Although Egyptian queens like Cleopatra, Hatshepsut and Nefertiti are universally known, the sharpness of their deviation from the norm of Egyptian rulership is not. Every king was the living incarnation of the god Horus, upon earth and was intrinsically and unarguably male. His traditional image that of a muscle-bound, Bronze Age superman.
Royal Iconography in the Middle Kingdom
The Egyptian Middle Kingdom was a period when this image of the god-king was given its classic form. However, collections of wise sayings, works in praise of the king and stories about him sometimes show him as a vulnerable figure, weighed down with responsibility and subject to self-doubt and assassination attempts. Likewise, statues show careworn faces, albeit attached to perfect bodies. But in the greatest work of the age, The Story of Sinuhe, we see the king exercising an almost god-like power over the life of the main character. The wife and daughters of the king play only a minor role.
Developing Female Roles
At first glance art and literature appears to support the hypothesis that women's role in society became more circumscribed then it had been earlier. However, this initial appearance may be misleading. Although most women carry titles of household management and appear more frequently in tombs and on gravestones, belonging to a rising middle class. Most importantly, royal women like kings's wives (there is no Egyptian word for "queen") , daughters and mothers play and important royal in court life. Many were buried near the modest pyramids of their husbands in shaft tombs or within the pyramids themselves. Their burials include jewellry, cosmetic articles and funerary equipment.
Neferuptah and Sobeknofru
By the late 12th Dynasty, two king's daughters apparently rose even higher. During the long reign of Amenemhet III, his daughter Neferuptah assumed unprecedented importance. Not only was she shown on temple walls, approaching the god with her father. but her name started appearing in a protective oval or cartouche, hitherto reserved only for kings. She also carried royal titles and epithets. Objects relating to her have been found in her father’s pyramid. However, in the 1950s, an intact burial was found under a nearby, filled with objects bearing her name. But if this was the burial place of Neferuptah, to whom did that objects in the king’s pyramid belong? It seems unlikely that her burial was moved, since the elaborately constructed security system of the king’s pyramid made it impossible to open once it had been sealed.
While Neferuptah and her role in Egyptian history remain shrouded in mystery, her probable sister, Neferusobek, a.k.a. Sobeknofru, is listed as legitimate ruler of Egypt in a number of ancient sources, including theTurin King List. First recorded as the wife of Amenemhet III’s successor, Amenemhet IV, Sobkenofru reigned almost four years in the 18th century BCE as the last ruler of the Middle Kingdom. She left a number of inscriptions in the Labyrinth that suggest Amenemhet III was her father and intriguing statues that show her as woman with the male attributes of a pharaoh. The relics of Neferuptah and Sobeknofru provided a model for the rulership of the later female Pharaoh Hatshepsut and her female successors. Papyrus documents record that offerings for the spirit of Sobeknofru continued for over a century.
It appears that even the most conventional periods of Egyptian history may conceal real surprises. It's not know exactly how these two women attained a rulership role but it shows that traditional gender roles could change with the circumstances.
Sources:
Aidan Dodson, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson, 2004
Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids, Thames & Hudson, 1997.
Stefania Pignattari, Due donne per il trono d'Egitto: Neferuptah e Sobekneferu, La Mandragora, 2008.
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