Meritites II (Merytiotes, Meritetes) or Meritites A ("beloved of her father") was a

4th Dynasty The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...

princess of ancient Egypt, probably a daughter of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Khufu Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period ( 26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having c ...

. She may have been a daughter of

Meritites I Meritites I was an ancient Egyptian queen of the 4th Dynasty. Her name means "Beloved of her Father". Several of her titles are known from a stela found at Giza. She was buried in the middle Queen’s Pyramid in Giza (''Pyramid G 1b''). Meritite ...

based on the fact that this queen is mentioned in mastaba G 7650. She married the Director of the Palace, Akhethotep (a non-royal court official), and she had several children with her husband. Meritites and her husband shared a mastaba G 7650 in Giza.

Family and early life

Meritites II was probably a daughter of Khufu, as she was said to be a ''King's daughter of his body'' and as the location of her tomb indicates a relation to Khufu. She was a Prophetess of Khufu,

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 sk ...

and

Neith Neith ( grc-koi, Νηΐθ, a borrowing of the Demotic form egy, nt, likely originally to have been nrt "she is the terrifying one"; Coptic: ⲛⲏⲓⲧ; also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early ancient Egyptian deity. She was said to b ...

. Meritites was married to Akhethotep, who was a director of the palace. Further titles of Akhethotep include ''Sole friend'', ''Priest of the Bas of

Nekhen Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...

'', and ''Overseer of fishers/ fowlers''.Flentye, Laurel. "The Mastabas of Ankh-haf (G 7510) and Akhethetep and Meretites (G 7650) in the Eastern Cemetery at Giza: A Reassessment." In Zahi Hawass and Janet Richards, eds. The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt. Essays in Honor of David B. O'Connor, Vol. I. Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte, Cahier no. 36. Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities, 2007, pp. 291-292, 294-298, 301-303, figs. 1, 3, 6, 7. In the tomb several children are depicted. A block formerly in the McGregor collection, but now in Lisbon shows two daughters. One daughter is named

Hetepheres {{Use dmy dates, date=May 2012 Hetepheres is the name of several queens, princesses and noble women from the Fourth dynasty of Egypt. * Hetepheres I, wife of Pharaoh Sneferu and mother of Khufu * Hetepheres A, daughter of Sneferu, wife of Ankhhaf ...

and only a partial name has been preserved for the second girl: Khufu .. Reisner, ''A History of the Giza Necropolis'', Volume II, Appendix B: Cemetery 7000, Retrieved fro
The Giza Archives

Burial

Akhethotep and Meritites were buried at Giza in tomb G 7650. The mastaba is stone built and the interior offering room is decorated. Akhethotep is depicted with his wife Meritites and attendants in some of the scenes. In one scene Akhethotep is accompanied by two daughters. A red granite sarcophagus with a palace facade was discovered in shaft C.Porter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings Volume III: Memphis, Part I Abu Rawash to Abusir. 2nd edition (revised and augmented by Dr Jaromir Malek), 1974. Retrieved from gizapyramids.org Meritites died during the reign of her brother Khafre.

Literature

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meritites 02 Princesses of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt 26th-century BC women 3rd-millennium BC births 3rd-millennium BC deaths Khufu