Meryhathor or Meryt-Hathor,

Jean Vercoutter Jean Vercoutter (20 January 1911 – 16 July 2000) was a French Egyptologist. One of the pioneers of archaeological research into Sudan from 1953, he was Director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale from 1977 to 1981. Biography ...

, ''L'Egypte jusq'à la fin du Nouvel Empire'', in

Pierre Lévêque Pierre Lévêque (; 11 August 1921, in Chambéry – 5 March 2004, in Paris) was a 20th-century French historian of ancient and Hellenistic Greece. Biography Training The son of an engineer, he spent his youth in the port of Bordeaux. Readi ...

, ''Le premieres civilisations'', Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1987, p. 143. was a

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

of the 10th Dynasty of Egypt, during the First Intermediate Period.

Identification

Regarded as the founder of the dynasty, Meryhathor should have begun his reign in c. 2130 BCE. His name is not mentioned in the

Turin King List The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list a ...

but Djehutynakht II, a

nomarch A nomarch ( grc, νομάρχης, egy, ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsib ...

of the

Hare nome The Hare nome, also called the Hermopolite nome ( Egyptian: ''Wenet'') was one of the 42 '' nomoi'' (administrative divisions) in ancient Egypt; more precisely, it was the 15th nome of Upper Egypt. Wolfram Grajetzki, ''The Middle Kingdom of ancie ...

residing in

Hermopolis Hermopolis ( grc, Ἑρμούπολις ''Hermoúpolis'' "the City of Hermes", also ''Hermopolis Magna'', ''Hermoû pólis megálẽ'', egy, ḫmnw , Egyptological pronunciation: "Khemenu"; cop, Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ ''Shmun''; ar, الأشموني ...

, ordered an ink graffito mentioning Meryhathor in the

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...

quarries at

Hatnub Hatnub was the location of Egyptian alabaster quarries and an associated seasonally occupied workers' settlement in the Eastern Desert, about from el-Minya, southeast of el-Amarna. The pottery, hieroglyph inscriptions and hieratic graffiti at ...

: this is so far the only attestation of this king. There is a dispute regarding his name: since the "

Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sk ...

" sign (C9 in

Gardiner's sign list Gardiner's Sign List is a list of common Egyptian hieroglyphs compiled by Sir Alan Gardiner. It is considered a standard reference in the study of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Gardiner lists only the common forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but h ...

) is partially damaged, some authors such as Edward BrovarskiRoyal Titulary of Mery... on Eglyphica.net
(search in the Tenth Dynasty) believe that the real name of this pharaoh could be ''Meryibre'' ("Beloved of the heart of Ra") which is somewhat closer to the Memphite tradition. Furthermore, some

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

s who support the alternative reading also combine this king with his successor Neferkare VIII; thus, it is not uncommon to find a pharaoh ''Neferkare-Meryibre'' as the founder of the 10th Dynasty.

Nicolas Grimal Nicolas-Christophe Grimal (born 13 November 1948 in Libourne) is a French Egyptologist. Biography Nicolas Grimal was born to Pierre Grimal in 1948. After his Agrégation in Classics in 1971, he obtained a PhD in 1976 and a Doctorat d'État in 1 ...

, ''A History of Ancient Egypt'', Oxford, Blackwell Books, 1992, p. 141.

References

22nd-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Tenth Dynasty of Egypt {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub