Shanakdakhete, also spelled Shanakdakheto or Sanakadakhete, was a

queen regnant A queen regnant (: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank, title and position to a king. She reigns ''suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known as a kingdom; as opposed to a queen consort, who is married to a reigning ...

of the

Kingdom of Kush The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian language, Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Akkadian language, Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX Χους or Αἰθιοπία; ''Ecōš''; ''Kūš''), also known as the Kushite Empire, or simply Kush, was an an ...

, ruling from

Meroë Meroë (; also spelled ''Meroe''; Meroitic: ; and ; ) was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site is ...

in the early first century AD. Shanakdakhete is poorly attested, though is known to have constructed a temple in

Naqa Naqa or Naga'a () is a ruined ancient city of the Kushite Kingdom of Meroë in modern-day Sudan. The ancient city lies about north-east of Khartoum, and about east of the Nile River located at approximately MGRS 36QWC290629877. Here smaller wa ...

. Shanakdakhete was previously believed to have been the first Kushite queen regnant due to an erroneous dating of her inscriptions. This role is now instead attributed to

Nahirqo Nahirqo is the name attributed to a Kushite queen regnant buried in pyramid Beg N. 11 in Meroë. Nahirqo is the earliest known woman to have ruled the Kingdom of Kush, reigning in the middle second century BC. Prior to her own reign, Nahirqo is bel ...

Sources

Shanakdakhete is known only from hieroglyphic inscriptions at Temple F in

. The inscriptions are accompanied by reliefs depicting the

queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

, though these are badly damaged. Shanakdakhete was responsible for building Temple F, replacing an earlier structure in the same place. Shanakdakhete is in the inscriptions titled as ''Son of Ra, Lord of the

Two Lands In Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the unification of the realm. The conception of Egypt as the Two Lands was an example of the duali ...

, Shanakdakheto''.

Chronology

In older scholarship, Shanakdakhete's inscriptions were considered to be the earliest examples of the

Meroitic script The Meroitic script consists of two alphasyllabic scripts developed to write the Meroitic language at the beginning of the Meroitic Period (3rd century BC) of the Kingdom of Kush. The two scripts are Meroitic Cursive, derived from Demotic Egy ...

. She was based on this traditionally dated to the late second century BC. This interpretation made Shanakdakhete the earliest recorded Kushite queen regnant, which in turn led scholars to attribute the pyramid Beg. N 11 to her. This pyramid dates to the second century BC and does not preserve the name of the buried ruler, though depicts a queen regnant in its reliefs. A double statue depicting a female ruler together with a non-ruling prince was also attributed to Shanakdakhete. Shanakdakhete's inscriptions were re-assessed by the Egyptologist

Claude Rilly Claude Rilly (born November 4, 1959) is a French linguist, Egyptologist, and archaeologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research who primarily specializes in Meroitic and Nilo-Saharan languages. He is professor at the École prati ...

in 2004, who concluded that the text's

paleography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

instead placed her much later, either around the turn of the century between the first century BC and the first century AD, or in the first half of the first century AD. Per Rilly (2004 & 2007) and Josefine Kuckertz (2021) both pyramid Beg. N 11 and the double statue previously associated with Shanakdakhete are "both now attributed with good reasons" to the queen regnant

, dated to the second century BC. The re-attribution has been accepted by numerous other scholars, such as Janice Yellin (2020) and Francis Breyer (2022). Similar spellings of hieroglyphic signs suggest that Shanakdakhete ruled close to the time of another queen regnant,

Amanishakheto Amanishakheto was a queen regnant (kandake) of Kush who reigned in the early 1st century AD. In Meroitic hieroglyphs her name is written "Amanikasheto" (''Mniskhte'' or ''(Am)niskhete''). In Meroitic cursive she is referred to as ''Amaniskheto qor ...

. Kuckertz (2021) placed Shanakdakhete as Amanishakheto's successor, ruling in the first half of the first century AD. Janice Yellin (2014) and Kuckertz also speculatively attributed the large pyramid Beg. N 21 to Shanakdakhete.

References

{{Kushite Monarchs footer, state=collapsed 1st-century monarchs of Kush Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 1st-century monarchs in Africa Queens of Kush

Sources

Chronology

See also

References