Callender. Queen Tausret and the End of Dynasty 19

Queen Tausret and the End of Dynasty 19Author(s): Vivienne G. CallenderSource: Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, Bd. 32 (2004), pp. 81-104Published by: Helmut Buske Verlag GmbHStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152908 .Accessed: 05/01/2011 14:16

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=hbv. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Helmut Buske Verlag GmbH is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studien zurAltägyptischen Kultur.

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=hbv

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152908?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=hbv

Queen Tausret and the End of Dynasty 19*

Vivienne G. Callender

Abstract In this study, an attempt is made to set out what is known about the life and times of Queen Tausret, the last ruler of the 19th Dynasty. The seminal work for this period has been R. Drenkhahn's, Die Elephantine Stele des Sethnacht und ihr historischer Hintergrund, AA 36,1980, but, as Drenkhahn' s work has now been overtaken by new information from excavation and ostraka studies, it is timely that some reassessment of this queen be made, current accounts in many cases now being inaccurate or incomplete.

The years that followed Rameses II are less well known by either scholars or those with a

general interest in Egyptian history. It still remains an era of great confusion,1 although a

much clearer picture of those times is now emerging, thanks in no small way to the work

of Rolf Krauss, Kenneth Kitchen, Rosemary Drenkhahn, Frank Yurco, Hartwig Alten

miiller and others. The results of their labours have led to extremely important new infor

mation coming to light for this difficult period in Egyptian history. In particular, Alten miiller' s exemplary archaeology has clarified problems relating both to the events and the

chronology of the time so that, these days, one can feel a little more confident in speaking about the history of the last years of Dynasty 19.

Major work in the history of the late 19th Dynasty takes as its core the well-known trio

of personalities: Siptah, Tausret and Bay. Altenmiiller's excavations of their tombs have,

together with discoveries and investigations by other scholars, led to a new understanding of events at that time. This is particularly true concerning the regnant queen Tausret and

her career. To date, these results have remained within separate studies (in a variety of

languages) and those wishing to know the most up to date facts and theories concerning the

queen must juggle with a large number of complex and sometimes polarised arguments in

different articles. As little material on Tausret is readily available2 - the Lexikon der

Agyptologie entry is very brief and even the most recent books have limited information3 - a detailed account of what we know of her life is surely timely.

My sincere thanks to Edwin Brock, who kindly read the draft of this article and offered some much

appreciated good advice which improved the piece. 1 See, for example, the historical reconstruction given by Petrie in his volume mentioning Tausret's

mortuary temple - W.M.F. Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, 1896,16.

2 There is a more comprehensive and reliable account of Tausret' s career given on the internet than there

is in many textbooks: see http://www.kv5.com/html/tausert. For example, there is no separate entry for

this queen in the newly-published Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (edited by D.B. Redford,

2001) although she makes an appearance listed under the topic of ?Queens" and ?Sety II", as well as

an historical reference in one other place (vol II, 536). 3

Probably, the best general historical account can be found in C. Vandersleyen, L'Egypte et la vallee du

Nil II, Nouvelle Clio, 1995,5 84-5 86, while the most thorough detailed study of the reign and the period

during which the queen flourished is in R. Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele des Sethnacht und ihr

historischer Hintergrund, AA 36, 1980 (see below). Due to Altenmtiller's research, however, this

valuable study of Drenkhahn's now needs a new edition.

82 V.G. Callender SAK 32

Background

Rameses II was succeeded by his thirteenth son, Merenptah, himself an aged man after the

long reign of his father. Although Tausret does not acknowledge her parentage in any

available records and has no document to my knowledge that displays the title of s?t nswt

(King's daughter), it is physically possible that she may have been that king's daughter.

Alternatively, she may have been a daughter either of Rameses II himself (born late in his

reign), or a child of another of Rameses' offspring and therefore not entitled to carry the

title of King's Daughter (see p. 85). For a number of years after the death of King Merenptah, conditions in Egypt were

confused, if not chaotic, both in regard to the government and for the people living in

Egypt at the time. Despite the considerable efforts of Rolf Krauss, Jiirgen Osing and

Kenneth Kitchen, we are not even entirely sure about the correct succession of kings in the

late 19th Dynasty.4 Chief among the problems is the accession and reign of Amenmesse.

Sety II, given his status in the kingdom under Merenptah,5 should have succeeded

Merenptah directly, but (whether it was immediately, or only after a year or two,6 we have

no definitive information) the presence of the pharaoh Amenmesse has confused the

picture. The reign7 of that man, however, has been said, by some, to be confined to Upper

Egypt, where many monuments of his are to be found. So far, only one record of this king

has been found in Northern Egypt.8 Thus it is that some scholars think that there was a

division within the rule of Egypt at this time (Sety II ruling the northern region, Amen messe the south9), while others think it more likely that Amenmesse usurped the throne and

reigned as sole king between Years 2-5 of Sety II.10 Other scholars suggest that it is more

4 See, for example, R. Krauss, in: SAK 4, 1976, 161-199; in: SAK 5, 1977, 131-174 especially 142f, 149. J. Osing, in: SAK 7,1979,253-271 raised some pertinent questions regarding several of Krauss's

conclusions and, in particular, the relevance of the various ostraka in assembling dates for the reign. 5 For attestations of Sety II as Prince Sety-Merenptah, see M. Eaton-Krauss, Sety-Merenptah als Kron

prinz Merenptahs', in: GM 50,1981,15-21. Particularly interesting is her recording of the unique title for the prince, hrp Swj nj //./(Controller of the Two Lands of his Father) as well rs r-prt m st Gb (Prince on the Throne of Geb), both titles indicating his selection as the ageing Merenptah's deputy. 6 There is, for example, the untouched date of the Oracle Text of Year 1 at Abu Simbel (KRI IV, 275) and the dateline of the Silsila text for Year 2 with Sety IPs untouched cartouches which suggest an

initial reign for Sety, but were these monuments inscribed during the first years of his reign before or

after the reign of Amenmesse? 7

R. Krauss, Zur historischen Einordnung Amenmesses und zur Chronologie der 19./20. Dynastie, in:

GM 45, 1981, 27-33, with reference to the article by F. Yurko (see n. 14). 8

This was on a wide-bodied jar found by R. Engelbach at Riqqeh (R. Engelbach et al., Riqqeh and

Memphis VI, 1915, 31, pi. LI/1). It was thought that the jar held the cartouche of Rameses XI but, in

fact, it carries Amenmesse's name - see J. Aksamit, in: M. de Krzysztof et al. (eds.), Les Civilisations du Bassin Mediterranean: Hommages a Joachim Sliwa, 2000, 30 (with illustrations).

9 In fact, no dated monuments of Sety II for this time have been found in the northern regions either, so

a divided reign is not without question. 10

Eg. Cl. Vandersleyen, L'Egypte II, 1995, 578; this was also the original opinion of K.A. Kitchen, in:

LA V, 917. For possible evidence for Amenmesse having replaced cartouches of Sety II, see A. Dodson, in: JEA 81, 1995, 125-128. Significant is the article by Krauss, in: GM 45, 1981, 27-33, esp. 30f.

2004 Queen Tausret and the end of Dynasty 19 83

likely that Amenmesse took the throne immediately after the death of Merenptah.11 So

ambiguous is the evidence that none of these claims is impossible. After Amenmesse's

reign, however, his names and titles were erased on his monuments and reinscribed with

the name of Sety II.

Amenmesse's family links are likewise hazy. He could have been the son of a woman

named Takhat,12 who was known to be a king's mother, but was not thought to have had

any titles as a royal daughter or wife. Krauss,13 though, had argued that she was a royal

daughter, and this fact has now been established, together with strong circumstantial

evidence that she was also a royal wife.14 There are several possibilities for the husband of

Takhat: Rameses II, Merenptah or Sety II and arguments have been mounted for each case.

At present, the choice still remains controversial. Sety II had a wife of this name, but this

queen is not recorded with the title of king's mother on other records made by Sety II. If

she were his wife, it is possible that the father of Amenmesse could have been Sety II him

self.15

Despite the fact that Amenmesse is thought to have reigned longer than Sety actually

did, we know less about Amenmesse than we do about Sety II. Amenmesse's relationship both to Merenptah and Sety II are not known: most scholars refer to him as ?a relation".

