Networks of power, strategic royal marriages and the legitimacy of Amasis within the Memphite elite society: Ta-kheta and Nekhtbasteteru revisited
Abstract
Arranged marriages among the elite circles were rarely a matter of choice, primarily used for establishment of the social, economic, and political networks, having financial gain, accumulation of wealth, patronage, and sometimes political alliance as its primary goals. Certainly, the Saite Egypt (664-526 BCE) was not an exception and surviving evidence strongly supports the existence of extensive networks of notable families across Egypt.
Except in the most obvious cases, mainly in Upper Egypt, and specific regions (for example, Thebes or Sais), this topic remains still largely unexplored in modern scholarship. Usurpation of general Amasis in 570 BC marked a clear political and ideological break within the ruling family from Sais.
According to the Herodotean tradition, his origins were humble. If so, after the win in the civil war against the legitimate king Apries, Amasis needed the wider acceptance as a new king of Egypt, not only in relation to the Saite royal house but also towards the contemporary members of the ruling elite.
As a matter of fact, he married at least two royal ladies in addition to his two more famous wives: Takheta and Nekhtbastetru. The former bore him his successor Psammetichus III and the latter was the mother of at least two more sons.
This paper aims to investigate the social background of both ladies, proposing that they were descendants of old families of the close confidants of the Saite royal house active in the Memphite and Heliopolite regions since the very beginning of the Saite era, whose prestige, wealth and influence contributed significantly to the legitimization of Amasis as the king of Egypt: Takheta might have been the granddaughter of the northern vizier under Psammetichus I, Bakenrenef, whose famous rock-cut tomb (LS 24) has been found in Saqqara, and Nekhtbastetru belonged to the family of Harwa and Horwedja, High Priests of Heliopolis under Taharqa and Psammetichus I respectively.