Adoption Stela

Nitocris I (alt. Nitiqret, Nitokris I) (died 585 BC) 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.

She was the daughter of the 26th Dynasty pharaoh, Psamtik I. During his early reign, Psamtik I dispatched a powerful naval fleet in March 656 BC to Thebes and compelled the serving God's Wife of Amun, Shepenupet II, a daughter of Piye, to adopt his daughter Nitocris I as her heir to this powerful office. The ceremony of the adoption and elevation of Notocris I is commemorated in the well known Adoption Stela. It is unknown at what date she had assumed the office of Divine Adoratrice of Amun, but she served in this position until Year 4 of Apries in 585 BC. Prior to her career in this office, the Assyrians had invaded Egypt in 671 BC, sacked Thebes, and robbed its temples of their many treasures. The reunification of Egypt by her father was facilitated by her rise.

When she was in her eighties, she adopted her great-niece Ankhnesneferibre, the daughter of Psamtik II, continuing the succession in her family line.

During her tenure, she was attested by several building works around Karnak, Luxor, and Abydos. She was buried in the grounds of Medinet Habu, in a tomb chapel that "she shared with her natural mother and adoptive grandmother." Her sarcophagus was reused in a Ptolemaic tomb at Deir el-Medina, and today, is located in the Cairo Museum.

A stela often referred to as the "Adoption Stela", was unearthed in 1897 by Georges Legrain at Karnak and moved to the Cairo Museum. It is made from red granite and measures roughly 6 ft (1.8 m) in height and 4.5 ft (1.4 m) in width.