Welcome back to the Egyptian history podcast with your host Dominic Perry.

After eight solid episodes of Royal Dynasties,

architectural achievements, and a social paradigm dominated by men,

it is time to talk about Egyptian women.

With the fourth dynasty winding down to its clothes, we have an opportunity

to really examine the ideological and personal role of the royal woman, for it is with the end of this dynasty that we meet the first of a group of

ladies who are going to shape events and politics for the next few episodes.

Men Calroy's pyramid at Giza had assured him some level of immortality.

Of course, the easiest way for a human to achieve such immortality is through their children,

and Mencoura's wife, Ka-Merenebte, meaning the beloved two ladies appear, had borne him a son named

Koo-en-Rara, and a daughter named Kenticouse, meaning she is foremost of the cars.

Despite this, the king died without an acceptable air.

Kewen Ra had pre-deceased his father, leaving little to posterity except a finely carved statue now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

With the passing of the King, in the absence of a son of viable age and experience,

the power to secure the throne lay in the hands of a woman. Menkowery's daughter by birth, the young Kenticaus, is the first royal female, of whom

we can say much more than she existed.

Wives of the Fourth Dynasty Kings had been a powerful element of the Royal Family, but their

visibility in the archaeological and literary records is low.

Small pyramids built adjacent to the King's monuments may have been dedicated to these wives and mothers, but to date no burial has actually been found within them.

Whether the royal women were buried in the pyramids or not

thus remains something of a mystery. The mother of Kufu for instance named

Hetep Harris meaning she, has never been found, but a shaft tomb was discovered near the Great

...