By Jane Mulder
When there is a dearth of concrete evidence theories will be formulated, and until further information comes to light such hypotheses often become part of the accepted record. To a certain extent this applies to the genealogy of Ancient Egypt’s 4th and 5th Dynasties, much of which is shrouded in mystery. One of these mysteries concerns the “owner” of an extraordinary tomb on the Giza plateau, and there are differing opinions as to the exact status of the person for whom it was built. To compound the matter, a pyramid for an individual with the same name and titles was built at Abusir.
Early in 1932 archaeologists from Cairo University, under the leadership of Dr Selim Hassan, began work on the so-called “unfinished pyramid” which was built very close to Menkaure’s pyramid complex, and was the last royal tomb to be built at Giza. When the team uncovered the entrance to the tomb’s adjoining chapel they found to their surprise that it was dedicated to a female ruler – Khent-Kawes. Inscriptions on fragments of the granite gateway were translated as “King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mother of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Daughter of the God, every good thing which she orders is done for her : Khent-Kawes”. She is shown enthroned and wearing a king’s royal regalia viz. the beard, the flail, and the uraeus diadem, but (strangely) her name does not appear in a cartouche. (It is less surprising that her name does not appear on any king list.) The imposing tomb is partly rock-cut/partly mastaba, and is reminiscent of a truncated step-pyramid, but its original intended design is a matter of conjecture. However, there is no doubt that it was built for a very significant individual, and indeed, the tomb continued to be developed and enlarged well into the 6th Dynasty. (Note: Hassan did not find any evidence of Khent-Kawes’s burial.)
However, it appears that the hieroglyphs (Mw.t-nsw-bi.tj-nsw-bi.tj) are ambiguous. Hermann Junker translated the inscription as “King of Upper and Lower Egypt and Mother of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt” but Vladimir Vikentiev’s translation is “Mother of Two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt”. Both are apparently grammatically correct.
As female royal descent was usually indicated by the words “King’s Daughter”, the title “Daughter of the God” was unprecedented, so what did it mean? Was it perhaps a title which conveyed legitimacy to Khent-Kawes’s rule when her father died and was transformed into a “god”? (At that time daughters could rightfully inherit the throne from their fathers.)
With regard to her title “Mother of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt” Hassan said, “It is evident then that all the power of the son came to him from the queen, his mother, who had an authority in the country equalling that of a king. Also it would appear as though her husband had died while her son was still in his infancy and that she herself held the government of the country during his minority and was fully entitled to be called King of Upper and Lower Egypt”. Strangely, the name of the king (or alternatively the two kings) is not mentioned in the inscription, but most scholars are in agreement that the later pharaohs, Sahure and Neferirkare, were Khent-kawes’s sons.
The fact that the inscription does not contain the title “King’s wife” could denote one of two things. Firstly, if she was pharaoh the title would not be applicable. Secondly, it could indicate that she was a royal princess whose marriage legitimised her (non-royal) husband’s title to the throne. And, of course, there are contrary views as to who that husband might have been. Hassan (who favoured Junker’s translation of the inscription) believed that the man in question was Userkaf, the first king of the 5th Dynasty, and that Khent-Kawes was the link between the 4th and 5th dynasties. However Borchardt (who favoured Vikentiev’s translation) theorised that her husband was Shepseskaf who was non-royal and only ascended the throne on his marriage to Khent-Kawes, and that when he died after a very short reign, his two sons – Sahure and Neferirkare – were very young, and at that stage Userkaf seized power. However, if one looks at the dates* for the reigns of those two kings, one notices that there is a gap of two years (Shepseskaf 2472-2467, Userkaf 2465-2458), where the reign of Khent-Kawes would fit neatly.
As to the lineage of these three rulers, one theory has Shepseskaf and Khent-Kawes as the offspring of Menkaure, while another has Hordjedef (a son of Khufu) as Khent-Khawes’s father. Another hypothesis is that Userkaf was the son of Djedefre’s daughter Neferhetepes, while others think that he may have been the high priest of the powerful priesthood of the sun-god Re at Heliopolis. This is obviously a genealogical conundrum, especially as marriage within the same family was the norm.
