Mistress of the House
Do not control your wife in her house,
When you know she is efficient.
Don't say 'Where is it? Get it!'
When she has put it in the right place.
Instruction of the scribe Ani to his son, c.1300 BC
Ta-Kheru’s coffin describes her as ‘Mistress of the House’, a common title for women which implies that she owned and administered her own household and property.
Women in Ancient Egypt had many legal rights compared with those in other societies at the same time such as Ancient Greece. They could own property, and retained rights to their property when they married. A lower status woman would rely on her husband’s income and could face poverty if widowed, but Ta-Kheru was probably able to live a comfortable life from her own inherited wealth.
There was no ceremony of marriage in Ancient Egypt; marriage consisted of setting up a household together. Where a woman’s husband was wealthy, she might be one of two or more wives. If a marriage was unhappy, women and men alike could obtain a legal divorce, and be free to marry again.
It is likely that Ta-Kheru was married, but we do not know the name of her husband – or husbands, if she re-married after being widowed or divorced. Ta-Kheru would have run the household while her husband concerned himself with public affairs. Her responsibilities would have been extensive, managing servants and field workers. She may have been able to read and write in order to administer the household. As a noble lady, she would have been familiar with high court society.
Gallery
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Ancient Egyptian women wore kohl as eye make-up and stored it in small alabaster pots.
The small plate in the shape of a fish was used to mix cosmetics.
The comb could have been worn as a hair decoration.
Tawaret, goddess of childbirth and fertility, could help a woman to conceive a child and keep her safe in pregnancy
Sekhmet, the fierce lioness goddess of both war and healing.
Bastet, cat goddess and protector
This necklace is strung with amulets of gods and goddesses who protect women and children.
Taweret, a fertility goddess guarding women in childbirth, combines aspects of a pregnant hippopotamus, lion and crocodile: all creatures that fiercely defend their young. Hathor, sky goddess and goddess of love, was depicted as a cow or a woman with a headdress of cow’s horns. Bes, the dwarf god, was the guardian of children and mothers.