Was Tahpenes of 1 Kings Real? A Case for Her Archaeological Identification

In order to definitively associate an archaeological attestation of an individual with a person named in the Bible, multiple categories of information should be present and match: name, family, time period, location, and title or profession, while provenance of the artifact or artifacts is also an important factor. However, circumstances are not always perfect in archaeology, and in many situations, the quantity and clarity of the information presently available is only sufficient to classify the identification as probable, tentative, or speculative.

In the book of Kings, a Pharaoh, his queen, her sister, and an Edomite prince are briefly mentioned in a narrative set during the reign of Solomon (1 Kings 11:14-25). The Pharaoh’s name is not specified, nor is the name of the sister of the queen who married Hadad the Edomite, but the queen herself is called Tahpenes.

“Now Hadad found great favor before Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen” (1 Kings 11:19).

Although most translations render the title of Tahpenes as “queen,” rather than the standard word for queen (malkah), a distinct descriptor (gebirah) is used that is more accurately translated as mistress or lady. Thus, this woman would have been a “mistress” who was a wife of Pharaoh rather than his queen or primary wife. Since the chronological context appears to be in the latter years of Solomon, but prior to the reign of Shoshenq I who is specified by name near the end of the chapter (1 Kings 11:40), the unnamed Pharaoh in question was probably his predecessor, Psusennes II (Hor-Pasebakhaenniut II) who reigned for about 24 years from ca. 967-943 BC as the final king of the 21^st Dynasty.

While there are currently no known inscriptions referring to a 10^th century BC prince or king of Edom named Hadad, it is possible that ancient Egyptian records attest to the identity of Tahpenes. Previously, scholars have proposed that Tahpenes was a title or description rather than a name, such as tꜣ–ḥmt-nswt (“the wife of the king”) or related to the phrase tꜣ–ḥwt-pn-ḥsy (“the house of the Nubian”). With this interpretation, Tahpenes could be suggested as referring to “the Nubian,” and specifically a Nubian queen such as the wife of Pharaoh Siamun, known as Karimala the Nubian. A similarly named Egyptian city, Tahpanhes, is found as a place name in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel (e.g. Jeremiah 43:7-9; Ezekiel 30:18), and may mean “fortress of the Nubian” or “fortress of Panehesy,” perhaps in reference to the Viceroy of Kush named Panehesy (also meaning “Nubian”) under Pharoah Ramesses XI during the 11^th century BC (cf. The Turin Taxation Papyrus).

However, these translation suggestions present problems for the narrative context and the Hebrew rendering of the personal name Tahpenes, and necessitate dropping, adding, and reversing consonants, in addition to moving the chronological context too far and producing what would be an inexplicable repetitive description as “his own wife…the wife of the king, the mistress.” A transcription of the previously proposed Egyptian title tꜣ–ḥmt-nswt “the king’s wife” into Hurrianized Hittite cuneiform as daHamunzu indicates that the “m” should not disappear and that a “p” should not materialize in its place when transitioning into another language. Those linguistic changes and translation may be both implausible and unnecessary. In fact, the Hebrew form of the name would be more similar to a straightforward transcription of Egyptian Ta-hep(et)-en-Ese, a hypothetical name not connected to any particular historical character.^[1] The mistress Tahpenes mentioned in the book of Kings has never before been identified with a specific person attested through archaeological discoveries, but ancient Egyptian records indicate that there was a powerful woman, a lady and possible mistress of the Pharaoh who bears a name that can be equated with Tahpenes.^[2]

During the 10^th century BC in Egypt, one of the more prominent women was the lady Tapeshenese. The slight difference between the names Tahpenes (Hebrew TaHpenys), or its hypothetical straightforward transcription of Egyptian Ta-hep(et)-en-Ese, and the name Tapeshenese (Egyptian Tꜣ-pꜣ-šns), can be easily explained by the linguistic term metathesis—a phenomenon that is seen in other foreign names rendered in the Hebrew Bible, such as the famous example of Tiglath-Pileser rendered as Tilgath-Pilneser (e.g. 1 Chronicles 5:6). Thus, in this case, Ta-pa-sh-en-ese might become Ta-hep-en-ese by metathesis.

