Ahhotep I

Ahhotep I was the daughter of Queen Tetisheri and Pharaoh Senakhtenre Ahmose.^{[1][note 1]} She was the royal wife of the Seventeenth Dynasty king Seqenenre Tao, also believed to be her brother.^[3]: 124

Ahhotep was the mother of Pharaoh Ahmose I. Her exact relationship to Pharaoh Kamose is not known, but he may have been her brother-in-law (the brother of Seqenenre Tao) or her son. Ahhotep's other children include Princess Ahmose-Nebetta,^[3] Princess Ahmose-Tumerisy,^{[4]: 142–143} and the later Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, who was married to her brother, Ahmose I.^[3]: 124 While Prince Ahmose Sapair, Prince Binpu, and Princess Ahmose-Henutemipet may also have been children of Ahhotep, their maternity is less certain.^[3]: 126

At the beginning of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao's reign, the Hyksos had controlled parts of northern and central Egypt for close to a century. Backed by the support of family, including Ahhotep I, Seqenenre Tao began a military campaign to take back control. He died from injuries sustained in battle, and was briefly succeeded by Pharaoh Kamose, who continued to lead the campaign against the Hyksos. Kamose died in battle only three years later, leaving Queen Ahhotep's young son, Ahmose I, as the next heir to the throne.^[5]

Scholars believe that Ahhotep took on governing responsibilities as a regent for her son until he was old enough to rule.^[5] A stela found in Karnak from the reign of Ahmose I has a section that describes Ahhotep I as ruling Egypt and uniting its people, attributes that are normally reserved for kings.^{[6][4]: 135} The stela's praise of Ahhotep can be translated as follows:^{[6]: 366–367}

Give jubilation to the Mistress of the Land, the ruler of the riverbanks of Hau-nebu, with a renowned name in every land, and who does the will of the masses. The King’s Wife, the Sovereign’s Sister, life-prosperity-health, the King’s Daughter and the august King’s Mother, who knows matters, and upholds Egypt; she has united its officer class; and she has protected it; she has returned its deserters and she gathers its dissidents; she has pacified Upper Egypt and she quells its rebels, the King’s Wife, Ahhotep, living.

Based partially on the stela's text, scholars have speculated that Ahhotep commanded the Egyptian army, perhaps during her son's youth or while he was later abroad as an adult.^[7] In a linguistic analysis of the stela, Taneash Sidpura has posited that the wording does not necessarily imply direct military leadership but makes it clear Ahhotep was considered an effective ruler whose knowledge and abilities helped unite her people.^{[6]: 98–99}

Ahhotep's governing influence likely continued in some form throughout her son's official reign once he came of age—and perhaps beyond. Through an analysis of Egyptian royal officials from the early Eighteenth Dynasty, Beatriz Noria Serrano notes that the officials explicitly linked to Ahhotep I (e.g., through titles, inscriptions, and artifacts) generally held civil administrative positions, such as "overseer of the double house of gold", "overseer of the double granary of the (royal wife and) king's mother Ahhotep", or "senior steward of the king's mother".^[8]: 108 In contrast, officials explicitly linked to Ahmose I were generally involved with border administration or the cult of the god Amun. Noria Serrano suggests this could indicate an ongoing division of ruling responsibilities between Ahhotep I and her son: Ahhotep may have managed administration of the palace and capital city of Thebes, along with other internal affairs, while Ahmose I focused his attentions on issues of border administration and the solidification of royal power abroad. Civil administrative officials only displayed clear links to the king again during the reign of Thutmose I,^[8]: 108 who came to power after the reigns of both Ahmose I and his son Amenhotep I had ended.^[9]

Although exact dates are uncertain, scholars generally agree that Ahhotep I had a long life, outliving her son Ahmose I.^[10] Ahhotep is mentioned on the Kares stela (CG 34003), which dates to year ten of the reign of her grandson Amenhotep I, and her steward Iuf also mentions her on his stela (CG 34009). Iuf refers to Ahhotep as the mother of Ahmose I, and would later be the steward of Queen Ahmose, wife of Thutmose I. This suggests Ahhotep I may have died at a fairly advanced age during the reign of Thutmose I.^[11]

