| Mehytenweskhet | |
|---|---|
| Great Royal Wife Queen consort of Egypt | |
 Ushabti of Mehytenweskhet | |
| Burial | Medinet Habu, Thebes |
| Spouse | Psamtik I |
| Issue | Necho II, Nitocris I, Meryetneith |
| Dynasty | 26th Dynasty |
| Father | Harsiese |
| Mehytenweskhet [1] in hieroglyphs | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Mehytenweskhet or Mehtenweskhet was the daughter of the High Priest of Ra Harsiese, and the Great Royal Wife of Psamtik I. She dates to the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. [1]
Mehytenweskhet was the daughter of the High Priest of Re Harsiese. It has been suggested that the high priest Harsiese is identical to the Vizier Harsiese who may have served Taharqa. If so, Harsiese would have served as vizier to Taharqa, while opening up relations with Necho I while the latter was ruler of Sais. This may have allowed Harsiese to remain in office as vizier into the reign of his son-in-law Psamtik I. If the Vizier Harsiese was Mehytenweskhet's father, she would have been a sister of Naneferhenes, who was married to a Theban priest named Nesamun. [2]
Mehytenweskhet was the mother of Necho II, the Divine Adoratrice of Amun Nitocris I and a daughter named Meryetneith. Mehytenweskhet was buried with her daughter Nitocris in Medinet Habu. [3]
Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo, was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of Kush, from 690 to 664 BC. He was one of the "Black Pharaohs" who ruled over Egypt for nearly a century.
Wahibre Psamtik I was the first pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the Saite period, ruling from the city of Sais in the Nile delta between 664–610 BC. He was installed by Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, against the Kushite rulers of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, but later gained more autonomy as the Assyrian Empire declined.
Menkheperre Necho I was a ruler of the ancient Egyptian city of Sais. He was the first securely attested local Saite king of the 26th Dynasty of Egypt who reigned for 8 years (672–664 BCE) according to Manetho's Aegyptiaca. Egypt was reunified by his son Psamtik I.
Tantamani, also known as Tanutamun or Tanwetamani was ruler of the Kingdom of Kush located in Northern Sudan, and the last pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. His prenomen or royal name was Bakare, which means "Glorious is the Soul of Re."
The Third Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt began with the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1077 BC, which ended the New Kingdom, and was eventually followed by the Late Period. Various points are offered as the beginning for the latter era, though it is most often regarded as dating from the foundation of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty by Psamtik I in 664 BC, following the departure of the Nubian Kushite rulers of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty after they were driven out by the Assyrians under King Ashurbanipal. The use of the term "Third Intermediate Period", based on the analogy of the well-known First and Second Intermediate Periods, was popular by 1978, when British Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen used the term for the title of his book on the period. While Kitchen argued that the period was 'far from being chaotic' and hoped that his work would lead to the abolishment of the term, with his own preference being the 'Post-Imperial epoch', his use of the term as a title seems only to have entrenched the use of the term.
The Divine Adoratrice of Amun was a second title – after God's Wife of Amun – created for the chief priestess of the ancient Egyptian deity Amun. During the first millennium BCE, when the holder of this office exercised her largest measure of influence, her position was an important appointment facilitating the transfer of power from one pharaoh to the next, when his daughter was adopted to fill it by the incumbent office holder. The Divine Adoratrice ruled over the extensive temple duties and domains, controlling a significant part of the ancient Egyptian economy.
God's Wife of Amun was the highest-ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important religious institution in ancient Egypt. The cult was centered in Thebes in Upper Egypt during the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth dynasties. The office had political importance as well as religious, since the two were closely related in ancient Egypt.
Nitocris I served as the heir to, and then, as the Divine Adoratrice of Amun or God's Wife of Amun for a period of more than seventy years, between 655 BC and 585 BC.
Usermaatre Setepenamun Takelot III Si-Ese was Osorkon III's eldest son and successor. Takelot III ruled the first five years of his reign in a coregency with his father, according to the evidence from Nile Quay Text No.13, and succeeded his father as king the following year. He served previously as the High Priest of Amun at Thebes. He was previously thought to have ruled Egypt for only 7 years until his 13th Year was found on a stela from Ahmeida in the Dakhla Oasis in 2005.
Shepenupet II was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 25th Dynasty who served as the high priestess, the Divine Adoratrice of Amun, from around 700 BC to 650 BC. She was the daughter of the first Kushite pharaoh Piye and sister of Piye's successors, Shabaka and Taharqa.
The family tree of the 26th Dynasty is just as complex and unclear as earlier dynasties. This dynasty possibly traced its origins to the Saite 24th Dynasty, and scholars now start the dynasty with the reign of Psamtik I, sometimes referrings to the previous rulers – Ammeris to Necho I – as "proto-Saites". The rule of the family of Necho I and Psamtik I ends with the death of Apries, who was replaced by Amasis II, originally a general, and not of the royal house at all. Amasis and his son Psamtik III are the final rulers of the 26th Dynasty.
The High Priest of Amun or First Prophet of Amun was the highest-ranking priest in the priesthood of the ancient Egyptian god Amun. The first high priests of Amun appear in the New Kingdom of Egypt, at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Atlanersa was a Kushite ruler of the Napatan kingdom of Nubia, reigning for about a decade in the mid-7th century BC. He was the successor of Tantamani, the last ruler of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt, and possibly a son of Taharqa or less likely of Tantamani, while his mother was a queen whose name is only partially preserved. Atlanersa's reign immediately followed the collapse of Nubian control over Egypt, which witnessed the Assyrian conquest of Egypt and then the beginning of the Late Period under Psamtik I. The same period also saw the progressive cultural integration of Egyptian beliefs by the Kushite civilization.
Khedebneithirbinet I was an ancient Egyptian queen from the 26th Dynasty, probably the wife of pharaoh Necho II and the mother of his successor, Psamtik II.
Takahatenamun was a Nubian queen dated to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt.
Tentkheta (Tanetkheta) was the Great Royal Wife of Amasis II. She dates to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt.
Mentuemhat or Montuemhat was a rich and powerful Theban official from ancient Egypt who lived during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt. He was the Fourth Priest of Amun in Thebes.
The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt dynasty was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC. The dynasty's reign is also called the Saite Period after the city of Sais, where its pharaohs had their capital, and marks the beginning of the Late Period of ancient Egypt.
The sack of Thebes took place in 663 BC in the city of Thebes at the hands of the Neo-Assyrian Empire under king Ashurbanipal, then at war with the Kushite Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt under Tantamani, during the Assyrian conquest of Egypt. After a long struggle for the control of the Levant which had started in 705 BC, the Kushites had gradually lost control of Lower Egypt and, by 665 BC, their territory was reduced to Upper Egypt and Nubia. Helped by the unreliable vassals of the Assyrians in the Nile Delta region, Tantamani briefly regained Memphis in 663 BC, killing Necho I of Sais in the process.
The Assyrian conquest of Egypt covered a relatively short period of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 673 to 663 BCE. The conquest of Egypt not only placed a land of great cultural prestige under Assyrian rule but also brought the Neo-Assyrian Empire to its greatest extent.
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