The woman, named Meretneith (also spelled Merneith or Meret-Neith), reigned during the first dynasty, a time not long after Egypt was united under a single ruler, according to the new research. The study, published in the September issue of the journal Prague Egyptological Studies, enhanced an old photo of a now lost artifact revealing that Meretneith's name was written in a way reserved for a ruler for Egypt.
The presence of Meretneith's name in the serekhs indicates that she was a ruler of Egypt, he said. In a 1954 journal article, he published a black-and-white photograph of one of the mud stoppers. However, the poor quality of the photo meant many scholars were unconvinced.
This leaves only the black-and-white photograph. In the new study, Kelly and Crystal Miller, a technician at the same university who is now getting a master's degree in bioarchaeology, used a series of complex techniques to create digital enhancements of the photo that elucidated more details of the serekhs.
A comparison of a new digital "rubbing" of the ancient Egyptian serekhs (first attained in 2023) and Emery's 1954 sketches. (Image credit: Author provided)
The "king's mother"
Meretneith's role would not have been the same as her male counterparts'. Inscriptions of her found at different sites do not use the serekh, but they do accord her titles such as "king's mother" or name her as being in charge of important departments, such as the treasury, Kelly and Miller wrote in their paper.
The evidence suggests that she was a joint ruler with a man named Djer. We don't know for sure who Djer was, but he may have been her father, Kelly told Live Science in an email. She also may have acted as a regent for her son Den when he was too young to rule alone.
Related StoriesAfter her death, she was given a tomb of a similar size and construction to that of a ruler, excavations from 2023 suggest.
That doesn't mean Meretneith wasn't powerful, however. Engel noted that Meretneith "had a tomb among the earlier and later kings," with inscriptions found at other sites indicating that she acted on behalf of her son, King Den, when he was too young to effectively rule.
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