Meresankh III

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Meresankh III in hieroglyphs
Meresankh IIIMeresankh IIIMeresankh III

Meresankh
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Group of Hetepheres II and Meresankh III-30.1456-IMG 4559-gradient.jpg
Queen Hetepheres II (left) embraces her deceased daughter Meresankh III (right) (MFA 30.1456)

Queen Meresankh III was the daughter of Hetepheres II and Prince Kawab and a granddaughter of the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu. She was the wife of King Khafre.

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Hetepheres also provided her daughter with a black granite sarcophagus decorated with palace facades for Meresankh's burial. [1]

Her tomb was discovered by archeologist George Reisner on April 23, 1927, [2] with subsequent excavations undertaken by his team on behalf of Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Her sarcophagus and skeleton are today located in the Cairo Museum; the latter reveals that she was 1.54 metres (5'1") tall and between 50–55 years at her death. [3] An anthropological study suggested, that she might have suffered from bilateral silent sinus syndrome. [4]

The tomb also contained a set of the earliest known canopic jars. [5] A limestone statue depicting Queen Hetepheres embracing her late daughter Meresankh was found in her tomb and is today located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. [6]

Meresankh III's children

The children of Meresankh and Khafre include:

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References

  1. The Tomb of Meresankh III (G 7530-40) at Giza
  2. "Finding the Pharaohs". Archived from the original on 2009-07-26. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
  3. Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.60
  4. Habicht ME, Eppenberger PE, Galassi FM, Rühli FJ, Henneberg M: Queen Meresankh III – the oldest case of bilateral Silent Sinus Syndrome (c. 2620/10 - 2570 BC)?. Anthropologie (CZ), Vol 56 (2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.26720/anthro.17.09.25.2
  5. Tyldesley, p.48
  6. Dodson & Hilton, p.57