The Egyptian Title: Hereditary Princess March 1, 2015

The Egyptian Title: Hereditary Princess by C. Campbell (MA Egypt Macquarie University)

Many ancient Egyptian royal women seem to have born the title iryt-p`t, translated as Hereditary Princess, but what does it mean?

The title was used from the 6th Dynasty through to the 20th Dynasty (Bart). Usage outside of that date range is not currently attested. The title is indisputably a royal one, in other words overwhelmingly the title is born by women of the royal house. However there are instances of bearers of this title not holding other royal titles such as Kings Wife, Kings Sister, Kings Daughter or Kings Mother.

Royal women who held the title Hereditary Princess and one or more of the titles Sister of the King and or Daughter of the King, Eldest Kings daughter or Daughter of his Body, confirm that the bearer is a daughter and / or sister of a king. But what of those that do not hold these titles, but do carry the title Hereditary Princess? We can divide the remainder into three groups,

1. Those that bear the title Kings wife and Hereditary Princess and no other royal titles 2. Those that bear the title Kings Wife, Kings Mother and Hereditary Princess. These may also be a daughter and or sister of the King. 3. Those that have no other royal titles at all than Hereditary Princess. They also appear to hold this title Hereditary Princess in their own right, Ahmose Nefertari was an Hereditary not as a wife of an Hereditary Prince. Princess and the wife, mother, daughter and sister of a King

The male equivalent title: Hereditary Prince, is held by numerous nobles, usually in conjunction with the title Count. These gentlemen usually have other titles of office such as seal bearer, treasurer, High Priest etc., indicating the administrative or religious roles held. Sometimes they may also hold such titles as Kings Eldest Son or Kings son or Kings son of his body (the title Kings Son of Kush, is considered to be a Kings Deputy title and not to indicate a blood relationship). Like their female equivalents however, the bearers of these titles are not always coupled together. In otherwords an Hereditary Prince is not invariably also a Kings Son (or one of its variants).

Let us consider an example of an Hereditary Prince and his mother, wife and daughter, all of whom are designated Hereditary Princeses. Khunumhotep I, a powerful Nomarch of the 12th Dynasty.

©C. Campbell 1 The Egyptian Title: Hereditary Princess March 1, 2015

Khnumhotep bore the title Hereditary Prince and Count (among other’s), he was a favoured companion of Amenhotep I and appears to have supported his bid for the throne. Only Khnumhotep’s mother’s name: Bekhet, has been preserved, suggesting that she was the more nobly born of his parents. Khnumhotep was seemingly awarded his titles of Hereditary Prince and Count after Amenhotep became King. (Newberry Beni Hasan p14). It should be noted that Khnumhotep’s wife Zatipi was also an Hereditary Princess in her own right. (Ibid) It is possible that she conferred this title on her daughter Bekhet.

So what might this title mean, how do examples like the two Bekhet’s and Zatipi above fit into this?

Given that examples like Bekhet are rare, lets take a more numerous set of data to examine: a survey of Queens who held the title Hereditary Princess. All of these ladies held either the title of Kings Wife and or Great Kings Wife in addition to the title Hereditary Princess. There are thirty of them to be found between the 6th and 20th Dynasties. This would seem to be a decent sample size to work with. Khnumhotep II grandson of Bekhet and Khnumhotep I

Of this thirty, twelve also held the title of Kings Mother, eight were Kings Daughters and six Kings Sisters. Only two held all titles and twelve were Wives or Great Wives but not Sisters, Daughters or Mothers of a King. There were also a great many Queens outside of this sample who were not Hereditary Princesses. So the title Hereditary Princess, while common for a Queen or Great Wife is not a mandatory title.

So what do we know so far? The title is royal, it was held by women of the royal house, however it could be held by women who were not Queens, Sisters or Mothers of Kings, although instances of this are rare. It was most commonly applied to Queens, and they may or may not hold other royal titles indicating their relationship to the King.

Conclusions we can draw from this are: 1. The title was not a duplicate title for a Mother, Daughter or Sister of a King as its appellation for these ladies is rare. 2. The title was not a duplicate title for a Queen either. 3. Title bearers could be Queens, daughters, sisters or mothers of a King and conversely they might not be any of these things, although this is rarer. 4. There fore it must have some meaning of its own, separate from these titles and relationships.

