Aunts

The Origin of the Aunt Dynasty

Aunt Cartouche on the Abydos Pharaohs List (No. 34)

The Manetho viewed Aunts as the founder of a new dynasty and says that this dynasty came from the city of Memphis . The royal Turin papyrus saw in him not only the founder of a new dynasty, but also began with it, as it were, a new cycle of life in Egypt; for unknown reasons, the name of Aunt is separated from previous kings by the red line.

Aunt's relationship with predecessor Unis is doubtful. Unise apparently died without leaving any heirs, after which perhaps a brief period of political instability followed. Some researchers believe that one of Aunt's wives, named Iput, was the daughter of the last pharaoh of the previous V dynasty, Unisu. In the history of Egypt, it often happened that a pharaoh, who himself did not have a legal right to the throne, claimed it thanks to the rights of his wife or legitimized his accession through such a marriage. Having come to power, the Aunts are believed to have managed to stop the unrest, which may have been reflected in his choral name - "The Choir that appeased both lands (that is, Lower and Upper Egypt ) . " His choir name is often interpreted as a sign that Aunts brought peace to a country that, at the end of the 5th dynasty, may have been divided. On the other hand, the "appeasement of the Two Lands" was one of the many traditional duties of the pharaoh, and thus this title may have been simply symbolic. In any case, the change of dynasty did not affect the position of the nobles at court. This is evidenced by the inscription from the tomb of Sabu-Ibebi, which says that Unis appointed him the high priest of Memphis , and he remained in this high position under Aunt, who continued to shower him with favors. ^[one]

Aunt Board Term

It’s difficult to determine the exact duration of Aunt’s reign. From the duration of his reign, only the number of months and days — 6 months 21 days — is preserved in the Turin list , but the number of years is completely unreadable. At the same time, the name of the Aunt in this list is not readable, but is taken arbitrarily, based on the location of the name of this pharaoh in the Abidos and Sakkar lists of kings. The last year recorded in the monuments is - the year after the 6th count. If these calculations of cattle for the purpose of collecting taxes were carried out every two years, then this year should correspond to the 11th year of his reign, but perhaps these calculations were carried out every year. The Manetho gives him 30 years of reign ^[2] , which clearly exceeds the real term; it should be noted that after him his son Piopi II ruled for a rather long time. Although it cannot be said that his reign was very short, as the following chatrooms are known who have been awarded this post under him: Kagemni , Mereruka , Khnumneti, Nefershekhemra, Nefershekhamptah, Ankhmakhor, Hentikai. We have heard the biography of a prominent dignitary of that period, Una . Its author claims that he "got a girdle" during the reign of Aunt and, under the same pharaoh, took a low position as an assistant superintendent of one of the royal estates. It is likely that Egyptian youths first wore a "maturity belt" after reaching 10 or 12 years of age. If Una reached this age at the beginning of Aunt's reign, then he should have turned about 20 years old at the end of his reign (just enough to get his first appointment and climb the first step of the career ladder). Apparently, the reign of Aunt lasted 10-12 years. ^{[3] [4]}

Names of the Pharaoh

Aunts did not follow the ancient tradition and take the throne name upon accession to the throne. Like his predecessor, Unis , he retained his personal name , recorded using the three ttj characters , and is usually read as Aunts. However, Manetho transfers it in the form of Toe (s) or Otoe (s), and therefore, it should perhaps be read as Toti or Ototi . Like the pharaohs of Jedkar , Isesi and Unis Aunt took the title “Son of the Sun God”. This title was written inside the cartouche , such as on a vessel from the British Museum . As a choral name, he adopted the name Sehotep-taui, "Pacified Both Earths." ^[five]

The Exaltation of God Ptah

Probably, before the time of Aunt in Memphis there were two high priests of the god Ptah . However, this pharaoh left only one and appointed Sabu-Cheti to this post. Another high priest, Ptah, who lived during his reign, was called Sabu Ibebi. In the inscription in his tomb, he says that he held this post under both Unis and Aunt. It can be assumed that after the death of this priest, Aunt united both posts into one and appointed Sabu-Cheti to her. Sabu Ibebi says:

“His Majesty [King Aunt] gave me to enter into personal peace, so that I could place people before him in their places, according to how I determined seniority. "No such thing was ever done for such an adviser like me by any king, for His Majesty loved me more than any adviser of his own ... I was useful in the presence of His Majesty and found a way for every secret business of the court."

There is an explicit indication that the new pharaoh, who, according to Manetho , came from Memphis, paid close attention to the Memphis priesthood. Perhaps he ascended the throne with his support, because in the inscription on the statue Aunt adds the words “beloved Ptah” (god of Memphis) to his name and inscribes them in the cartouche . Obviously, against the background of a decrease in the influence of the priests of Ra from Heliopolis , an increase in the power of the priesthood of Memphis followed.

