Close-up of a seal impression on a mudstopper from Saqqara tomb S3503 with serekhs (rectangular symbols that were used to frame an Egyptian king’s name in the Early Dynastic period). Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society; used with permission from the author.
October 1, 2026

Did Meretneith Rule Egypt as a Female King in the First Dynasty?

October 2026 | Vol. 14.10

By Sue Kelly

More than 5,000 years ago, a royal woman called Meretneith (also written as Merneith) lived in ancient Egypt. She was possibly the daughter of Djer, the third king of the First Dynasty (c. 3100-2900 BCE), a period when the first kings ruled over a unified Egypt.

Details over Meretneith’s exact royal status have remained murky. We know she ruled the country because her tomb complex was filled with riches fit for a male ruler of Egypt. At the very least, she was an interim ruler or co-regent. But did she ever rule Egypt in her own right?

Aerial view of Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos in Egypt, with the tombs of Predynastic, Dynasty 1 and Dynasty 2 tombs overlaid. The Tomb of Merneith is labeled (Y), Djer is labeled (O).
Aerial view of Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos in Egypt, with the tombs of Predynastic, Dynasty 1 and Dynasty 2 tombs overlaid. The Tomb of Merneith is labeled (Y), Djer is labeled (O). Public Domain via Wikimedia.
Stele with the name of Meretneith from Tomb Y at Umm el Qa’ab. Egyptian Museum, JE 34450. Photo by لا روسا via Wikimedia, CC By-SA 4.0
Stele with the name of Meretneith from Tomb Y at Umm el Qa’ab. Egyptian Museum, JE 34450. Photo by لا روسا via Wikimedia, CC By-SA 4.0

Egyptologists have long disputed whether Meretneith was an independent ruler of Egypt. Resolving that dispute would require finding a text that identifies her as a ruler. Our new research, published in the journal Prague Egyptological Studies, might do just that. Using a new digital technique, we examined hieroglyphs in the photo of a long-lost artefact, and the signs clearly point to Meretneith being one of the early rulers of Egypt.

 

A Muddy Dispute

Currently, the only possible text that could resolve the dispute over Meretneith’s status is a hieroglyphic inscription in a black-and-white photograph of a mud stopper (a plug used for pottery jars and other vessels).

Close-up of a seal impression on a mudstopper from Saqqara tomb S3503 with serekhs (rectangular symbols that were used to frame an Egyptian king’s name in the Early Dynastic period). Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society; used with permission from the author.
Close-up of a seal impression on a mudstopper from Saqqara tomb S3503 with serekhs (rectangular symbols that were used to frame an Egyptian king’s name in the Early Dynastic period). Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society; used with permission from the author.

The text in question was originally found on 13 mud stoppers excavated from an unknown tomb in Saqqara in the 1940s. Only one photo of an inscription remains. That photo is found in the records of Egyptologist Walter B. Emery from the Egypt Exploration Society in London. The location of the original artefact or glass plate of the photo is unknown.

The text consists of a row of four royal signs, known as serekhs. This hieroglyphic sign is written combining an image of a royal building, a patron deity, and the ruler’s name. Emery said that only the first and fourth sign belonged to the ruler Djer. However, many scholars at the time rejected Emery’s claim that the other two serekhs named Meretneith.

Among the many arguments against Emery’s theory was that the poor quality of the original published photo made it impossible to confirm what the signs on the mud stopper depicted.

 

Clearing Up the Debate

In collaboration with digital technician Crystal Miller at Macquarie University in Sydney, we came up with a new technique to digitally clear up the signs. The goal was to determine if the inscription provides definitive evidence that Meretneith held the same marker as male rulers — as Emery claimed.

We applied a multi-step process to a digital image of the scanned archive photograph. By isolating the hieroglyphs, inverting the colours, and converting the image to a scalable vector (a computer graphic based on mathematical formulas), we produced a crisp digital replica — much like a high-tech pencil rubbing over a coin.

Step 1 in creating the artifact illustration: adding more contrast. Image used with permission from the author.
Step 1 in creating the artifact illustration: adding more contrast. Image used with permission from the author.

The enhanced image quality significantly improved the clarity of the text and is much more accurate than the original hand illustration Emery drew of the symbols in the photo.

Step 2: Isolating the serekhs from the background to perform further analysis. Image used with permission from the author.
Step 2: Isolating the serekhs from the background to perform further analysis. Image used with permission from the author.
Step 3: inverting the color palette to further isolate the seal impression. This figure compares our new digital ‘rubbing’ of the serekhs (originally attained in 2023) and Emery’s hand drawings (1954). Used with permission from the author.
Step 3: inverting the color palette to further isolate the seal impression. This figure compares our new digital ‘rubbing’ of the serekhs (originally attained in 2023) and Emery’s hand drawings (1954). Used with permission from the author.

Our technique has revealed that in the second and third serekhs, the signs in the name portion of the emblem are consistent with the main sign used to write Meretneith’s name. In our opinion, the result identifies Meretneith with the primary mark of rulers in this period.

This means she really was a female king (not simply a “queen”, but a true equivalent to a male ruler, hence “king”) during the First Dynasty, and the second female ruler of ancient Egypt whose name was recorded in the royal serekh emblem (the first being Neithhotep).

 

A Body of Evidence

There are other markers that build a body of evidence for Meretneith’s royal career: her lavish funerary complex in the royal cemetery, inscriptions that document her name alongside administrative titles and departments, and impressions on royal tomb seals. In fact, studies estimate she ruled Egypt for at least 30 years in one capacity or another.

However, for all the evidence we do have, the jigsaw puzzle of her career remains incomplete. This latest research contributes a new hypothesis: that Meretneith’s political career should be divided into distinct stages matching the different forms of evidence.

The different types of texts allow us to categorize different political roles of her career. The royal serekh beside Djer’s identifies her as a co-regent, while tomb seals confirm her later role as a regent king’s mother.

Drawing of a cylinder seal impression from the tomb of Den at Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos. The name of Meretneith with the title “King’s Mother” can be seen in the highlighted section at the right. Drawing by Nephiliskos, CC By-SA 4.0.
Drawing of a cylinder seal impression from the tomb of Den at Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos. The name of Meretneith with the title “King’s Mother” can be seen in the highlighted section at the right. Drawing by Nephiliskos, CC By-SA 4.0.

Egyptians acknowledged her political status by naming her on the tomb seal of a subsequent ruler, Semerkhet. Other texts indicate that she held authority over the treasury and officials, governing as a ruler without a political title. The ability to change her political roles across her career was only possible because of her gender and position in the ruling family.

We suggest Meretneith had the advantage of stepping in and out of the political domain as necessitated by the needs of the political environment, unlike male rulers who succeeded her, reigned, died, and were buried by their successors.

The Conversation

Sue Kelly is an Honorary Postdoctoral Associate in Egyptology at Macquarie University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Further Reading:

Kelly, S. and Miller, C. 2026. New technology illuminating ancient evidence: re-evaluating Meretneith’s serekhs and political position. Prague Egyptological Studies 36: 28-49. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/212321

Kelly, S. 2025. Neithhotep: ancient Egypt’s first female ruler. Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 54: 271-281.

Köhler, E. C., et al. 2023. A preliminary report of new archaeological fieldwork at the tomb of Queen Meret-Neith of the 1st Dynasty at Abydos, Umm el-Qaab. Ägypten und Levante 33: 75-144.

Emery, W. B. 1954. Excavations at Sakkara Great Tombs of the First Dynasty II. Egypt Exploration Society.

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