Although Amenmesse ordered a tomb (KV 10) to be cut in the royal valley, he does not seem to have been buried there. All the decoration of his tomb was erased, probably as part of a redecoration program,16 and the rulers of the 20th Dynasty disregarded his reign (as they

11 J. Von Beckerath, Chronologie des pharaonischen Agypten, MAS 46, 1997, 104f; K.A. Kitchen, in: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt II, 537.

12 In KV 10 (Amenmesse's tomb), the sarcophagus lid of a queen named Takhat has been found in frag ments - 30% of the lid is missing

- but the remnants were recently put together by Edwin Brock. The

original lid belonged to a certain Inuketemheb (see the article by E. Brock, The Sarcophagus Lid of

Queen Takhat, in: Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century, Proceedings of the 8th Congress of Egyptologists I, 2003, 97-102). Inuketemheb might have been a daughter of Rameses II.

13 R. Krauss (in: GM 61, 1983, 51), again drawing attention to an original statue of Amenmesse with a relief depiction of his mother Takhat, in which she had the titles of s3t nswt, and mwt nswt. The latter title had been altered into hmt nswt when Sety II had the statue recarved and reused. Quite reasonably,

Krauss concluded from this alteration, that Amenmesse's Takhat must have also been a king's wife. 14

F.J. Yurco, in: Amenmesse: Six Statues at Karnak, in: MMJ 14,1980,28f, where he considers that she had been either the wife of Merenptah or the wife of Rameses II. I agree with A. Dodson (The Takhats and some other royal ladies of the Ramesside period, in: JEA 73, 1987, 226), that it is extremely un

likely that Sety II had two wives named Takhat. As Merenptah's reign is estimated at 12 years, both

Sety II and Takhat are likely to have been bom prior to his reign, i.e., neither having been ?born to the

purple", although as the children of a later king, they would both have been entitled to sS/sSt nswt tiles later.

15 Krauss, in: SAK 4, 1976, 167 and in: SAK 5, 1977, 13Iff. (and especially 136, where he identifies Amenmesse with the viceroy of Kush, named Messwy); in: GM 61, 1983, 51; Dodson, in: JEA 73,

1987,226. 16

My warmest thanks to E. Brock for this information. In addition, O. Schaden and E. Ertman report that

high on the right thickness of the entrance doorway, his cartouches have been left untouched - see The Tomb of Amenmesse (KV 10), in: ASAE 73, 1998, 122.


did the reigns of all those who followed Sety II). His tomb was redecorated for the burial

of two queens, a royal mother named Takhat, and a royal wife named Baketwerel. These

persons were taken to be the mother (Takhat) and the consort (Baketwerel) of Amenmesse.

However, recent work carried out in KV 10 now suggests that the women who appear in

Chambers E (Takhat) and F (Baketwerel) are not the mother and wife of Amenmesse as

previously thought, but are more likely to be two queens from the later 20th Dynasty.17 When he finally gained (or regained) political control, Sety worked rapidly to ensure

that his name would not be forgotten. He contributed a few smallish buildings in various

places throughout Egypt, his best-known monument being the elegant barque shrine at

Karnak, just inside the first pylon, as well as an obelisk and a quay,18 but he also left

substantial decorations on monuments in the temple of Mut and at el Ashmunein. Most of

the records found under his name in Kitchen's records (KRI) consist of palimpsests, for he

usurped a number of monuments other than those of Amenmesse. Nonetheless, there are

unaltered cartouches on monuments at Heliopolis, Memphis, Hermopolis, Karnak, Luxor

and minor records in Nubia (see KRI IV, 246-251 and passim). A couple of caches of

luxury goods from his reign were found but, apart from these few remains, we know little

about Sety's life or his activities as a ruler. One gold hoard was found in KV 5619 and the

two hoards from Tell Basta20 included a few gold and silver items belonging to Sety II and

Tausret, as well as bracelets carrying the name of Rameses II (these hoards will be

mentioned later).

In the earlier part of his reign, Sety IPs chief queen appears to have been a princess named Takhat. It is possible that this woman was the mother of Amenmesse, as Takhat

originally was entitled King's Mother on a statue now stored in Cairo Museum;21 there is

17 Schaden/Ertman, in: ASAE 73, 1998, 135-143. It should be borne in mind that the authors claim (p. 140) that some details of wall decoration in the room of Baketwerel point to work done around the time

of Tausret, not Rameses IX, as has been plausibly been argued by Dodson, in: JEA 73, 1987. The

question of the date of Baketwerel in particular has therefore not been finally settled. 18

PMII,9. 19 T.M. Davis (ed.), The Tomb of Siphtah. The Monkey Tomb and the Gold Tomb, 1908, 2f, 31 ff. 20

CC. Edgar, The Treasure of Tell Basta, in: G. Maspero, Le Musee Egyptien II, 1907, 93-108. 21 CG 1198, which shows Sety II with a wife of that name - see L. Borchardt, Statuen und Statuetten von

Konigen und Privatleuten IV, CG 1-1294, 1934, 97-99. Although the name of Sety II on this statue

group is a palimpsest, the fact that the woman's title of King's Mother was altered into King's Wife

argues for Takhat being Sety's wife - although it is always possible that another, as yet unidentified

Takhat, wife of Merenptah or even Rameses II - predated Sety's wife and that Amenmesse had reused

another ruler's statue. A daughter Takhat features on a list of Rameses IPs offspring (Louvre Ostrakon

666: W. Spiegelberg, Ostraca hieratiques du Louvre, in: RecTrav 16, 1894, 64-67). Yurco, in: MMJ 14,1980,18, reports that his Statue 2 has the king and the figure and titles of Queen Takhat carved in sunk relief. She is identified as King's Daughter and King's Wife. The present second title had been altered into hmt nswt from its previous inscription of mwt nswt (p. 19) Traces of Mn-mi

-Rr-stp-n-Rr can be made out. This is Amenmesse's name. On p. 21, Yurco mentions that Statue 4 is

standing with a queen cut in sunk relief behind the king's left leg. Her titles are those of a chief royal wife, but her name has been utterly expunged. Traces of inscription in this half-figure remaining show

(p. 22) hmt nswt wrt, hnwt tlwy ?Great royal Wife, Mistress of the Two Lands". Yurco thinks the queen


an indication that Amenmesse was the king on this same statue, as traces of his name were

left. The statue was reinscribed for Sety II, who struck out the title of King's Mother and

left the title of King's Wife. It is therefore presumed that this woman had been the wife of

Sety II.

Either because Takhat died during the first two years of Sety IPs reign, or, for some

other reason - perhaps associated with Amenmesse -

Queen Tausret became Sety's Great

royal Wife by Year 2 of his reign. Tausret's name appears with his on several items (see

below) and, more particularly, with the Year 2, first month of Peret, day 8 date within her

own tomb. Tausret's origins are unknown; although no artefact naming her as a King's

Daughter has yet been found, it is generally assumed that she was the granddaughter of

Rameses II. Some support for this claim lies in the fact that Tausret later became pharaoh,

for it is difficult to see the ancient Egyptians accepting someone who was a commoner

queen as a ruler, even if they were prepared in the past to accept a commoner queen as a

regent.22 No children of this couple are identifiable. Sety II records the name of a son, Sety

Merenptah, in his temple repository in Karnak.23 It is sometimes claimed that this boy was

the child of Tausret, but there is no evidence at all regarding the name of his mother;

Tausret is just one possibility. Sety and Tausret may have had a child who was buried in

KV 56 (?the Gold Tomb") in the Valley of the Kings.24 It was from this tomb that so much treasure associated with Queen Tausret and her husband has come. Included among this

collection of jewellery was a pair of silver bracelets with their images in a time-honoured

scene of a seated pharaoh and his wife, where the queen pours a liquid into the king's cup

(fig. I).25 The inscriptions on the bracelets identify the pharaoh as Sety II and his chief wife Tausret - her name appears in a cartouche in front of her forehead, with her title, hmt nswt

wrt - Great Wife of the King - beside it.

is Baketwerel. However, there is no name present on the statue and this queen is unlikely to belong to the 19th Dynasty. The titles fit Queen Takhat much better.

22 Queen Ankhesenmeryre II was a commoner queen of the Old Kingdom who was honoured in her status as regent for the young Pepy II, but she was never a ruler (see E. Martin-Pardey, in: Nofret ? die Schone: die Frau im Alten Agypten, Ausstellungskatalog Munchen, 1985,30). Neitkrety, Sobekneferu and Hatshepsut were all royal daughters who became rulers in their own right. 23

H. Chevrier/E. Drioton, Le temple reposoir de Seti II a Karnak, 1933,45,46, pi. VII. Th. Schneider (in: ZAS 130, 2003, 141) suggests that this prince is likely to be a son of Tausret's.