The cult of Amenhotep I continued to remember Ahhotep after her death, up until at least the Twenty-first Dynasty,^[9] and her depiction has been found in multiple New Kingdom tombs where the tomb owners included her in their lists of respected ancestors.^[6]: 97

In 1859, a team of Egyptian workers employed by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette discovered a coffin at a dig site in Dra' Abu el-Naga'. The coffin was identified as belonging to a queen named Ahhotep and inscribed with the titles "Great Royal Wife" and "She who is joined to the White Crown". While the coffin contained a mummy when first discovered, the body and bandaging were destroyed soon afterwards, leaving behind little evidence to confirm the identity of the coffin's inhabitant.^{[4]: 131–134}

In 1881, a separate team at Deir el-Bahari unearthed another coffin, this one also belonging to a queen named Ahhotep. This coffin had a longer, more elaborate set of titles inscribed, including the addition of "King's Daughter", "King's Sister", and "King's Mother", but did not contain the body of an individual named Ahhotep. Instead, this coffin had apparently been reused to bury a high priest named Pinudjem I.^{[4]: 134–135} The discovery of this second coffin raised new questions about the identity of the Ahhotep from the Dra' Abu el-Naga' site, igniting a scholarly debate over whether there could be one, two, or even three distinct Egyptian queens named Ahhotep.^[2]

Initially, scholars assumed the name Ahhotep and similar titles inscribed on the coffins meant that both vessels probably belonged to the same Queen Ahhotep: perhaps the coffin at Deir el-Bahari had originally been designed to contain the one at Dra' Abu el-Naga', and the coffins had become separated. However, the dimensions of the coffins did not support this scenario.^[4]: 135 Because the coffin at Dra' Abu el-Naga' was found buried with items inscribed with the names of the pharaohs Kamose and Ahmose I, it was also proposed that the Dra' Abu el-Naga' Ahhotep could be the mother of Ahmose (and perhaps the wife of Kamose or Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao). Versions of this theory were popular among researchers well into the early 20th century.^{[4]: 134, 135}

Beginning in the 1960s, however, scholars began ascribing more importance to the royal title of "King's Mother", which appeared only on the Deir el-Bahari coffin. The unexplained absence of this title from the burial at Dra' Abu el-Naga' meant that the two coffins likely belonged to two separate queens named Ahhotep. Consequently, the "King's Mother" at Deir el-Bahari has become more widely linked to Queen Ahhotep I, mother of Pharaoh Ahmose I,^{[4]: 135–136} while the "Great Royal Wife" at Dra' Abu el-Naga', who seemingly did not have a son, brother, or father who ascended the throne, has been proposed as a second Queen Ahhotep, whose identity and placement in royal family trees is still under much speculation.^{[4]: 146–148}

The theory of a single Ahhotep has continued to be explored by some researchers in the 20th and 21st centuries,^{[note 2]} although academic Marilina Betrò posits that these interpretations of the available evidence "present more problems than they solve".^[4]: 137 Other scholars have offered alternative reconstructions that argue for the existence of at least three Ahhoteps,^{[note 3]} with chronological orders and numbering changing depending on the interpretations.^[4]: 139

The coffin of Ahhotep I, found at the Royal Cache (TT320) in Deir el-Bahari, is made of wood and cartonnage.^[4]: 135 It provides an earlier example of the "rishi-design" for Egyptian coffins (feather patterns appearing across the body), and demonstrates many stylistic similarities to the coffin of Ahhotep's daughter Ahmose-Nefertari.^[11]: 366 The type of lunar crescent symbol contained as part of its inscriptions makes it probable that the coffin was originally inscribed for Ahhotep after the reign of Ahmose I, when the symbol had culturally undergone a transition in depiction.^[4]: 139

Scholar Ann Macy Roth has remarked that the face carved onto Ahhotep's coffin is "quite similar to that of Ahmose on his coffin ... although his chin is squarer, and her eyes and brows are very like those on the coffin of Ahmes-Nefertari."^[11]: 366

At some point, Ahhotep I's coffin was reused to bury the high priest Pinudjem I at Deir el-Bahari.^{[4]: 134–135} No funerary equipment belonging to Ahhotep I was found with this coffin, and the question of whether her original burial place was truly at Deir el-Bahari or elsewhere still remains unanswered.^[12]: 101

• Grajetzki, Wolfram (2005). Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary. Golden House Publications. ISBN 978-0954721893.