Neferure
| Neferure in hieroglyphs | |||||||||||||
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Neferu-Re Nfrw-Rꜥ The Beauty of Re |
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Neferure (or Neferura) was an Egyptian princess of the eighteenth dynasty. She was the daughter of two pharaohs, Hatshepsut and Thutmose II. She served in high offices in the government and the religious administration of Ancient Egypt.
Neferure was the only known child of Thutmose II and his great royal wife Hatshepsut. She was the granddaughter of Thutmose I and the half-sister of Thutmose III. It has been suggested that Neferure married her half-brother, but there is no conclusive evidence of such a marriage. A king’s son named Amenemhat (B) was installed as Overseer of the Cattle in year 24 of the reign of Thutmose III, and this prince may have been a son of Neferure. It has been pointed out however, that if Neferure had become a great royal wife of Thutmose III, she would have been attested with that title, which is not known to be the case.
Neferure was born during the reign of Thutmose II. In Karnak Neferure is depicted with Thutmose II and Hatshepsut. Some records indicate that Thutmose II died after a thirteen-year-long rule. The heir to the throne, Thutmose III, was only a child and Hatshepsut served as his regent, but by the seventh year of his rule it is well documented that Hatshepsut took on the role of pharaoh and continued to rule until her death, for more than twenty years.
Neferure was tutored by some of Hatshepsut's most trusted advisers, at first Ahmose Pen-Nekhebet, who served under several of the preceding pharaohs and was held in great esteem. In his tomb he claims:
Neferure’s next tutor was Senenmut. Senenmut is known from many statues depicting him with his young charge. In all these statues Senenmut is shown wearing a long cloak. Seven statues are block statues in which the head of Princess Neferure pokes out of the block. One statue shows Neferura seated on his lap, while in another statue Senenmut is shown seated with one leg pulled up and Neferure leaning against his leg. After Hatshepsut became regent, Senenmut became her advisor and the role of tutor for Neferure was handed over to the administrator Senimen.
Following her mother's accession to the Egyptian throne, Neferure had an unusually prominent role in the court, exceeding the normal role played by a royal princess to the pharaoh. As Hatshepsut took on the role of pharaoh, so Neferure took on a queenly role in public life. Many depictions of her in these roles exist. She was given the titles Lady of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mistress of the Lands, and God's Wife of Amun. The latter title being one that Hatshepsut had to abandon upon becoming pharaoh. These offices had to be filled by a royal woman in order to fulfill the religious and ceremonial duties, normally of the queen, in the government and the temples. The interpretation of one scene depicted on Hatshepsut's Chapelle Rouge (Red Chapel) in the Karnak temple depicts her fulfilling the rituals required of God's Wife of Amun. Perhaps significantly, this royal title had been held by several queens of her dynasty including her mother, and this woman played an important role in temple rituals with the pharaoh.
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