Twosret

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Persondata
NAME	Twosret
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Tausret
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Pharaoh of Egypt
DATE OF BIRTH	{{{Birth}}}
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ancient Egypt
DATE OF DEATH	{{{Death}}}
PLACE OF DEATH	Ancient Egypt

Preceded by:
Siptah

Pharaoh of Egypt
19th Dynasty

Succeeded by:
Setnakhte

Twosret

Tausret

Twosret playing the sistrum at Amada Temple, Nubia

Reign

1188 BC - 1186 BC

Praenomen

Sitre-meryamun

Nomen

Tausret (setepenmut) Mighty Lady, Chosen of Mut^[1]

Horus name

Kanakht Merymaat-nebanemnisutmiitmu

Nebty name

Geregkemet-wafkhasut

Died

1186 BC

Burial

KV14, in the Valley of the Kings

Queen Twosret was a Queen of Egypt and the last Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. She reigned over Egypt for two years from about 1188-1186 BC, according to traditional Egyptian chronology and succeeded her step-son Siptah, who suffered from ill-health (probably polio). Her royal name, Sitre Meryamun, means "Daughter of Re, beloved of Amun."^[2]

Twosret, the daughter of Takhat and Merneptah, was the senior royal wife of Seti II. Theodore Davis identified the Queen and her husband in a cache of jewellry found in the Valley of the Kings. Following her husband's death, she became first regent to Seti's heir Siptah, probably her stepson, jointly with Chancellor Bay, who some have identified as Irsu mentioned in the Harris Papyrus. When Siptah died, Twosret seized the throne for herself, as "Daughter of Re, Lady of Ta-merit, Twosret of Mut"^[3], and assumed the role of a Pharaoh. While it was commonly believed that she ruled Egypt with the aid of Chancellor Bay, a recently published document by Pierre Grandet in a BIFAO 100(2000) paper says that Bay was executed on the orders of Siptah in Year 5 of this king. The document is a hieratic ostracon or inscribed potshard and contains an announcement to the workmen of Deir El-Medina of the king's actions. No immediate reason was given to show what caused Siptah to turn against "the great enemy Bay," as the ostracon states. The recto of the document reads thus:

Year 5 III Shemu the 27th. On this day, the scribe of the tomb Paser came announcing 'Pharaoh, life, properity, and health!, has killed the great enemy Bay'.

This date accords well with Bay's last known public appearance in Year 4 of Siptah. The ostraca's information was essentially a royal order for the workmen to stop all work on Bay's tomb.^[4] Twosret's reign ended in a civil war and she was deposed from power by Setnakhte who founded the 20th Dynasty. Twosret's KV14 tomb has a complicated history; it was started in the reign of Seti II, and may originally have been intended to house both king and queen, extended in the reign of Setnakhte, more work was done during her reign but it was still unfinished at her death. This tomb in the Valley of the Kings was usurped by Setnakht, and extended to become the deepest in the valley and her sarcophagus reused by Amenherkhepeshef in KV13. Seti II was reburied in tomb KV15. She constructed a mortuary temple next to the Ramesseum but it was never finished and has only been partially excavated (by Flinders Petrie in 1897), although recent re-excavation by Richard H. Wilkinson shows it is more complex than first thought. A cartouche of hers believed to come from Qantir in the Delta has been found, and her name has been found associated with the turquoise mines in the Sinai.

It is believed that expeditions were conducted during her reign to the turquoise mines in Sinai and in Palestine and statues have been found of her at Heliopolis and Thebes. Her name is also found at Abydos, Hermopolis, Memphis and in Nubia.

A mummy found in KV35 and known as Unknown Woman D has been identified by some as possibly belonging to Twosret but there is no other evidence for this other than the correct 19th Dynasty period of mummification.

[edit] References

^ Peter Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1994. p.158
^ Clayton, op. cit., p.158
^ Tydlesey, Joyce (2006) "The Complete Queens of Egypt"(American University in Cairo Press)
^ Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT, Spring 2006, p.54

[edit] References

Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT, Vol:17 No.1, Spring 2006, pp.49-63
Pierre Grandet, "L'execution du chancelier Bay O.IFAO 1864", BIFAO 100(2000), pp.339-345