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IN NONE of the dominant cultures of the ancient world did women regularly perform military service, but in a number of cultures royal women did occasionally play a leadership role in military enterprises.1 Some royal women in Egypt in pharaonic times reigned or co-reigned, and even non-reigning royal women had an institutionalized role in the public presentation of monarchy.2 As the position of royal women was much more prominent in Egypt than in other ancient monarchies, it comes as no great surprise that this prominence sometimes involved some aspect of military leadership.3 This study is dedicated to John Oates in affectionate memory of his many years as teacher and mentor.
The paper examines the role of women in pharaonic times in three categories of military leadership: participation and command in battle itself; administrative leadership (command of campaigns); and symbolic leadership (appearances with armies, near battles but not actual involvement in combat, or depictions or conceptualizations of women in the guise of military leaders). Having established the parameters of female military leadership, the paper will then consider its figurative nature, its cultural meaning and context, particularly in terms of monarchy. A brief comparison with royal Macedonian women will accentuate the distinctive nature of Egyptian royal female involvement in military action and ideology.
During the second intermediate period, when the 17th dynasty organized the effort to drive the Hyksos from Egypt, and the New Kingdom, when Egypt dominated much of Nubia and Syria-Palestine, the military gained unprecedented importance in Egyptian life, and also royal women achieved new prominence.4 Not surprisingly, it is in this militaristic era that we find three possible examples of women who entered combat and exercised battlefield command. Some might doubt that the evidence demonstrates that they actually led armies in battle, but it would be difficult to maintain that these women were not, at least administratively, in charge of military operations.
Ahhotep was the mother of Ahmose, who defeated the Nubians, expelled the Hyksos, and re-established national monarchy, thus creating the 181 dynasty. Evidence suggests that Ahhotep led the Egyptian army. An inscription from Ahmose's great stele at Karnak describes her as one who makes important decisions. It asserts that she was a daughter of a king and mother of a king and...