Itaweret

Broad collar of Itaweret, found on her body

Itaweret (Ita-the elder) was an Ancient Egyptian king's daughter or princess who lived in the 12th Dynasty. She is known from her burial next to the pyramid of king Amenemhat II at Dahshur, in a gallery tomb that contained her burial and that of a woman called Sathathormery. The burial was found intact and contained a decorated wooden coffin and canopic box with longer religious texts including her name. Some personal adornments [1] and warrior weapons were found in her tomb as well.[2] The location of the tomb might indicate that she was a daughter of Amenemhat II, but final proof is missing.[3] Remarkable is the wooden statue of a swan found in one of her burial apartments.[4]

According to the skeleton remains, Itaweret was about 20 to 34 years old when she died. She was about 151.2 to 156.9 cm tall and her skeleton was about 40% complete.[5] Her remains also indicated skeletal characteristics that seem to support interpretation as a sign of regular use of a bow and perhaps, of warrior weapons similar to those buried with her and bearing her name.[6] The latter interpretation however, is debated by other researchers.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Jacques de Morgan et al.: Fouilles a Dahchour 1894-1895. Volume II, Holzhausen, Vienna 1903, pp. 71–74
  2. ↑ Zeinab Hashesh, Ahmed Gabr, Roxie Walker, Bioarchaeological reassessment of Dahshur royal skeletal remains from the Late Middle Kingdom (c. 1850–1700 BCE), Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, Volume 5 - 2026 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2026.1844402, July 16, 2026
  3. ↑ Biri Fay: The Louvre Sphinx and Royal Sculpture from the Reign of Amenemhat II, von Zabern, Mainz 1996, ISBN 3-8053-1760-3, pp. 45
  4. ↑ de Morgan: Fouilles a Dahchour 1894-1895. Volume II, p. 74, fig. 123
  5. ↑ Hashesh Z, Gabr A and Walker R (2026) Bioarchaeological reassessment of Dahshur royal skeletal remains from the Late Middle Kingdom (c. 1850–1700 BCE). Front. Environ. Archaeol. 5: 7 , page 7
  6. ↑ Zeinab Hashesh, Ahmed Gabr, Roxie Walker, Bioarchaeological reassessment of Dahshur royal skeletal remains from the Late Middle Kingdom (c. 1850–1700 BCE), Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, Volume 5 - 2026 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2026.1844402, July 16, 2026
  7. ↑ Did ancient Egyptian princesses use weapons?, Live Science
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.