common names in the late Middle Kingdom, so any identification with another woman of the same name known from other monuments must be highly speculative. Also, to the best of my knowledge, there are no attestations on other monuments for a woman with the double name Senebtisi Sathapy. Senebtisi therefore remains enigmatic. It can only be said for certain that she was a lady of high social status, as indicated by the high standard of her burial equipment.
The exact date of Senebtisi’s tomb is disputed. Kim Ryholt identified Senebtisi with the namesake grandmother of the Thirteenth Dynasty king Neferhotep I, arguing that the burial is similar to one of the king’s daughter Nubhetepti-khered and is close in style to royal court type burials.59 However, court type burials are also well attested for nonroyal women. Furthermore, Senebtisi was not buried with “queen’s ware,” whereas most other king’s daughters had queen’s ware in the burial chamber. This seems to be another indicator that she was not royal, although this argument is weakened by the fact that the king’s daughter Neferuptah was also not equipped with this type of pottery. Neferuptah was buried at the end of the Twelfth or the beginning of the Thirteenth Dynasty.
More recent research supports the view that Senebtisi most likely lived in the late Twelfth Dynasty. Her coffin is inscribed with complete hieroglyphs, while coffins at the royal residence in the very late Twelfth Dynasty and Thirteenth Dynasty bear incomplete hieroglyphs.60 The pottery found in Senebtisi’s burial is also more typical of the late Twelfth Dynasty,61 although it is problematic to provide such a close date for a tomb via the analysis of pottery.
THE KING’S DAUGHTER SATHATHORIUNET
The first two kings of the Twelfth Dynasty were buried at Lisht, perhaps the cemetery of Itjtawy, the capital of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties. Amenemhat II, the third ruler of the dynasty, went north to Dahshur to build his pyramid, while the next king, Senusret II, instead went farther south, near to a place now called Lahun. Lahun is close to the Fayum, a river oasis connected to the Nile via a watercourse. The Fayum was originally a marshland not particularly suitable for agriculture. In the Middle Kingdom, however, the kings started to cultivate this region and built temples and other monuments there. Two royal pyramids were constructed close to the Fayum, one for Senusret II and another for Amenemhat III at Hawara, not far from Lahun.
Senusret II reigned for only about eight years. Perhaps he was already quite old when he ascended the throne. For that reason he might have chosen a small hill for his pyramid, so that less building material was needed to construct a pyramid of about the same scale as those of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. The pyramid measured 106 m at the base and originally rose to a height of about 48 m (Fig. 22). It was the first pyramid of the Middle Kingdom to be built mainly of mud bricks, although an inner “skeleton” of stone walls provided some stability and the pyramid was clad with limestone slabs. Another innovation was to the entrance, which was no longer on the north side but in this case south of the pyramid.
22. Pyramid of Senusret II at Lahun. Drawn by the author.
In 1914, the pyramid and its complex were excavated by William M. Flinders Petrie and Guy Brunton. South of the pyramid they discovered four shaft tombs; one of them was the hidden entrance to the king’s pyramid, the others most likely belonged to female members of the king’s family. All the tombs were found heavily robbed, and the name of the owner could be ascertained for only one tomb, with the modern number 8 (Fig. 23). This was the king’s daughter Sathathoriunet (“daughter of Hathor, of Denderah”).62 Her tomb was the smallest and had been robbed like the others, except for a niche that was found full of jewelry. The tomb consisted of a 6.6 m deep shaft. At the north end it opened into a small antechamber, about 1.5 m below the level of the shaft. A niche on the west side was found undisturbed, evidently overlooked by ancient robbers of the tomb. Next to the antechamber was the burial chamber, completely occupied by the big granite sarcophagus of the princess. At the southern end of the sarcophagus chamber, on the east side, was a further niche. Here was placed the canopic chest containing four inscribed canopic jars.63 The texts on the jars provide the title of Sathathoriunet: “king’s daughter.” At the back on the east side is a further chamber, which was found looted but still contained some pottery shards, beads, and an alabaster and obsidian eye, perhaps from an anthropoid coffin. The most important object was a jar for purification water, typical of royal burials of the late Middle Kingdom. It bears a purification spell and also mentions Sathathoriunet (see Fig. 37 on p. 45).64
23. Plan of burial chamber of Sathathoriunet with niche with jewelry boxes. Drawn by the author.
As already mentioned, the small niche in the first chamber was found undisturbed. Water had flooded the chamber, however, and so most of the organic material had perished by the time of the excavation. Petrie and Brunton soon realized the importance of this find. They recorded the find spots of all the objects in great detail and were able to reconstruct the contents of the chamber and even the jewelry and boxes found there. Most of the jewelry was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and today forms one of the highlights of the collection.
Herbert Winlock, who worked for the Egyptian Department of the Metropolitan Museum, had a further look at the tomb and the treasures after they came to New York. He published a detailed study of this find. In the following description of the treasure I follow his reconstructions.
Winlock counted fives boxes in this small niche. From two boxes several inlays survived, and so he was able to reconstruct them with some certainty. The box labeled 1 by Winlock was originally about 44.5 cm long, 31 cm wide, and perhaps 37 cm high. It was decorated on the outside with ivory slabs showing stylized doors and djed pillars, six of the latter on the long sides and four on the short ends. The lid was curved and decorated with four Hathor heads with horns and a sun disk between them made of thin gold sheet. Between the heads were three slabs of ivory with the throne name, birth name, and Horus name of King Amenemhat III. The box was evidently crafted under the king and was perhaps a gift to the princess. It is among the most elegant examples of Middle Kingdom furniture (Fig. 24). Exact parallels have yet to be found, though some finds at Dahshur indicate the existence of similar boxes.
24. Jewelry box of Sathathoriunet (reconstruction). From Winlock 1934, pl. IB.
A second box was simpler but also decorated with ivory on the outside.65 The long sides were decorated with most likely five stylized doors and the short ends with three. Inside the remains of this box were found alabaster jars for sacred oils. Boxes for such jars are more often of a different shape and much simpler, however, which suggested to Winlock that this box was originally made as a container for jewelry. A third box was perhaps decorated with gold foil and contained jars. This reconstruction again comes from Winlock, while Mace assigned the gold foil to the second box. Of a possible fourth box nothing survived, but it was reconstructed by Winlock, who believed that it once contained the crown of Sathathoriunet, not found in any surviving remains of a box or container. Made entirely of wood, the box had perished by the time the niche was excavated. The presence of a fifth box, although completely disintegrated when found, was identified from a pile of brown dust. Close to these faint traces were found copper nails without heads and others with golden heads. Some silver foil was also found in the same area. All this might indeed come from one box, which would have been the largest one in the niche. It was about 36.5 cm wide, 25.4 cm high, and at least 55 cm long. Within the remains of the box nothing was
