| Tyti | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | 20th Dynasty | |||||||||||||
| Pharaoh(s) | Setnakhte – Ramesses IV | |||||||||||||
| Titles | King's Great Wife Lady of the Two Lands God's Wife King's Daughter King's Sister King's Mother God's Mother | |||||||||||||
| Father | Setnakhte | |||||||||||||
| Mother | Tiye-Mereniset | |||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Ramesses III | |||||||||||||
| Issue | Amunherkhepeshef, Ramesses IV | |||||||||||||
| Burial | QV52 | |||||||||||||
Tyti (transliteration: tỉyty) was an ancient Egyptian Queen of the Twentieth Dynasty during the New Kingdom.
Titles[]
Tyti held the titles of King's Great Wife (ḥmt-nswt-wrt), Lady of the Two Lands (nbt-tꜣwy),[1] King's Daughter (zꜣ.t-nswt), King's Sister (sn.t-nswt), King's Mother (mwt-nswt), God's Mother (mwt-nṯr), and God's Wife (ḥmt-nṯr).[2]
Place in the 20th dynasty[]
It was once uncertain which pharaoh was her husband. In the past some thought she was married to Ramesses X, and that both she and her husband were the children of Ramesses IX, and their son was Ramesses XI.[3][4] But another theory by Jehon Grist placed her earlier in the 20th dynasty and identifies her as a daughter-wife of Ramesses III and the mother of Ramesses IV, based on the similarities in style of her tomb and those of princes who lived during this period.[1] However, judging from the age of their child this would mean that Ramesses married his daughter before he ascended the throne, and father-daughter marriages occurred only between pharaohs and their daughters.
Tyti is depicted with a type of crown that is, according to one theory, an attribute of princess-queens (19th dynasty princess-queen Nebettawy was shown with this crown and 18th dynasty Sitamun wore an earlier version of it).[5]
Now, however, new scholarly research printed in the 2010 issue of JEA clearly establishes that Queen Tyti was in fact Ramesses III's wife based on certain copies of parts of the tomb robbery papyri (or Papyrus BM EA 10052)—made by Anthony Harris—which discloses confessions made by Egyptian tomb robbers who broke into Tyti's tomb and emptied it of its jewellery.[6]
Family[]
Papyrus BM EA 10052 establishes that Tyti was the queen consort of Pharaoh Ramesses III.[7] Given her titles "King's Daughter" and "King's Sister", she was almost certainly the daughter of Pharaoh Setnakhte and sister-wife of Ramesses III. Her mother was probably Setnakhte's only known wife Tiye-Mereniset, which would make Tyti and her husband full-siblings. Seti II, who is regarded as the last legitimate ruler before Setnakhte, has been proposed as an alternative for Tyti's father,[8] even though this would simply fail to account for her title "King's Sister".
Tyti was probably the mother of Ramesses III's firstborn son and intended heir, Amunherkhepeshef. According to Amunherkhepeshef's QV55 tomb, he was ms n ḥmt-nṯr mwt-nṯr ḥmt-nsw-wrt ("son of the God's Wife, God's Mother and King's Great Wife") paralleling Tyti's titles so closely that he may be confidently proposed as her son.[8] Leblanc has conjectured that Tyti is the mother of Amunherkhepeshef, as well as Khaemwaset and Meryamun, based on similarities with regard to their tomb's decorative programs,[9] but this remains speculative.
Given her title "King's Mother", Tyti must have been the mother of one of Ramesses III's three sons who ascended to the throne; Ramesses IV, VI or VIII. Ramesses VI is known to have been the son of Iset-Tahemdjeret, while Ramesses VIII came to the throne over two decades later, making it unlikely that her "King's Mother" title inscribed in her tomb was delayed for this long. This leaves her husband's immediate successor, Ramesses IV, as her son to account for the title.[8]
Burial[]
Tyti was buried in her QV52 rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Queens. The tomb was reused during the Third Intermediate Period. A pit was dug in the Inner Chambers and excavations have yielded a variety of funerary items, including sarcophagi and personal items.[9]
References[]
Bibliography[]
- Collier, M./Dodson, A./Hamernik, G., 2010: P. BM 10052, Anthony Harris and Queen Tyti. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 96.
- Dodson, A., 1987: The Takhats and Some Other Royal Ladies of the Ramesside Period. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 73.
- Dodson, A./Hilton, D., 2004: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, London.
- Grist, J., 1985: The Identity of the Ramesside Queen Tyti. In: Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 71.
- Kitchen, K.A., 1972: Ramesses VII and the Twentieth Dynasty. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 58.