Powerful Women of the Fourth Dynasty
Around 2500 BCE, the Fourth Dynasty is ending. Menakaure (ep. 8) passes without heir, and the throne is unstable. So, a royal woman steps into the breach; her name is Khenty-Kaus, and she is a boss.
Khenty-Kaus (“She is Foremost”) places her son Shepses-kaf on the throne, and this gives us a golden opportunity to focus on the oft-neglected royal women of the Old Kingdom.
Listen on 
Source: Verner, 1994
Source: Boston MFA
Source: Boston MFA
Source: the author, 2013
Bibliography
- Vivienne Gae Callender, In Hathor’s Image: the Wives and Mothers of Egyptian Kings from Dynasties I-VI, 2012 (Amazon).
- Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2010 (Amazon).
- Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, 1994 (Amazon).
- Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: the One and the Many, 1996 (Amazon).
- Barry Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, 2005 (Amazon).
- Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids, 2008 (Amazon).
- Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt, 2008 (Amazon).
- John Romer, A History of Egypt: from the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid, 2013 (Amazon).
- Robert Wenke, The Ancient Egyptian State, 2009 (Amazon).
Hi Dominic, I’m enjoying your podcast so far. One thing on the pronunciation of the word women, it’s pronounced differently than woman. Kind of like men is pronounced differently than man.
Thanks Josephine, I’m afraid that is an accent thing. I have learned to enunciate that word more clearly, so future episodes should be better on that front.
Dominic
Hi. I just recently listened to your podcast and it is an excellent podcast, I must say. And thank you for doing it. Just a quick question, why did you mention that the bloodline of the 4th dynasty ended with Menakaure when the sister took over. Since I thought the nephew took over the throne and it would still be within the immediate family.
Thanks
Hello Dominic. I am new to your podcast but am enjoying it immensely. One question: when preparatory work was done prior to the construction of the Giza pyramids, you have described the work that was done to prepare the ground. However, you do not describe how the architects ensured the ground was level. I have read that, having cleared the area and erected a small wall round it, the whole area was flooded. Poles were placed in the flooded area and marks put on the poles showing the water level. The area was then drained and the necessary work done to ensure the surface height coincided with the marks on the poles. Do you think that is correct?
Hello Ian, it’s not something I’ve dived too deeply into (yet). But I can recommend some books like Dieter Arnold’s “Building in Egypt: Pharaonic Stone Masonry” that go much deeper into these topics 🙂