Amenia (wife of Horemheb)
| Amenia in hieroglyphs | |||||||
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Amenia imn-iA | |||||||
Amenia (Amen is Yah) was an Egyptian noble and queen as well as the first wife of Horemheb, the last ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty.[2]
Very little is known about her, and she seems to have died during the reign of Ay[2][3] or early during the reign of Tutankhamun, before Horemheb ruled as pharaoh.[4]
Burial
Amenia was buried in the Memphite tomb of Horemheb in the upper suite in shaft IV, alongside his second wife Mutnedjmet.[2] This leads many to understand that Amenia was thought of as Royalty and her name was very royal indeed.
Amenia was represented in the tomb in both inscriptions and statues. She was possibly depicted in a scene in the great courtyard of the tomb, and in a scene in the entrance to the main chapel. She was shown in statues with Horemheb found in two of the chapels of the tomb. Columns in the Second Courtyard show her name Amenia and show her to be a Chantress of Amun.[1]
The British Museum double statue EA 36
In 2009 it was discovered that a hitherto unidentified double statue in the British Museum (EA 36) was in fact a statue of Horemheb and his wife Amenia. The statue was acquired by the British Museum in 1837 from the Anastasi collection. The double statue is somewhat different from other statues in that the wife is shown holding her husband's hand with both of hers. The three clasped hands had broken off. In 1976 the three clasped hands were found during the excavation of Horemheb's tomb. In 2009 a plaster cast was made of the clasped hands and the cast was used to show it was a perfect match for the British Museum double statue, thereby showing the statue was associated with Horemheb's Saqqara tomb.[5]
References
- ^ a b Geoffrey T. Martin, Excavations at the Memphite Tomb of Horemḥeb, 1976: Preliminary Report, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 63 (1977), pp. 13-19, JSTOR
- ^ a b c Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004, pg 154, ISBN 0-500-05128-3
- ^ Martin, Geoffrey T. The Hidden Tombs of Memphis: New Discoveries from the Time of Tutankhamun and Ramesses the Great (New Aspects of Antiquity) Thames & Hudson. 1992 ISBN 978-0500276662
- ^ Dijk, J. van, The New Kingdom Necropolis of Memphis, Historical and Iconographical Studies (Groningen, 1993).
- ^ In Horemheb's hands: The British Museum double statue EA 36 from Saqqara.nl, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden and Universiteit Leiden. Said to be published in The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb V
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