Queen Nofretari

The name of the architect Ahmose has not been perpetuated on the walls of the Theban temples, but the rock tablets of Maassara down to the present hour have in the inscriptions preserved the memorial of him, and by the side of him the remembrance of his consort, the great heiress-queen NOFRET-ARI-AHMOSE, that is, "the beautiful companion of Ahmose." Not only the rocky caverns of Toora and Maassara, within sight of Memphis, the capital of the oldest dynasties, but also a number of public monuments in the interior of the dark chambers of the tombs of the Theban Necropolis, have clearly preserved the name of this queen, surrounded by laudatory inscriptions. Long after her decease this great ancestress of the new empire was venerated as a divine being, and her image was placed as an equal among the eternal inhabitants of the Egyptian heaven. In the united assembly of the sainted first kings of the new empire, Nofert-ari-Ahmose, the divine spouse of Ahmose, sits enthroned at the head of all the Pharaonio pairs, and before all the royal children of their race, as the specially venerated ancestress and founder of the eighteenth dynasty. As such she was called "the daughter, sister, wife, and mother of a king," besides her title of "wife of the God Amon," which expression designated the chief priestess of the tutelary God of Thebes (but not more than that). 

 

On several monuments the beautiful companion of Ahmose is represented with a black skin, and the conclusion has hence been drawn that she had to boast or to be ashamed of a negro origin. In spite of the intelligent surmises which have been put forward, on the side of the learned, to discover high state reasons from the color of her skin, namely, that a treaty concluded by the Pharaoh Ahmose with the neighbouring negro peoples for a common effort to drive out the shepherd kings was sealed by this marriage, it seems to me that, in this supposition, two points of view have been entirely neglected. First, the dark color is found not infrequently employed in the paintings in the tombs of the kings at Thebes, so as to offer by the side of the other brightly coloured pictures of the Pharaohs an evident allusion to their stay in the dark night of the grave. This intention of the painter would appear all the more probable in the case of our raven-coloured queen, as she is not on every occasion represented black, but sometimes she appears on the walls of the tombs at Thebes with a yellow color to her skin like all Egyptian women. In the second place, the negroes with their queen, allied to them (as is said) in race, owed small thanks to the house of Egypt, since Ahmose, after conquering his enemies in the north, immediately turned his arms against the brethren and the people of his own wife, by whose help alone, it is supposed, he had been able to obtain a victory over his hereditary enemy. We must therefore consider, and for the sake of King Ahmose we must wish it to be so, that Nofretari, belonging to the Egyptian stock, represented an heiress, to whom had descended by birth and by law the right of succession to" the Theban throne. As the husband of such an heiress Ahmose only occupied the second place by her side, and it was reserved to the son of them both, according to the laws of the Egyptian succession, to bear the sceptre as the legitimate full king over both the great divisions of the empire. 

 

Related Pages:

Transporting Stone and Metal in Ancient Egypt
People of Ancient Egypt
Quartzite in Ancient Egypt
Quarrying Tools in Ancient Egypt
Origins of the Egyptians in Northeastern Africa
Quarries and Mines in Ancient Egypt
Race of the Ancient Egyptians
Qurna
Asiatics
Mediterranean Peoples
Pygmies
Puntites
Paradise in Ancient Egyptians Culture
Papyrus Westcar
Papyrus Rylands IX
Papyrus in Ancient Egypt
Palettes in Ancient Egypt
Temple Palaces in Ancient Egypt
Palaces in Ancient Egypt
Pan-Grave People and Culture
Ancient Egypt videos
Egyptian hieroglyph and Society
Lake Mariotis in Ancient Egypt
The Western Desert in Ancient Egypt
Wadi Natrun in Ancient Egypt
Lake Moeris (Lake Karun)
Writing Palette and Brushes of Princess Meketaten
Wounded Animal in a Hunting Scene: Tomb of Userhat...
Wooden Box, cosmetic: Middle Kingdom
Wooden Box from Ancient Egypt
Woman Carrying a Child on Her Back and Leading an ...
Whip Handle in the Shape of a Horse: Dynasty 18
Weaver's comb: Ramesside Period
Water Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache
Wall Tile with the Cartouche of Seti II
Wall Painting fragment: Dynasty 18
Votive, bird figure: Dynasty 18
Votive stela of Userhat
Votive menat fragment: New Kingdom
Votive Fragment, Hathor
Votive Ear: New Kingdom
Votive cow plaque - New Kingdom
Vessel: Middle Kingdom
Vessel stand naming the scribe Iui
Vase inscribed for the Mistress of the House Amene...
Userhat and Wife Receiving Offerings, Tomb of User...
Upper Part of the Seated Statue of a Queen
Two-Handled Ointment Jar: New Kingdom
Two-handed pottery vase of Amenhotep
Two Princesses: Dynasty 18
Tweezers: Dynasty 18
Turtle amulet: New Kingdom
Tubular beads in Ancient Egypt
Triad: Early New Kingdom
Torso of a High General
Top of a Papyrus Stalk Mirror Handle
Toe fragment: Amarna Period
Tjes-Knot Amulet
Tit (Isis knot) amulet
Tile with the Name of Seti I