??), (Den), titles: Maa-Hrw, '-Seth (Kaplony, op. cit., ).

At Saqqara in the tomb S3506 (Emery, Great Tombs II, 1954, pl. 83, n. 13-14) two ink inscriptions on stone vessels reads Maa-Hrw Ankh-n-? (but Kaplony, IAF I, 1963, 531, reads the title as Wr-Maa, for the bird precedes the sickle; this is possible also because the bird has an evident forked/ V-shaped tail). In tomb S3507 (Emery, ibid., 108) the princess with title smajt-nbwy should be Her-Neith (for whom see Kaplony, IAF I, 579-580).

Djer label from Saqqara tomb 3035Saqqara tomb 3035 (Hemaka, reign of Den) yielded a label of the reign of Djer with (in the second register) a wrt Hts sitting on a mat/seat; she's followed by a Maa-Hrw, equally unnamed/or with unpreserved name (Kaplony reads the three small signs above the forehead of the second sitting woman as the hieroglyph with three fishes attached to a vertical bar*, cf. IAF I, 613-614; in his opinion the name of the queen on the left is Nbtj-P -also a goddess name- IAF II, n. 1841; also cf. Helck, Thinitenzeit, 199ff.; *for this hieroglyph cf. Emery, GT III, 1958, pl. 105a, 107.3 from Saqqara 3507).

Royal Annals, Cairo 1 fragment:
above line 2
(in Djer titulary): Khentj-Hapy (xnt-Hp) [P. Kaplony, IAF I, 1963, 605; L. Troy, 1986, 152]
above line 3
(in Semerkhet titulary): Batireset (Batj-resyt or Bat-jrj.st) [b-BA-t j-(or tj ?) r-s-t] (cf. Kaplony, IAF I, 473-474)

Royal Annals, Palermo stone:
above line 3
(in Den titulary): ...rt (probably the end of the name Neith-Mer-r.t = Merneith)

An unnamed Sat-Nswt and a Sat-Nswt Neith-Hotep are incised in the inner side of a vase and a cup from Djoser's complex galleries (nr. 111,112).
See Lacau-Lauer, La Pyramide à Degrés IV, vol. 2, 1961, 55; eod., IV,1, ink plate VI, 11 (nr. 111) and plate 21, (112).
This Neith-Hotep's name has a different ortography than the early 1st Dyn. queen's one. The symbol of Neith is only made with two crossed arrows and both them and the hotep sign are followed by the feminine t. The queen in object might therefore be a later 1st Dyn. or 2nd Dynasty homonym of the more famous Aha's mother who was probably buried in the great mastaba tomb of Naqada (also see Kaplony, IAF I, 590).

Merneith (NOTE: page to be updated): Horus Djer's daughter, Horus Den's mother (cf. Kaplony, IAF I, 494-496; id., KBIAF, 1966, 83ff., pl. 20ff.).
Petrie's Bener-jb (Smayt nebwy, also related to Hor Aha), is now generally named Ima-ib (Kaplony IAF I, 417-419 for all the attestations of her name).

 

DYNASTY 2
- Apart from Nj-Maat-Hapy (for whom cf. note 8 above) there are 2 sAt-nswt on "Ceiling stelae" from Helwan (Z. Saad, 1959) and 2 on Saqqara stelae.
SAQQARA:
- Shepset-jpet (W.S. Smith, Art and Architecture, 1958, pl. 14; Kaplony, IAF I, 233 nr. 35, 646-647; id., KBIAF, 104; PM III:2, 444; L. Troy, 152) from tomb S3477 (the tomb with the funerary repast, excavated by Emery in 1938-9 and published later in 1962; CdE 27, 1939, 264f.; also cf. Emery, Archaic Egypt, 1961, pl. 32a).
- Sehefener (Quibell, Archaic Mastabas, 1923, pl.26-27; Kaplony, IAF I, 232 nr. 27, 618-619) from tomb S2146E.
HELWAN:
- Khnemet-Ptah (Saad 1957, 5, pl. 2; Kaplony, IAF I, 230 nr. 1, 605-606; L. Troy, 152) from Helwan tomb 175H8
- Sat-Khenem or Sat-Ba (Saad 1957, 41f., pl. 24; Kaplony, IAF I, 231 nr. 20, 610; L. Troy, 152) from Helwan tomb 1241H9.

On Cairo fragment TL 20/1/21/7 W.S. Smith, A History..., 1949, pl. 30d (perhaps to be associated with the Gebelein fragment in Turin Museum, 12341) we read a partially preserved Maa-Hrw named Men-Ka, thus probably another queen (cf. Helck, Thinitenzeit, 120, n. 7). In the relief the queen (?) is portrayed carrying a stone vase on her head and preceeding an Wpwawt standard, involved in a temple foundation ceremony.

 

DYNASTY 3
Netjerykhet/Djoser's daughters:
- Njankh-Hathor
(?) [A.M. Roth, JARCE 30, 1993, 54; M. Baud, Djeser et la IIIe Dynastie, 200285ff.; id., Famille royale, 1999, 475].

