Sitamun, also Sitamen, Satamun; egy, sꜣ.t-imn, "daughter of Amun" (c. 1370 BCE–unknown) was an ancient Egyptian princess and queen consort during the 18th Dynasty.

Family

Sitamun is considered to be the eldest 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 ...

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...

and his

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 ...

Tiye Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the daughter of Yuya and Thuya. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. I ...

. She was later married to her father around Year 30 of Amenhotep III's reign. The belief that Sitamun was a daughter of Amenhotep and Tiye is based on the presence of objects found in the tomb of

Yuya Yuya (sometimes Iouiya, or Yuaa, also known as Yaa, Ya, Yiya, Yayi, Yu, Yuyu, Yaya, Yiay, Yia, and Yuy) was a powerful ancient Egyptian courtier during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (circa 1390 BC). He was married to Thuya, an Egyptian noble ...

and

Thuya Thuya (sometimes transliterated as Touiyou, Thuiu, Tuya, Tjuyu or Thuyu) was an Egyptian noblewoman and the mother of queen Tiye, and the wife of Yuya. She is the grandmother of Akhenaten, and great grandmother of Tutankhamun. Biography Th ...

, Queen Tiye's parents, especially a

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

bearing her title as the king's daughter.

Biography

Sitamun is very well attested, most notably in the tomb of Yuya and Thuya where three finely made chairs were discovered. As these chairs were used, and are of progressively larger size, it is assumed they belonged to Sitamun as she was growing up. They were then placed in her grandparents' tomb in the tradition of placing objects which had meaning in the deceased person's life. She is also depicted on the stele of her nurse Nebetkabeny. Almost nothing is known of her life beyond being the oldest daughter of a powerful (and long-lived) queen. In the last decade of her father's reign, she was promoted to the status of

. The evidence for this marriage consists of a blue-faience kohl-tube with the cartouches of Amenhotep III and Sitamun, an alabaster bowl found at Amarna with the same cartouches and jar-label inscriptions from

Malkata Malkata (or Malqata; ar, الملقطة, lit=the place where things are picked up), is the site of an Ancient Egyptian palace complex built during the New Kingdom, by the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III. It is located on the West Bank of the ...

palace. Sitamun's elevation to her role as Great Royal Wife of her father, Amenhotep III, is attested as early as Year 30 of his reign from jar label inscription No.95 which was discovered in the royal palace. Sitamun throne 2

She maintained her own rooms in the

palace complex, and

Amenhotep, son of Hapu Amenhotep, son of Hapu (transcribed ''jmn-ḥtp zꜣ ḥꜣp.w''; early-mid 14th century BC) was an ancient Egyptian architect, a priest, a scribe, and a public official, who held a number of offices under Amenhotep III of the 18th Dynasty. ...

was appointed as the steward of her properties here. She is attested on a

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 ...

statue of Amenhotep, son of Hapu (now in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

) where she is mentioned as the king's Great Royal Wife. She also appears on a relief from Amenhotep III's mortuary temple, found by

William Matthew Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egypt ...

, (now in the Petrie Museum). Sitamun is among a handful of figures that appear near the end of the reign of Amenhotep III. This was an era of Egyptian history in which women assumed far more prominent and powerful roles with Amenhotep III's wife

, Sitamun's mother, being a particular example. Prior to Tiye's reign, "no previous queen ever figured so prominently in her husband's lifetime". Tiye regularly appeared besides Amenhotep III in statuary, tomb and temple reliefs and stelae, while her name is paired with his on numerous small objects, such as vessels and jewellery, as well as their large commemorative scarabs.Arielle Kozloff and Betsy Bryan, ''Royal and Divine Statuary in Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and his World'', (Cleveland, 1992) nos. 1, 2, 12, 22, 27, 29, 56, 60, 100 & 129 As the eldest daughter of a powerful queen, Sitamun would have been groomed for a political role but never fulfilled this potential, despite having her own property at Malkata and her high position at court. One possibility is that she was married to an heir who never assumed the throne. Another possibility is that she died prematurely or went into seclusion after her brother

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...

became king. She was an aunt of

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

. She vanishes at the end of Amenhotep III's reign and is not mentioned during Akhenaten's reign. A separate chamber was carved for her in Amenhotep III's tomb in the

Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...

, but there is no evidence that she was ever buried there.

Titles

*''Singer of the Lord of the Two Lands'' *''King’s Wife'' *''King’s Great Wife'' *''King’s Daughter'' *''King’s Daughter Whom He Loves'' *''Eldest Daughter of the King'' *''Great Daughter of the King Whom He Loves''

References

Significant books on Sitamun: *H. Schäfer's "Amarna in Religion und Kunst", Leipzig 1931. * E. Riefstahl "Thebes in the Time of Amenhotep III", NY 1964. {{Queens of Ancient Egypt 14th-century BC Egyptian women Princesses of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Queens consort of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Children of Amenhotep III Wives of Amenhotep III