Henuttawy or Henettawy, was an ancient Egyptian princess and priestess during the

21st Dynasty The Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXI, alternatively 21st Dynasty or Dynasty 21) is usually classified as the first Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, lasting from 1077 BC to 943 BC. History After the r ...

Biography

Henuttawy was probably a daughter of the Theban High Priest of Amun

Menkheperre Menkheperre, son of Pharaoh Pinedjem I by wife Duathathor-Henuttawy (daughter of Ramesses XI by wife Tentamon), was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes in ancient Egypt from 1045 BC to 992 BC and ''de facto'' ruler of the south of the country. ...

and of

Isetemkheb C Isetemkheb (Asetemakhbit) is the name of several noble and royal women from Ancient Egypt. * Isetemkheb A, Chief of the Harem of Amun-Re, Wife of Pinedjem I ( 21st Dynasty) * Isetemkheb B, Chief of the Harem of Min, possibly the daughter of Ma ...

, herself daughter of

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

Psusennes I Psusennes I ( egy, pꜣ-sbꜣ-ḫꜥ-n-njwt; Greek Ψουσέννης) was the third pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis between 1047 and 1001 BC. ''Psusennes'' is the Greek version of his original name Pasibkhanu or Pasebakhaenniut ...

. She likely married her brother

Smendes II Smendes II was a High Priest of Amun at Thebes in Ancient Egypt. He briefly governed from about 992 to 990 BC., p.207 Biography The name ''Smendes'' is a hellenization of the Egyptian name ''Nesbanebdjed'' (''"He of the ram, lord of Mendes"''), ...

who became High Priest of Amun after his father's death. The couple had at least a daughter,

Isetemkheb E Isetemkheb (Asetemakhbit) is the name of several noble and royal women from Ancient Egypt. * Isetemkheb A, Chief of the Harem of Amun-Re, Wife of Pinedjem I (21st Dynasty) * Isetemkheb B, Chief of the Harem of Min, possibly the daughter of Masa ...

.
She holds many titles such as ''Chantress of

Amun Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as (Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → (Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egyptian ...

, Mistress of the House, Chief of the Harim of Amun, Flautist of

Mut Mut, also known as Maut and Mout, was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush in present-day North Sudan. In Meroitic, her name was pronounced mata): 𐦨𐦴. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient Egyptian la ...

, God's Mother of

Khonsu Khonsu ( egy, ḫnsw; also transliterated Chonsu, Khensu, Khons, Chons or Khonshu; cop, Ϣⲟⲛⲥ, Shons) is the ancient Egyptian god of the Moon. His name means "traveller", and this may relate to the perceived nightly travel of the Moon a ...

''.Mummy board of Henettawy (C)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see description) Henuttawy died as an elderly woman around her 70s, and was buried in 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 ...

necropolis near the

Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut The mortuary temple of Hatshepsut (Egyptian: ''Ḏsr-ḏsrw'' meaning "Holy of Holies") is a mortuary temple built during the reign of Pharaoh Hatshepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Located opposite the city of Luxor, it is considered t ...

. Her tomb ( MMA 60) was plundered in antiquity, and was rediscovered in 1923-24 by an expedition led by Herbert E. Winlock. The jewelry was long gone but the mummy, coffins and part of the funerary equipment were taken to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

where these are exhibited today. Later, some of Henuttawy's coffin were given to the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

(acc. no. 54.639-40). According to

Kenneth Kitchen Kenneth Anderson Kitchen (born 1932) is a British biblical scholar, Ancient Near Eastern historian, and Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and honorary research fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, Univ ...

, she is likely the same Henuttawy who is mentioned as the beneficiary of a decree carved on the Tenth Pylon of the Precinct of Amun-Ra at

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construct ...

, and issued in years 5, 6 and 8 of an unnamed king – possibly

Siamun Neterkheperre or Netjerkheperre-Setepenamun Siamun was the sixth pharaoh of Egypt during the Twenty-first Dynasty. He built extensively in Lower Egypt for a king of the Third Intermediate Period and is regarded as one of the most powerful ruler ...

– when the High Priest of Amun at Thebes was Smendes II's successor,

Pinedjem II Pinedjem II was a High Priest of Amun at Thebes in Ancient Egypt from 990 BC to 969 BC and was the ''de facto'' ruler of the south of the country. He was married to his full sister Isetemkheb D (both children of Menkheperre, the High Priest of ...

. The inscriptions did not mentions any title but from these is clear that Henuttawy and her daughter Isetemkheb inherited the property of a man named Smendes, likely the former's defunct husband (Smendes II).Kenneth Kitchen, op. cit., § 389.

References

{{authority control Princesses of the Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian priestesses 11th-century BC clergy 10th-century BC clergy 11th-century BC Egyptian women 10th-century BC Egyptian women Ancient Egyptian mummies