24 For the report on this tomb see T.M. Davis et al., The Tomb of Siphtah; The Monkey Tomb and the Gold Tomb, 1908,2f., 3Iff. It is very unlikely that the queen was buried here, as has sometimes been

suggested; the jewellery included a pair of silver ?gloves" which were far too small even for an adult

woman; these were clearly the covering for the hands of a child mummy. Even the rings from this

treasure seem very tiny for an adult. C. Aldred (in: JEA 49, 1963, 177) suggested that the burial had

been for a child and that Tausret's jewellery had been one of the usual ?heirloom" gifts presented during the funerary rites. This explanation fits more comfortably with the evidence, in my opinion. 25 To my knowledge, the scene first appears in the time of Akhenaten, when it features Akhenaten

accepting a cup being poured by Queen Nefertiti, eg., the scene from the tomb of Meryre II, in Davies, The rock Tombs of El Amarna II, 1905, pi. 32.


Fig. 1: Depiction of Tausret and Sety II from one of the silver bracelets found in KV 56

(redrawn by the author, after the illustration of E.H. Jones, in: Davis et al., The Tomb of Siphtah, unnumbered plate)

The other treasure associated with Sety II and Tausret, the Bubastis hoards, were not

discovered in any building remains but according to Edgar, bore all the signs of having been hidden in the ground.26 One of the hoards had been found by railway workers, who

shared the finds between themselves and it is clear that some of the items were not recover

ed. The second hoard, in Edgar's opinion, more resembled a metalworker's stock than any

royal treasury. There was a gold lotus cup in this second hoard, engraved with Tausret's

name, double feathers and sundisc.27

Yet one more monument from Sety's reign needs to be mentioned (although this will be

discussed more fully under Tausret's biography) and that is part of a door lintel containing

the names of both Sety II and Tausret that was found recently in the Ramesside city ruins

of Qantir: it is thought to be part of a religious building erected by Sety II and is remarkable

for being the first discovery of evidence for a building erected by this king in the Delta

region.28

26 Edgar, Le Musee Egyptien II, 97. Drenkhahn's explanation of how the Bubastis treasure came to be

where it was found is colourful, but without foundation (Elephantine-Stele, 72f). Not only was Bay dead by this time, but the contents of the hoard do indeed more closely resemble a metalworker's stock

with its broken pieces of metal. Or, perhaps the collection had been removed from temple service and

was ear-marked for ritual burial, as was the case with out-dated and broken items that had been used

in the Egyptian temples. If this were the case, then some temple official or workman is equally likely to have stolen the hoard. The presence of these two hoards so close to the Bubastis temple is more

suggestive of temple treasure stolen or hoarded than treasure given out as ?Geld" to Asiatic raiders. 27

Edgar, Le Musee Egyptien II, pi. XIV (JdE 30708). 28

E.B. Pusch, Tausret und Sethos II. in der Ramses-Stadt, in: Agypten und Levante 9, 1999, 101-109.


Siptah

Sety died after a probable 6-year reign, c.1198 BC,29 and was succeeded by Rameses

Siptah. Once again, the origins of this king have been much disputed. Gardiner30 suggested

long ago that the [then unknown] mother of Siptah might have been a Syrian concubine.

It is now realised that a relief currently in the Louvre [E 26901] provides the name of the

prince, together with that of his mother, hmt nswt Soteraja.31 Her name underlines

Gardiner's suspicions, and this fact might explain why it is that, during Siptah's reign, the

chancellor, Bay, was able to gain so much power, for he too, may have come from the Near

East. He boasted of having put Siptah on the throne of his father.32

As mentioned earlier, Siptah's father is as yet uncertain: he was a king, but could have

been Merenptah, Sety II or Amenmesse. Petrie observed that Amenmesse erected a stele

at the temple of Sety I (LD III, 201c) in which Amenmesse ?states that he was brought up in Kheb, now El Heybeh. Siptah took as his ka name Kha em Kheb, 'rising in Kheb'..."33

Although Petrie suspected that these two citations indicated a link between the two rulers

as brothers, this reference might well indicate that they were father and son. Another clue

that might help solve the parentage dilemma is the hostile reaction of the Dynasty 20 kings towards the successors of Sety II. Had Siptah been a son of Sety, there should be no reason

why the next dynasty should shun his memory -

particularly when we know that Queen

Tausret was at least once mentioned.34 The damnatio memoriae for Siptah thus encourages us to think that he could have been Amenmesse's son.

If the mummy35 labelled as that of King Siptah has been correctly identified, Siptah must have been a child of about ten years of age when he came to the throne. His mummified

remains show that he was 1.6 metres in height, with a head of thick, curly reddish-brown

hair and a rather narrow, aquiline nose.36 His left foot showed that he had suffered from

poliomyelitis. This physical defect, his questionable father and his descent from a woman

29 Both the relative dating and the absolute dating for this period have been for some time in a state of flux - see Osing, in: SAK 7,1979,253-271 and R. Krauss, in: SAK 4,1976,161-199; id., in: SAK 5,1977, 131-174, and id., in: GM 45,1981, 27-33, especially 30.

30 A.H. Gardiner, in: JEA 44, 1958, 18 suggested that her name Su-tai-lja means ?a cutting" or ?little

plant" (see n. 70 in Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele, 11). Schneider, in: ZAS 130,2003,140 refined this interpretation to Soteraja, a Canaanite name.

31 J. Vandier, in: RdE 23, 1971, 177 (see also Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele, 11, citing Vandier). 32 LD III, 202.C. (The citation in Drenkhahn, op.cit., is clearly a misprint.) 33

W.M.F. Petrie, A History of Egypt III, 1905, 121. 34 On a later occasion, a painted, wooden statue of Rameses VI was specifically singled out for offerings

which had been abandoned since the time of the queen. The use of Tausret's name shows that her

memory had not suffered damnatio memoriae on this occasion, at least. The record is contained in an

unpublished papyrus, Pap. Turin 32 (translated in Helck, Materialien II, 197). 35 The mummy thought to be that of Siptah shows a youth of perhaps sixteen years of age; he has a club

foot and is thought to have suffered from poliomyelitis. See G.E. Smith, in: Catalogue General Anti

quites Egyptiennes du Musee du Caire, Nos. 61051-61100, 1912, 71; id., in: The Royal Mummies, Duckworth reprint of the 1912 ed., 2000, 70ff.

36 Smith, The Royal Mummies, 71.


of Syrian origin might have made his acceptance among the ruling classes of Egypt

insecure - hence, perhaps, his need for support and for Bay's extraordinary statement - a

statement usually made by the gods.37

Tausret's regency

Perhaps as a consequence of this lineage, and certainly because of his age at Sety II's death,

the boy was in need of a regent who was, as usual, the chief wife of the deceased king. Her

name was Ti-wsrt; she is sometimes called ?Twosret" or Tausert/Tausret - ?the Powerful

One". Her main title during her regency was ti rpt rit n ti nb Great Regent of all the land.38

A pair statue of Tausret and Siptah (Munich Glyptothek no. 122), typical of regency

statues,39 but with its cartouches chiselled out, was analysed a number of years ago by

Jiirgen von Beckerath.40 This limestone group statue shows the queen as larger in size than

the king, whose dependence upon his regent is indicated by Siptah being depicted as a

small child on the knees of his female protector. Significantly, it is the queen who is seated on the throne of Egypt: the young boy is seated on her knees and out of direct contact with

the throne. The queen's figure has been destroyed to such an extent that only traces of her

legs and part of her arm supporting his back remain. Siptah's name was revealed after

cleaning.

Another remark made by Gardiner might well be recalled here. In discussing the

decoration within Tausret's tomb he highlights one scene, where Siptah is presenting an

image of Maat to the goddess Isis, who is named as Isis the great, the god's mother

(PM 1/2, 527). The goddess says: ?I give thee the duration of Re and the years..".

Gardiner's comment on this scene is, I feel, perceptive: ?I cannot help asking myself

whether Isis here does not symbolize Twosre in the act of bestowing the kingship on her

step-son Siptah." 41

In support of Gardiner's claim, there are, for example, hundreds of statuettes of Isis with

Horus on her knee, while at Dendera, Isis is assigned the epithet: ?She who places her son

on the throne of his father" (Denderah II, 36,9). Like Isis at Dendera, in Tausret's tomb the

image of Isis/Tausret ensures the link between the father and his son's inheritance.

