Ahmose-Nefertari of Ancient Egypt was the royal sister and the great royal wife of pharaoh, Ahmose I. Upon the death of Ahmose I, their heir, Kamose, became pharaoh, but was killed in war. Ahmose-Nefertari then became the regent for another son and ruled until he could attain the age to ascend the throne as Amenhotep I. During her regency she was recognized as a formidable warrior, and at her burial she was given special honors for her accomplishments in war. After her death, she was worshiped as a deity in the funerary cult of Thebes.
Her name appears on many monuments, from Saï to Tura. She is known still to have been alive during the first year of the reign of her grandson, Thutmose I. Thus, she apparently outlived her son, Amenhotep I, who reigned over Egypt for nearly twenty-one years after her regency.
She held many titles, among them, she held the office of Second Prophet of Amun, but renounced it sometime during the eighteenth or twenty-second year of the reign of her husband, Ahmose I. At that time, she became the first living, royal woman known to be entitled, God's Wife of Amun. Her mother, Ahhotep I, royal wife of Seqenenre Tao II and the mother of Ahmose I as well, had held the title of God’s Wife of Amun first; but the title only has been found on her coffin however, and therefore, some Egyptologists assert that she may not have held the office and exercised its duties. In that case, those scholars speculate that the title may have been given to Ahhotep posthumously.
The office of God's Wife of Amun had existed in earlier dynasties, but previously, the holder of the title was not a woman of the royal line as the cult was not the dominant one in the changing religious traditions of the culture. Once the cult became dominant, and the temple in which the pharaoh officiated, it became a hereditary title and role for the royal women who served as the highest ranking priestess in the administration of the most powerful temple of the country, passing from one generation to another. The holder of this office, be it wife or daughter, was a close adviser who participated in daily contact with the pharaoh during ceremonies and rites.
Religion and government were interwoven inexorably in Ancient Egypt. For that reason, some scholars describe the administration of the temple of Amun as the virtual rulers of the country while Thebes was the capital of Egypt. Later in this same dynasty, one pharaoh, Akhenaten, moved the capital to another city to escape their influence, adopting the primary solar deity worshiped at the new capital instead of Amun, and establishing his own administrators and policies, but as soon as he died, the priests of Amun regained their control of the government, the location of the capital, and the dominance of their deity.
Founders of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
Some Egyptologists assert that Ahhotep I was the founder of the eighteenth dynasty, establishing a matrilineal succession that would extend through the dynasty and end only with Nefertiti, because, after the death of her husband, Seqenenre Tao II, she enabled two of her sons, Kamose and Ahmose I, to become pharaohs and to unite Egypt following the Hyksos occupation and that, furthermore, between their reigns she ruled the country as regent, maintaining the effort to drive out these foreigners and to restore the native dynasties.
Her husband had initiated the overthrow of the Hyksos and may have died in battle. Her son, Kamose, made battle with them and died in the war as well. She then became regent and a warrior queen, continuing the battle. When her son, Ahmose I, came of age and ruled as pharaoh, he finally drove the Hyksos out of Egypt.
This second son of hers, Ahmose I, became the first king of the eighteenth dynasty, a pharaoh ruling over the reunited country. His wife, Ahmose-Nefertari, had the following royal children, Amenhotep I, Mutnofret, and Ahmose-Meritamon, two of whom would become the next king and queen of Egypt.
The villagers of
References
- ^ Tyldesley, Joyce (1996). "Hatchespsut: The Female Pharaoh", p62, Viking, ISBN 0-670-85976-1.
Source
| Ahmose-Nefertari in hieroglyphs | |||||||||||||
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- "Family Tree of Ahmose Nefertari"
- "Queen Ahmose Nefertari"
- "Women in ancient Egypt"
- "The Glory and Power"
- "Women in Power BCE 4500-1000"
- "Royal Women"
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