Hathorhotep was an ancient Egyptian ''king's daughter'' at the end of the

Twelfth Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some ...

during the Middle Kingdom.

Attestation

Hathorhotep ("

Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sk ...

is satisfied") is only known from the fragment of a

canopic vase Canopus (, ; grc-gre, Κάνωπος, ), also known as Canobus ( grc-gre, Κάνωβος, ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around from the cent ...

found in pyramid of king Amenemhat III (who ruled about 1860 BCE to c.1814 BCE) at

Dahshur DahshurAlso transliterated ''Dahshour'' (in English often called ''Dashur'' ar, دهشور ' , ''Dahchur'') is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several p ...

Jacques de Morgan Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Egypt during the 19th century, and excavated in Memph ...

: ''Fouilles à Dahchour en 1894–1895''. Holzhausen, Wien 1903, p. 105. fig. 15

/ref> She was most likely buried in the pyramid and might be a daughter of Amenemhat III. However, the inscription on the fragment shows incomplete hieroglyphs. That means that animals are shown without legs, to avoid these animals could attack the deceased. This type of writing was only used from the reign of Amenemhat III, in the Twelfth Dynasty, onward into the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Thirteenth Dynasty. Therefore, it is also possible that Hathorhotep was the daughter of another, later king.

References

Princesses of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt 19th-century BC Egyptian women Children of Amenemhat III