Queen/Pharaoh Cleopatra was later to adopt the role of Isis in a similar way with regard to

37 J. van Dijk, in: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, 2000, 304.

38 Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele, 17. She bases this on partially erased inscriptions in the Bilgai Stele

(lines4,10,12 in Gardiner, in: ZAS 50,1912,49f, Taf. IV). Altenmuller's entrance inscription appears to have a similar initial phrasing (in: SAK 10, 1983, 21).

39 See Martin-Pardey, in: Nofret - die Schone, 30; V.G. Callender, in: Ancient and Modern perceptions of Female Sovereignty in Pharaonic Egypt, Shadow: the newsletter of the Traditional Cosmology

Society 9, 1992,49-66. 40

J. von Beckerath, in: JEA 48,1962,70-74, in particular, 73; R. Drenkhahn (in: GM 43,1981,19) con

siders it more likely that the larger figure represents the Chancellor, Bay, but von Beckerath (op.cit., 74) presents cogent reasons why this is unlikely to be the case.

41 Gardiner, in: JEA 44, 1958, 18.


her son Caesarion in the temple at Armant.42 There must surely have been some overt link

between Isis and Tausret vis a vis Siptah, here on this wall relief from Tausret's tomb.

Chancellor Bay

The other person associated with Siptah's accession to the throne was the chancellor, Bay.

He had been a King's scribe and butler during the time of Sety II (ss nswt wdpw nswt -

royal scribe and royal butler), posts that were frequently held by Syrians at this time.43 One

reference he made to himself was kr n pi ti mhy (a foreigner/visitor/suppliant of the

northern land). Following Cerny, Altenmuller has suggested that this phrase might be

interpreted either as foreigner" or ?visitor from the northern land", the land concerned

being either Lower Egypt or some northern foreign land.44 It is not too sensational to

wonder whether his mention of being a foreigner may have been due to his being the

brother - or some other relation - of the foreign queen who was Siptah's mother. If there

had been such a relationship, it could explain why he mentions his foreign origins in

inscriptions and, furthermore, would give a convincing rationale for his efforts to put

Siptah on the throne. Such a relationship would also explain why the officials who cut in

scriptions for Siptah made Bay's images so dominant on the royal monuments.

Under King Siptah, Bay attained his highest office mr sdiwt ntir dr.f- Treasurer of the

Entire Land. Later on, he called himself mr sdiwt ri n ti r dr.f- Great Chancellor of the

Entire Land (LD III, 202a) -

perhaps an ironic echo of Tausret's title as regent. Bay is

remembered in several inscriptions relating to his extraordinary power, the most important

of these being on the Aswan stele set up by Sety, the Viceroy of Kush (LD III, 202c), and at Gebel es-Silsila (LD III, 202a). He is almost certainly represented in the Ugaritic texts

from the Urtenu archive (RS 86.230), from the time of Ammurapi, the last king of Ugarit.45 The document comes from some Egyyptian correspondence found in that archive and is a

letter from a high official called Beya, Chief of the troops of the Great King, King of the

land of Egypt. Admittedly, these titles are not otherwise attested for Bay, but we have very

few references to this important person who, later on, was clearly punished and had his

memory reviled. This military title is not inconsistent with Bay's elevated status at the time

and there is no other known person fulfilling such a post in other records from this period. As a final prop to the argument, the name of Bay was uncommon in ancient Egypt then.

42 J.-F. Champollion-le-Jeune, Monuments de l'Egypte et de la Nubie II, 1845, pis. cxlvi, cxlvii, cxlviii; and LD, Abt. V; Cleopatra herself appears in pis. 59, 60, 62, 63, 64 and Texte IV, 3-11.

43 D.B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992,234. Indeed, Bay's position as butler

might well indicate that he had come from a noble foreign family, for such positions at the Egyptian court were reserved for distinguished people (loc.cit.). 44

H. Altenmuller, in: SAK 19,1992, 30. The phrase comes from an ostrakon, CG 25766 (Catalogue of

Hieratic Ostraca du Mus6e du Caire). See Cerny's later publication in: ZAS 93, 1966, 36-38. Bay's court name, Ramessu-kha-m-netjeru, is also suggestive of a foreign origin for this man.

45 I. Singer, A Political History of Ugarit, in: W.G. Watson/N. Wyatt (eds.), Handbook of Ugaritic Studies, Hd0 39, 1998, 713f.


Most of that Ugaritic letter is destroyed, so we do not know what it was about, but the

Beya of the letter is surely the only person at the beginning of the 12th century BC who

would be dictating letters to the Ugaritic king. If Singer46 is right about the identity, then the letter also provides a very precise terminus for the end of Ugarit, too, cl 193 BC.

The status of the chancellor is also evident in the images that depicted him - usually in

some respectful attitude - having the same size as the king and queen. This was -

up until

that time - an extraordinary occurrence. Moreover, like them, he was the owner of a grave

in the Valley of the Kings [KV 13 - PM 1/2,527]. The fact that his tomb bears great simila rities with the tombs of Siptah and Tausret gives a good indication of the chancellor's

political might.47

Bay was evidently influential, but to what degree he actually assisted Siptah in attaining the throne is unknown. Despite our lack of knowledge in this matter, Bay's undoubted

power in the land is also indicated by two more significant records. The first is the cutting of his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Although some favoured commoners (eg.

Hatshepsut's nurse, Satre/Ini, Yuya and Thuya, grandparents of Akhenaten) did have

burials there, Bay's tomb was extraordinary. As Altenmiiller has demonstrated, the tomb

showed close parallels with Tausret's tomb and, above all, was cut to the plan and dimen

sions of a kingly monument.48 Further attestation of Bay's unique position in Egyptian

history comes from an inscription from Year 3, when he laid claim to a share in the

mortuary temple of King Siptah - another unprecedented honour for one who was not a

member of the royal family. Altenmuller has suggested that it was in this year that Bay died.49 Regarding this matter, however, a vital discovery has recently been made.

Thanks to the work of Pierre Grandet,50 two fragments of a single ostrakon have now

been reunited. The information that this latest ostrakon has revealed can only be described

as sensational. While the verso of the ostrakon has a simple commodities list referring to

pigs, planks and papyrus rolls,51 the recto contains an announcement for the Deir el Medina

workers from the Scribe of the Tomb, Paser:

(1) hi.t-sp 5 ibd 3 smw, sw 27. hrw \p]n \jj-t] {2)jr(w)-n ss Pi-sr n\y] pi h[r\j r-dd: (3) smipr ri r.w.s hrw ri Biy*1

?Year 5, third month of Shemu, day 27: This day, the scribe of the Tomb, Paser, has

come to announce: ?Pharaoh, Life! Prosperity and Health! has killed the great enemy,

Bay."53

46 Singer, in: HdO 39,1998, 715.

47 Altenmuller, in: SAK 19, 1992, 27f.

48 H. Altenmuller, in: SAK 21,1994, 1-18.

49 H. Altenmuller, in: GM 171, 1999, 13-18. 50

P. Grandet, in: BIFAO 200,2000, 339-345. 51

As it was picturesquely described in the abstract of BIFAO 200, 2000, 581. 52

Grandet, in: BIFAO 200, 2000, 341. 53

Author's translation of the text in Grandet, in: BIFAO 200, 2000, 341.


While the pharaoh is not named, Siptah would undoubtedly have been the king res

ponsible, for Sethnakhte only reigned for two years, while Twosret did not become ruler

until the seventh year of Siptah (and dated all her records from Year 7 onward), and Bay

outlived King Sety II, so Sety could not be the king concerned. There is little doubt,

therefore, that this ostrakon refers to Chancellor Bay. ?Bay" was not a common name;

moreover, only the most important people are ever named in the messages that were sent

to the Deir el Medina workers. In the case of Bay, there was an urgent reason why the

workers should know about his execution, for they were at that time excavating and

decorating his tomb in the Kings' Valley. This message was sent to stop that work.

