Mutnofret ("
Mut
Mut (; also transliterated as Maut and Mout) was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient Egyptian language. Mut had many different aspects and attributes that changed and evolved greatly over th ...
is Beautiful"), also rendered as Mutneferet or Mutnefert, was a queen during the
Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...
. She was a secondary wife of
Thutmose I
Thutmose I (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis I, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; meaning "Thoth is born") was the third pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty of History of Ancient Egypt, Egypt. He re ...
and the mother of his successor
Thutmose II; Thutmose I's chief wife, however, was his sister
Queen Ahmose, the mother of
Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut ( ; BC) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from until (Low Chronology) and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second c ...
.
Based on her title of ''King's Daughter'', she is likely to have been a daughter of
Ahmose I
Ahmose I (''Amosis'', ''Aahmes''; meaning "Iah (the Moon) is born") was a pharaoh and founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt in the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. His reign is usually d ...
and a sister of
Amenhotep I, who married the latter's successor Thutmose I. It is possible that she was also the mother of Thutmose I's other sons,
Amenmose and
Wadjmose. The connection of Thutmose I and Thutmose II to the earlier kings Ahmose and Amenhotep I (and also the mother of Wadjmose and Amenmose) was conjectured to have been Queen Ahmose in older and sometimes even current literature. However, the absence of the title ''King's Daughter'' among the titles of Queen Ahmose has been considered decisive in indicating she was not the daughter of an earlier king, and owed her primacy to being the sister (as indicated by her title ''King's Sister'') of the new king Thutmose I, himself the son of non-reigning parents: his mother
Senisonbe is titled only ''King's Mother''. The admittedly rare attestation of the title ''King's Daughter'' for Mutnofret suggests it was she, not Queen Ahmose, who connected their husband Thutmose I to his immediate predecessors.
Mutnofret was depicted in the
Deir el-Bahri
Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri (, , ) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of the Theban Necropolis.
History
Deir el-Bahari, located on the west ...
temple built by her grandson
Thutmose III
Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, (1479–1425 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He is regarded as one of the greatest warriors, military commanders, and milita ...
; on a
stela
A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...
found at the
Ramesseum
The Ramesseum is the Temples of a Million years, memorial temple (or mortuary temple) of Pharaoh Ramesses II ("Ramesses the Great", also spelled "Ramses" and "Rameses"). It is located in the Theban Necropolis in Upper Egypt, on the west of the Ni ...
; on the colossus of her son; and a statue of her bearing a dedication by Thutmose II was found in Wadjmose's chapel. This suggests that Mutnofret was still alive during her son's reign.
[Shaw 2000: 231, 236.]
References
Bibliography
* Dodson, Aidan, and Dyan Hilton, ''The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt'', Thames & Hudson, 2004.
* Gauthier, Henri, ''Livre des rois d'Égypte'', vol. 2, Cairo 1912.
* Robins, Gay, Review of Michel Gitton, ''Les Divines Épouses de la 18e dynastie'', Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 73 (1987) 272-276.
* Roehring, Catherine, et al. (eds.), ''Hatshepsut: from Queen to Pharaoh'', New York, 2005.
* Shaw, Ian (ed.), ''The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt'', Oxford, 2000.
* Tyldesley, Joyce, ''Hatshepsur: The Female Pharaoh'', Penguin Books, 1998.
External links
Hatshepsut: from Queen to Pharaoh an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Mutnofret (see index)
{{Queens of Ancient Egypt
Queens consort of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
16th-century BC Egyptian women
15th-century BC Egyptian women
Thutmose I
Children of Ahmose I