Neferuptah Artistic Representations: First Female Royal with Cartouche

Summary: Neferuptah artistic representations get a dynasty founder's great-great-great-great-great-grandchild, father's favorite and first female cartouche-holder.

broad collar necklace of Nefereruptah, older daughter of Amenemhet III, 12th Dynasty Pharoah: Jon Bodsworth, Use for any purpose, via Wikimedia Commons

Neferuptah artistic representations appear among the inscriptions, jewelry, paintings, papyruses and sculptures of ancient Egypt more than 3,800 years ago even though Neferuptah acted as royal daughter, never as pharaoh or queen.

The sometimes oblong, sometimes oval cartouches (from the same-spelled French word for "cartridge") bear the names and titles of kings in pharaonic Egypt and bespeak royalty. Cartouches from the 12th Dynasty (1991-1802 B.C.) communicate the kingly names and titles of seven male Lords of the Two Lands and of one female pharaoh. Another such cartouche (ultimately derived from the Greek χάρτης, khártēs, "sheet of paper") depicts Neferuptah, who drew duties as royal daughter and perhaps as pharaonic successor.

Neferuptah, whose name evokes the "beauty of Ptah," creator god through whose thought and word the world exists, emerges as the first female eliciting a cartouche.

Inscriptions, jewelry, paintings, papyruses and possessions furnish few facts about the elder daughter of Amenemhat III (1860-1814 B.C.) and the elder sister of Sobekneferu (1806-1802 B.C.).

Neferuptah got the same-meaninged name Ptahneferu and the titles beloved king's daughter of his body, great of favor, great of praise and member of the elite. Painted temple walls in Medinet Maadi have Neferuptah with her father whereas the fragment of an Aswan-quarried granite statue from Elephantine Island holds her likeness alone. A papyrus from Lahun, where Neferuptah's great-grandfather Senusret II (1897-1878 B.C.), dynasty founder's great-grandson Horus throne-named Khakheperre, is buried in the El-Lahun pyramid, identified her tomb.

Flood and ground waters, not time-worn cracks, jeopardized artistic representations and references in Neferuptah's red granite, 10.39-foot- (3.06-meter-) long, 4.59-foot- (1.4-meter-) wide, 7.8-foot- (2.31-meter-) high sarcophagus.

The black pyramid at Hawara of her father, Horus throne-named Nimaatre, kept an alabaster, inscribed 24.02-inch- (61-centimeter-) long, 1.97-inch (5-centimeter-) wide, 13.78-inch- (35-centimeter-) high offering table.

Amenemhat III's burial pyramid, located in 1882 by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (June 3, 1853-Sep. 28, 1942), lies 1.5 miles (2.41 kilometers) northwest of Neferuptah's. Dr. Labib Habachi (April 18, 1906-Feb. 18, 1984) mentioned in 1936 a brick pyramid where Dr. Naguib Farag excavated a granite look-alike table in April 1956. Offering-table inscriptions noted, "May the king grant a wish to Anubis, Toth, Osiris, the great and small Enneads of the sanctuary of Upper and Lower Egypt."

Inscriptions observed, "(May the offering be) thousands of loaves of bread, jars of beer, oxen, r-geese, tcherp-geese, zeb-geese, ser-geese, menweb-geese, alabaster jars, clothing, incense, and ointments."

Offering-table inscriptions presented last, "all good things upon which a god lives for the ka of the king's daughter, Neferuptah, true of voice, lady of veneration."

A granite-sculpted sphinx, one usekh (from the Egyptian wsḥ, "breadth") necklace and three silver vases with her cartouche queue up among Neferuptah artistic representations and references. The gold-clasped 3.94-inch- (10-centimeter-) high, 14.37-inch- (36.5-centimeter-) long usekh necklace, also referenced as broad collar and wesekh necklace, retains six strings of carnelian and feldspar beads. Clasps shaped into the evil-suppressing, falcon-headed god Horus symbolically safeguard Senusret III's (1878-1839 B.C.) great-granddaughter, Amenemhat II's (1929-1895 B.C.) great-great-great-granddaughter and Senusret I's (1971-1926 B.C.) great-great-great-great-granddaughter.

What thrust Amenemhat I's (1991-1962 B.C.) great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter into flood-threatened entombment with one apron, two anklets, two bracelets, two necklaces, three jars, seven dishes and 59 vessels?

alabaster table of offerings for Ptah-neferu (Neferuptah) in well chamber of pyramid for her father, 12th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenemhat III, at Hawara; English Egyptologist Sir W.M.F. Petrie (June 3, 1853-July 28, 1942) notes the inscriptions’ innovative depiction of birds without legs; W.M.F. Petrie's Kahun, Gurob and Hawara.(1890), Plate V Hawara -- Table of Offerings and Vases From Pyramid: Cornell University Library, via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

broad collar necklace of Nefereruptah, older daughter of Amenemhet III, 12th Dynasty Pharoah: Jon Bodsworth, Use for any purpose, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nefereruptah_necklace.jpg

alabaster table of offerings for Ptah-neferu (Neferuptah) in well chamber of pyramid for her father, 12th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenemhat III, at Hawara; English Egyptologist Sir W.M.F. Petrie (June 3, 1853-July 28, 1942) notes the inscriptions’ innovative depiction of birds without legs; W.M.F. Petrie's Kahun, Gurob and Hawara.(1890), Plate V Hawara -- Table of Offerings and Vases From Pyramid: Cornell University Library, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/cu31924028675399#page/n68/mode/1up

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