The so-called Will of Naunakhte (1154 BCE) has become rightly famous in Egyptology. So where did she come from and what really happened to her eight surviving children, four of whom were daughters? By carefully studying the documents mentioning members of the family and including all the material mentioning the women of the New Kingdom village of Deir al-Medina and other sources, the author once again puts to the forefront the remarkable role played by ordinary women in ancient Egypt.
Koenraad Donker van Heel is lecturer in Demotic at Leiden University. He is the author of Djekhy & Son: Doing Business in Ancient Egypt (AUC Press, 2012) and Mrs. Tsenhor: A Female Entrepreneur in Ancient Egypt (AUC Press, 2014).
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chronology
1. A Walled Community
2. Where Was the Management Located?
3. The Five Walls of Pharaoh
4. Some Husband
5. Criminal Women
6. Was Husband Number Two a Demotion?
7. A Day in the Life of Menatnakhte
8. A Boy with a Golden Pair of Hands
9. So Who Gets the Kids?
10. Was Neferhotep a Wimp?
11. Women Can Party Too
12. Qenhirkhopshef the Younger
13. Thrown Out
14. Vaginas Causing Trouble
15. Protecting Your Daughter's Rights
16. Two Scribes Called Amunnakhte
17. Marriage: The Final Step
A unique view into the lives of ordinary women in ancient Egypt