Maathorneferure

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Maathorneferure
Queen consort of Egypt
Great Royal Wife, Mistress of the Two Lands
Maathorneferure at Tanis
BornHatti
Diedunknown
Burial
unknown
SpousePharaoh Ramesses II
Egyptian name
raD4U2tG5nfrnfrnfr
Dynasty19th of Egypt
FatherKing Hattusili III
MotherQueen Puduhepa
ReligionAncient Egyptian religion

Maathorneferure (Hieroglyphic: Mȝʿt-Ḥr-nfrw-Rʿ, Maʿat-ḥōr-nefrurēʿ)[1] was an ancient Egyptian queen, the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II.[2]

Family[edit]

Maathorneferure was a daughter of the Hittite king Hattusili III and his wife, Queen Puduhepa.[3] [4][5] She was the sister of the crown prince Nerikkaili of Hatti and the sister of the later Hittite king Tudhaliya IV.[6] The Egyptian sources claim that Maathornefrure was the eldest daughter of her parents, specifically identified as the king and queen of the Hittites.[7]

Maathorneferure was married to the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 34th year of his reign, becoming the King's Great Wife.[8] [9][10] Ramesses II's mother and first two chief queens had died before Year 34, which carried the potential that Maathornefrure would become the chief queen [11]; nevertheless, she shared the title with several of Ramesses II's daughters.[12]

The Hittite princess' original name is not known with certainty, although Elmar Edel has suggested identifying her with the Šauškanu (name partly restored) mentioned in a letter from Hattusili III to Ramesses II.[13] After arriving in Egypt and marrying Ramesses II, she was renamed Maʿat-ḥōr-nefrurēʿ ("One who sees Horus, the splendor of Ra") or Maʿat-nefrurēʿ ("One who sees the splendor of Ra"),[14] depending on whether the falcon sign in the name is read out. Alternatively, it is possible that maʿat-ḥōr was a queenly title or epithet ("One who sees Horus"), and the new Egyptian name of the princess was simply Nefrurēʿ ("the Splendor of Ra").[15]

Life[edit]

Piece of papyrus bearing the name of Maathorneferura, the Hittite princesess daughter of the great ruler of Khatti who married Ramesses II. From Gurob, Fayum, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Maathorneferure and Hattusili III before Ramesses II

Egypt and the Hittite empire had been increasingly at odds since the demise of the kingdom of the Mitanni, and Maathorneferure's marriage to the Egyptian king was the conclusion of the peace process which had begun with the signing of a peace treaty thirteen years earlier.[16]

On the Marriage Stela it is claimed that "The daughter of the great chief of Kheta marched in [front] of the army [...]" [17]

The Hittite princess left Hattusa, the Hittite capital, in late 1246 BCE, accompanied by her mother and a huge contingent laden with gold, silver, bronze, cattle and sheep, and slaves.[4] At the Egyptian frontier, a message was despatched to the Pharaoh: 'They have traversed sheer mountains and treacherous passes to reach Your Majesty's border.' Ramesses sent a welcoming party to escort the princess through Canaan and into Egypt. She arrived in February 1245 BCE at Pi-Ramesse.[18]

For Ramesses, the marriage was valuable more for the large dowry he acquired rather than his new bride, who was despatched to his harem palace at Mer-wer (today's Gurob).[19] According to another account, however, Maathorneferure is said to have given Ramesses a baby (a girl called Neferure, according to the Abydos procession) and died shortly thereafter.[20]

Maathorneferure is mentioned on a papyrus found at Gurob. The partial text on the papyrus states: [...] small bag, the king's wife Maathorneferure (may she live) (the daughter of) the great ruler of Khatti, [...] Dayt garment of 28 cubits, 4 palms, breadth 4 cubits, [bag?] of 14 cubits, 2 palms, breath 4 cubits - 2 items [...] palms, breath 4 cubits.[19]

At Tanis, there is a broken statue of Ramesses that shows her (mostly destroyed) figure touching his leg, together with her cartouche.

During the latter half of the first millennium BCE Maathorneferure's marriage to the pharaoh gave rise to the tale inscribed on the Bentresh stela in which the sister of a foreign queen is healed by a divine statue sent from Egypt.[21][22]

Alternative spellings[edit]

Due to the vagaries of transcribing hieroglyphic names and realizing their approximate and conventional vocalization, there are several different orthographies of the queen's name, including:

(with the falcon sign)

  • Maʿat-ḥōr-nefrurēʿ, simplified to Maathornefrure [23]
  • Maâthorneferourê [24]
  • Maat-Hor-Néférourê [25]
  • Maat-Hor-neferure [26]
  • Maḥornefrurēʿ[27]
  • Maahornefrure [28]

(omitting the falcon sign)