Thus, there is now unequivocal evidence that Bay had died before Siptah. Moreover, the

information on this ostraka has also had important consequences for our understanding of

Pap. Harris I (75.1-79.12). By demonstrating that Bay was executed during Year 5 of

Siptah, Grandet has shown that Bay could not possibly have taken the throne after the death

of Tausret, as has been previously assumed.54 It is also clear now that the Syrian named Ir

su in the Harris papyrus cannot have been Bay, as Drenkhahn and others have supposed,

because Bay died before Tausret even came to the throne. As a consequence of this dis

covery, the alleged rebellion against the forces of Sethnakhte could not have been directed

against Bay or his supporters, either. As a consequence of Grandet's discovery, Thomas

Schneider has now suggested a new argument, endorsing an earlier idea that the Irsu

mentioned above was more likely to be King Siptah himself.55 Thus the history relating to

the latter years of the 19th Dynasty has undergone important alterations since Drenkhahn's

major study of this period.

Yet one other reconsideration of the ostraka material might be made, this time referring to CG 25766. This ostrakon was the subject for a stimulating discussion by the late Georges

Posener a number of years ago.56

CG 25766 had been found by Davies in the Valley of the Kings in 1905/6 and was

published by Cerny ,57 The first line was mutilated, but Cerny was able to decipher the name

of Bay. Cerny thought that it might even have been an autograph of Bay, perhaps deposited

during an inspection of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

The ostrakon, however, did not contain material relating to tomb-building: it was a

prayer whose text reads: ?... Bay, he says 'Come ...[to me, Amon and save me]'.58 After the

initial appeal to the god, Bay has added: T am a foreigner/visitor/suppliant59 from the

54 But not Altenmuller, in: GM 171, 1999, 18. 55

Schneider, in: ZAS 130, 2003, 135-141. 56

G. Posener, in: J. Assmann et al. (eds.), Fragen an die altagyptische Literatur, Gs Otto, 1977,385-397. 57

J. Cerny/A.H. Gardiner, Hieratic Ostraca 1,1957, 7, 3. See also Cerny's later publication in: ZAS 93,

1966,36-38. 58

The words in brackets represent a lacuna, but they are characteristic of prayers known elsewhere that

say, ?Come to me, Amen, and save me in the year of [my] affliction." [P. Anastasi IV, 10,1], according to Posener, op.cit., 388.

59 For a discussion on this word and other literary implications, see Posener, op.cit., 389f.


northern land. Come and allow me to see Ne (Thebes) the beautiful. When that I look

on...'". The text is not so much incomplete as unreadable towards the bottom edge of the

ostrakon. Cerny completed the sentence by adding ?its women" because he said that the

sign hm was certain.60 (The sign can also mean ?wife", let us remember.)

This is a strange piece of literature. As Posener remarked,61 the wish to sojourn in a great

city is a theme well known from Ramesside texts, but it is absurd to write out a prayer to

Amen on the West Bank, when all Bay needed to do was take the ferry, cross the Nile and

be in the city he longed for within a very short time! While Posener then pursued other avenues for the understanding of this prayer, these discussions are not germane to this

present article, although most important is his suggestion that this ostrakon was prompted

by a frivolous motivation,62 and he goes on to suggest that it was not written by Bay at all,

but by a Theban writer who was mocking Bay.63 He adds that while this conclusion may

seem surprising, we must bear in mind that it is conjectural and ?on ne peut pas exclure la

possibility d'un motif serieux attribue a Bay pour justifier sa supplication. Dans ce cas, le

petit texte ne serait plus une simple moquerie sans cesser pour autant d'etre une invention

locale. La raison qui aurait incite son auteur a l'ecrire serait a chercher peut-etre dans

l'emoi provoque par la nouvelle que Bay se trouvait dans l'impossiblilite de se rendre a

Thebes ou on aurait pris 1'habitude de le voir venir pour inspecter les travaux dans la

Vallee des Rois."64

Contrary to Posener, my inclinations are to view this text as a real cri de cour and to

suspect that Bay may not have been able to revisit Thebes, as Posener suggested above.

Now that we know Bay's execution was carried out according to the king's wishes, this

prayer may have been written prior to the trial and execution that was awaiting him. He

may have indeed been inspecting the excavations in the royal valley - as both Cerny and

Posener suggested - when orders came for him to return to court. Maybe he (or some friend

of his) hastily scrawled out the prayer before Bay left the scene, perhaps leaving the

ostrakon there as a votive prayer. (Such a scenario is reminiscent of the process involved

with the oracles of the gods.) Whether this interpretation is valid or not, this small historical

record from the time of the man in question is both evocative and fascinating and I suspect

that its meaning is far less frivolous than Posener considered it to be.

Young Siptah died soon after Bay, having reigned almost six years;65 he was buried in

KV 47. Apparently, there were no other male descendants of Rameses II remaining, so

Tausret then assumed the titles of an Egyptian monarch.

60 Cerny, in: ZAS 93, 1966, 37, n. 11.

61 Posener, op.cit., 392.




65 We know this from an inscription in Wadi Haifa - see Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele, 14, 80.


Tausret's titles

Tausret's titles come from several sites and record both those of her status as wife and

those when she had become first regent, then ruler. Both Petrie66 and Drenkhahn67 have

already documented the instances of her name and it is unnecessary to repeat them here,

but the following notes highlight the more interesting details.

The queen retains several instances of her title of King's Great Wife in her tomb (and

on one famous dated ostrakon, J 72.452), as well as the titles, Lady of the Two Lands and

Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Mistress of Ta-mery, which are all common titles

for the major wives of New Kingdom kings. The title of Great Regent of all the land has

already been mentioned.

In the temple at Amada,68 in Nubia, a damaged inscription gives her the title of King's

Great Wife, as well as God's Wife. This title of chief priestess in association with the god

Amen was not only ritually prestigious, but also brought with it considerable wealth - and

therefore influence - during the queen's lifetime. This title might also provide one of the

reasons for Sety's elevation of Tausret to hmt nswt wrt: the Amen priesthood may have

been expected to provide its support for their chief priestess and Sety II is likely to have

needed that support if he had indeed been ?out in the cold" during Amenmesse's reign.

Sety's wife Takhat does not carry the title of hmt ntr.69 It is of interest to see that one of

Tausret's later epithets, ?Beloved of Mut" is present on this occasion and it hints at the

Karnak triad of gods; it also recalls the image of Queen Nefertari, who customarily

included that epithet within her cartouche - as Tausret did. As Nefertari was the most

favoured wife of Rameses II, the implication is that Tausret was the favoured wife of

Sety II. Despite this elevated sacerdotal status during her time as either consort or regent,

there are few occasions on which Tausret appeared on monuments of either Sety II or

Siptah.

On a purely hypothetical level, given that the title of King's Great Wife belonged to

Takhat initially, and given that the cutting of Tausret's tomb took place during the second

year of Sety's reign (Year 2,1 peret, day 8), can we detect here the favouritism of the king towards a junior wife? Takhat was not honoured in this way; indeed, we do not even know

where she was buried.70 Or, was Sety II doing what Thutmose I did when he began his own

66 Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, pis. XVI, XVI. Both the si Rr and sit Rr names are present in this collection of material.

67 Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele, 24f.

68 H. Gauthier, Le temple d'Amada, Temple immerges, 1913, 109.

69 This title may have been given to Tausret because she was a king's daughter; such women were the favoured recipients of the office of God's Wife. In Tausret's case, the title of sit nswt is not known -

perhaps due to the paucity of monuments prior to her reign. Takhat, however, did have the title of

King's Daughter, so it would be surprising if a non-royal queen held the title instead of her. 70

She was not buried in the tomb of Amenmesse, as was once thought, and no other tomb for a queen of this name is known, but see n. 12.


dynasty? Thutmose, already married to a princess and the father of two sons, took his sister

Ahmose to be his chief wife, even though she was not a princess.

Tausret's title of Great Regent of the Entire Land appears very seldom during the time

she acted as protector of Siptah, but Drenkhahn71 has pointed out that there are traces of

this phrase on the Bilgai Stele. The title is also found in an incomplete state at the Amada

temple, at the top of the inscription referring to her.72 What the title implied in terms of actual duties and powers we do not know, but the regency statue already mentioned belongs to this period of time. That regency lasted until Year 6, taking into account the Wadi Haifa

inscription of Siptah (BAR II, 650). Then, after the death of her protege Siptah and with

the powerful chancellor already dead, Tausret changed her regency into a monarchy.

She took the names,

Horus: Ki nht mry Mi% nb rn m nswt mi Tm, ?Strong Bull: Beloved of Maat, the Lord

beautiful of appearance, the ruler like Atum".