Boundary stela of Netjerykhet/Djoser- Intkaes (sAt nswt) (see P. Kaplony, IAF I, 423-424; M.Baud, Famille royale... 1999, 415-416)
- Netjerykhet's wife Hotep-her-Nebty (MAA-Hrw, sAt-Nsw), [Kaplony, loc.cit.; Baud, op. cit., 525] appears -along with princess Intkaes- on Djoser's complex boundary marks/stelae (Firth-Quibell, Step Pyramid, 1935, 119, pl. 86, 87; see M.I. Aly, in: MDAIK 54, 1998, 219ff. for a new found block) and, with a thrid woman, cf. above, on a limestone fragment from a temple in Heliopolis (Turin Museum, fig. 48). For the Heliopolis fragments cf. W.S. Smith, A History of Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom, 1949, fig. 48ff.; R. Weill, Sphinx 15, 1912, 9ff.; V. Cortese, in: Tiradritti, Donadoni Roveri (eds.), Kemet. Alle sorgenti del Tempo, 1998, 260-261.

- Princess Redjit/Redit (Turin statue inv. 3065, who's a "sAt nswt n Xt.f") of the 3rd Dynasty.
(Cf. Scamuzzi, Museo Egizio di Torino, 1963, pl. 9.10; Helck, Thinitenzeit, 1987, 121; M. Borla, in: Tiradritti, Donadoni Roveri, op. cit., 259).

Elephantine jar inscriptions - The name of a wrt-Hts Djefa-Nebty, has been found on annalistic ink inscriptions on beer jars from Elephantine; Dreyer has postulated that the inscription in object dated to the 22nd year of the reign of Huni, the last king of the Third Dynasty (G. Dreyer, Drei archaisch-hieratische Gefassaufschriften mit Jahresnamen aus Elephantine, in: Festschrift Fecht,1987, 98-109).
M. Baud has instead (correctly) shown that the inscriptions are not dated by any cattle count as Dreyer assumed (cattle counts were used in the Second, Fourth and later Dynasties) but by events (as it occurred only in the First and Third Dynasty, cf. Baud, Archéo-Nil 9, 1999; M. Baud, Djéser et la IIIe dynastie, 2002, 56-59, fig. 12; Kahl, Kloth, Zimmermann, Die Inschriften der 3. Dynastie, 1995, 168-171).

Sekhemkhet textile-list label- Other possible royal women (but they are not attested carrying the relative titles):
Sekhemkhet's queen (?) Djoserty (-Ankh?) named on a linen label from the Saqqara unfinished complex of the follower of Netjerykhet. This was interpreted by Z. Goneim as Sekhemkhet's nebty name (=Djoserteti of NK lists).
See Kaplony, IAF I, 538-540 (s.v. Nebtj-djesertj-'ankhtj).


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Main Bibliography (specifical references are quoted in the notes)

B. Grdseloff, ASAE 42, 1943, 107ff. (p. 112 for the wr-Hts title)

P. Kaplony, Die Inschriften der Ägyptischen Frühzeit I-III, 1963 (esp. the Private names' list p. 399-672; for Mwt-Msw-Nswt p. 527, and n. 1794)

P. Kaplony, Klein Beiträge zu den Inschriften der Ägyptischen Frühzeit, 1966.

B. Schmitz, Untersuchungen zum Titel SA-Njswt "Königssohn", 1976 (esp. p. 3-11).

L.K. Sabbahy, The Development of the titulary of the Ancient Egyptian Queen from Dynasty One to Early Dynasty Eighteen, Ph.D. Thesis University of Toronto, 1982 (435pages), p. 16-41

L. Troy, Patterns of Queenship in ancient Egyptian Myth and History, 1986 (esp. p. 152-3).

W. Helck, Untersuchungen zur Thinitenzeit, 1987 (esp. p. 119-121, 'Zu den Titeln der Frauen der thinitischen Könige').

G. Robins, Women in Ancient Eygypt, 1993.

B. Fay, Royal women as represented in sculpture during the Old Kingdom, in: N. Grimal (ed.) Les criteres de datation stilistiques..., 1998, 159-186.

M. Baud, Famille Royale et pouvoir sous l'Ancien Empire egyptien (BdE 126), 1999 (2 volumes).

S. Roth, Die Königsmütter des Alten Ägypten von der Frühzeit bis zum Ende der 12. Dynastie, 2001.

P. Kaplony, "Er ist ein Liebling der Frauen". Ein "neuer" König und eine neue Theorie zu den Kronprinzen sowie zu den Staatsgöttinnen (Kronengöttinnen) der 1./2. Dynastie, Ägypten und Levante 13, 2004, 107-126.


MORE BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Entries from the Lexikon:
LÄ III, 464-468 (W. Seipel, 'Königin'), 473-475 (id., 'Königinnentitel'), 538-540 (id., 'Königsmutter'), 659-661 (B. Schmitz, 'Königstochter'). Also cf. LÄ II, 280-295 (A. Théodoridès, 'Frau').

For a general overview cf. the Dossier in Toutankhamon Magazine nr. 6 (Dec 2002/Jan 2003) p. 31-35 (R. Cepko), p. 36-40 (M. Perraud).

Internet Links:
WOMEN: http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptianwomen.html
More bibliography on Women in Egypt at: www.kv5.de

Francesco Raffaele (April 28-29; May 28-29, June 9, 2004)
LATE PREDYNASTIC AND EARLY DYNASTIC EGYPT
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/francescoraf/