A case study of polygamy in the Old Kingdom: Mṯṯj and his two eldest sons

The tomb of Metjetji, which was dismantled before 1947, depicts two “eldest sons” on the entrance doorway thicknesses. The presence of two eldest sons is usually an indicator of the premature death of the chronological eldest son with the second son taking over the role or an indicator that the tomb owner had more than one wife—either through death, divorce, or polygamy. Both Goedicke and Kaplony argued for the death of the eldest son, although they disagreed on which son died. Kaplony based his assumptions about the family on the groupings of the children on the entrance, but he incorrectly identified the left and right doorway thicknesses. Careful re-examination of the iconography of the children shows that Metjetji depicts two separate groups of children, as do many tomb owners who have more than one wife. He appears to have had two wives concurrently, practicing polygamy as his unidentified wife had both the eldest and the youngest of the children shown at the entrance to the tomb.