Tausret, also spelled Tawosret or Twosret (d. 1188 BC) 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."J. Tyldesley, Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt, 2006, Thames & Hudson She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this figure included the nearly six-year reign of Siptah, her predecessor.Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss & David Warburton (editors), Handbook of Ancient Egyptian Chronology, Brill: 2006, p. 214 Tausret simply assumed Siptah's regnal years as her own.
While her sole independent reign could have lasted for perhaps one to one and a half years, from 1191 to 1189 BC, this number now appears more likely to be closer to three full years instead. 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 Tausret started a regnal year 9, which means that she had two and more likely three independent years of rule, once one deducts the nearly six-year reign of Siptah. Her royal name, Sitre Meryamun, means "Daughter of Re, beloved of Amun."Clayton, p. 158
Family
Parentage Twosret or Tausret's birth date is unknown. She did not hold title of "King's Daughter", meaning she was not daughter of any Pharaoh and her later claim to kingship would come solely through her marriage to Seti II.
Marriage and Children She was thought to be the second royal wife of Seti II. There are no children for Tausret and Seti II, unless tomb KV56 represents the burial of their child.
Unidentified KV 56 Theodore Davis identified Tausret and her husband's names in a cache of jewelry found in tomb KV56 in the Valley of the Kings. This tomb also contained objects bearing the name of Rameses 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.
Reign During the reign of Ramesses III, a list of kings at Medinet Habu shows Merneptah, Seti II followed directly by Setnakhte (founder of the 20th Dynasty), omitting Amenmesse, Tausret and Siptah as illegitimate. Her relationship with Seti II and the chronology of Amenmesse, Tausret and Siptah are based on much speculation and conjecture.
Regent After her husband's death, she became first regent to Seti's heir Siptah jointly with Chancellor Bay, a West Asian. Siptah was likely a stepson of Tausret since his mother is now known to be a certain Sutailja or Shoteraja from Louvre Relief E 26901.Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT Volume 17, No.1 (Spring 2006), p. 52
Pharaoh When Siptah died, Tausret officially assumed the throne for herself as the "Daughter of Re, Lady of Ta-merit, Twosret of Mut",Tydlesey, Joyce (2006) "The Complete Queens of Egypt"(American University in Cairo Press) 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'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 Deir al Madinah 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, prosperity, and health!, has killed the great enemy Bay'.Pierre Grandet, "L'execution du chancelier Bay O.IFAO 1864", BIFAO 100 (2000), pp. 339-345
This date accords well with Bay's last public appearance in Year 4 of Siptah. 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.Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT, Spring 2006, p. 54 Aidan Dodson believes that Tausret 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:
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 Tausret had allied themselves, leaving Irsu free to plunder and neglect the land.Hans Goedicke, "Irsu the Khasu in Papyrus Harris", Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Vol. 71 (1979), pp. 1-17
Year 8 Mortuary Temple Foundations
Tausret'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.Now labeled Foundation Block Text 4. See Richard H. Wilkinson, “Tausert Temple Project: 2010-11 Season,” The Ostracon: The Journal of the Egyptian Study Society, 22 (Fall 2011), 8, fig. 4. Additional foundation inscriptions were discovered in previous seasons. Foundation Block Text 2 was found in the 2007 excavation season and bears the date “Regnal Year seven, I Akhet 23,” this is the earliest dated inscription found at the temple, so construction most likely began late in the latter half of year seven. The original publication with a mistranslation of this inscription is idem, "Tausert Temple Project: 2007 Season," The Ostracon, 18, No. 1 (Summer 2007), 7, fig. 9. The corrected translation appears in idem, “Tausert Temple Project: 2008 Season,” The Ostracon, 19, No. 1 (Fall 2008), p. 7.Chapter 7, p.128 HIERATIC TEXTS by Robert J. Demarée in THE TEMPLE OF TAUSRET--The University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition Tausret Temple Project, 2004-2011 (editor: Richard H. Wilkinson), (c) 2011 by The University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition Since this was only a foundation inscription and Tausret's temple, although never finished as planned, was at least built and 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 H. Wilkinson stressed that Tausret's mortuary temple was "structurally completed" with a roof over the temple and walls bearing plastered walls with minimal decoration before work was halted.Richard H. Wilkinson, “History of the Temple,” in The Temple of Tausret: The University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition Tausret Temple Project, 2004-2011, pp.165-66 PDF Wilkinson notes:
Therefore, Tausret must have ruled for one or a maximum of two more years beyond II Shemu 29 of her 8th Year for her temple to reach completion. As Richard Wilkinson wrote in 2011:
Reign length
Manetho In the tradition of Manetho, Africanus preserves Thuris (7 years), Eusebius has Thuris (7 years), and Jerome has Thuoris (7 years).
