Siptah
Siptah | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reign | 1197–1191 BC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Seti II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | Twosret | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Father | Uncertain: currently debated to be either Seti II or Amenmesse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mother | Sutailya | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 1191 BC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Burial | KV47; Mummy found in the KV35 royal cache (Theban Necropolis) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dynasty | 19th Dynasty |
Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the penultimate ruler of the
He was not the crown prince, but succeeded to the throne as a child after the death of Seti II. His accession date occurred on I Peret day 2 around the month of December.[3]
Origins
Historically, it was believed that Tiaa, a wife of Seti II, was the mother of Siptah.[4] This view persisted until it was eventually realized that a relief in the Louvre Museum (E 26901) "pairs Siptah's name together with the name of his mother" a certain Sutailya or Soteraya.[5]
Sutailya was a Canaanite rather than a native Egyptian name, which means that she was almost certainly a king's
The identity of his father is currently unknown; some Egyptologists speculate it may have been
A headless statue of Siptah now in Munich shows him seated on the lap of another Pharaoh, presumably his father. The British Egyptologist Aidan Dodson states
- The only ruler of the period who could have promoted such destruction was Bay or the death of Siptah himself, when any short-lived rehabilitation of Amenmesse would have ended.[10]
If Siptah was a son of Seti II, it is unlikely that he would have been considered as an illegitimate king by later 20th Dynasty New Kingdom pharaohs. Due to his youth and perhaps his problematic parentage, he was placed under the guidance of his stepmother—the queen regent Twosret.[11]
Siptah ruled Egypt for almost six years as a young man. Siptah was only a child of ten or eleven years when he assumed power since a medical examination of his mummy reveals the king was about sixteen years old at death. He was tall at 1.6 metres, had curly reddish brown hair, and likely had poliomyelitis, with a deformed left foot.[12][13]
Reign
- the spirit of the Great Superintendent of the Seal of the entire land, who established the King [Siptah] in the place of his father; beloved of his lord, Bay.[17]
Bay, however, later fell out of favor at court presumably for overreaching himself and last appears in public in a dated Year 4 inscription from Siptah's reign. He was executed in the fifth year of Siptah's reign, on orders of the king himself. News of his execution was passed to the Workmen of
Siptah himself is last attested sometime in his 6th regnal Year on a graffito located at the South Temple of Buhen.[20] He likely died in the middle of II Akhet—perhaps around II Akhet 12 of his 6th Year. This assumes a traditional 70-day mummification period if Siptah was buried on IV Akhet 22.
Evidence for his burial on the latter date is recorded in ostracon O. Cairo CG 25792.[21] This ostraca from Deir el-Medina mentions that the Vizier Hori visited the workmen of Deir el-Medina first on II Akhet 24 and second on IV Akhet 19.[22] The final line on the ostracon reads as: "IV Akhet 22: Burial took place".[23] Since this event can only refer to a king's burial, the question here is the identity of this king.
Hori was appointed vizier around Regnal Year 6 II Shemu 6 and I Peret [X] of Seti II's reign and held this office through the reigns of Siptah,
Seti II must have died in late IV Akhet or early I Peret—after the 70-day mummification period—since a graffito located above KV14, Twosret's tomb, records his burial on III Peret 11.[25] Therefore, the IV Akhet 22 burial date likely records the burial of Siptah himself. Siptah's death would have occurred sometime around II Akhet 12. Siptah himself would have ruled Egypt for approximately 5 years and 10 months since his predecessor, Seti II, died around the end of IV Akhet and the beginning of I Peret, even if he did not legally assume the throne until the start of II Akhet with the aid of the powerful court official Bay.
After his death, Twosret simply assumed his Regnal Years and ruled Egypt as a queen for a year or two at the most. Siptah was buried in the Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV47,[26] but his mummy was not found there. In 1898, it was discovered along with 18 others in a mummy cache within the (KV35) tomb of Amenhotep II. The study of his tomb shows that it was conceived and planned in the same style as those of Twosret and Bay, clearly part of the same architectural design.
