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For pharaoh Teti's wife, see Khuit.

Khuit I was an Ancient Egyptian queen who has been tentatively dated by association to have lived during the 5th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

Life

Attestation of Khuit I is poor, and little can be said of her for certain. There is consensus among scholars that she most probably lived during the latter half of the 5th Dynasty.[1]

By process of elimination, Austrian Egyptologist Wilfried Seipel suggests that she was a queen of the 5th Dynasty pharaoh Menkauhor Kaiu, through attribution of pharaohs to queens whose marriages are more concretely understood.[2] This proposition has been criticised by French Egyptologist Michel Baud, who notes the precedent that pharaohs might entertain more than one queen simultaneously.[3] Instead, Baud proffers that the pharaoh Unas may also qualify as a candidate, owing to congruencies in the style of inscriptional titles belonging to other queens.[4]

Were Khuit I to have been a royal wife of Unas, she may have lived contemporaneously with other royal women of his court Nebet I and Khenut I.[5] On the contrary, in accordance with Seipel's proposition, Khuit I may have lived around the time of Meresankh IV, another queen proposed to have been a wife of Menkauhor Kaiu based on his burial's proximal affiliation, however the datation of Meresankh IV's reign is also uncertain.[6]

During the course of her life, Khuit I held the following titles:[7][8]

  • Royal Wife
  • King's Daughter
  • King's Acquaintance
  • Great of Praises
 
M23X1
N41		 U7
D21		 X1
I9		 M17U1
Aa1		 F39
Aa1		 D21
D4		 Q1R8
 
The Royal Wife, his beloved, revered before Osiris
ḥmt-nswt mrt.f ỉmꜣḫ[t] ḫr wsỉr
in hieroglyphs
Era: Old Kingdom
(2686–2181 BC)

Her accompanying epithets include beloved of the King; she who sees Horus and Set; she who is revered before Osiris; Great of Charm and Great of Knowledge.

The title of King's Daughter establishes her as a princess by birth, and, owing to her title of Royal Wife, later, a queen.

Family

Khuit I is attested as the Royal Wife and daughter to two unnamed pharaohs respectively.[9] This places her firmly within the royal line and implies that she may have intermarried with her husband.

Burial

Khuit I was laid to rest in mastaba D 14 (no. 70) in Saqqara.

Discovered by French archaeologist and Egyptologist Auguste Mariette in the late 19th Century, the state of the mastaba was recorded for the publication of Les Mastabas de l'Ancien Empire. He assessed it to have been constructed of limestone and noted its poor condition.[10]

Of the mastaba itself, he reported it to have been buried beneath sand and littered with innumerable fragments of limestone, with its chamber presumably having deteriorated in antiquity.

According to Mariette's account, a stele framing dedicatory inscriptions found within the mastaba was accidentally destroyed during the course of excavation prior to it being recorded. Nonetheless, Mariette recorded two limestone blocks and accompanying inscriptional detail which attests Khuit I's ownership of the mastaba, her relationship to the royal family, and other titles she held during her life.

With regards to its datation, Seipel argues that its proximity to other more satisfactorily dated burials places it within the 5th Dynasty.[11]

Attestations

Khuit I is known only from Mariette's record of her mastaba.[12] There are only three instances where she is securely attested by name. Though her face has long since been lost, she is portrayed in bas-relief on the wall of her mastaba, breathing in the aroma of a flower.[13]

 
M17X1G43Aa1G39
N35		 X1
N35		 M23
 
The King's Daughter, Khuit
sꜣ[t] n nswt ḫwỉt
in hieroglyphs
Era: Old Kingdom
(2686–2181 BC)

The attribution of the title King's Daughter was found in the entryway of the mastaba.

 
M23X1
D21
Aa1		 Aa1G43M17X1
 
The King's Acquaintance, Khuit
nswt-rḫ ḫwỉt
in hieroglyphs
Era: Old Kingdom
(2686–2181 BC)

The title of King's Acquaintance was found inscribed above the only known depiction of Khuit I.

 
M17U1M17M17Aa1
D21		 M23N41
X1		 Aa1G43M17X1
 
Revered before the Royal Wife Khuit
ỉmꜣḫy ḫr ḥmt-nswt ḫwỉt
in hieroglyphs
Era: Old Kingdom
(2686–2181 BC)

A reference attributing Khuit I with her queenly status, Royal Wife, was found on a bas relief fragment which may have captioned an associated figure.

Notes

  1. ^ Jánosi 1992, p. 53
  2. ^ Seipel 1980, p. 214
  3. ^ Baud 1999, p. 484
  4. ^ Baud 1999, p. 537
  5. ^ Dodson and Hilton 2004, p. 68
  6. ^ Tyldesley 2006, pp. 55-56
  7. ^ Mariette 1889
  8. ^ Baud 1999, p. 537
  9. ^ Mariette 1889
  10. ^ Mariette, 1889
  11. ^ Seipel 1980, p. 214
  12. ^ Baud 1999, p. 537
  13. ^ Mariette 1889

References

  • Baud, M., 1999. Famille Royale et Pouvoir sous l’Ancien Empire Égyptien, Tome 2. Le Caire: L’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale.
  • Dodson, A. and Hilton, D., 2004. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
  • Jánosi, P., 1992. The Queens of the Old Kingdom and their Tombs. Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology, 3, 51–57.
  • Mariette, A., 1889. Les Mastabas de l’Ancien Empire. Paris: Collège de France.
  • Seipel, W., 1980. Untersuchungen zu den ägyptischen Königinnen der Frühzeit und des alten Reiches: Quellen und historische Einordnung. University of Hamburg.
  • Tyldesley, J., 2006. Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt from Early Dynastic Times to the Death of Cleopatra. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
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