Year 9? Further study by Pearce Paul Creasman has concluded that: "Tausret's temple was very close indeed to completion in terms of construction, and a suggestion can be offered that the sanctuary was functional before its destruction. Given the relative brevity of Tausret's reign, it would not be surprising if the sanctuary, as the “center of movement” of the temple, had received a full complement of preparations even while the remainder of the temple lacked it. The temple seems to have been at least functionally operational prior to its destruction."Pearce Paul Creasman, "Excavations at Pharaoh-Queen Tausret's Temple of Millions of Years: 2012 Season," Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 39 (2012/2013), p.15 Summary PDF Tausret should, hence, have ruled for 1 or perhaps 2 more years after the Year 8 foundation temple 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's reign as her own) or perhaps longer—before Setnakhte's rule began. Or she could have had a nearly full 9th-regnal year reign, including the 6-year reign of Siptah.
Pearce Creasman writes in 2013, "if the foundations of [Tausret's temple] were laid in her eighth year and construction of the temple was completed, or nearly so, Tausret must have ruled long enough past her eighth regnal year to see this accomplished. At least an additional year, maybe two, would likely have been needed"Pearce Creasman, An Elusive Female Pharaoh and Her “Temple of Millions of Years", Newsletter of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, 2013, p. 2Newsletter of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, Fall/Winter 2013, p.2 PDF
Evidence that Tausret reigned closer to 9, rather than 8, full years since her mortuary temple was mostly completed under her reign is also provided by a sandstone fragment found in the blockyard at Medinet Habu (MH bl. 0936) which: shows two stages of carving on adjoining faces, the later of which, bearing the names of Ramesses III, is part of a frieze from the destroyed inner chambers of his mortuary temple. The earlier inscription is found to contain the name and royal titles of Tausret, with cartouches erased but not reinscribed, and it is shown that this block must originally have come from her [ie. Tausret's] destroyed mortuary temple. This piece thus demonstrates for the first time that Tausret's temple was dismantled for building material and its blocks reused in the Medinet Habu complex early in Ramesses III's reign.J. Brett McClain & W. Raymond Johnson, A Fragment from the Reign of Tausret Reused at Medinet Habu, Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt 49 (2013)
The fragment—and Richard Wilkinson's analysis that the stone mortuary temple was 'structurally completed' with a roof over the temple and walls bearing plastered walls with minimal decoration in "The Temple of Tausret: The University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition Tausret Temple Project, 2004–2011" proves that Tausret's temple was actually built after the Year 8 temple foundations were set in the ground—and minimally decorated which means that she would have ruled Egypt for 9 and possibly 10 years—including the first 5 and a half years of Siptah. A reign of 9 years seems likely—meaning 3 separate full years for Tausret. When the Year 8 II Shemu day 29 hieratic inscription foundation block was placed into the ground of Tausret's mortuary temple, she had ruled Egypt for 7 years and almost 6 months—including the reign of Siptah on the Egyptian dating system—since she counted her reign from the death of Siptah's predecessor and her husband—Seti II—who is believed to have died around I Peret day 2. Tausret could not have built her temple in the short 6 month time interval from II Shemu day 29 to I Peret day 2 when her Regnal Year changed from Year 8 to Year 9 around I Shemu day 2 given her substantially completed mortuary temple at Gournah with its erected temple walls, temple roof and partly decorated walls—with a nearly functioning temple sanctuary. Since Paul Creasman maintains that it would have taken 1 to 2 years before work on Tausret's temple nearly complete mortuary temple was stopped, she certainly started a Regnal Year 9 (and a less likely Regnal Year 10) and had a reign of around 9 full years.
End of Tausret's reign