Now we come to the second half of the puzzle – the pyramid of Khent-Kawes at Abusir, which was unknown during Hassan’s excavation of the Giza tomb 44 years earlier. From 1976 to 1978 this small pyramid, sited between the pyramids of Neferirkare and Raneferef, was explored by archaeologists from the Czechoslovak Institute of Egyptology in Cairo under the leadership of Miroslav Verner. They came to the conclusion that this was the tomb of a second Khent-Kawes, who was the consort of Neferirkare. Coincidentally, reliefs on fragments found in the pyramid’s mortuary temple give her the same titles as those found in the tomb of Khent-Kkawes (I) at Giza (viz. Mw.t-nsw-bi.tj-nsw-bi.tj). (Verner is of the opinion that this ambiguous inscription should be read “Mother of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, [exercising office as] the King of Upper and Lower Egypt”.) She is shown seated on a throne and wearing the uraeus of kingship and holding the hetes (papyrus) sceptre (the symbol of Lower Egypt).
However some scholars concluded that the pyramid was a second tomb built for one woman. It was certainly not unknown for royalty to have two tombs. It would not be strange for a second tomb to be built for Khent-Kawes at Abusir, which was the preferred burial place of the 5th Dynasty, as well as the site of Userkaf’s Temple of Re. (Userkaf was buried at Saqqara.) The belief that Khent-Kawes (II) was a ruler in her own right is made more compelling by the fact that her mortuary temple had elements characteristic of kings’ temples, and that there was also a satellite pyramid, which for 300 years served as a temple in which she was worshipped. (Note – according to Miroslav Verner, “clear archaeological evidence shows that the queen was not only buried in her tomb complex, but that she was long worshipped there as well.”)
A graffito found by Perring on a limestone block from Neferirkare’s pyramid mentions Khent-Kawes (II) as King’s Wife (hmt nswt), while on limestone pillars of her mortuary temple the title of “mother” (mwt) was later added above the title “King’s Wife”. Her other titles were, “Great one of the hetes-sceptre”, “she who sees Horus and Seth”, “King’s Wife, his beloved”,” priestess of Bapef”, “priestess of Tjazepef”, “directress of the butchers in the acacia house”, “attendant of Horus”, and “companion of Horus”. Another limestone block apparently shows Neferirkare and Khent-Kawes with a son, Reneferef.
To add to the mix, some scholars believe that the Redjedjet mentioned in the Westcar papyrus (compiled more than a millennium after the period in question) is none other than Khent-Kawes, while Manetho (an Egyptian historian of the 3rd century BCE) stated that at the end of the 6th Dynasty a female ruler named Nitokris erected the third pyramid of Giza.
So much for the confusing background, but how can the historical context of the two tombs be reconciled? Questions remain. Who was the father of Khent-Kawes (I), and to whom was she married? How reliable is the “evidence” depicting Khent-Kawes (II) as Neferirkare’s consort? Is it not more likely that she was his mother? Could it be that the inscriptions found at Abusir as to her being “King’s wife” (and which post-date those in the Giza tomb) relate to her later marriage to the man who became pharaoh (perhaps Userkaf) and that on his death, when Neferirkare became the new ruler, “King’s mother” was added to the inscription? In my opinion it seems highly improbable that two women, separated by an unproven timescale, who bore the same name and very unusual titles, who were both depicted as rulers and who were worshipped long after their deaths, should be two different individuals. I believe that the “two” Khent-Kawes are one and the same person and that she did indeed rule as king. In the absence of conclusive proof I leave it to the reader to come to her/his own conclusions.
* Dates from The Complete Pyramids by Mark Lehner
References:
Selim Hassan Bey – The First Woman-King in History, Khent-Kawes-Nitokris – Egypt Cultural Bulletin (1949)
Ahmed Fakhry – The Pyramids (1961)
I.E.S. Edwards – The Pyramids of Egypt (1985)
Peter A. Clayton – Chronicles of the Pharaohs (1994)
Mark Lehner – Complete Pyramids (1997)
Miroslav Verner – The Pyramids (2002)