An abbreviated form of this name that was used was Ki nht mry Mirt. These forms are

clearly masculine, the Bull name following that of Rameses II and Thutmose I; Tausret's

husband's Bull name was mry Rr, but on two occasions Sety II substituted the name mry

Mirt.73

Nebty: grgt Kmt wcfhiswt, ?Founding Egypt and conquering the Foreigners."74 She is the only ruler to have this particular name, which might reflect incursions into Egypt, if not some unpopularity of Asiatics at the time. As the Elephantine Stele of Sethnakhte

was to emphasise, Asiatics were blamed for disorder in Egypt at the commencement of

Dynasty 20. Also significant is the similarity between Tausret's Nebty name and the Nebty name of Sety II. His third choice of Nebty name was mkKmtwcfhiswt [CG 1198], so once

again, Tausret was calling up an allusion to her deceased husband.

Golden Horus: not recorded.

King of Upper and Lower Egypt (nswt bity, or Throne name): sit Rr mry 'Imn, Daughter of

Re, beloved of Amen; or, with the epithet: hnwt ti mhy, Mistress of Northern Egypt. Von

Beckerath75 again provides six variations of this name. Among other records, this is found

as part of the name for her mortuary temple. The epithet is a regular title for a queen

consort.

71 Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele, 17.

72 Gauthier, Le temple d'Amada, pi. 21.

73 J. von Beckerath, in: LA III, 551. 74

KRI IV, 352.9. Curiously, her Nebty name is claimed to be unknown in: The Oxford Encyclopedia of

Ancient Egypt III, 108). In fact, her Nebty name is preserved on the Tell ed Dab'a statue of the ruler. 75

Loc.cit.


Son of Re (Birth name): Ti-Wsrt, ?Tausret" - often supplemented by stp n Mwt ?chosen of

Mut" within the cartouche.76 Sometimes this title is written as Son of Re, at other times it

is Daughter of Re. (The back pillar and the left-hand column of the Heliopolis statue have

the si Rr masculine title, whilst other epithets on this sculpture are feminine.77) Von

Beckerath78 provides six variations of this name. Some of the representations of this name

are accompanied by ?Beloved (male) of Hathor, Mistress of the Red Mountain (i.e. Kom

el Ahmar)."

As with other pharaohs, Tausret is entitled Lord of Appearances. In addition, she held

both the title, Lady of the Two Lands and also Lord of the Two Lands, thus continuing the

vacillation between male and female titles which can be detected among her inscriptions.

Most of the regal names chosen by Tausret are to be found on an exquisite (but damaged - the head is missing) sandstone statue from the Heliopolis region.79 For some of these

names, the epithet, beloved of Hathor, Lady of the Red Mountain is added. The statue is

identical in style to the black granite statue of Rameses II in Turin and is just a little smaller

than life size.80 To date, there are no known statues of this queen in male guise, but it

should be noted that kings and queens were frequently shown to be wearing similar

clothing from the time of Akhenaten and Nefertiti onwards - that is why Tausret's dress

in the statue is identical to the clothing worn by Rameses in his Turin statue. Although she

wears the gear of a male pharaoh, however, her figure is feminine.

Tausret }s monuments

One of the most important discoveries made by Altenmuller was that, unlike any other

queen,81 Tausret's original tomb (KV 14) was never destined to be located in the Valley of

the Queens but, right from the beginning, was destined for the Valley of the Kings - even

when her status was only that of hmt nswt wrt (King's Great Wife). Evidence for this claim

comes from the queen's tomb. An ostrakon [J 72.452] records the date on which some work

on her tomb began in the time of Siptah. It was thought from this record that this was the

76 Eg. Qantir foundation block (KRI IV, 352, 3, no. 19) and Heliopolis statue (KRI IV, 352, 6, no. 20). 77 H.S.K. Bakry, in: Revista degli Studi Oriental 46,1971, pi. VII. R. Drenkhahn, (in: GM 43,1981,21) considers this to be a mistake, but in my opinion, it is not. The writing of Tausret's throne name in her

mortuary temple deliberately deceives the viewer into thinking the name is masculine. See also n. 80

in this current article. Moreover, on the Bilgai Stele, the scene at the top represents a male pharaoh (see J. von Beckerath, in: JEA 48, 1962, 70, n. 7). Like Sebekneferu and Hatshepsut, therefore, Tausret

changed her identity from time to time. 78 J. von Beckerath, Handbuch der agyptischen Konigsnamen, MAS 20, 1984, 243. 79

Bakry, in: Revista degli Studi Orientalni 46, 1971,17-26. 80 The design of the queen's cartouches also mimicked those of Rameses II - so much so, that Petrie

thought at first he was dealing with a building erected by that king -

Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, 15. 81 At first sight, it might be thought that Tomb 55 had been intended for Queen Tiye, as was the earlier

opinion, but Marc Gabolde's closely argued analysis of Tomb 55 does give compelling reasons for

rejecting Tiye as the intended owner of this tomb. (See M. Gabolde, D'Akhenaton a Toutankhamon, Collection de l'lnstitut d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de l'Antiquite 3, 1999, 231-276.)


first occasion of such work. However, Altenmtiller82 has shown that Graffito A, at the left

side of the entrance to Tausret's tomb (KV 14), indicates that the grave of the queen had

already existed prior to Siptah's accession to the throne, and was not first initiated in Year

2 of Siptah, as previously thought. Instead, work on the tomb was first started in Year 2,

the first month of prt, day 8, during the reign of Sety II.83 Later records have shown that

work on the tomb was recommenced in the time of Siptah, when Tausret was regent, and

again in the time of Tausret's own reign.84 The architectural analysis carried out by Alten

muller has also revealed that the tomb underwent five building phases, four of which took

place during Tausret's floruit and one in the time of Sethnakhte/Rameses III.85 In the time of Sety II and also during Siptah's reign, work had been conducted on a tomb

for Tausret (KV 14) in the Valley of the Kings. Sety's own tomb (KV 15) lay near hers, on

the opposite side of the tomb of Thutmose I (KV 38). The careful archaeological investi

gation of the tomb86 has resulted in an extraordinary amount of knowledge about the

structure and the all-important construction stages of the tomb. As Altenmuller has already

observed, ?Tausret's ascent to power is reflected in the different building phases [of her

tomb]."87

Although the earlier phases had seen the creation of a queenly tomb, it seems that in

Years 6 and 7 of Tausret's own reign, further work on widening and lengthening her own

tomb was carried out - no doubt in consideration of her new status as ruler. The walls were

widened to royal dimensions and the tomb was extended and provided with a royal

sarcophagus hall.

Both Sety II and Siptah were represented in the decoration of her tomb. Although Siptah is now only named on two occasions in her tomb decoration, earlier historians thought that

she had been his wife.88 This decoration phase gave way to a second scheme and, as

Altenmuller has shown, the representations of Siptah were then altered into those of Sety II,

in what appears to have been a plan by Tausret to construct a joint burial with her husband.

Her original burial chamber received an extension corridor and the sarcophagus hall

82 Altenmuller, in: SAK 21, 1994, 38.

83 Altenmuller, in: SAK 11,1984, 37f.; idem., The Tomb of Tausert and Setnakht, in: K.R. Weeks (ed.), The Treasures of the Valley of the Kings, 2001, 228. Altenmiiller's reports on the tomb can be found in several volumes: eg. Altenmuller, in: SAK 21, 1994, 27 and Abb. 2; see also id., Bemerkungen zu

den neu gefundenen Daten im Grab der Konigin Tawosre (KV 14) im Tal der Konige von Theben, in: CN. Reeves (ed.), After Tutankhamun, Research and Excavation in the Royal Necropolis at Thebes,

1992, 141-164; id., The Tomb of Tausert and Setnakht, in: Weeks (ed.), The Treasures of the Valley of the Kings, 222-231.

84 Altenmuller, in: Reeves (ed.), After Tutankhamun, 141-164, especially 159-161.

85 Altenmuller, in: Reeves (ed.), After Tutankhamun, 159f.

86 For these archaeological references, see n. 44 above. There is not space enough in this article to deal with these complex changes as they deserve, and this outline merely serves to draw the reader's atten

tion to the overall results. 87

Altenmuller, in: Weeks (ed.), Valley of the Kings, 228. 88

Gardiner, in: JEA 44, 1958, 21.


mentioned above. It is also thought that, at that same time, a sarcophagus for Sety II was

moved into her tomb and the tomb was redecorated. Should a second sarcophagus have

been in the tomb only to be subsequently removed, this would support the idea that Sety II

had at one time shared a double burial with Tausret.89

Later on, there was a brief fifth phase, in which it is claimed one sarcophagus was

removed while the other was altered. But which of the two sarcophagi was removed? Most

scholars consider the present sarcophagus in KV 14 to belong to Tausret, but Altenmuller

has argued persuasively that it is more likely that it was Sety's sarcophagus that was used

by Sethnakhte.90 He adds that it is therefore likely that it was Tausret's sarcophagus that

was moved by Sethnakhte's successor.

