Ahhotep I ( egy, jꜥḥ-

ḥtp Hotep (; also rendered ''hetep'') is an Egyptian word that roughly translates as "to be satisfied, at peace". The word also refers to an "offering" ritually presented to a deity or a dead person, hence "be pleased, be gracious, be at peace". ...

(.w), alternatively Anglicized ''Ahhotpe'' or ''Aahhotep'', "

Iah Iah ( Egyptian: ''jꜥḥ'', Coptic ) is a lunar deity in ancient Egyptian religion. The word ''jꜥḥ'' simply means "Moon". It is also transcribed as ''Yah'', ''Jah'', or ''Aah''. Worship By the New Kingdom (16th century to 11th century ...

(the Moon) is satisfied") was an ancient Egyptian queen who lived circa 1560– 1530 BC, during the end of the

Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt The Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVII, alternatively 17th Dynasty or Dynasty 17) was a dynasty of pharaohs that ruled in Upper Egypt during the late Second Intermediate Period, approximately from 1580 to 1550 BC. Its mainly Theba ...

. She was the daughter of Queen

Tetisheri Tetisheri was the matriarch of the Egyptian royal family of the late 17th Dynasty and early 18th Dynasty. Family Tetisheri was the daughter of Tjenna and Neferu. The names of Tetisheri's parents are known from mummy bandages found in TT320.Aida ...

(known as Teti the Small) and

Senakhtenre Ahmose Senakhtenre Ahmose, was the seventh king of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period.Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey Interna ...

, and was probably the sister, as well as the queen consort, of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao ll. Ahhotep I had a long and influential life. She ruled as regent for her son

Ahmose I Ahmose I ( egy, jꜥḥ ms(j .w), reconstructed /ʔaʕaħ'maːsjə/ ( MK), Egyptological pronunciation ''Ahmose'', sometimes written as ''Amosis'' or ''Aahmes'', meaning "Iah (the Moon) is born") was a pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ...

for a time. Her titles include Great Royal Wife and "Associate of the White Crown Bearer" ( egy, label=none, ẖnmt nfr-ḥḏt). The title "King's Mother" ( egy, label=none, mwt nswt) was found on the

Deir el-Bahari Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri ( ar, الدير البحري, al-Dayr al-Baḥrī, the Monastery of the North) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of ...

coffin.

Different Ahhoteps

The naming and numbering of the queens named Ahhotep has changed during the years. Outlining the different naming and numbering conventions over the years: Late 19th century: Ahhotep I was thought to be the wife of Seqenenre Tao. The coffins of Deir el-Bahari and

Dra' Abu el-Naga' The necropolis of Draʻ Abu el-Naga' ( ar, دراع ابو النجا) is located on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes, Egypt, just by the entrance of the dry bay that leads up to Deir el-Bahari and north of the necropolis of el-Assasif. The ne ...

were both thought to be hers by some experts.

Ahhotep II Ahhotep II was an ancient Egyptian queen, and likely the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Kamose. Different Ahhoteps The naming / numbering by Egyptologists of the queens named Ahhotep has changed during the years. During the late nineteenth century ...

was thought to be the wife of

Amenhotep I Amenhotep I () ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(w) /jaˌmanuwˈħatpaw/ "Amun is satisfied"; Amarna cuneiform ''a-ma-an-ha-at-pe'' or ''-at-pa''), Amenôthes I, or Amenophis I, (,) from Ancient Greek Ἀμένωφις ,Dodson & Hilton (2004) p.126 additionally ...

. Some thought the coffin from the Deir el-Bahari cache belonged to the queen called Ahhotep II in this scheme. Late 20th century: In the 1970s, it was commented on that the Deir el-Bahari coffin bears the title "King's Mother" and

has no son. The title must refer to the mother of

. In 1982, Robins suggests that Ahhotep I is the owner of the gilded coffin from

, Ahhotep II is the queen mentioned on the Deir el-Bahari coffin and Ahhotep III is the queen mentioned on the statue of a prince Ahmose. Present 21st century: Following Dodson and Hilton (2004), Ahhotep I is the wife of Seqenenre Tao and mother of Ahmose I. Ahhotep II is the queen known from the gilded coffin found at Dra' Abu el-Naga' and possibly a wife of

Kamose Kamose was the last Pharaoh of the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty. He was possibly the son of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I and the uncle of Ahmose I, founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. His reign fell at the very end of the Second Intermediate Peri ...

. (There is no Ahhotep III). Taneash Sidpura, mainly on the basis of the King's Daughters Satkamose and Satdjehuty, concluded that there was only one Ahhotep at this time.

Family

Ahhotep I was the daughter of Queen Tetisheri and Pharaoh

. She was the royal wife of the seventeenth dynasty king Seqenenre Tao; he is believed to have been her brother. Ahhotep was probably the mother of Pharaoh Ahmose I. Her exact relationship to Pharaoh Kamose is not known, but he may have been her brother-in-law (the brother of Seqenenre Tao) or her son. Other children of Queen Ahhotep I include the later Queen

Ahmose-Nefertari Ahmose-Nefertari (Ancient Egyptian: '' Jꜥḥ ms Nfr trj'') was the first Great Royal Wife of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She was a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I, and royal sister and wife to Ahmose I. Her son Amenhotep I b ...

, who was married to her brother, Pharaoh

. There were also Prince

Ahmose Sapair Ahmose-Sapair (also -Sipair) was a prince of the late Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt (1580 to 1550 BCE). Family He was probably a son of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao and a brother of Ahmose I, p.129 or the child of Ahmose I.Wente, Edward F. ''Thutmose I ...

