Meresankh III in hieroglyphs | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Meresankh Mrs ˁnḫ | |||||
Queen Hetepheres II (left) embraces her deceased daughter Meresankh III (right) (MFA 30.1456) |
Queen Meresankh III was the daughter of Hetepheres II and Prince Kawab and a granddaughter of the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu. She was the wife of King Khafre.
Hetepheres also provided her daughter with a black granite sarcophagus decorated with palace facades for Meresankh's burial.[1]
Her tomb was discovered by archeologist George Reisner on April 23, 1927,[2] with subsequent excavations undertaken by his team on behalf of Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Her sarcophagus and skeleton are today located in the Cairo Museum; the latter reveals that she was 1.54 metres (5'1") tall and between 50–55 years at her death.[3] An anthropological study suggested, that she might have suffered from bilateral silent sinus syndrome.[4]
The tomb also contained a set of the earliest known canopic jars.[5] A limestone statue depicting Queen Hetepheres embracing her late daughter Meresankh was found in her tomb and is today located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.[6]