So what could it mean? It seems to me that the most likely meaning of this title is that the title bearer had a parent or grandparent who was the son or daughter or sister or brother of a King. Thus the bearer could also be the mother, sister or daughter of a King and for example the granddaughter of a King, or the niece of a king or some other one step removed relationship; it seems likely that this relationship could come through either parent.

©C. Campbell 2 The Egyptian Title: Hereditary Princess March 1, 2015

Lets test the hypothesis with three famous examples from the 18th Dynasty: Ahmose Nefertari, Ahmose and Nefertiti.

Ahmose Nefertari was the daughter, sister and wife of a king and she also held the title Hereditary Princess. She was also the granddaughter of a King and she held the title of Hereditary Princess.

Ahmose (Hatcheptsuts mother), she was the sister and wife of a King and held the title Hereditary Princess. We don’t know who her parents were, but given her title as sister of a King, she would have been a sister of Amenhotep I, which should make her a daughter of a king too, surely? Yes she is not given this title. So what could the designation sister of the King mean in her case? Could she have been a milk sister of Amenhotep? Or a half sister with the same mother and different fathers? This is unlikely as Amenhotep’s mother was Ahmose Nefertari.

Another explanation for the title Kings Sister (favoured by Dodson p130) is that she derived this title through her relationship with Thutmose I, either literally or ritually. Another interpretation however could be that she was a niece or granddaughter of Ahmose I, this would make her an Hereditary Princess. How to explain the use of the Kings Sister title? The Egyptians didn’t have separate terms for niece, granddaughter, aunt, or cousin. It is possible that the title Kings Sister is used here to imply niece or cousin. Admittedly this is a stretch. The case of Ahmose is not clear cut. Principally because we cannot satisfactorily explain her title of Kings sister, unless we make her a blood sister or milk sister of Thutmose himself. Queen Ahmose famous daughter Hatchepsut

Nefertiti, was the wife of a King and held the title Hereditary Princess. Her father was thought to be the Courtier Ay (Later Pharaoh Ay). Her mothers identity is unknown. Ay was the brother of Queen Tiye. Nefertiti could have derived her title from this relationship, but there is no evidence that the title was used in this way, as Tyie was not of royal blood, but a commoner.

Nefertiti could therefore have derived the title from her mother, if her mother was a Daughter of a King or Hereditary Princess. We have evidence from the Khnumhotep example above that the title Hereditary Prince/Princess could be passed to the children of the bearer.

But how did Khnumhotep come by the title? It seems likely that he got it from his mother, who may have been a sister of Amenhotep I. This would explain his being given the title after Amenhoteps ascension to the throne. By virtue of his Kingship, his sister would be titled Kings Sister. Her children would then be Hereditary Princes or Princesses and by corollary, their children in turn. It seems likely that the title petered out after the second generation, if it wasn’t reinforced by a new injection of royal blood from the current generation. But evidence for this is slim.

Thutmose IV Nefertiti

My personal belief is that Nefertiti is a descendant of Thutmose IV, there is a striking resemblance between the two if her famous bust is compared with his mummified head. Under this scenario, Nefertiti is perhaps the daughter of a daughter of Thutmose IV; he had several daughters of which virtually nothing is known and crucially he had a Great Royal Wife with the name of Nefertari (Bryan p108ff). It is likely that one of their daughters was Crown? Princess Amenemipet (Bryan p122), another may have been her sister Tiaa who was named for her paternal grandmother Great Royal Wife Tiaa (Bryan p93ff). If Tiaa II’s niece was named in turn for her grandmother her name would be Nefertari or some variant of that: Nefertiti, perhaps?

References

Bart, Anneke http://euler.slu.edu/~bart/egyptianhtml/kings%20and%20Queens/Queens_of_Egypt. html Bryan, Betsy 1991 The Reign of Thutmose IV John Hopkins University Press Newberry, Percy E 1893 Beni Hasan Part III, Archaeological Survey of Egypt