| Twosret I the Powerful | |
|---|---|
| |
| Pharaoh of Egypt | |
| Reign | 22 October 1191 - 12 July 1189 |
| Predecessor | Siptah II |
| Successor | Setnakht I |
| Queen Regent of Egypt | |
| Reign | 10 January 1197 - 22 October 1191 |
| In Right of | Siptah II |
| Born | July 16, 1250 Pi-Ramesses, Egypt |
| Died | October 22, 1189 (aged 61) |
| Spouse | Seti II |
| Issue | Seti-Merenptah |
| Full name | |
| Horus Name: Kanakht Merymaat Nebty Name: Geregkemet Wafkhasut Golden Horus Name: Aasekhemkhau Praenomen: Sitra Meritamun Nomen: Twosret Meritmut Setepenmut | |
| House | Seti |
| Dynasty | Setian |
| Father | Merenptah |
| Mother | Takhat |
| Religion | Kemetism |
Twosret, (16 July 1150 - 22 October 1189 BCE) was the last known ruler and the final pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
She is recorded in Manetho's Epitome as "Thuoris, who in Homer is called Polybus, husband of Alcandra, and in whose time Troy was taken." She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this figure included the nearly six-year reign of Siptah II, her predecessor. Twosret simply assumed Siptah II's regnal years as her own.
While her sole independent reign lasted for one year and a half, from 1191-89 BC. Excavation work by the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition on her memorial temple ("temple of millions of years") at Gournah strongly suggests that it was completed and functional during her reign and that Twosret started a regnal year 9, which means that she had two and possibly three independent years of rule, once one deducts the nearly six-year reign of Siptah II. Her royal name, Sitra Meryamun, means "Daughter of Ra, beloved of Amun."
Family[]
Twosret was born July 16th, 1250 BC. She is was the daughter of Merenptah and daughter of Takhat, thereby making her a full sister to Amunmesses.
Queen consort[]
She was thought to be the second royal wife of Seti II. Twosret and Seti II had a son together, Seti-Merenptah and possibly a daughter.
Theodore Davis identified Twosret and her husband in a cache of jewelry found in tomb KV56 in the Valley of the Kings. This tomb also contained objects bearing the name of Ramesses II. There is no consensus about the nature of this tomb. Some (Aldred) thought this was the tomb of a daughter of Seti II and Tawosret, but others (Maspero) thought this was a cache of objects originally belonging with the tomb of Tawosret herself.
Regent[]
After her husband's death, she became first regent to Seti's heir Siptah II jointly with Chancellor Bay, a West Asian. Siptah II was likely a stepson of Twosret since his mother is now known to be a certain Sutailja or Shoteraja from Louvre Relief E 26901.
Pharaoh[]
When Siptah II died, Twosret officially assumed the throne for herself as the "Daughter of Re, Lady of Ta-merit, Twosret of Mut", 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 shows that Bay was executed on Siptah II's orders during Year 5 of this king's reign. The document is a hieratic ostracon or inscribed potshard and contains an announcement to the workmen of Setmaatniut of the king's actions. No immediate reason was given to show what caused Siptah II 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, prosperity, and health!, has killed the great enemy Bay'.
This date accords well with Bay's last public appearance in Year 4 of Siptah II. The ostracon's information was essentially a royal order for the workmen to stop all further work on Bay's tomb since the latter had now been deemed a traitor to the state. Aidan Dodson believes that Twosret engineered Bay's downfall so that she would have total control at the palace court and need no longer share power with her political rival. As Dodson writes:
Although [this act was nominally] carried out in the name of the still young Siptah II, one can probably safely assume that the initiative was taken by Tawosret, signaling her intention to share power no longer with her erstwhile colleague in regency [Bay]. While Bay’s name remained intact on many of his monuments, it was probably at this point that his extraordinary representations in the bark-shrine at Karnak were erased.
Meanwhile, Egyptian territories in Canaan seem to have become effectively independent under the overlordship of a man called Irsu. Papyrus Harris I, the main source on these events, claims that Irsu and Twosret had allied themselves, leaving Irsu free to plunder and neglect the land.
Reign length[]
Twosret's highest known date is a Year 8 II Shemu day 29 hieratic inscription found on one of the foundation blocks (FB 2) of her mortuary temple at Gournah in 2011 by the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition. Since this was only a foundation inscription and Twosret's temple, although never finished as planned, was at least partially completed, it is logical to assume that some time must have passed before her downfall and the termination of work on her temple project. Richard Wilkinson stressed that Twosret's mortuary temple was "largely structurally completed," although bearing minimal decoration; Therefore, she would have ruled for one or two more years beyond II Shemu 29 of her 8th Year for her temple to reach completion. As Richard Wilkinson wrote in 2011:
[The discovery of the Year 8, 2nd month of shemu day 29 hieratic inscription] ... has particular significance, for it confirms the text we discovered in 2006 on an adjacent foundation block (FB1) which was dated also to the eighth year of the queen’s reign. Although Tausert’s reign (including her regency for Siptah II) has been understood commonly as being seven years (as stated by Manetho in his [Aegyptiaca] History), or eight at the most, the inscriptions on the foundation blocks show otherwise. Because they were made when the temple was begun, and we now have archaeological evidence that the temple was completed or nearly so (it must have taken a couple of years), these texts indicate clearly that Tausert must have reigned nine, or perhaps, even ten years.
