Sekhmakh

Sekhmakh
Queen consort of Meroë King's Daughter King's Wife Mistress of Egypt
Detail of Sekhmakh from the stela of Nastasen
Queen regnant of Meroë?
Reign	???? BC - ???? BC
Spouse	Nastasen
Father	Harsiotef?

Sekhmakh Sḫ m3ḫ in hieroglyphs

Sekhmakh was the wife of the Nubian king Nastasen, who ruled in the 4th century BC.[1]

Sekhmakh is known from the great stela of the king, where she is depicted in the roundel. She is also known from her funerary stela,[2] found in a temple at Jebel Barkal and obviously reused.[3] The burial, where the stela was once placed is unknown. Sekhmakh bears the titles king's daughter, king's wife and mistress of Egypt.[1] Her royal parents are unknown.

Sekhmakh had a Horus name and is referred to as "king" on a stela from Jebel Barkal, possibly indicating that she was a queen regnant or had some kind of role that was a precursor to the reigning queens of Meroë. [4]

King Nastasen making offerings to the gods with his mother Pelkha (left) and his wife Sekhmakh (far right).

References

1. Eide, Tormod (1994). Fontes Historiae Nubiorum: From the mid-fifth to the first century BC. University of Bergen, Department of Classics. ISBN 978-82-91626-01-7.
2. Khartum 1853
3. Török, László (2021-10-01). The Image of the Ordered World in Ancient Nubian Art: The Construction of the Kushite Mind, 800 BC - 300 AD. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-49355-1.
4. Joyce Haynes; Mimi Santini-Ritt (2012). "Women in Ancient Nubia". In Marjorie M. Fisher; Peter Lacovara; Salma Ikram; Sue D'Auria (eds.). Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile. The American University in Cairo Press. p. 173.

Literature

• Laszlo Török, in: Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, Vol. II, Bergen 1996, 468, ISBN 978-82-91626-01-7

External links

• Stela of Nastasen, mentioning the queen