A black and white photograph taken over seventy years ago could help clarify the political role of Meretneith (or Merneit), a woman from the time of the 1st Egyptian dynasty (3150-2925 BC), who lived about 5,000 years ago. She was queen of Egypt around the 30th century BC. C., in a time several centuries before the construction of the pyramids. Her role, however, may have been more important than that of simple queen consort. Indeed, a new digital analysis of a clay seal impression suggests that his name was embedded in a serekhthe symbol used to enclose the name of Egyptian rulers. If the interpretation is correct, Meretneith would have exercised royal power in a very ancient phase of Egypt’s history, centuries and millennia before the better-known Hatshepsut (1478-1458 BC), Nefertiti (1353/1351-1336-1334 BC) and Cleopatra (52-30 BC).
The study, published by Susan Kelly and Crystal Miller in the Czech journal Pražské egyptologické studietakes up a question discussed by Egyptologists since the excavations conducted in the 1940s by the archaeologist Walter B. Emery (1902-1971) in Saqqara, one of the oldest Egyptian royal necropolises. On that occasion, thirteen clay plugs were recovered from a tomb, on which four were imprinted serekh. Emery attributed two of these signs to King Djer (3100-3055 BC) and proposed that the hieroglyphics in the other two contained the name Meretneith, who may have been his daughter. It should be noted, however, that there is insufficient evidence to support these family relationships. The hypothesis remained controversial, especially due to the poor readability of the published images.
Today the problem is made more complex by the disappearance of the original finds and the photographic plate. The only available testimony is a black and white photograph preserved in the Egyptologist’s documentation. The authors then developed a digital procedure to improve the readability of the hieroglyphics: they isolated the signs, modified the contrast and inverted the colors, obtaining a clearer representation of the footprint. The result, according to Kelly and Miller, is that the signs present in the nominal part of the second and third serekh they are compatible with the main sign used to write the name of Meretneith. The presence of her name next to that of Djer would indicate that the woman was not only a royal consort, but participated directly in the exercise of sovereignty, perhaps as co-regent, together with her possible father Djer, or with her brother-husband Djet.
His political position may also have changed over the course of his life. Other seal impressions, from the tomb of King Den (the son of Djet and Meretneith) at Abydos, bear the title “mother of the king” referring to Meretneith. Other inscriptions link her to the management of the treasury and officials. Taken together, these accounts suggest that he played different roles, adapting his authority to the needs of the dynasty and the position of his son Den. The authors therefore propose not to consider Meretneith exclusively as regent of a minor sovereign: she may have been recognized as a full sovereign in a phase of her political career, and then exercised power as the king’s mother.
His tomb in the Abydos necropolis could also be a clue. The Meretneith tomb is in fact the only monumental one dedicated to a woman in the entire necropolis. Inside, a few years ago, archaeologists found a royal treasure, with even hundreds of containers that preserved traces of vines, perhaps an indication of the production of wine.
The question is not definitively resolved, because the interpretation depends on a photograph of a lost artifact. The study in question, however, shows how digital techniques can restore information to archaeological documents that are difficult to read and reopen the debate on the participation of women in the origins of the Egyptian monarchy.