, Prince Binpu, Princess

Ahmose-Henutemipet Ahmose-Henutemipet was a princess of the late Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was a daughter of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao and probably Queen Ahhotep I. She was the sister of Ahmose I. She bore the titles ''King's Daughter'' and ''King's Sister.'' Mu ...

, Princess

Ahmose-Nebetta Ahmose-Nebetta (alternatively written Ahmose-Nebta) (“Child of Iah (the Moon) - Lady of the Land”) was a princess during the late Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was probably the daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Queen Ahhotep I. She was the s ...

, and Princess

Ahmose-Tumerisy The following is a list of mummies that include Egyptian pharaohs and their named mummified family members. Some of these mummies have been found to be remarkably intact, while others have been damaged from tomb robbers and environmental conditi ...

.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004)

Life

A stela from the reign of Ahmose I describes Ahhotep I as ruling Egypt and uniting its people, attributes that are normally only reserved for kings. It is not known when these events took place but presumably after the death of Seqenenre Tao and Kamose, when Ahmose I was too young to rule. Ahhotep is mentioned on the Kares stela (CG 34003) which dates to year 10 of

, and her steward Iuf mentions her on his stela (CG 34009). Iuf refers to Ahhotep as the mother of Ahmose I, and would later be the steward of

Queen Ahmose Ahmose was an Ancient Egyptian queen in the Eighteenth Dynasty. She was the Great Royal Wife of the dynasty's third pharaoh, Thutmose I, and the mother of the queen and pharaoh Hatshepsut. Her name means "Born of the Moon". Family It is not kn ...

, wife of

Thutmose I Thutmose I (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis I, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; Ancient Egyptian: '' ḏḥwtj- ms'', ''Tʼaḥawtī-mīsaw'', , meaning "Thoth is born") was the third pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of E ...

. This suggests Ahhotep I may have died at a fairly advanced age during the reign of Thutmose I.

Tomb

Ahhotep I's outer coffin was eventually reburied in TT320 in Deir el Bahari. The coffin shows the queen with a tripartite wig and a modius. The body is covered in a rishi-design (feathers) and is similar to the outer coffins of

and

Ahmose-Meritamon Ahmose-Meritamun (or Ahmose-Meritamon) was a Queen of Egypt during the early Eighteenth Dynasty. She was both the older sister and the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep I. She died fairly young and was buried in tomb TT358 in Deir el-Bahari. Biograph ...

. Ahhotep I's original tomb is not known, unless this queen is identical to

. Measurements of the coffin found in Dra' Abu el-Naga' however show that it is too large to have belonged with the Deir el Bahari coffin. This has been used to argue that Ahhotep I cannot be identical to

.Ann Macy Roth, The Ahhotep Coffins, Gold of Praise: Studies of Ancient Egypt in honor of Edward F. Wente, 1999

Alternative theory

An alternative interpretation has been developed by Ann Macy Roth. This suggests that

Seqenenre Tao Seqenenre Tao (also Seqenera Djehuty-aa or Sekenenra Taa, called 'the Brave') ruled over the last of the local kingdoms of the Theban region of Egypt in the Seventeenth Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. He probably was the son and ...

had three queens: * Ahhotep I, who was the mother of a Prince Ahmose (not the future pharaoh) and several princesses named Ahmes. *

Sitdjehuti Sitdjehuti (or ''Satdjehuti''; “Daughter of Thoth”) was a princess and queen of the late Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was a daughter of Pharaoh Senakhtenre Ahmose and Queen Tetisheri. She was the wife of her brother Seqenenre Tao and wa ...

, who was the mother of a princess named Ahmes. *

, who was the mother of

and

Ahmose-Henuttamehu Ahmose-Henuttamehu (“Child of the Moon; Mistress of Lower Egypt”) was a princess and queen of the late 17th-early 18th dynasties of Egypt. Family Ahmose-Henuttamehu was a daughter of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao by his sister-wife Ahmose Inhapy. S ...

. In this interpretation,

married his sister

and then were the parents of

and

Ahmose-Sitkamose Ahmose-Sitkamose, sometimes appearing as simply Sitkamose was a princess during the late 17th-early 18th Dynasties of Egypt. Biography She was the only child of Kamose and as a result his heir presumptive to her father. She married prince Ah ...

References

* Sidpura, Taneash. 201
Proceedings of the Second Birmingham Egyptology Symposium, 2015. Pages 21-46
* Eaton-Krauss, Marianne. 2003.
Encore
The Coffins of Ahhotep, the wife of Seqeni-en-Re Tao and mother of Ahmose". Pages 75–89 in E. Graefe and other editors. ''Ägypten-Münster''.

Otto Harrassowitz Otto Wilhelm Harrassowitz (18 December 1845 in La Guayra, Venezuela – 24 June 1920 in Gaschwitz near Leipzig) was a German book seller and publisher. His business, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, became an important book vendor for academic ...

External links

Hatshepsut: from Queen to Pharaoh
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Ahhotep I (see index)
AEGEAN LB I-II POTTERY IN THE EAST:
‘WHO IS THE POTTER, PRAY, AND WHO THE POT?’, Hankey and Leonard {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahhotep 01 Queens consort of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian women in warfare 16th-century BC clergy 16th-century BC women rulers Egyptian military leaders Regents of Egypt