Ankhesenpepi II or Ankhesenmeryre II () was a queen consort during the

Sixth Dynasty of Egypt The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third Dynasty of Egypt, Third, Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egyp ...

. She was the wife of Kings

Pepi I Pepi I Meryre (also Pepy I; died 2283 BC) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, king, third king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled for over 40 years from the 24th to the 23rd century BC, toward the end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Ki ...

and Nemtyemsaf I, and the mother of

Pepi II Pepi II Neferkare ( 2284 BC – 2214 BC) was a pharaoh, king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, Sixth Dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom. His second name, Neferkare (''Nefer-ka-Re''), means "Beautiful is the Ka (Egyptian soul), Ka of Re (Egyptian religi ...

. She likely served as regent during the minority of her son. She was buried in a pyramid in

Saqqara Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...

Biography

Ankhesenpepi II was the daughter of Khui and the female

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

Nebet Nebet (“Lady”; ) was created Vizier (Ancient Egypt), vizier during the late Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, Egypt by Pharaoh, King Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, Sixth Dynasty, who was her son-in-law (and possibly also her nephew). She ...

. Her sister

Ankhesenpepi I Ankhesenpepi I (also Ankhenespepi I or Ankhenesmeryre I; ) was a queen consort during the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. Biography Ankhesenpepi was a daughter of the female vizier Nebet and her husband Khui, nomarch of Abydos. Ankhesenpepi's sister w ...

was also married to

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and her brother

Djau Djau () was a vizier of Upper Egypt during the Sixth Dynasty. He was a member of an influential family from Abydos; his mother was the vizier Nebet, and his father was Khui. His two sisters Ankhesenpepi I and Ankhesenpepi II married King Pepi ...

served as

.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2004, , pp.71-74 Both Ankhesenpepi II and her sister

were married to King

whose throne name was ''Meryre''; their name was taken when the marriage took place, since it means "Her life belongs to Pepi/Meryre". Both queens gave birth to the kings: the son of Ankhesenpepi I was Nemtyemsaf I, who ruled only for a few years; the son of Ankhesenpepi II was

, who succeeded after Nemtyemsaf's death. Pepi II was a young boy when he succeeded to the throne. There are indications that Ankhesenpepi II served as a regent for her son in those early years of his reign. A statue which shows her with her son on her lap (now in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

) shows the queen much larger in size than her son. Some have interpreted this statue as Ankhesenpepi II and her son Pepi II assuming the roles of the goddess

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

and her son

Horus Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...

She is also mentioned together with her sister on their brother's stela in Abydos, at her pyramid and in that of her daughter-in-law

Neith Neith (, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form , also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an ancient Egyptian deity, possibly of Ancient Libya, Libyan origin. She was connected with warfare, as indicated by her emblem of two crossed b ...

. She further appears in a decree in Abydos. She is depicted in the Sinai, where she is shown equal in size to her son.

Royal titles of Ankhesenpepi II

Her titles as queen were: ''Great one of the hetes-sceptre'' (wrt-hetes), ''She who sees Horus and Seth'' (m33t-hrw-stsh), ''Great of Praises'' (wrt-hzwt), ''King's Wife of Mennefer-Meryre'' (hmt-niswt-mn-nfr-mry-r`), ''King's Wife, his beloved'' (hmt-nisw meryt.f), ''God's Daughter'' (s3t-ntr), ''This Daughter of a God'' (s3t-ntr-wt), ''Attendant of the Great One'' (khtt-wr), ''Companion of Horus'' (tist-hrw), ''Companion of Horus'' (smrt-hrw). However, it is now known that she was also the chief queen of Merenre after the death of Pepi I, her first husband. In 1999 and 2000, excavation work at her Saqqara funerary temple uncovered several stone blocks inscribed with a previously unknown royal title for her: :" heKing's Wife of the Pyramid of Pepy I, King's Wife of the Pyramid of Merenre, King's Mother of the Pyramid of Pepy II." Since the temple was constructed under Pepi II because it makes a reference to king Pepi II, this shows that Merenre married Queen Ankhesenpepi II after Pepi I died. Merenre was Ankhesenpepi II's nephew. As the

South Saqqara Stone The South Saqqara Stone is the lid of the sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptian queen Ankhesenpepi I, which was inscribed with a list for the reigns of the pharaohs of the 6th Dynasty from Teti, Userkare, Pepi I, Merenre to the early years of Pepi ...

document, an annal document created under Pepi II, shows that no period of coregency existed under Pepi I and Merenre, this suggests that Merenre and Ankhesenpepi II were rather the parents of Pepi II (rather than Pepi I) particularly since this document also assigns Merenre an independent reign of about a decade to Merenre. After her son Pepi came to the throne, Ankhesenpepi added the titles ''Mother of the Dual King Men-ankh-Neferkare'' (mwt-niswt-biti-mn-kh`-nfr-k3-r`), ''King's Mother of Men-ankh-Neferkare'' (mwt-niswt- mn-kh`-nfr-k3-r`), and ''King's Mother'' (mwt-niswt).Grajetzki, Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Golden House Publications, London, 2005,

Death and burial

Ankhesenpepi II's pyramid in

was found and excavated in 1998. The finds show that Ankhesenpepi's pyramid contained the first known examples of the pyramid texts in a Queen's pyramid. The texts in the burial chamber refer to her as a queen mother, hence the construction of her pyramid dates to the reign of her son. Inside the burial chamber were human remains which could be those of the queen. The burial was disturbed and the mummy found in and near the sarcophagus was incomplete. The bones belong to a middle aged woman. Next her pyramid were also found the remains of an obelisk. It is one of the largest of the Old Kingdom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ankhesenpepi 02 Queens consort of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient women regents 24th-century BC women 23rd-century BC women Pepi I Meryre Regents of Egypt Remarried queens consort Female regents in Africa 3rd-millennium BC births 3rd-millennium BC deaths African queen mothers