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Queenship in Kush: Status, Role and Ideology of Royal Women

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Queenship in Kush: Status, Role and Ideology of Royal Women Originalveröffentlichung in: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 38, 2001, S. 61-76 Queenship in Kush: Status, Role and Ideology of Royal Women ANGELIKA LOHWASSER In the ancient Mediterranean world, the ex­ 3) archaeological: tombs and associated burial ceptional status of queens in the Kingdom of goods in the cemeteries of El Kurru, Nuri, Meroe inspired comment in the works of Greco­ Meroe, and Abydos. Roman writers. These women, and the kandake in particular, continued to attract the attention In Meroitica 19, these data are presented in cata­ of travelers and scholars down into modern logue form, providing the basis for the con­ times. By comparison, the role and status of their clusions which are summarized below. A second predecessors, the royal mothers, wives, sisters, catalogue lists all those royal women whose names and daughters, from the Kushite 25th Dynasty are known; each entry includes variant orthog­ down through the Napatan Period to the reign raphies for the name in question, the titles, 1 of Nastasen, remained little known. epithets and filiation of the woman, her docu­ Beginning with George A. Reisner's excava­ mentation and a commentary. Analysis of these tions of the royal cemeteries at El Kurru and varied sources demonstrates the crucial role Nuri and Francis LI. Griffith's work at Kawa, a played by queenship as the indispensable coun­ steadily increasing body of material has become terpart of male kingship in Kushite ideology. available for the study of Kushite "queenship." These sources fall into three categories: Royal Women in Society 1) inscriptional, ranging from lengthy royal A royal woman's epithets and filiation, as well texts on stelae from Napata and Kawa to the as her costume and regalia, provide information labels accompanying representations of royal about uniquely Kushite features of her status. women and inscriptions on objects (primarily The titles and epithets documented for Kush­ burial equipment); ite royal women are few, especially in compari­ 2) representational, viz. the depictions of son to the wealth of such designations borne by 2 royal women on stelae and temple walls; their pharaonic Egyptian counterparts, Titles which document a sacral role include hmt ntr (priestess), jhjjt (sistrum player)', shmjjt (sistrum player), hnw (sistrum player), and hmt ntr (God's 1 This background information is expanded upon and Wife). None of these sacral titles is specified by documented in "Die koniglichen Frauen im antiken Reich von Kitsch," Meroitica 19 (2001), the full publication of my the addition of a deity's name, by contrast to dissertation entitled "Die koniglichen Frauen von Kusch (25. ancient Egyptian practice. Even in those cases Dynastie bis zur Zeit des Nastasen)." The most important where it is clear that the god served was Amun theses and conclusions of that work are presented here. Many recent studies have dealt with aspects of Kushite and Meroitic queenship in various contexts; they are duly con­ 2 For convenience's sake, I have adopted the English ren­ sidered below. But none of them has been devoted in its derings employed by Troy (1986) for all but a few titles and entirety to investigating the phenomenon of Kushite queen­ epithets below. For detailed discussion of specific terms, see ship per se, the goal of my monograph. Meroitica 19. 61 62 JARCE XXXVIII (2001) (as, for example, in the case of the sistrum the origin of the women who bear the epithet, 3 player Matiqen ), this association is not explicit but since it is also associated with women who in the title. have Kushite names, its effective meaning re­ Some titles imply a specific status at court: mains unclear. c jrj-p tt (noblewoman); tpjt n hm.f (first great wife of his majesty), rht njswt (king's acquaintance), Kushite Queens as Represented in Art hnwt hmwt nbwt (lady of all the women). Others are analogous to king's titles expressing domin­ As a rule, pharaonic Egyptian costume and ion: hnwt tDivj (tm)lnbt t3wj (lady/mistress of the regalia were adopted for the depiction of Kush­ c [entire] Two Lands), hnwt sm w mhw (lady of ite kings, although certain specifically Kushite c the south and the north), nbt hjs'wt/tj j t hSs'wt features make identification of them as Kush­ 5 (mistress/the great one of the foreign coun­ ites unproblematic. Kushite queens, however, tries), hnwt kmt/kSs/tS s'tj (lady of Egypt/Kush/ look much less "Egyptian" than their male coun­ c 6 Nubia), sit r (daughter of Re, as the feminine terparts. Except for the vulture headdress, the counterpart of "son