An explanation of the new provision is given by an inscription from the British Museum (No. 797), which is a late copy of a document drawn up around this period. It contains an account of the Memphis doctrine, which states that Ptah, a divine craftsman , was the creator of gods and people. All things came from the thoughts of Ptah, and even the “divine words” themselves “existed” “thanks to the thought in his mind and the word in his language.” This was a different doctrine than that which was preached in Heliopolis, where the sun god Ra was revered as the creator of all things. Since Memphis and Heliopolis were quite close to each other - Memphis on the west bank of the Nile, and Heliopolis on the east a few kilometers downstream - it can be imagined that between them fierce debate and the influence of both priestly groups over the years, like a pendulum , swayed one way, then the other. During the reign of Aunt Memphis, obviously gained supremacy. The founder of the VI dynasty enjoyed special respect in Memphis during the New Kingdom , which went beyond the traditional cult of the ancient kings. ^[6]

Strengthening the nobility and killing Pharaoh

Under Aunt, the decentralization of royal power continued, accompanied by an increase in the local tribal nobility. Many officials from Aunt's reign left large tombs testifying to the growth of their independence. In particular, the chat of the pharaoh Mereruk built for himself a mastaba with 33 richly decorated cameras, the largest known tomb of the Egyptian nobleman. The daughter of Pharaoh Aunt Wadjeethetor (also known as Shesheshet) may have been the wife of this dignitary.

The name of Pharaoh Aunt was found on a rock in the Tomos region of Lower Nubia, and this proves that his envoys visited this country. There is also an almost completely destroyed decree found in the ruins of Abydos , which refers to a certain piece of land bequeathed to Osiris , and mentions the name of the important nobleman Sesi-nekau. In Memphis, a stone door lintel was found with the choral name of Aunt. His name is also mentioned in connection with the Hathor cult in Dendera . Several vessels with inscriptions are also known, as well as small monuments. ^[7]

According to Manetho, Aunts are killed by their own guards. Some attribute the organization of this conspiracy to a certain Usercar , who is listed as a pharaoh who follows Aunts on the Abydos list of kings . Others are of the opinion that Userkara is the throne name of Aunt himself, circled in a separate cartouche due to a copyist's mistake. In any case, at the moment, Egyptologists do not have a single opinion on the circumstances of the death of Aunt.

A death mask has been found near the pyramid temple of Aunt in Saqqara by Edward James Quibella . It is suggested that this mask could belong to the aunt Pharaoh. It can be seen that the person from whom this mask was removed was quite young at the time of death. Since Auntie became the founder of the dynasty, he had to be quite adult at the time of ascension to the throne. His youth at the time of death proves the short duration of his reign and violent death. The discovery of the mask right next to the aunt's memorial temple to some extent confirms the story of Manethon about the death of the pharaoh at the hands of the guards. There was probably a custom to make portrait statues of the pharaoh during his lifetime, and he “posed” for the sculptors. In this case, the masters had to work with a death mask, and this indicates that the ruler’s death was sudden and occurred before his statues were ready for the memorial church .

It should be noted that the identity of the death mask has not been established with accuracy. However, it is doubtful that it was made for anyone else but Pharaoh. In addition, the location and similarity of facial features with the appearance of the son of Aunt Piopi I on his bronze statue testify in favor of belonging to the mask of Aunt. ^[eight]

The only known statue that can be attributed to Aunts with a certain degree of reliability is the monument found by Edward James Quibella during archaeological excavations of the 1906/07 campaign in Saqqara , east of the aunt's pyramid buried in the shaft of one of the graves. Now it is in the Cairo Museum (Inv. No. JE 39103). The statue is made of red granite and has a height of 74 cm. Legs below the knees are not preserved. The statue has a support pillar from the back and depicts the king taking a step with his left foot. The arms are extended along the body with clenched fists. Pharaoh wears a loincloth ( shenty ), and on his head is the White Crown of Upper Egypt . Eyelids and eyebrows are made in relief, and the beard seems to be absent. The inscription that would uniquely assign the statue of Aunt was not preserved. Quibell saw in her a possible portrait of Merikar , a pharaoh from the First transitional period from the X (Heracleopol) dynasty . The attribution of the statue of Aunt was made by William Stevenson Smith on two factors: firstly, it was found very close to the pyramid of Aunt, and secondly, the quality of work she had was much higher than that of similar statues of the First transition period.

The Aunt's Pyramid Jed-sut-Aunts (“The Longest-Lasting Places [Resting] Aunts” or “Aunts Strengthened”) is located in Saqqara north-east of the Djoser Step Pyramid. Initially, the pyramid had a square base of 64 × 64 m and reached 43 m in height. Now this pyramid is badly damaged, and its size has been halved.

Perring paid attention to the remains of the pyramid in 1839, but the entrance to it was not opened until 1881 by the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero . The premises of the pyramid have been accessible to visitors since 1974, when the Egyptian Antiquities Service carried out a restoration, during which they supported the collapsing ceiling blocks of the corridor with steel beams. The walls of Aunt's funeral chamber are covered with religious texts (the so-called Pyramid Texts ), which are very similar to the texts in the Unis pyramid . A sarcophagus from gray basalt with the name of the pharaoh is also found in the pyramid. The aunt's tomb was sacked in antiquity. Thieves tore the royal mummy, and modern archaeologists have managed to find only the arm and shoulder of the pharaoh. These residues show signs of hasty embalming, not of the highest quality. This fact is consistent with the assertion that the pharaoh was killed.

Of the buildings belonging to the pyramid, only the ruins of the upper memorial temple with a small companion pyramid are known. Lower temple and ascending road not found. About 100 meters to the north, the remains of another small pyramid were discovered, belonging to the daughter of Tsar Unis, Tsaritsa Iput, the wife of Aunt. The cult of Aunt at the place of his burial in Saqqara was maintained for a long time. ^{[9] [10]}

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  Reconstruction of the Aeti burial complex

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  Aunt's funeral chamber interior

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  Aunt's Sarcophagus

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  The inscription with the name Aunt on his sarcophagus

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