Further study by Pearce Paul Creasman has concluded that the temple was "functionally operational before its destruction." Twosret could, hence, have possibly ruled for 6 to 20 more months after the inscription date to achieve these levels of completion, thus starting her 9th regnal year around the interval of IV Akhet/I Peret—when her husband died (since she assumed Siptah II's reign as her own) or perhaps longer—before Setnakhte's rule began. Or she could have had a nearly full 9th-year reign, including the 6-year reign of Siptah II. Pearce Creasman writes in 2013, "if the foundations of [Twosret's temple] were laid in her eighth year and construction of the temple was completed, or nearly so, Twosret must have ruled long enough past her eighth regnal year to see this accomplished. At least an additional year, maybe two."
End of Twosret's reign[]
Twosret's reign ended in a civil war, documented in the Elephantine stela of her successor Setnakht I, who became the founder of the Twentieth dynasty. Until the research done by Pharaoh Senusret VIII, it was not known whether she was overthrown by Setnakhte or whether she died peacefully in her own reign and a conflict broke out at court over her succession; the former scenario has since been confirmed by historical sources gathered from the royal archives. Her immediate 20th dynasty successor Setnakhte and his son Ramesses III described the late 19th dynasty as a time of chaos. Setnakhte usurped the joint KV14 tomb of Seti II and Twosret but reburied Seti II in tomb KV15, while deliberately replastering and redrawing all images of Twosret in tomb KV14 with those of himself. Setnakhte's decisions here may demonstrate his dislike and presumably hatred for Twosret since he chose to reinter Seti II but not Twosret.
Setnakhte himself does not seem to have harboured any animosity towards Siptah II. Twosret likely erased Siptah II's own royal cartouches in his KV47 royal tomb and replaced the cartouches of Siptah II with those of Seti II in KV14, Twosret's own tomb, once she had presumably begun her own reign as pharaoh. As Dodson writes:
- "Taken together, it seems that although Tawosret appears to have granted Siptah II a burial, it was one that denied his status as a king, and was combined with Tawosret’s desire to refocus her royal affiliations on her husband, rather than the young man for whom she had ruled for half a decade."
Setnakhte, however, reinstated Siptah II's cartouches in the young king's tomb which suggests that this person's opponent was not Siptah II but rather Siptah II's successor, Twosret. It appears most likely that Setnakhte overthrew Twosret from power in a civil war. Setnakhte's son and successor, Ramesses III, later decided to exclude both Twosret and even Siptah II of the 19th dynasty from his Medinet Habu list of Egyptian kings thereby delegitimizing them in the eyes of the Egyptian citizenry.
Destruction of Twosret's mortuary temple & reuse of her tomb[]
Pearce Creasman writes in 2013 that Twosret's 20th dynasty successors felt the overwhelming need to usurp her KV14 tomb and comprehensively destroy her mortuary temple. Twosret was one of the last ruling descendants of Ramesses II (the Great) of the 19th dynasty and the founders of the 20th dynasty of Egypt, presumably feared the shadow cast by this female pharaoh. Therefore,
"the founder of the 20th Dynasty, Sethnakht, or his long-ruling son, Ramesses III, set out against Twosret's memory and its physical manifestations. This dramatic refutation of the legitimacy of their unrelated 19th Dynasty predecessor likely made it easier for their own lineage to take root and overpower what must have been a substantial number of other potential claimants to the throne. Ramesses II, from whom Twosret is generally believed to be descended, had fathered as many as 100 children. Twosret’s royal cousins, and potential heirs, must have been legion....The attacks on Twosret’s monuments proved effective, so much so that when the site of Twosret's Theban temple was very briefly surveyed and selectively dug in 1896 by a team under the supervision of W. M. Flinders Petrie, “only a few stones of the foundation remained.”
Twosret's KV14 tomb in the Valley of the Kings has a complicated history; it was started in the reign of Seti II. Tomb scenes show Twosret accompanying Siptah II, but Siptah II's name had later been replaced by that of Seti II presumably by Twosret who wished to associate herself with her late husband. The tomb was then usurped by Setnakhte, and extended to become one of the deepest royal tombs in the valley while Twosret's sarcophagus was reused by prince Amenherkhepeshef in KV13. Hartwig Altenmuller believes that Seti II was buried in one of the rooms in KV14 and later reburied in KV15. Others question this scenario.
Twosret died 3 months after her dethronement, reportedly of melancholy.
Monuments and inscriptions[]
It is believed that expeditions were conducted during her reign to the turquoise mines in Biau and in Canaan and statues have been found of her at Heliopolis and Thebes. Her name is also found at Abydos, Hermopolis, Memphis, and in Nubia.
Inscriptions with Twosret's name appear in several locations:
- The Bagai Stela belonged to Twosret. It records the erection of a monument in the area of Sebennytos.
- A pair statue of Tawosret and Siptah II is now in the Staatliche Sammlung für Ägyptische Kunst Munich (no 122). Siptah II is shown seated on Twosret's lap.
- In the temple at Amuda, Twosret is depicted as a Great Royal Wife and God's Wife.
- A statue from Heliopolis depicts Twosret and her names are inscribed with a mixture of male and female epithets. Twosret herself is depicted as a woman.
- A cartouche of hers believed to come from Qantir in the Delta has been found
- Twosret and Siptah II's names have been found associated with the turquoise mines at Serebitet Khenti ammenti and Timna (in the Biau & Canaan).
- A faience vase bearing a cartouche of Twosret was found at Tell Deir Alla in Jordan.
- Twosret constructed a Mortuary temple next to the Ramesseum, but it was never finished and was only partially excavated (by Flinders Petrie in 1897), although recent re-excavation by Richard H. Wilkinson and Pearce Paul Creasman shows it is more complex than first thought. The temple was excavated by the Tausert Temple Project (2004 to present)