In 1980, James Harris and Edward F. Wente conducted a series of X-ray examinations on New Kingdom Pharaohs crania and skeletal remains, which included the mummified remains of Siptah. The analysis in general found strong similarities between the New Kingdom rulers of the 19th Dynasty and 20th Dynasty with Mesolithic Nubian samples. The authors also noted affinities with modern Mediterranean populations of Levantine origin. Harris and Wente suggested this represented admixture as the Rammessides were of northern origin.[27]
In April 2021 his mummy was moved from the
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Dodson, A.; Poisoned Legacy: The Decline and Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty, American University Press, Cairo, (2010) A3
- ^ a b c d e Peter Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1994. p.158
- ^ Jürgen von Beckerath, Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten, MAS: Philipp von Zabern, (1997), p.201
- ^ Cyril Aldred, The parentage of King Siptah, JEA 49 (1963), pp.41-48
- ^ Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT Volume 17, No.1 (Spring 2006), p.52; Callender's source comes from page 140 of Thomas Schneider's ZAS 130 (2003) paper titled Siptah und Beja
- ^ Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT Vol 17 (Spring 2006), p.52
- ^ The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, London (2004)
- ^ Cyril Aldred, The Parentage of King Siptah, JEA 49 (1963), pp.41-60
- ^ J.E. Harris & E.F. Wente, An X-Ray Atlas of the Royal Mummies (Chicago, 1980), p.147
- ^ Dodson, Aidan, (2004), The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, (Egyptian University of Cairo Press) p.181
- ^ Callender, p.52
- ^ Callender, p.52
- ^ G.E. Smith, The Royal Mummies (Cairo 1912), pp.70-73
- ^ LD III, 202c
- ^ LD III, 202a
- ^ Callender, op. cit., p.63
- ^ PM V, 211 (38); KRI IV: 371, §35 IX.1 (7); RITA IV, 269, §35 IX.1 (7); LD III: 202a
- ^ Pierre Grandet, "L'execution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864," BIFAO 100 (2000), pp.339-345
- ^ Callender, p.54
- ^ PM VII: 134 (13E).
- ^ KRI IV: 414-415, §55, II (A.27); RITA IV: 322, §55, II (A. 27); Černý, Ostraca hiératiques, 1: 89-90, 112*;
- ^ KRI IV: 414-415, §55, II (A.27); RITA IV: 322, §55, II (A. 27); Černý, Ostraca hiératiques, 1: 89-90, 112*; idem, Ostraca hiératiques, 2: pl. 108.
- ^ KRI IV: 414-415, §55, II (A.27); RITA IV: 322, §55, II (A. 27)
- ^ This information is recorded on O. Cairo CG 25538 and is the last recorded date for the previous vizier, Paraemheb, before his removal from office. Cf. KRI IV: 315, §54, (A.11); RITA IV: 226, §54, (A. 11); Černý, Ostraca hiératiques, 1: 16, 34; Hori is first mentioned as Vizier on ODM 697. See KRI IV: 321, §54, (A.16); RITA IV: 229, §54, (A. 16)
- ^ Hartwig Altenmüller, "Bemerkungen zu den neu gefundenen Daten im Grab der Königin Twosre (KV 14) im Tal der Könige von Theben," 147-148, Abb. 19. Cf. "Der Begräbnistag Sethos II," SAK 11 (1984): pp.37-38 & "Das Graffito 551 aus der thebanischen Nekropole," SAK 21 (1994): pp.19-28
- ^ "KV 47 (Siptah) - Theban Mapping Project". www.thebanmappingproject.com. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
- ISBN 0226317455.
- ^ Parisse, Emmanuel (5 April 2021). "22 Ancient Pharaohs Have Been Carried Across Cairo in an Epic 'Golden Parade'". ScienceAlert. Retrieved 5 April 2021.