Several objects other than Tausret's tomb are known: one of these is a limestone block

with the remains of her name that G. A. Gaballa reports came from the excavations of

C. Fisher at Mitrahinah in 1916. Clearly, it comes from a building, the nature of which is

unknown, but which begins with a htp di nswt formula on behalf of Ptah South-of-his-wall

and the royal ka of the female pharaoh.91 It mentions an offering to the ka of the queen

regnant. Another block was found in a sakkiyya in the region of Ezbet Ziz in the Tell ed

Dab'a region.92 A short distance away from this latter find, a new discovery, giving us further evidence

of Tausret's activities during the reign of Sety II, has been found at Qantir. Two limestone

fragments from the remains of a gateway were discovered.93 This is the first time that

Tausret's name has been detected at Qantir. In contrast to Queen Tausret, however, Sety II

is well-represented in the finds from Qantir,94 and it is clear that the king had founded some

monument here although, so far, no date for his records has been revealed.

The new discovery is part of the architrave of a doorway, found adjacent to one of the

royal stables that were uncovered by Edgar Pusch and his team a few years ago. There are

two fragments each evidently a part of the same block. The pieces are not contiguous. The

smaller piece contains the cartouches of Sety II. The larger block contains the remains of

an inscription referring to Queen Tausret and part of the depiction of the queen. Evidently,

the block had featured a relief of the queen standing behind the king. The two figures were

identified by their titles engraved just above their heads. Only a partial section of this relief

remains. It bears the top of a cartouche with the beginning of Tausret's name, together with

the ?H>(y-feather decoration worn above the crown of the queen. The king is not represented

at all, but his cartouches and part of the royal formula attached to the usual kingly titles are

preserved.

89 H. Altenmuller, Bemerkungen zu den Konigsgrabern des Neuen Reiches, in: SAK 10, 1983, 42.

90 Ibid., see especially pp. 40-43.

91 G.A. Gaballa, Some Nineteenth Dynasty Monuments in Cairo Museum, in: BIFAO 71,1972,134 and

pi. XXVI. 92

Pusch, Tausret und Sethos II. in der Ramses-Stadt, in: Agypten und Levante 9, 1999, 109, n. 17. 93

Pusch, op.cit, 101-109. 94

Pusch, op.cit., eg. 102.


To assist our understanding of the scene, Pusch has given in Abb. 4 of his article a

schematic reconstruction of the door lintel. What is significant about this reconstruction

offered by Pusch is that Tausret's name has been surmounted by the sun disc with uraei

(usually associated with the ruler). These images appear to be positioned in the middle of

her inscription. Pusch argues that the sun disc would have been positioned above two

cartouches of the queen but, while this hypothesis is of course possible, the hypothetical

right-hand cartouche is not actually present. Instead, the stone has been deeply chiselled

away from the area below the sun.

The double cartouche in the reconstruction drawing Pusch has offered seems to me to

be very unusual. Should the reconstruction be correct, however, two questions need to be

asked: firstly, why would the wife of the king have two cartouches (queens who are simply

consorts traditionally have only one cartouche) and, secondly, why has the royal insignia

of the winged sun been positioned directly over the queen's cartouche?

To elaborate a little on the first question, queens only have two cartouches if they are

queens-regnant. As far as we know, Tausret was not a ruler during the lifetime of her hus

band, Sety II, and it is thought that she assumed the titles of a pharaoh only after the death

of Siptah. At Amada (see n. 68), she carries only the single cartouche of a queen during

Siptah's reign.

Regarding the second question, while the winged sun marks out a ruler's names, it may,

from time to time, include a short text giving the name and title of a queen.95 That Tausret

is more likely to be shown here as a wife, rather than a ruler, is indicated by her double

feather headdress. This would usually mean that only one cartouche would be provided, not

two. One would expect, therefore, to find an inscription of the king, followed by the usual

mention of ?the Great royal Wife", followed by her cartouche. Due to the extremely

damaged nature of the relief, however, all comment at this stage should be regarded as pro

visional.

Another monument, now known to be hers, is a fragmentary and much damaged text

known as the Bilgai Stele,96 found some 14 kms east of Sebennytos. The inscription records

the inauguration of an ipt for Amen-of-Setepenre-Merenptah. It may have been carved

during the early part of her reign. Unfortunately, however, the stele is so badly damaged

that one cannot determine any details other than the provisioning formula and the name of

the fortress commander who saw to the establishment of the stele. The importance of the

stele, however, is that it is an indicator of some further monument erected in this region by

the queen.

95 Eg. the gate lintel of Queen Ankhesenpepy II from South Saqqara

- see A. Labrousse, Les Pyramides des Reines, une nouvelle necropole a Saqqara, 1999, 152 and 153; Queen Wedjebten has the vulture

with shen ring flying over her titles (Jequier, Les pyramides des reines, 16, fig. 9; Queen Iput has her

titles below those of Neferkare Pepy II covered by the winged sun-disc (ibid., 42, fig. 22; queen Nefer

tary stands below the winged sun and the God's Wife, Neferure, stands below a single-winged sun

(L. Troy, Patterns of queenship in ancient Egyptian myth and history, 1986, fig. 49a and b). 96

A.H. Gardiner, in: ZAS 50, 1912, 49-57.


Although Petrie found a number of foundation deposits at the site, Tausret's mortuary

temple was only discernible to the archaeologist because of its foundations; nothing

remains of the building itself.97 The Mansion of Millions of Years of the King of Upper and

Lower Egypt, Daughter of Re Meryet-Amen, the Son of Re Tausret-chosen of Mut in the

Estate of Amen lay south of the Ramesseum, on the plain outside the Valley of the Kings.

Edwin Brock, in a personal memo to me, has pointed out that, more significantly, this

temple lies due north of the memorial temple of Merenptah, implying that Tausret held that

monarch in considerable esteem. The building of this monument began after the deaths of

both Bay and Siptah, but it is dubious just how much of it was built in the lifetime of

Tausret. Its plan is somewhat similar in design to that of the temple of Merenptah, but

today, only the foundation trenches remain. Two limestone bricks -12x6 inches - now

in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York - carry the name of the temple. They were

discovered in the foundation deposit,98 together with some faience plaques and models of

food offerings.

Three deposits of precious metal items from the era of Tausret are known. The first two

come from two separate deposits -

hoards, most likely - of gold and silver serving vessels

from Bubastis (modern Tell Basta, in the Delta), a much plundered site. Some of these

vessels contain the names of Sety II and Tausret and some bear evidence of Syrian work

manship,99 indicative of continued trading contacts beyond Egypt during their time. Some

of the cartouches of Tausret bear the double cartouches of a king. The third set of precious

items was found by Ayrton in the flooded remains of KV 56. (For earlier discussion on

these hoards, see p. 86).

Other historical data In Year 2 of Siptah, the first sarcophagus for the Great Royal Wife Tausret was started100, but this had to be removed from the tomb when Tausret gave orders for a regal sarcophagus to be made. Subsequently, in excavating the tomb of Chancellor Bay (KV 13) in 1987,101

Altenmuller discovered among the rubbish in the tomb the lid of Tausret's queenly sarco

phagus. Made from granite, the lid (and presumably the chest) had been usurped by a

prince named Amenherkhopeshef. The relief decoration on the lid (see fig. 2) consists of a queenly image of a woman in

a lappet wig with her wrists theoretically crossed and thumbs uppermost. She wears sleeves

that are decorated with the blue lotus flower linked together and a wesekh collar lies above

these. Various gods decorate the lower part of her body and the sides of the coffin lid.

Traces of her vulture cap can be seen in the legs of the vulture goddess that still rise above

97 Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, 13-16, plans XXII and XXVI.

