Merneith

Merneith
Tomb stela of Merneith from the Umm el-Qa'ab
Regent of Egypt
Regencyc. 2965 BC[1]
PredecessorDjet
SuccessorDen
Diedc. 2950 BC
Burial
Tomb Y, Umm El Qa'ab, Sohag, Egypt
SpouseDjet
IssueDen
Dynasty1st Dynasty

Merneith (also written Merit-neith and Meryt-Neith; died c. 2950 BC) was a consort and a regent of Ancient Egypt during the First Dynasty.[2] She may have been a ruler of Egypt in her own right, based on several official records.[3][4] If this was the case and the earlier royal wife Neithhotep never ruled as an independent regent, Merneith may have been the first female pharaoh and the earliest queen regnant in recorded history. Her rule occurred around 2950 BC[1] for an undetermined period. Merneith’s name means "Beloved by Neith" and her stele contains symbols of that ancient Egyptian deity. She may have been Djer's daughter and was probably Djet's senior royal wife.[5] The former meant that she would have been the great-granddaughter of unified Egypt's first pharaoh, Narmer. She was also the mother of Den,[6] her successor.[7]

  1. ^ a b Quiles, Anita; Tristant, Yann (2023). "Radiocarbon-Based Modeling of the Reign of King den (1St Dynasty, Egypt) and the Start of the Old Kingdom". Radiocarbon. 65 (2): 485–504. doi:10.1017/RDC.2023.15. ISSN 0033-8222.
  2. ^ Vanhulle, Dorian (2023-11-14). "Boat Burials and Boat-Shaped Pits from their Origins to the Old Kingdom: Tradition, Continuity and Change in Early Egypt". International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. 53: 1–19. doi:10.1080/10572414.2023.2264551. ISSN 1057-2414. S2CID 265239069.
  3. ^ Dee, Michael; Wengrow, David; Shortland, Andrew; Stevenson, Alice; Brock, Fiona; Girdland Flink, Linus; Bronk Ramsey, Christopher (2013-11-08). "An absolute chronology for early Egypt using radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical modelling". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 469 (2159): 20130395. Bibcode:2013RSPSA.46930395D. doi:10.1098/rspa.2013.0395. ISSN 1364-5021. PMC 3780825. PMID 24204188.
  4. ^ Allen, Troy D. (July 2008). "Cheikh Anta Diop's Two Cradle Theory: Revisited". Journal of Black Studies. 38 (6): 813–829. doi:10.1177/0021934706290354. ISSN 0021-9347. S2CID 144524456.
  5. ^ Bagnall, Roger S.; Brodersen, Kai; Champion, Craige B.; Erskine, Andrew; Huebner, Sabine R., eds. (2013-01-30). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (1 ed.). Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah15112. ISBN 978-1-4051-7935-5.
  6. ^ Wilkinson, Toby A.H. Early dynastic Egypt Routledge; 1 edition (14 Jun 2001) ISBN 978-0-415-26011-4 p.74 [1]
  7. ^ Griffin, Ken (2008). Current Research in Egyptology 2007 : Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference. pp. 1–158.