Tabiry was the daughter of Alara of Nubia and his wife Kasaqa and the wife of King Piye. She held some interesting titles: Main King’s Wife, first of her majesty (hmt niswt ‘at tpit n hm.f)
(the only other queen to hold the Main King’s Wife title was Nefertiti)
and “The Great One of the Foreign Country” (ta-aat-khesut). She also holds the more standard titles of King’s Wife.
–“Issa Queen”, created by Briittoatila
Tabiry was buried in a pyramid at El-Kurru (K.53). A carved granite funerary stela found in her tomb mentions she is the daughter of Alara of Nubia and the wife of Piye. The stela is now in Khartoum. The stela gives Tabiry further titles. Reisner had initially translated one of her titles as ‘the great chieftainess of the Temehu’ (southern Libyans), and concluded that the royal house of Kush was somehow related to (In North Africa) the Libyans. Others have since shown that her title should be read as “Great One (or ‘Chieftainess’) of the Desert-dwellers”, showing her title connects her to the Nubians.
Napatan Queen at Nuri
A blue faience shabti of Tabiry is now in the Petrie Museum in London.
Tabiry – Google Books
Shawabty of Queen Tabiry | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Example of one of the Nubian pyramids in Sudan below
El-Kurru was one of the royal cemeteries used by the Nubian royal family. Reisner excavated the royal pyramids. Most of the pyramids date to the early part of the Kushite period, from Alara of Nubia (795–752 BC) to King Nastasen (335–315 BC).
The area is divided into three parts by two wadis. The central section seems to be the oldest and contains several tumulus type tombs that predate the Kingdom of Napata. Reisner thought that the earliest tomb, Tum.1, dated back to the time of Pharaoh Sheshonq I of Ancient Egypt (c. 850 BC) and predates the Kingdom of Napata by some 200 years. At the present scholars (Kendall, Hakem, Totok) think the early cemetery stretches back to the Ramesside period and date the earliest burials to the end of the Twentieth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt (c. 1070 BC), although Kendall has reverted his position and now adheres to a dating closer to the one proposed by Reisner.
To the south of the pyramid of Pebatjma, one has to cross the southern wadi to reach the southern pyramids.
These are the other pyramids of the Queens:
Naparaye (K.3), Khensa (K.4), Qalhata (K.5), and Arty (K.6)
Will add to the list/post these African Queens above and more from other areas of the African continent in the near future. Thank you for your interest-Sola