98 Ibid., pis. XVI, XVII. The deposits contained wine dockets from the time of Sety II.

99 See W. Hayes, Scepter of Egypt II, rev. edn. 1990, 358f.

100 Altenmuller, in: SAK 10,1983, 39.

101 Altenmuller, in: SAK 21, 1994, 4 and Abb. 2 on p. 5.


the top of her head, but her wig had been altered on the left side into a princely lock of hair for the prince who usurped her sarcophagus. Only the circular hole where the usual vulture

headpiece would have been inserted remains. Tausret's name has been removed in all but

one place: the foot end of the lid.

Fig. 2: The cover of Amenherkhopeshef s sarcophagus, which had previously been the cover

for Tausret's sarcophagus (after: H. Altenmuller, in: SAK 21, 1994, 5, Abb. 2)


The lid displays the figure as mummiform with stylistic divisions represented by lateral

and vertical mummy bands. On either side of Tausret's head, the mummified ram-headed

form of the sun-god is depicted with wings outspread and the shuty feathers in each claw,

providing protection for Tausret's head. In the spaces right and left of Tausret's elbows,

Anubis is shown recumbent with flagellum on his shrine, his stand with the imy-wt symbol

is in front of him. In the panel next to these images the goddesses Neith and Selket are

shown with wings extended. In the panel parallel to the goddesses, the four sons of Horus

are paired on each side of the main vertical band. Below them, separated by a lateral band,

stands Anubis as a mummiform figure facing Horus as a mummified figure. Osiris with his

fetish on each side of him flanks those gods in the panels on either side of Anubis and

Horus. Below this lateral band, the orientation of the carvings is inverted. Two wedjat eyes

have below them kneeling figures of Isis and Nephthys. An image of the goddess of the

east is in the lower left panel and the goddess of the west in the lower right panel. Undulating around the edge of the lid is the Mehen snake to provide the queen

- it is surely a ka image on the lid - with added safety in the Afterlife.

There are very few queenly sarcophagi preserved from the 19th Dynasty, so this one is

really very special. It differs quite substantially from those preceding it and those that

followed and, while it derives its characteristic bandage divisions from earlier lids (such as that of Queen Nefertari), its human effigy and array of gods is not found among any other female royal sarcophagi of the 19th Dynasty.102 The distribution of the godly figures within the panels look forward to the coffin decorations of the 19th, 20th and 21st Dynasties, so it provides the essential link between the 19th Dynasty models and those of the later

periods. Tausret accepted as her own all of Siptah's regnal length, although she had only just

become sole ruler late in Year 6.103 Perhaps, as a reigning queen, she promoted the legend

of Siptah as a crown prince and herself as regent who became rightful ruler after his

death.104 Alternatively, it is not impossible that Tausret may have absorbed the reign of

Siptah (as Horemheb had done with the Amarna pharaohs) in a bid for legitimacy that

linked her with her husband, Sety II. All the circumstances of Siptah's reign indicate that

there were impediments to his claim for the throne; the attitude of the Dynasty 20 rulers

merely emphasises this point.105 This bid for legitimacy seems to have been the motive for

the alteration to the cartouches of Siptah into those of Sety II within Tausret's own tomb,

and this is assuredly the motive for transporting the body of her husband from his tomb to

hers.

102 I would like to thank Edwin Brock for pointing out to me that lid of Merenptah has similar bands

dividing the decoration. 103

Eg. oCG 25293, where a date in IV. Shemu of Year 8 is recorded. Tausret's earliest recorded date as

ruler is from Year 6. 104

Altenmuller, in: SAK 10, 1983,43. 105

As argued by T. Schneider, in: ZAS 130,2003,141-143, the basic problem throughout the years after

Merenptah was legitimacy.


Several dated inscriptions for the queen are known, the majority of these being recorded

in her tomb; much of Altenmuller's work has been concerned with the explication of those

inscriptions.106 We know of no other major historical information concerning the reign of

Tausret. Only the statue of Tausret as pharaoh, the three treasure hoards, the mortuary

temple deposits noted above and the references mentioned on the Bilgai Stele attest to her

reign as a sovereign.

Commentary

In Drenkhahn's opinion, Tausret, Bay and Siptah seemed to have coexisted in harmony,

each helping the other to stay in power.107 A major support for Drenkhahn's theory is the

fact that Bay died before the other two, but still shared a mortuary temple with Siptah. Given Grandet's report on O.Ifao 1864, this assumption can no longer be maintained: no

convicted criminal would share a temple with a king. While the temple might once have

had that purpose, it is clear that Bay's foundation deposits were discovered under the

floor,108 where they could easily have been overlooked by those seeking to erase signs of

his presence. Above floor level, the so-called ?Turin dockets" - that were so pithily

analysed by Altenmuller - now attest to the fact that, as late as Year 4, Bay was still

sending supplies to that cult in western Thebes. After this time, there is no overt sign of a

shared mortuary cult among the other remains. We may thus have to go back to the earlier

views held by historians viz that Bay was a man of powerful character who, for some

reason unknown, was able to manipulate both Tausret and Siptah until he was removed. As

to who gave the orders to whom, we may suspect, but we cannot prove that Tausret was the

initiating force, for Siptah was still a minor.

The founder king of the 20th Dynasty, Sethnakhte, liked to display himself as one who restored Egypt to peace and harmony after the reign of Tausret. He certainly seems to have

distorted events in his claim that a hated Syrian named Irsu had been put down by the

Egyptian champion. Gardiner suggested some years ago that this Syrian identity must have

been Bay, and this suggestion was later strengthened by Drenkhahn's study of the Elephan tine Stele. Now that we know that Chancellor Bay certainly died in Year 5 of Siptah's

reign, we can no longer maintain that view. The ostrakon pieced together by Grandet also

explains the absence of any trace of burial in KV 13. As Siptah then ruled at least a year

after Bay's death, and since Tausert reigned two more years after that, the Papyrus Harris

account of Sethnakhte mounting a rebellion and subsequently defeating the Syrian Irsu

cannot be justified as referring to Chancellor Bay. Was there another Syrian who played a political role prior to Sethnakhte's accession to the Egyptian throne? Or, was Sethnakhte

distorting history and using a Active Syrian as an excuse for seizing the throne?

106 See especially Altenmuller's article in: Reeves (ed.), After Tutankhamun, 147-161. 107

Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele, 52f. 108

Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, 17.


Sethnakhte's own reign was not much longer than two years -

perhaps that is why his

son usurped Tausret's tomb, erasing her cartouches and transforming her figures into those

of his father. He must have desecrated the queen's burial, too. As Hartwig Altenmuller has

demonstrated most persuasively, the sarcophagus within KV 14 is more likely to have be

longed originally to Sety II than to Tausret.

Despite the length of this article, yet one other footnote to history might be added. A

limestone ostrakon with a drawing in red paint is now in Cairo Museum. It comes from the

Ramesside period of time ? perhaps Dynasty 20 and perhaps might shed a little light,

metaphorical or otherwise, on the last days of Tausret's reign. The picture below (fig. 3)

is a rather crude sketch of the essential parts of that ostrakon that was made from the

catalogue of an exhibition.109

Fig. 3: Author's line drawing of the upper section of the ostrakon; the lower, unrepresented section has scenes of men engaged in hand-to-hand fighting

(after the photograph in: Nofret - die Schone, 1985, 181).

The scene, which is unfortunately damaged on the top right area, shows two people in

chariots firing arrows at each other. (Other parts of the ostrakon I have omitted, but below

the base line shown in this sketch, two warriors and further scenes of warfare are found on

the original.)

The commentary accompanying this photograph in the ?Nofret" catalogue interprets the

scene as the goddess Astarte (on the left) fighting against an opponent (on the right) who

is an Egyptian pharaoh. The catalogue commentator observes that the artist has shown

Astarte coming to help in the political collapse that occurred at the end of the end of the

109 Exhibition-catalogue Munich ?Nofret?die Schone: die Frau im alten Agypten", 1984,181: photograph of Ostrakon CG 25125 and commentary. The ostrakon measures 25cms in height and is 38cms in

breadth. It comes from KV 9 and has been dated to Dynasty 20.


Ramesside era. One could, however, view the scene as a symbolic interpretation of the

struggle that Tausret had to face at the end of her reign, for ?Astarte" here wears the

costume and headdress of an Egyptian queen, and it is certainly inexplicable that the

goddess should be fighting against an Egyptian male pharaoh on the right. Whether this sketch is an allegory, as has been assumed, I am not competent to say, but it would not be

surprising to discover that the artist was thinking of Tausret when he drew this picture.

Callender. Queen Tausret and the End of Dynasty 19

Documents

Transcript of Callender. Queen Tausret and the End of Dynasty 19