Hetephreres II (daughter of Khufu) & daughter Meresankh III (wife of Khafre), tomb G 7000X, near

Hetephreres II (daughter of Khufu) & daughter Meresankh III (wife of Khafre), tomb G 7000X, near the Great Pyramid of Giza.“Although Meresankh and Khafra had five children, Meresankh’s most important relationship seems to have been with her mother Hetepheres II, and in Meresankh’s tomb, built on her mother’s orders, the two women are shown sailing the Nile, tugging riverside reeds in an arcane ritual known as ‘Shaking the Papyrus’  to recharge their reproductive powers. Meresankh wears a net dress of blue beads in an enduring fashion that is still to be found in Egypt’s tourist bazaars. And as the outfits change around the walls, Hetepheres II appears in the same, striking outfit as previous royal women: a stiff white linen robe that features shoulder peaks of such pronounced dimensions they inspired the modern couturier Balmain. Her hair, covered by a wig, retains its original golden yellow colour to emphases her solar attributes, while the equally chic Meresankh, with her cropped black hair, is now dressed in the leopard-skin robe of a funerary priest. This was a role requiring its holder to be literate, as emphasised by a retainer holding up a document for her appraisal, and by the fact that Meresankh was also a priestess of the literacy god Thoth, a title also held by her mother.When Meresankh died in her mid-fifties - at a time the average lifespan was around thirty-five - her mummified body was placed in a sarcophagus inscribed ‘That which I have given to my daughter’ by her grieving mother Hetepheres II, who lived into her seventies, having outlived at least four kings including Khafra, who died around 2532 B.C.”Sons and Daughters of the Sun: c. 2613 - 2494 B.C.The Story of Egypt, Joann Fletcher, 2015. -- source link

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