Rennefer was a widow living in the 18th Dynasty, New Kingdom. She and her husband Nebnefer had no children of their own, which must have been something of a tragedy in a society where children were an insurance against an old age in poverty. It was also awkward to be without heirs if there were properties and perhaps even a bit of wealth and one didn´t really like the prospect of one´s relatives taking over...

But there was something to be done for this: Nebnefer adopted his wife and thereby made her his heir. By doing this he put aside all other relatives. Did Rennefer and Nebnefer have some unusually greedy and speculative relatives, or didn´t wives normally inherit their husbands?

However there is more to the story. We read that Rennefer brought up three children whose mother was a servant girl which Nebnefer had purchased. Now, was he also the father of these three children? We don´t know but we can speculate.

Later, when she had become a widow, Rennefer tells that the stablemaster Padiu, who was her younger brother, married the eldest of these children, a girl named Taiemniut. She approved of this marriage. Further she had also adopted the three children and made them and Padiu her heirs.

By adopting the servant girls´children, Rennefer made sure they would take care of everything which sheand Nebnefer left behind. And what more, she had very likely insured that she herself would be given the rites after her death which conducted her over to the Beautiful West so that she could Live Eternally. For being adopted most likely also meant taking on the same responsibilities as biological children would have in a society in those days.

All this taken together sort of makes you wonder what really went on there. Did Nebnefer, with the consent of Rennefer, father those three children of the servant girl on purpose? But if he did this to secure an heir, then why wouldn´t only one child have sufficed? Or did that servant girl go to his head? ;) If so, what did Rennefer think about it? (poor woman...) And if on the other hand, the servant girl brought these children with her when she came to the house, then both she and the adoption might have happened because Nebnefer and Rennefer saw the chance of preparing for their old age as well as their next life. Even if we don´t know that much about the legalities involved with adoption, this wants to tell us that issues with childlessness were probably very often a serious matter to be seen to with the means which came in handy.