Menhet, Menwi and Merti, also spelled Manhata, Manuwai and Maruta, were three minor foreign-born wives of Pharaoh Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty. They are known for their lavishly furnished rock-cut tomb in Wady Gabbanat el-Qurud near Luxor, Egypt. They are suggested to be Syrian, as the names all fit into Canaanite name forms, although their ultimate origin is unknown. A West Semitic origin is likely, but both West Semitic and Hurrian derivations have been suggested for Menwi. Each of the wives bear the title of "king's wife", and were likely only minor members of the royal harem. It is not known if the women were related as the faces on the lids of their canopic jars are all different.
Their intact tomb was discovered in 1916 by Qurnawi locals. Their mummies and other organics such as wood had disintegrated due to water seeping into the tomb over the millennia but metal and stone objects had survived. Their jewelry and other burial goods were sold on the local and international antiquities market, where most were bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art between 1918 and 1988.
Lives and position
Although not attested outside of their tomb, Menhet, Menwi, and Merti are the earliest known foreign women within the royal household. Their origins are unknown, but given that their names fit into Canaanite forms, a West Semitic origin is the most likely. Both West Semitic and Hurrian derivations have been suggested for Menwi. Herbert Winlock suggested that the women were the daughters of Syrian rulers, and it has been proposed that one of these women was the "daughter of a great one" mentioned in the Annals of Thutmose III, brought back by him from Retjenu in his Year 40 campaign. However, the early style of pottery and the presence of the names of both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III on objects from their tomb, together with the mention of only a single foreign princess, makes the identification of Menhet, Menwi, or Merti with this particular foreign woman, arriving late in Thutmose's reign, unlikely. The trio likely lived in the north of Egypt, possibly at Gurob near Memphis where the royal residence was located. Foreign wives seem to have been treated differently to Egyptian wives, as Menhet, Menwi, and Merti are not depicted in the tomb of their husband, despite wives of the same title being depicted. However, this may be due to their deaths occurring well before the decoration of his tomb. The three were not without status, as they are given the title "king's wife" rather than simply "wife" or "noblewoman". At least one of the women had a religious position as evidenced by the gazelle-headed diadem and possible sistrum found in the tomb.
Menhet, Menwi, and Merti were buried in Wady Gabbanat el-Qurud, an area used as the burial ground of royal women and children in the early Eighteenth Dynasty. Their tomb is located close to and is of equal scale to the cliff tomb intended for Hatshepsut as chief queen of Thutmose II. They were evidently buried in Egyptian style with Egyptian burial goods. Their causes of death are unknown as water seeping into the tomb over time had caused their coffins and mummies to decay entirely. Winlock suggests that given the tomb's inaccessible location, the three women were buried together in a single funeral, perhaps indicating they died close together, possibly during an epidemic. His suggestion that they were executed as the result of a harem conspiracy is considered unlikely as they were buried with lavish royal gifts bearing the king's name. It is now considered likely that the burials could have been made one at a time. Their funerary objects all seem to have been made at the same time. This, together with the location of their tomb, and the presence of the name of Hatshepsut, place their deaths and burials in the early to mid reign of Thutmose III, likely between Year 7 and Year 22.