New exhibition about Egyptian Queens in National Museum of Antiquities

Powerful women star in the new exhibition Queens of the Nile. You see beautiful jewels, luxurious utensils, statues of queens and goddesses. In addition, Egyptologist Olaf Kaper and his PhD students provide in-depth information by showing new research results in the exhibition.

Women are an underexposed research topic when it comes to ancient Egypt, according to guest curator and Egyptologist Olaf Kaper (Leiden University). He chose the feminine approach to give the ladies the attention and appreciation they deserve. Some Egyptian queens have even been deified and worshiped for centuries after their death. At the same time, with the exhibition, he tries to offer more than the outward beauties for which Egyptian queens are known.

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Cup Princess Meritaton?

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Funeral finds Nefertari

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Sung beauty

The marriage of Queen Nefertari and Pharaoh Ramesses II (c. 1301-1245 BC) probably started as a political agreement, but turned into real love. Ramses showed on monuments how much he loved Nefertari and in particular the beauty of the queen was often sung in inscriptions. Ramesses II had many other wives, with whom he had about 100 children. He had eight children with Nefertari, but none of them lived long enough to succeed Ramses.

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Pink Hatshepsut

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Chain flying

The exhibition is therefore not a portrait gallery but shows various aspects of the lives of the queens from this period. Their diplomatic correspondence with foreign monarchs, their administrative functions such as leadership over the palaces and harem and the religious functions during and after their lives. Kaper explains enthusiastically:“We look at the so-called New Kingdom (1539-1077 BC) and go really in depth with an overview of 500 years.”

Gods

In ancient Egypt, brother and sister intermarry was not common, except among the gods. Because the coronation of the pharaoh made a demigod, he could also marry his sister. Pharaohs did this especially at the beginning of a dynasty to emphasize the divine status. Furthermore, it seems that he could marry whoever he wanted. For example, Thutmose III (c. 1479 – 1425 BC) married Satiah, the daughter of his wet nurse, with whom he had grown up. The pharaoh's divine status also reflected on his queen. She could now also come into contact with the gods, which is why she often accompanied her husband at religious festivals and ceremonies in the temples.

It was not just the queen who played a more important role than we are used to from ancient women. The female part of the population also had a special position in ancient Egypt, according to research by Steffie van Gompel and Petra Hogenboom (Leiden University). From a legal point of view, husband and wife were even equal. Although their social and economic possibilities were somewhat more limited than that of men, Egyptian women were already known in antiquity as the most independent of that time.

Vulture

Back to the queens. Kaper leads us through the bright halls to get acquainted with the rich court life of famous queens such as Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and Nefertari. We start with a replica of Nefertari, a queen whose beauty has been sung many times. She was the wife of Ramesses II (c. 1300 BC – 1213 BC), who besides her had a whole harem full of wives and about a hundred children.

“Pharaohs could have married many women, but only one was allowed to bear the title of 'Great Queen'. Ramses II is an exception, as he had two Great Queens, but Nefertari was clearly his favourite. She is the one who is always depicted next to him in temples and on murals.”

Kaper has recently researched clothing from ancient Egypt. A difficult task as nothing has survived except for Tutankhamun (ca. 1343-1323 BC). Queens are always depicted in white robes. That was not an everyday outfit, according to Kaper, but dresses that matched their ceremonial function. The headgear worn by the Nefertari replica represents a vulture with outspread wings.

“No copy of this has survived, so we had to rely on images. The headgear on murals resembles a kind of helmet, but that turned out to be inappropriate during the reconstruction:the vulture in ancient Egypt had to be realistically reproduced. The headdress would have been more like a tiara, with the wings sticking out behind the ears.” The vulture and the cobra were symbols of kingship that only the Pharaoh and his Great Queen wore together. This is how they distinguished themselves from the rest of the royal family.

Harem

But the queen did more than be pretty. She maintained diplomatic correspondences with foreign monarchs and ran all the palaces, including the harem palace. Sometimes hundreds of women lived here who led a luxurious life. In the exhibition space, a palace room has been created full of precious items that shows the rich life of the elite with jewellery, bronze mirrors and cabaret. (See for example the photo of the fly chain in the slideshow).

“There were also many women from abroad in the harem. It was a good practice for the pharaoh to marry daughters of foreign kings in order to seal the bond between them.” The royal wives provided both heirs to the throne and children who, once married off, maintained social ties.

The harem in the New Kingdom cannot be compared to a closed harem of the Ottoman sultan, according to Kaper. “The women just walked in and out and even traded. Useful things happened in the harem; those women weren't just combing their hair. The harem owned estates where farmers worked the land and kept livestock. There was industry. For example, harem women made the fine royal linen.”

Murder

Another special item in this room shows that it was not all roses and moonshine in the harem:a piece of papyrus with a dedication in cursive writing from pharaoh Ramses III (1218-1155 BC) from the afterlife. It describes the investigation and punishment of conspirators from his harem. We know from scientific research into the mummy of Ramses that the conspirators were successful. This one has a slit throat.

The conspirators were severely punished and the harem women involved in the plot (one of them wanted her own child on the throne) had to commit suicide. This way of punishment was a privilege of the elite. The commission that had to investigate the murder of Ramesses III also did not come out of the fight unscathed. Kaper:“The commission of inquiry consisted of members of the highest civil service and the court. Some of them had spent an evening with ladies from the harem, which was absolutely not the intention. This piece of papyrus describes how their noses and ears were cut off for punishment.”

Grave Chamber

Queen Nefertari is the supreme queen of this exhibition. Much is known about her, especially through the discovery of her grave in 1904, which contains walls full of narrative descriptions. The demons of the underworld are depicted on the walls, which the queen had to pass in order to enter the underworld. Shortly after the excavation, this was accurately reproduced to scale and this model can also be seen.

Kaper:“The tomb was looted and almost all the gold and the mummy are gone. The sarcophagus is partly still there and the robbers also left wooden items, such as 34 black-painted dolls that had to serve the queen in the afterlife. What I especially like are the worn slippers of the Queen, made of palm leaf. That's how we know she was a size 39. It is almost impossible to get closer to her.” The items that were still in the grave were taken by the Italian excavation team to Turin. More than a hundred years later, they can all be seen in this exhibition.

In addition to the Turin model, the RMO is showing a full-size copy of the burial chamber. Kaper had it built on the basis of photos of the original. On the left wall of the burial chamber Nefertari can be seen asking for writing utensils. “This is apparent from the depicted palette with pen and ink and the bucket with water from the Nile. We know that it is Nile water from the frog on the bucket. It symbolizes the cycle of the overflowing Nile and the fertility it brings.”

Kaper had just returned from Luxor where he visited the original grave:“This replica really captures the atmosphere there. Even the lighting is the same. The only real difference is that the original paintings have some relief and these picture walls here don't.” It is a bit difficult for the visitor in Leiden to compare, since the original burial chamber is located in Luxor and has limited access. But this exhibition about Egyptian queens and parts of their lives is definitely recommended.