#meritamun

[egypt-ancient-and-modern]

Meritamun daughter of Ramses II and his favorite wife Nefertari at Akhmim

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[thehereticpharaoh]

Statue of Meritamun, Open Air Museum of Akhmim, Sohag Governorate, Egypt.

Meritamen (or  Meritamun) was a daughter of Ramesses and his favourite wife Nefertari. She appears as the fourth daughter in the list of daughters in Abu Simbel and had at least four brothers: Amun-her-khepeshef, Pareherwenemef, Meryre and Meryatum, as well as a sister named Henuttawy. Meritamen may have had more brothers and sisters, but these five are known from the facade of Queen Nefertari's temple in Abu Simbel. Her eldest brother - Amun-her-khepeshef - was the crown prince until at least year 25 of the reign of their father. Prince Prehirwenemef is known to have served in the army and is depicted in the battle scenes from Kadesh. The youngest sibling known to us - Prince Meryatum - would later become High Priest of Re in Heliopolis. Around the time her mother died (around the 24th or 25th regnal year), Meritamen became Great Royal Wife, along with her half-sister Bintanath.

[egypt-ancient-and-modern]

Meritamun standing at the base of a statue of her father Ramses II at Karnak Temple

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[egypt-ancient-and-modern]

Statue of Meritamun

[emthehistorygirl]

'The White Queen'. Meritamun, daughter and wife of Ramesses II. Found in the Ramesseum, this piece is now in Cairo Museum.

The Chronicle of the Queens of Ancient Egypt - Joyce Tyldesley 

[thehereticpharaoh]

The statue of Meritamun, wife of Ramses II, in Akhmim. Apparently the lip color was as bright as could be when excavated but has faded since.

[ancient-egypts-secrets]

Researchers have reconstructed the face of an ancient Egyptian woman whose real name was lost long ago. They've named her Meritamun, which means 'beloved of the god Amun.'

Meritamun's mummy head was in the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, located at the basement of the university, for over 90 years. The researchers think the mummy’s head came to the university in the early twentieth century among the collections of archaeologist Frederic Wood Jones.  

Dating her is difficult. Meritamun has some significant tooth decay that conventional thinking would date her to Greco-Roman times when sugar was introduced after Alexander’s conquest of Egypt in 331 BC. But honey could also account for the decay, and the mummy could date as far back as 1500 BC.

The team has determined that Meritamun was a high status woman between 18 and 25 years old when she died, and suffered from both tooth abscesses and anaemia during her short life. While the lack of other body parts to study prevents the researchers from knowing exactly how she died, anaemia would have certainly caused Meritamun to be pale and lethargic at the end of her life.

[scrapirony]

(Egyptian Mummy's Face Recreated with 3D Printing)