of Re" designating the double­feather crown, and the double­feather king). These titles were used in parallelism with crown with sun disc and cow horns (which was al­ those of the king. Royal women are defined as ready modified and "Meroiticized" in the early sharing the power to rule, the feminine equiva­ Napatan Period), there are no Egyptian elements. lent of the king. Effective influence associated A large shawl was wrapped around the body with such titles should not be over­rated, but they below the armpits or around the hips. A second do express the ideal of complementarity (for shawl which could be fringed or decorated with which, see below). Since the titles s3t ntr (daugh­ woven stripes was worn over the first. Sometimes ter of the god) and mwt ntr (mother of the god) women draped a sash over the shoulder. A small are both documented only a single time, their tab­like element hangs below the hem of a dress import remains unclear. to reach the ground (fig. 1). This diagnostic ele­ The majority of epithets borne by royal women ment has been described as a "little tail." Some­ express the esteem in which they were held, or times there are fine ridges on its surface; the refer to agreeable characteristics. Most such epi­ cases are few where it simply resembles a line. thets go back to the Old Kingdom in pharaonic Hofmann (1971: 49­51) interpreted the "little Egypt, and they are especially common in the tail" as a kind of "badge of honor" first associ­ New Kingdom and in Dynasties XXV and XXVI. ated with Taharqa's mother; she also believed it They include wrt hsjw (great of praises), bnrt mrwt identified a woman as a kandake in later times. (sweet of love), wrtlnbljSmt (great one/mistress of However, this iconographic feature is not re­ 7 loveliness). (Epithets documented only a single stricted to depictions of royal women. Granted, time for Kushite royal women are s'htp njswt n hrt the bull's tail of kingly regalia was inappropriate hrw (one who satisfies the king with [his] daily for a woman; nevertheless, the "little tail" is in­ needs), s'ndm jb hr m ddt.s nb (one who sweetens deed reminiscent of an animal's tail. The bushy the heart of Horus [i.e., the king] with all her shape, which occurs in most depictions, and the c words which are said), hnmt h ntr (one who is 5 united with the limbs of the god), jSm hr jb hr.s See Russmann 1974: 11-44; Kushite features include a ram's-head amulet, rams' horns, double uraeus, and "south­ (beloved in the heart of her Horus [=lord]), hkrt c ern" physiognomy. njswt w t (sole ornament of the king), sps't njswt 6 c Contra Hofmann, 1971: 49; for detailed consideration w t (sole noblewoman of the king).) The expres­ of the costume and regalia of Kushite queens, see Lohwasser sion rmt n knit, "inhabitant of Egypt" (sometimes 1999. abbreviated simply rmt?) would seem to refer to Examples of non­royal women with this attribute in­ clude: stela Louvre E 13073 (Munro 1973: pi. 28, fig. 101; 3 So in the text of the Adoption Stela of Henuttakebit stela Leiden XIV, 13 (van Wijngaarden 1932: pi. TV. 13); (Schafer 1895). coffin of Kheriru from the Asasif (unpublished; I am in­ 4 Note that Priese (1968: 190-91) believes the word in debted to Dr. E. Haslauer for providing access to photo­ question is not to be read rmt, but tjore, the Meroitic word for graphs of this piece); stela of Pasalta (Dunham 1963: fig. king/queen. 220). QUEENSHIP IN KUSH 63 •LJ 21) »S! r: V. L3 em Ik!! <&3> is. A 52^ rtS Fig /. Dream Stela of Tanwetamani (after Grimal 1981a: pi I). ridges, which could have been intended to imi­ skeletons excavated there had fringe tied to the 12 tate the appearance of fur, can be cited in favor knees. Nowadays among various African peo­ of this proposal. ples—for example, the Nuba—there is the cus­ In ancient Egypt, animal tails tied around the tom of wearing feathers and parts of pelts, arm at the elbow were considered typical for perhaps also animals tails, below the knee. 8 depictions of Nubians. In officials' tombs of the Possibly Kushite women tied an animal tail, as New Kingdom, Nubian chieftains in tribute scenes an amulet insuring fertility, to their knee or calf, are depicted with animal tails suspended from and it hung down below the dress worn over it. I their arms or waist. Paintings in the tomb of suggest that the animal in question was a fox. Kenamun (TT 93) include the depiction of a Fox tails are universally associated with eroticism statue of Amenhotep II as a Nubian wearing and fertility. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic 9 animal tails at his elbow. Nubian women, too, sign used to write words associated with birth 13 wore animal tails: in the tomb of Tutankhamun's depicted fox pelts bound together.
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