Menka is the proper name of a late Second Dynasty Egyptian queen. It is uncertain who she was in a relationship with.
| Menka | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of Egypt | |
 Illustration of the fragment of the basalt relief depicting Menka | |
| Spouse | Uncertain, Khasekhemwy (?) |
| Dynasty | 2nd Dynasty |
| Menka in hieroglyphs | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mn k3 (My) Ka shall be durable Name | ||||||||||||
M33.t-Ḥr.(w) She who beholds Horus Title | ||||||||||||
Fragment
editVery little is known about the life of Menka, a late Second Dynasty Egyptian queen, whose identity is known only from an unprovenanced basalt fragment. The name Menka means "the ka shall be durable" and the fragment her name is depicted on also includes the title “who sees Horus”, which was the title of queens in the early dynastic age and during the Old Kingdom. The fragment also includes a depiction of her.[1][2][3]
The relief depicts Menka as a standing woman, in a close-fitting dress, with a large, hemispherical vessel on her head and with standards lined up behind her. The hieroglyphs do not indicate who her consort was.[4] Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck noticed that the scene bears considerable stylistic resemblance to an unfinished scene located on a basalt relief at the archaeological site of Gebelein, that is attributed to King Khasekhemwy, who was the last Pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt. Helck has suggested that the fragment of Menka's relief may also originate from that site.[5]
References
edit- ^ Grajetzki, Wolfram (2005). Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary. Golden House Publications. pp. 120–1. ISBN 978-0-9547218-9-3.
- ^ Schlögl, Hermann Alexander [in German] (2006). Das Alte Ägypten: Geschichte und Kultur von der Frühzeit bis zu Kleopatra (in German). C.H.Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-54988-5.
- ^ Roth, Silke (2001). Die Königsmütter des Alten Ägypten von der Frühzeit bis zum Ende der 12. Dynastie (in German). Harrassowitz. p. 383. ISBN 978-3-447-04368-7.
- ^ Dodson, Aidan; Dodson, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology Aidan; Hilton, Dyan (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05128-3.
- ^ Helck, Wolfgang (1987). Untersuchungen zur Thinitenzeit (in German). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-02677-2.