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Mayet (also Miiut and Miit,Michael Rice: ''Who is who in Ancient Egypt''. Routledge, London/New York 1999. , p. 117. meaning ''the cat'') is the name of an ancient Egyptian girl buried in the mortuary temple of king
Mayet (also Miiut and Miit,Michael Rice: ''Who is who in Ancient Egypt''. Routledge, London/New York 1999. , p. 117. meaning ''the cat'') is the name of an ancient Egyptian girl buried in the mortuary temple of king Mentuhotep II
Mentuhotep II ( egy, Mn- ṯw-ḥtp, meaning " Mentu is satisfied"), also known under his prenomen Nebhepetre ( egy, Nb- ḥpt- Rˁ, meaning "The Lord of the rudder is Ra"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth ruler of the Eleventh Dyn ...
(reigned c. 2061 BC – 2010 BC) at 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 ...
. Her burial was found intact. Her position within the royal family of Mentuhotep II is disputed.
The burial of Mayet was found in 1921 by an American expedition guided by Herbert Eustis Winlock
Herbert Eustis Winlock (February 1, 1884 – January 27, 1950)Note: ''Who Was Who'' notes death on January 27, Spring 1998 ''KMT magazine'' article states January 25. was an American Egyptologist and archaeologist, employed by the Metropolitan M ...
. Her burial was discovered at the back of a columned structure, at the centre of the complex. At the back of the structure were discovered six burials with shrines. Five of these burials belonged to royal women ( Ashait, Henhenet
Henhenet was an ancient Egyptian queen consort, a lower ranking wife of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II of the 11th dynasty. Her tomb (DBXI.11) and small decorated chapel were found in her husband's Deir el-Bahari temple complex,Dodson, Aidan, Hilton, Dya ...
, Kawit
Kawit, officially the Municipality of Kawit ( tgl, Bayan ng Kawit), is a first-class municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population ...
, Kemsit
Kemsit was an ancient Egyptian queen consort, the wife of pharaoh Mentuhotep II of the 11th Dynasty. Her tomb ( TT308) and small decorated chapel were found in her husband's Deir el-Bahari temple complex, behind the main building, along with th ...
and Sadeh
)
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) with the title ''king's wife''. The burial of Mayet was the sixth one. However, Mayet does not bear any title on her preserved objects. Her status in relation to the king and to the other women remains obscure. It is generally assumed that she was a daughter of the king as she was about five years old when she died.
The burial of Mayet was found at the bottom of a shaft. The girl was placed in a set of two coffins. The outer one was a sarcophagus made of limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
and inscribed with simple offering formulae. This sarcophagus was much bigger than required, suggesting that it was not destined to her, that her death was unexpected and no arrangements had been made in prevision of it.
The inner coffin was made of wood and also inscribed with simple offering formulae. Both containers were originally made for a different person. There are signs that the name was altered for Mayet. The body of Mayet was wrapped in linen and adorned with a mummy mask. Five necklaces were found around her neck, some of them made of gold and silver.William C. Hayes
William Christopher Hayes (March 21, 1903 – July 10, 1963) was an American Egyptologist. His main fields of study were history of Egyptian art and translation/interpretation of texts.W. C. Hayes, ''The Scepter of Egypt'', part II, 4th print ...
: ''The Scepter of Egypt, I. From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom'', New York 1953 , 162, 229, fig. 144
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayet 21st-century BC Egyptian people 21st-century BC women People of the Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian mummies Mentuhotep II