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Burial
Maatkare's mummified corpse was found in 1881 in the Valley of the Kings, where a total of 40 royal mummies were found. The mummy of Maatkare was accompanied by the corpses of her family, who were also mummified. In addition, several other royal mummies were found of Pharaohs that have reined Egypt over a period from the 17th to the 21st dynasty. The shaft, in which the cache was discovered, dates back to the 11th dynasty.
Maatkare was buried in a traditional coffin, which is part of a collection of coffins belonging to the princess. The artifacts are currently on display at the museum of Cairo. Once opened, besides the body of the princess a small mummy was found, which was assumed to be the child of Maatkare. Upon examining the body of the princess, this appeared to be correct, as it appeared the High Priestess of Amen-Re had died while giving birth to a child. Surprisingly enough, recent scans of the "baby corpse" proved this assumption to be wrong as the remains appear to be animal, instead of human, as they appear to be the remains of an ape. Why the princess was accompanied in death by a baboon remains a mystery to this day.
In life Maatkare was related to Rameses XI, who was her great grandfather on her mother's side. Throughout Egyptian history Maatkare was the first female to hold the title Divine Votress and was often regarded to as the spouse of a god, one of the most powerful titles in that time period. She was a High Priestess of Amen re, which positioned her to be the most powerful person in Egypt, besides the ruling Pharaoh. Her position, made her synonym with Mut, to whom Amen re was believed to be married. It was further believed that Mut and Amen Re had a child who was named Khonus and was the god of the moon. One of the many symbols used to refer to Khonus, was a baboon. In this regards, taking note of the symbolical role of the High Priestess as Amen Re's wife, the baboon to accompany her in death seems quite logical, though this is entirely based on assumptions.
Even though the above may provide us with an explanation regarding the mummified baboon in the coffin, it still leaves us without any clues as to who's child Maatkare was giving birth to when she died. Nothing found in or around the burial site provided any indication towards the identity of the child or the father.
There may have been a time when clues towards the identity of the father existed, but upon discovery, the graves had already been disturbed once by grave robbers, and of the once rich site only a few artifacts and attributes were left, the robbers had deemed the site worthless.
The father of the unknown child must have been very powerful, as he dared to defy the powerful Egyptian traditions, which was a dangerous thing to do in that time period as it was stated that a Priestess in service of Amen Re must live a life in celibacy.
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