According to an inscription on a statue, the lady Tapeshenese held the titles First Chief of the Harem of Ptah and Prophetess of Mut, and was the mother of Shedsu-nefertem who became a high priest of Ptah (Cairo CG/JE 741). His father, also a high priest of Ptah, was Ankhefen-sekhmet according to the Genealogy of the Memphite Priestly Elite, naming both priests as father and son, and he functioned in this role during the long reign of Psusennes II (Berlin 23673).

Her son Shedsu-nefertem is also attested as the high priest of Ptah during the reign of Shoshenq I on his own stele, probably from Memphis, which further establishes his mother primarily serving in the reign of the previous Pharaoh Psusennes II (Clevland 1914.669). Shedsu-nefertem himself was married to Tentsepeh B, daughter of Psusennes II, which also fits the practice of intermarriage within the royal family and to priests or priestesses.

The names Tahpenes (Hebrew) and Tapeshenese (Egyptian) appear compatible, and are situated in the same time period, approximately during the reign of Psusennes II. This lady and priestess held positions of authority and prominence in the religious structure of Egypt, however, rather than being named as a queen or a wife of the Pharaoh in surviving Egyptian sources, and she had a child by the priest Ankhefen-sekhmet. Yet, mistress Tahpenes and lady Tapeshenese, chief of the harem, appear comparable. Further examination of the historical context, family lines, and positions held by queens and princesses may reveal more about the relationships of Tapeshenese and her possible link to the Pharaoh.

Pharaoh Psusennes II (ca. 967-943 BC) was the son of Pinedjem II, High Priest of Amun, and the lady Istemkheb D who herself was the “Chief of the Harem of Amun-Ra.” His parents were siblings—the high priest of Amun Pinedjem II and Isetemkheb D—as they were both children of the High Priest of Amun named Menkheteperre who was the son of the High Priest of Amun Pinedjem I and Duathathor-Henuttawy, a daughter of Pharaoh Ramesses XI who held titles such as Foremost Singer of Amun and Mother of the High Priest of Amun. The sisters of Psusennes II were priestesses, including Harweben, Chief of the Harem of Amen-Ra, and he himself held the title High Priest of Amun. The name the wife or wives of Psusennes II are unknown at this time, but his daughter Tentsepeh B became the wife of High Priest of Ptah, and his daughter Maatkare B held religious titles such as Prophetess of Hathor, Lady of Dendera, and God’s Mother of Harsomtus. This information makes it obvious that during this period in Egypt, not only did the royal family intermarry, but wives of the Pharaoh even held titles such as “Chief of the Harem” and other significant religious positions. Since both the mother and the sister of Pharaoh Psusennes II were the Chief of the Harem of Amun-Ra, there is no reason that one of his wives could not have been Chief of the Harem of Ptah. Although Tapeshenese is known as the mother of Shedsu-nefertem by the High Priest Ankhefen-sekhmet, she may have originally been a mistress of the Pharaoh or even taken as a wife or queen at some point. The two women bear the nearly identical names Tapeshenese and Tahpenes, they both lived in Egypt during the reign of Psusennes II, and they both held positions of prominence connected to the Pharaoh such as “Chief of the Harem of Ptah” and “mistress of Pharaoh” in the time of a ruling family with numerous chief ladies of the harem and priestesses. The designation gebirah (mistress or great lady) is a feasible rendering for a woman who held the title “chief of the harem.” While their family lineages such as parents or children cannot be matched due to insufficient information, and the titles are not identical, the identification of the Mistress Tahpenes of Egypt in the Bible as the Egyptian Lady Tapeshenese fulfills four of five criteria in addition to authentic and provenanced artifacts, and yet another biblical person appears to be attested by archaeological data.^[3]

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^[1] Kitchen, Kenneth. The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, 274.
^[2] Kennedy, Titus. “Identifying Lady Tahpenes of Egypt in Archaeology.” APXAIOC Newsletter #50 (2026).
^[3] This possible identification of Mistress Tahpenes as Lady Tapeshenese was not included in Archaeology and the People of the Bible.