Tjan was the wife of the ancient Egyptian king

Sobekhotep IV Khaneferre Sobekhotep IV was one of the more powerful Egyptian kings of the 13th Dynasty (c. 1803 BC to c. 1649 BC), who reigned at least eight years. His brothers, Neferhotep I and Sihathor, were his predecessors on the throne, the latter having ...

of the

13th Dynasty In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...

, during the late 18th century BC. Tjan bears the title ''King's wife'' and is known from only several objects. 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 ...

there is a bead with the short inscription: ''king's wife, Tjan, beloved 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 ...

, mistress of

Atfih Atfih ( ar, أطفيح ' , ''Tpeh or Tpēh'') is a town in Middle Egypt. It was part of the now defunct Helwan Governorate from April 2008 to April 2011, after which it was reincorporated into the Giza Governorate. As of 2001, it has a pop ...

''. In the Louvre, there is a scarab with her name and title. In the Egyptian Museum of

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 ...

there is a box with an inscription stating that a certain '' ..otep begotten of king Khaneferre and born of the king's wife Tjan''. The name of the son is only partly preserved. Khaneferre is the throne name of king Sobekhotep IV. This inscription identifies her as the wife of this king. Finally there is a fragment of a faience vase naming her daughter Nebetiunet. Tjan does not appear on monuments of the king. Perhaps she married him late in his reign. K.S.B. Ryholt, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800–1550 BC'', Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997, p. 230-31

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tjan Queens consort of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt 18th-century BC women Egyptian Museum