Kneeling Woman from Senenmut’s Tomb

This limestone relief fragment (Met Museum. 36.3.239) once formed part of a statue niche in the offering chapel of Senenmut, the influential official of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. The surviving hieroglyphs above a kneeling woman most likely identify her as “his beloved sister Ahmose,” a reading reinforced by a wooden Osiris figure dedicated to a woman of the same name, discovered among the debris below the chapel.

The niche was cut high into the back wall of the axial hall. Owing to the poor quality of the local stone, ancient craftsmen hollowed out the rock and lined it with fine limestone blocks, now known largely through scattered fragments recovered during the Metropolitan Museum’s excavations of 1935–36. This piece probably belonged to the back wall of the niche, positioned partway up its left side.

Though much of the original painted decoration has faded, the fragment preserves a quiet intimacy; linking Senenmut not only to royal power, but to familial devotion, carefully carved into the sacred architecture of remembrance.

The Mummy of Senenmut: Lover of Hatshepsut?

Senenmut’s Family

Little is known of Senenmut’s family, yet what survives is unusually intimate for a non-royal official of the early New Kingdom. His parents, Ramose and Hatnefer, are named in inscriptions, and Hatnefer’s well-preserved burial at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna has provided rare insight into elite female life during the reign of Hatshepsut.

Several female relatives are attested, among them a woman named Ahmose, thought to have been Senenmut’s sister. The kneeling woman shown in relief within his offering chapel may represent her, identified through a partially preserved inscription and reinforced by objects dedicated to Ahmose found in the chapel debris. If so, the scene reflects not only status and devotion, but the close familial bonds Senenmut chose to memorialise within his tomb.

Mummy of Hatshepsut: The Female Pharaoh