  • Maʿat-nefrurēʿ, simplified to Maatnefrure
  • Maat-nefrurê [29]
  • Matnefrure [30]
  • Manefrureʿ [31]
  • (erroneous identification) Naptera[32], actually the Hittite rendition of the name of Nefertari, the first King's Great wife of Ramesses II.[33]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Breasted 1906: 184.
  2. ^ Dodson, Aidan; Hilton, Dyan (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-5000-51283.
  3. ^ Freu 2008: 232; Bryce 2005: 282-283. Selection of translated primary sources in Beckman 1996: 126-131.
  4. ^ a b Shalaby, Mostafa (2019-01-01). "The holders of the title i my -r ssmt (Overseer of the horses) of the Ramesside period". مجلة کلیة الآثار . جامعة القاهرة. 6 (2019): 3–18. doi:10.21608/jarch.2019.90999. ISSN 2682-4884.
  5. ^ Kawaminami, André Shinity (2019-08-28). "A dualidade da representação de Ramsés II e dos hititas na Estela de Casamento: A relação do Egito com o reino de Hatti no século XIII a.C." Epígrafe (in Portuguese). 7 (7): 161–186. doi:10.11606/issn.2318-8855.v7i7p161-186. ISSN 2318-8855.
  6. ^ Töyräänvuori, Joanna (2022), Kõiv, Mait; Läänemets, Märt; Droß-Krüpe, Kerstin; Fink, Sebastian (eds.), "The Ugaritic Combat Myth and Egypto-Hittite Relations in the Late Bronze Age", Crisis in Early Religion, Universal- und kulturhistorische Studien. Studies in Universal and Cultural History, Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, pp. 61–70, doi:10.1007/978-3-658-36989-7_5, ISBN 978-3-658-36989-7, retrieved 2024-01-25
  7. ^ Leblanc 1999: 266; Bryce 2005: 283.
  8. ^ Gardiner 1961: 265; Leblanc 1999: 260; Bryce 2005: 282-283; Freu 2008: 239; Obsomer 2012: 205.
  9. ^ Tomorad, Mladen (2014). "A History of Research Into Ancient Egyptian Culture in Southeast Europe": 1–284. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ Dodson, Aidan (2020-10-06). Nefertiti, Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt: Her Life and Afterlife. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-1-64903-168-6.
  11. ^ Leblanc 1999: 262.
  12. ^ On the daughters of Ramesses II who served as their father's King's Great Wife, see Lebland 1999: 185-256.
  13. ^ Edel 1994 vol 1: 226-227; vol. 2: 349, 351; Bell 2007: 116, n. 40.
  14. ^ Breasted 1906: §417, preferred omitting the falcon sign in the reading, while Gardiner 1961: 265 and Freu 2008: 239 allowed for either reading; Leblanc 1999: 269, Bryce 2005: 283, Obsomer 2012: 205, prefer reading the falcon sign as Horus.
  15. ^ Bell 2007: 116, n. 41.
  16. ^ Töyräänvuori, Joanna (2022), "The Ugaritic Combat Myth and Egypto-Hittite Relations in the Late Bronze Age", Crisis in Early Religion, Universal- und kulturhistorische Studien. Studies in Universal and Cultural History, Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, pp. 61–70, doi:10.1007/978-3-658-36989-7_5, ISBN 978-3-658-36988-0, retrieved 2024-01-24
  17. ^ J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Three, § 415ff.
  18. ^ Wilkinson, Toby (2011). The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. Bloomsbury. pp. 340–41. ISBN 978-1-4088-1002-6.
  19. ^ a b [1] Gurob, papyrus 32795
  20. ^ Tyldesley, Joyce (2001). Egypt's Golden Empire: The Age of the New Kingdom. Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7472-51606.
  21. ^ The Bentresh Stela
  22. ^ Breasted 1906: §§429-447.
  23. ^ Dodson & Hilton 2004: 171.
  24. ^ Leblanc 1999: 19.
  25. ^ Obsomer 2012: 205.
  26. ^ Bryce 2005: 283; Bell 2007: 110.
  27. ^ Gardiner 1961: 265.
  28. ^ Brand 2016: 29.
  29. ^ Freu 2008: 239.
  30. ^ Breasted 1906: §430.
  31. ^ Gardiner 1961: 265.
  32. ^ Jackson, Guida M. (2003). Women Rulers Throughout the Ages: An Illustrated Guide. Santa Barbara : ABC-CLIO. p. 337. ISBN 1576070913.
  33. ^ Beckman 1996: 123; Bryce 2003: 75, 241; Freu 2008: 220.

References[edit]

  • Beckman, Gary, Hittite Diplomatic Texts, Atlanta, 1996.
  • Bell, Lanny, "Conflict and Reconciliation in the Ancient Middle east: The Clash of Egyptian and Hittite Chariots in Syria, and the World's First Peace Treaty between "Superpowers"," in K. A. Raaflaub (ed.), War and peace in the ancient world, Malden, 2007: 98-120.
  • Brand, Peter J., "Reconstructing the Royal Family of Ramesses II and its Hierarchical Structure," Journal of Ancient Civilizations 31 (2016) 7-44.
  • Breasted, James H., Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. 3, London, 1906, §§415-424, Marriage Stela online.
  • Bryce, Trevor, Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East: The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age London, 2003, especially pp. 106-111.
  • Bryce, Trevor, The Kingdom Of The Hittites, new edition, Oxford, 2005, especially pp. 282-283.
  • Dodson, Aidan, and Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, London, 2004.
  • Freu, Jacques, and Michel Mazoyer, L'Apogée du nouvel empire hittite, Paris, 2008.
  • Gardiner, Sir Alan, Egypt of the Pharaohs, Oxford, 1961.
  • Kitchen, Kenneth A., Ramesside Inscriptions, vol. 2, p. 857, and Ramesside Inscriptions, Translated and Annotated, vol. 2, p. 559.
  • Leblanc, Christian, Nefertari «L'aimée-de-Mout»: Épouses, filles et fils de Ramsès II, Monaco, 1999.
  • Obsomer, Claude, Ramsès II, Paris, 2012.

External links[edit]

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