Khuit I

For the pharaoh Teti's wife, see Khuit II.

Khuit I
Royal Wife, King's Daughter
An impression showing how Khuit I might have been represented in art, based on Old Kingdom iconography
Born	c. 2400 ± 100 BCE
Died	c. 2400 ± 100 BCE
Burial	c. 2400 ± 100 BCE Saqqara
Spouse	Unas (?) Menkauhor Kaiu (?)
Egyptian name
Transliteration	ḫwỉt
Dynasty	Fifth of Egypt
Father	Unidentified Fifth Dynasty pharaoh
Mother	Unidentified consort
Religion	Ancient Egyptian

Khuit I was an ancient Egyptian queen who has been tentatively dated by association to have lived during the 5^th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

Life

Attestation of Khuit I is poor, and little can be said of her for certain. There is consensus among scholars that she most probably lived during the latter half of the 5^th Dynasty.

By process of elimination, Austrian Egyptologist Wilfried Seipel suggests that she was a queen of the 5^th Dynasty pharaoh Menkauhor Kaiu, through attribution of pharaohs to queens whose marriages are more concretely understood. This proposition has been criticised by French Egyptologist Michel Baud, who notes the precedent that pharaohs might entertain more than one queen simultaneously. Instead, Baud proffers that the pharaoh Unas may also qualify as a candidate, owing to congruencies in the style of inscriptional titles belonging to other queens.

Were Khuit I to have been a royal wife of Unas, she may have lived contemporaneously with other royal women of his court Nebet I and Khenut I. On the contrary, in accordance with Seipel's proposition, Khuit I may have lived around the time of Meresankh IV, another queen proposed to have been a wife of Menkauhor Kaiu based on his burial's proximal affiliation, however the datation of Meresankh IV's reign is also uncertain.

During the course of her life, Khuit I held the following titles:

• Royal Wife
• King's Daughter
• King's Acquaintance
• Great of Praises

The Royal Wife, his beloved, revered before Osiris ḥmt-nswt mrt.f ỉmꜣḫ[t] ḫr wsỉr in hieroglyphs
Era: Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC)

Her accompanying epithets include beloved of the King; she who sees Horus and Set; she who is revered before Osiris; Great of Charm and Great of Knowledge.

The title of King's Daughter establishes her as a princess by birth, and, owing to her title of Royal Wife, later, a queen.

Family

Khuit I is attested as the Royal Wife and daughter to two unnamed pharaohs respectively. This places her firmly within the royal line and implies that she may have intermarried with her husband.

Burial

Khuit I was laid to rest in mastaba D 14 (no. 70) in Saqqara.

Discovered by French archaeologist and Egyptologist Auguste Mariette in the late 19^th century, the state of the mastaba was recorded for the publication of Les Mastabas de l'Ancien Empire. He assessed it to have been constructed of limestone and noted its poor condition.

Of the mastaba itself, he reported it to have been buried beneath sand and littered with innumerable fragments of limestone, with its chamber presumably having deteriorated in antiquity.

According to Mariette's account, a stele framing dedicatory inscriptions found within the mastaba was accidentally destroyed during the course of excavation prior to it being recorded. Nonetheless, Mariette recorded two limestone blocks and accompanying inscriptional detail which attests Khuit I's ownership of the mastaba, her relationship to the royal family, and other titles she held during her life.

With regards to its datation, Seipel argues that its proximity to other more satisfactorily dated burials places it within the 5^th Dynasty.

Attestations

Khuit I is known only from Mariette's record of her mastaba. There are only three instances where she is securely attested by name. Though her face has long since been lost, she is portrayed in bas-relief on the wall of her mastaba, breathing in the aroma of a flower.

The King's Daughter, Khuit sꜣ[t] n nswt ḫwỉt in hieroglyphs
Era: Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC)

The attribution of the title King's Daughter was found in the entryway of the mastaba.

The King's Acquaintance, Khuit nswt-rḫ ḫwỉt in hieroglyphs
Era: Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC)

The title of King's Acquaintance was found inscribed above the only known depiction of Khuit I.

Revered before the Royal Wife Khuit ỉmꜣḫy ḫr ḥmt-nswt ḫwỉt in hieroglyphs
Era: Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC)

A reference attributing Khuit I with her queenly status, Royal Wife, was found on a bas relief fragment which may have captioned an associated figure.

References

• Baud, M., 1999. Famille Royale et Pouvoir sous l’Ancien Empire Égyptien, Tome 2. Le Caire: L’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale.
• Dodson, A. and Hilton, D., 2004. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
• Jánosi, P., 1992. The Queens of the Old Kingdom and their Tombs. Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology, 3, 51–57.
• Mariette, A., 1889. Les Mastabas de l’Ancien Empire. Paris: Collège de France.
• Seipel, W., 1980. Untersuchungen zu den ägyptischen Königinnen der Frühzeit und des alten Reiches: Quellen und historische Einordnung. University of Hamburg.
• Tyldesley, J., 2006. Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt from Early Dynastic Times to the Death of Cleopatra. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.