Mutnedjmet, also spelled Mutnedjemet, Mutnodjmet, Mutnodjemet ( egy, mw.t-nḏm.t) was an ancient Egyptian queen, the

Great Royal Wife Great Royal Wife, or alternatively, Chief King's Wife ( Ancient Egyptian: ''ḥmt nswt wrt'', cop, Ⲟⲩⲏⲣ Ⲟⲩⲣϣ), is the title that was used to refer to the principal wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who served many official ...

Horemheb Horemheb, also spelled Horemhab or Haremhab ( egy, ḥr-m-ḥb, meaning "Horus is in Jubilation") was the last pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty of Egypt (1550–1295 BC). He ruled for at least 14 years between 131 ...

, the last ruler of the 18th Dynasty. The name, Mutnedjmet, translates as: ''The sweet

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 ...

.''

Titles

Mutnedjemet's titles include: Hereditary Princess ('' iryt-p`t''), Great King’s Wife (''hmt-niswt-wrt''), Great of Praises (''wrt-hzwt''), Lady of Grace (''nbt-im3t''), Sweet of Love (''bnrt-mrwt''), Mistress of

Upper and Lower Egypt In Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the unification of the realm. The conception of Egypt as the Two Lands was an example of the duali ...

(''hnwt-Shm’w -mhw''), Songstress of

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 sky ...

(''hsyt-nt-hwt-hrw''), and Songstress 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 ...

(''Sm’yt-nt-imnw'')

Mutnedjmet as Nefertiti's sister

Some Egyptologists have speculated that Mutnedjemet is identical to

Nefertiti Neferneferuaten Nefertiti () ( – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a radical change in national religious policy, in whic ...

's sister

Mutbenret Mutbenret (''Benretmut'') was an Egyptian noblewoman, and said to be the sister of the Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. Her name used to be read as Mutnedjemet. The hieroglyphs for ''nedjem'' and ''bener'' are similar and so is their meaning. The name ...

.J. Tyldesley, Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt, 2006, Thames & Hudson This identification was partially based on the fact that Mutbenret's name used to be read as Mutnedjmet. Other Egyptologist such as Geoffrey Martin note that there is no definite evidence to prove this assertion.Geoffrey Martin, ''The Hidden Tombs of Memphis'', Thames & Hudson (1991), p.96 Martin writes that: : The name Mutnodjmet was not particularly rare in the late Eighteenth Dynasty, and even if she were the sister of Nefertiti her marriage to Horemheb would have had no effect on Horemheb's legitimacy or candidacy since Mutnodjmet (who is depicted in the private tombs at El-Amarna) was not herself of royal blood. In any case whatever her antecedents Mutnodjmet could have been married to Horemheb a little before he became Pharaoh.

Monuments and inscriptions

Mutnedjmet is known from several objects and inscriptions: * A double statue of Horemheb and Mutnedjmet was found in

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 ...

, but is now in the

Museo Egizio The Museo Egizio (Italian language, Italian for Egyptian Museum) is an archaeological museum in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, specializing in Art of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses List of museums of Egyptian antiquitie ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

(1379). On Mutnedjmet's side of the throne she is depicted as a winged

sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...

who adores her own cartouche. As a sphinx she is depicted wearing a flat topped crown topped with plant elements associated with the goddess Tefnut. The back of the statue records Horemheb's rise to power. * Horemheb and Mutnodjemet are depicted in the tomb of Roy (

TT255 The Theban Tomb TT255 is located in Dra' Abu el-Naga'. It forms part of the Theban Necropolis, situated on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor. The sepulchre is the burial place of the ancient Egyptian Roy, who lived at the end of the 18th ...

) in

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 n ...

. The royal couple are shown in an offering scene. * One of the colossal statues in Karnak (north side of the 10th pylon) was made for Horemheb and depicted Mutnedjmet. The statue was later usurped and reinscribed for

Ramesses II Ramesses II ( egy, wikt:rꜥ-ms-sw, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is oft ...

and

Nefertari Nefertari, also known as Nefertari Meritmut, was an Egyptian queen and the first of the Great Royal Wife, Great Royal Wives (or principal wives) of Ramesses II, Ramesses the Great.Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. ''The Complete Royal Families o ...

. * Mutnedjmet usurped several inscriptions of

Ankhesenamun Ankhesenamun (, "Her Life Is of Amun"; c. 1348 or c. 1342 – after 1322 BC) was a queen who lived during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt as the pharaoh Akhenaten's daughter and subsequently became the Great Royal Wife of pharaoh Tutankhamun. Born Ank ...

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, ''The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt''. Thames & Hudson, 2004, , pg 156 * Statues (fragments) and other items including alabaster fragments naming Mutnodjemet were found in Horemheb's Saqqara tomb. Some items bear funerary texts.

Death and burial

Mutnedjmet died soon after Year 13 of her husband's rule in her mid-40s based on a wine-jar docket found in a burial chamber of Horemheb

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a :wikt:repository, repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be ...

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...

, in Memphis and a statue and other items of hers found here. The mummy was found in King Horemheb's unused Memphite tomb along with the mummy of a still-born, premature infant. She appears to have been buried in the Memphite tomb of Horemheb, alongside his first wife Amenia. Mutnedjmet's mummy shows she had given birth several times, but the last King of the 18th Dynasty did not have a living heir at the time of his death. It has been suggested that she had a daughter who was simply not mentioned on any monuments. The presence of the infant along with Mutnedjmet in the tomb suggests that this queen died in childbirth. A

canopic jar 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 cente ...

of the Queen is now located in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. It is possible that the tom
QV33
in the

Valley of the Queens The Valley of the Queens ( ar, وادي الملكات ) is a site in Egypt, where the wives of pharaohs were buried in ancient times. It was known then as Ta-Set-Neferu, meaning "the place of beauty". It was most famous for being the burial site ...

was originally built for her. The tomb is known as the tomb of an otherwise unknown Tanedjmet, but both cartouches with her name are damaged and the similar hieroglyphs for ''ta'' and ''mut'' allow for this interpretation.Elizabeth Thomas: "Was Queen Mutnedjmet the Owner of Tomb 33 in the Valley of the Queens?", ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'', Vol. 53, (Dec., 1967), pp. 161-163

In popular culture

* The South African artist

Winifred Brunton Winifred Mabel Brunton ''née Newberry'' (6 May 1880 – 29 January 1959) was a South African painter, illustrator and Egyptologist. Early years Brunton was born in 1880 in the Orange Free State South Africa. Her father, Charles Newberry, a m ...

painted a portrait of this queen during the 1920s. * In

Michelle Moran Michelle Moran (born August 11, 1980) is an American novelist known for her historical fiction writing. Biography Michelle Moran was born in California's San Fernando Valley, August 11, 1980. She took an interest in writing from an early age, pu ...

's novel, ''Nefertiti: A Novel'', Mutnedjmet is the principal character as the younger sister of Queen

. She is also referenced in Moran's second novel, ''The Heretic Queen'', as the mother of the principal character, Princess and later Queen

. * Mutnedjmet is one of two main characters in Kerry Greenwood's historical mystery, ''Out of the Black Land'' (2010)

References

{{Queens of Ancient Egypt 14th-century BC Egyptian women Princesses of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Deaths in childbirth Queens consort of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt 1300s BC deaths Year of birth unknown Ancient Egyptian mummies Horemheb Ay