Editing Huni (section)

== Family ==
[[File:MetjenHuni.png|thumb|right|170px|Inscription from '''mastaba L6''' mentioning a royal domain of Huni.<ref name=WoHe2>Wolfgang Helck: ''Der Name des letzten Königs der 3. Dynastie und die Stadt Ehnas''. In: ''Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur. (SAK)''; 4th Edition 1976, p. 125-128.</ref>]]
The genealogical position of Huni in the family line of ruling kings, during the time when the 3rd dynasty ended and the 4th started, is highly disputed. Contemporary and later documents often mention Huni and his follower Sneferu in the same sentence, always in direct succession. Therefore, Egyptologists and historians believe that Huni might have even been related to Snefru. A key figure in this case is queen [[Meresankh I]], the royal mother of Snefru. She definitely bore the title of a queen, but no contemporary source connects her name with the title of a daughter or wife of Huni. This circumstance raises doubts in the family relationship between Huni and Sneferu. Today most scholars prefer to believe the historian [[Manetho]], who claims in his ''Aegyptiacae'' that with the enthronement of Sneferu a different royal house gained power over Egypt and a new dynasty began.<ref name=SiRo>Silke Roth: ''Die Königsmütter des Alten Ägypten von der Frühzeit bis zum Ende der 12. Dynastie''. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2001, {{ISBN|3-447-04368-7}}, page 68–69 & 385.</ref>

A possible wife of Huni was instead a queen ''[[Djefatnebti|Djefatnebty]]'', whose name appears in black ink inscriptions on beer vases from Elephantine. Her name is guided by the title ''great one of the hetes-sceptre'', making her definitely a queen consort. According to an interpretation by [[Günter Dreyer]], Djefatnebty's death is mentioned alongside several events during the reign of king Huni, although no king is mentioned in the inscription by his name. Dreyer is convinced that the notations concern the 22nd year of Huni's reign, since the Turin canon credits him with a reign of 24 years and no Third Dynasty king is archaeologically proven to have ruled so long. Dreyer's interpretation is not commonly accepted, though.<ref name=SiRo/>

Until today, no child or other relative of Huni can be identified and connected to him with certainty. [[William Stevenson Smith]] and [[George Andrew Reisner]] propose to identify queen [[Hetepheres I]] (concubine of Sneferu and mother of king [[Khufu]]; 4th dynasty) as the daughter of King Huni. Hetepheres bore the female title ''Sat-netjer'' ("daughter of a god"), which led Smith and Reisner to the conclusion that this could be a hint to her family position as the daughter of Huni. In this case, Hetepheres would have been an heir princess and by marrying Sneferu, she secured the blood line of the royal dynasty.<ref>William Stevenson Smith: ''Inscriptional Evidence for the History of the Fourth Dynasty''. In: ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'', vol. 11, 1952, p. 113–128.</ref><ref>George Andrew Reisner: ''A History of the Giza Necropolis - Volume II.: The tomb of Hetep-Heres, the mother of Cheops. A Study of Egyptian Civilization in the Old Kingdom.'' Oxford University Press, Oxford 1955, p. 59–61.</ref> But other scholars, such as [[Wolfgang Helck]] and [[:de:Wilfried Seipel|Wilfried Seipel]], raise strong doubts against this theory. They argue that the title of Hetepheres does not explicitly reveal to whom she was married in her lifetime.<ref>Wilfried Seipel: ''Hetepheres I.'' In: Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto: ''Lexikon der Ägyptologie''. p. 1172–1173.</ref>