The spst nswt women in ancient Egypt

Abstract EN

The present article focuses on the non-royal feminine title Spst nswt, “noblewoman of the king, ” first attested in the Sixth Dynasty and held by elite Memphite and provincial women, and which continued to be used in the First Intermediate Period but to a lesser degree.

The significance of this title comes from its association with the female relatives of nomarchs and high provincial officials in the Sixth Dynasty.

This study intends to assess the social status of those women, and more broadly, to address the connections between the rulers of the Sixth Dynasty and provincial families.

Some eighty Spst nswt women are known in the period extending from the late Old Kingdom through the First Intermediate Period, with a later unique occurrence of the title dating to the late Twenty-fifth–early Twenty-sixth Dynasty and found in the tomb of Padiamenope (TT 33) in the Asasif.

Nearly half of the Spst nswt women were priestesses of Hathor in the provinces or in the Memphite area, and very few cases from Akhmim belong to women who served in the cult of Min.