Ancient Egyptian Queens Neith to Ankhnespepi IV

Friday, February 18, 2011

Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

Egyptian Gods
Ancient Egyptian Queen Neferitatjenen

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Queen Neith, sister-wife of Pepi II

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Neith, sister-wife of Pepi II, here depicted in her Saqqara pyramid chapel. Neith's plundered pyramid has yielded an unprecedented 16 model ships.

Pyramid Complex of Pepi II in Southern Saqqara, Egypt.

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The Southern Saqqara pyramid complex of Pepi II, "Pepi's life is Enduring", showing the location of the three queens' pyramids. The small satellite pyramid to the southwest to the main pyramid was provided as part of the king's own funerary ritual, and should not be confused with a queen's pyramid.

Iput II Pyramid

The name and titles of Iput II, sister of Pepi II, on the remains of her ill-reserved South Saqqara pyramid complex. Iput does not bear the title King's Mother and it is clear that pyramids, hitherto reserved for King's Mothers and the most important of royal women, were now built for a wider range of queens. Southern Saqqara. Egypt.

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Neith, Wedjebten, Iput II, Ankhnespepi III and Ankhnespepi IV

The three principal queens of Pepi II were buried in small-scale pyramid complexes beside his own far larger Saqqara complex. The largest of the three belonged to Queen Neith, the daughter of Pepi I and Ankhnespepi I, and therefore both half-sister and cousin of Pepi II. Here, on her temple walls we can see Neith wearing the vulture crown with the corba head, and carrying a papyrus sceptre.
Wedjebten, also a daughter of Pepi I, had a smaller pyramid complex but two perimeter walls. The pyramid complex built for Iput II has today almost entirely disappeared, but enough remains to allow us to read her titles and see that she was never a King's Mother; maybe her son died before he could succeed his long-lived father. Iput's complex housed an instructive First International Period burial. Ankhenespepi III was the daughter of Merenre, son of Pepi I. She was buried in a pyramid near the pyramid of Pepi I, where her sarcophagus was carved out of a massive flooring block.
Queen Ankhnespepi IV was yet another wife of Pepi II whose son, the insignificant king Neferkare Nebi, is thought to have ruled during the 8th Dynasty. The lid of her coffin, recovered from the western storeroom in the pyramid complex of Iput II, was carved with a royal history which, as yet unpublished, is reported to record events during the turbulent 6th Dynasty, including the abrupt end of Teti's reign.

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