Mentuhotep II
Mentuhotep II, also known under his prenomen Nebhepetre, was an ancient Egyptian King, the sixth ruler of the 11th Dynasty. He is credited with reuniting Egypt, thus ending the turbulent First Intermediate Period and becoming the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom. He reigned for 51 years, according to the Turin King List. Mentuhotep II succeeded his father Intef III on the throne and was in turn succeeded by his son Mentuhotep III.
Mentuhotep II ascended Egypt's throne in the Upper Egyptian city of Thebes during the First Intermediate Period. Egypt was not unified during this time, and the 10th Dynasty, rival to Mentuhotep's 11th, ruled Lower Egypt from Herakleopolis. After the Herakleopolitan kings desecrated the sacred ancient royal necropolis of Abydos in Upper Egypt in the fourteenth year of Mentuhotep's reign, Pharaoh Mentuhotep II dispatched his armies north to conquer Lower Egypt. Continuing his father Intef III's conquests, Mentuhotep succeeded in unifying his country, probably shortly before his 39th year on the throne. Following and in recognition of the unification, in regnal year 39, he changed his titulary to Sematawy.
Following the unification, Mentuhotep II reformed Egypt's government. To reverse the decentralization of power, which contributed to the collapse of the Old Kingdom and marked the First Intermediate Period, he centralized the state in Thebes by stripping from nomarchs some of their power. Mentuhotep II also created new governmental posts whose occupants were Theban men loyal to him, giving the pharaoh more control over his country. Officials from the capital travelled the country regularly to control regional leaders.
Mentuhotep II was buried at the Theban necropolis of Deir el-Bahari. His mortuary temple was one of Mentuhotep II's most ambitious building-projects, and included several architectural and religious innovations. For example, it included terraces and covered walkways around the central structure, and it was the first mortuary temple that identified the pharaoh with the god Osiris. His temple inspired several later temples, such as those of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Some depictions of Mentuhotep II seem to indicate that he suffered from elephantiasis, resulting in swollen legs.
Family
Mentuhotep II was the son of Intef III and Intef III's wife Iah who may also have been his sister. This lineage is demonstrated by the stele of Henenu, an official who served under Intef II, Intef III and his son, which the stele identifies as Horus s-ankh-, Mentuhotep II's first Horus name. As for Iah, she bore the title of mwt-nswt, "King's mother". The parentage of Mentuhotep II is also indirectly confirmed by a relief at Shatt er-Rigal. Some scholars have suggested that Mentuhotep II was of Nubian origin. Specifically, Wildung and Lobban have argued that Egyptian iconography represented Mentuhotep II with pronounced, Nubian facial features. Crawford noted that the rulers of the 11th dynasty were based in the Theban or southern region of Upper Egypt and had close relations with Nubia.Consorts
Mentuhotep II had many wives who were buried with him in or close to his mortuary temple.- Tem : might have been Mentuhotep II's chief wife as she bore the titles of ḥmt-nswt "King's wife", ḥmt-nswt mryt.f "King's wife, his beloved" and wrt-ḥts-nbwj "Great one of the hetes-sceptre of the two Lords". She gave Mentuhotep II two children, one of whom was Mentuhotep III since Tem was also called mwt-nswt, ""King's mother" and mwt-nswt-bjtj, "Dual king's mother". Apparently she died after her husband and was buried by her son in Mentuhotep's temple. Her tomb was discovered in 1859 by Lord Dufferin and fully excavated in 1968 by Dieter Arnold.
- Neferu II : was called "King's wife" and ḥmt-nswt-mryt.f, "King's wife, his beloved". She might have been Mentuhotep II's sister since she also bore the titles of sȝt-nswt-šmswt-nt-ẖt.f, "Eldest king daughter of his body", jrjt-pˁt, "hereditary princess" and ḥmwt-nbwt, "mistress of all women". She was buried in the tomb TT319 of Deir el-Bahri.
- Kawit : was one of Mentuhotep II's secondary wives. She bore the titles of ḥmt-nswt mryt.f "King's wife, his beloved" and ẖkrt-nswt, "King's embellishment". She was a "Priestess of the goddess Hathor". It has been suggested that she was Nubian. She was buried under the terrace of Mentuhotep II's mortuary temple where E. Naville uncovered her sarcophagus in 1907.
- Henhenet, Ashayet, Kemsit, and Sadeh were all Mentuhotep II's secondary wives. They bore the title of ḥmt-nswt mryt.f "King's wife, his beloved" and ẖkrt-nswt-wˁtit'' "Unique embellishment of the King". They were priestesses of Hathor and each of them was buried in a single pit dug under the terrace of Mentuhotep II's temple. Note that an alternative theory holds that Henhenet was one of Intef III's secondary wives, possibly the mother of Neferu II. Henhenet might have died in childbirth. On the interior decoration of Ashayet's coffin she included her household with images that included racial markers in the coloring of her black skin and yellow skin for her three female scribes. Kemsit is also shown in a painting in her tomb with black skin. The artists apparently was commissioned to show the Nubian origin of these queens.
Children with Tem
- Mentuhotep III
Possible children
- Mayet: a five-year-old girl buried with Mentuhotep II's secondary wives. She is most likely one of his daughters.
Reign
Early reign
When he ascended the Theban throne, Mentuhotep II inherited the vast land conquered by his predecessors from the first cataract in the south to Abydos and Tjebu in the north.Mentuhotep II's first fourteen years of reign seem to have been peaceful in the Theban region as there are no surviving traces of conflict firmly datable to that period. In fact, the general scarcity of testimonies from the early part of Mentuhotep's reign might indicate that he was young when he ascended the throne, a hypothesis consistent with his 51 years long reign.
Reunification of Egypt
In the 14th year of his reign, an uprising occurred in the north. This uprising is most probably connected with the ongoing conflict between Mentuhotep II based in Thebes and the rival 10th Dynasty based at Herakleopolis who threatened to invade Upper Egypt. The 14th year of Mentuhotep's reign is indeed named Year of the crime of Thinis. This certainly refers to the conquest of the Thinite region by the Herakleopolitan kings who apparently desecrated the sacred ancient royal necropolis of Abydos in the process. Mentuhotep II subsequently dispatched his armies to the north. The famous tomb of the warriors at Deir el-Bahari discovered in the 1920s, contained the linen-wrapped, unmummified bodies of 60 soldiers all killed in battle, their shroud bearing Mentuhotep II's cartouche. Due to its proximity to the Theban royal tombs, the tomb of the warriors is believed to be that of heroes who died during the conflict between Mentuhotep II and his foes to the north. Merikare, the ruler of Lower-Egypt at the time may have died during the conflict, which further weakened his kingdom and gave Mentuhotep the opportunity to reunite Egypt. The exact date when reunification was achieved is not known, but it is assumed to have happened shortly before year 39 of his reign. Indeed, evidence shows that the process took time, maybe due to the general insecurity of the country at the time: commoners were buried with weapons, the funerary stelae of officials show them holding weapons instead of the usual regalia and when Mentuhotep II's successor sent an expedition to Punt some 20 years after the reunification, they still had to clear the Wadi Hammamat of rebels loyal to the fallen Herakleopolitan rulers.Following the reunification, Mentuhotep II was considered by his subjects to be divine, or half divine.
This was still the case during the late 12th Dynasty some 200 years later: Senusret III and Amenemhat III erected stelae commemorating opening of the mouth ceremonies practiced on Mentuhotep II's statues.