Amenmesse

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Persondata
NAME	Amenmesse
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	{{{Alt}}}
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: Merneptah	Pharaoh of Egypt 19th Dynasty	Succeeded by: Seti II
Amenmesse
Head from a statue of Amenmesse, now residing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Reign	1203 BC to 1200 BC
Praenomen	Menmire–setepenre Eternal like Re, Chosen by Re[1]
Nomen	Amenmesse Fashioned by Amun
Horus name	Kanakht Merymaat Sementawy
Nebty name	Werbiaytemipetsut[2]
Golden Horus	Unclear
Consort(s)	Baktwerel
Father	Merneptah
Mother	Takhat
Died	1200 BC
Burial	KV10[3]

Amenmesse (also Amenmesses) was the 5th ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt, possibly the son of Merneptah and Queen Takhat. Others consider him to be one of the innumerable sons of Ramesses II. Very little is known about this king, who ruled Egypt for only three to four years. Various Egyptologists date his reign between 1202 BC–1199 BC^[4]or 1203 BC–1200 BC^[5] with others giving an accession date of 1200 BC^[6]. Amenmesse means "born of or fashioned by Amun" in Egyptian. Additionally, his nomen can be found with the epithet Heqa-waset, which means "Ruler of Thebes".^[7] His royal name was Menmire Setepenre.

Contents 1 Usurper 2 Family 3 Aftermath 4 Notes 5 Bibliography 6 External links

[edit] Usurper

It is likely that he was not the intended heir to the throne. Most scholars such as Kenneth Kitchen and Jürgen von Beckerath believe that Amenmesse usurped the throne from Seti-Merneptah, Merneptah's son and Crown Prince who should have been next in line to the succession. It is not clear why this happened. Amenmesse may have taken advantage of the weakness of Seti-Merneptah or seized power while the crown prince was away in Asia. It is most likely that Seti-Merneptah was the same man as Seti II, whose reign may have preceded and also followed Amenmesse's. The cartouches of Seti II's tomb were erased and then repainted, suggesting that Seti's rule was temporarily replaced by his half-brother.

Confusion generally clouds Amenmesse's reign and location within the Egyptian 19th Dynasty. A few scholars place him after Seti II, despite the clear fact that Seti II's name was written over his name in some Theban stele while other scholars such as Rolf Krauss and Aidan Dodson maintain that he usurped power from Years 2 to 5 of Seti II's reign and ruled Egypt for 3 to 4 years.^[8] Dodson also contends that Amenmesse was once a Kushite Viceroy called Messuwy.^[9] In particular two representations of him on the temple of Amida shows a royal uraeus has been added to his brows in a way consistent with other pharaohs such as Horemheb, Merenptah and some of the sons of Rameses III. Also the temple of Amida also calls him "the king's son himself". However, Frank Yurco notes that various depictions of Messuwy in several Nubian temples were never deliberately defaced by Seti II's agents compared to the damnatio memoriae meted out to all depictions of another Viceroy of Kush, Kha-em-ter, who had served as Amenmesse's Vizier.^[10] This strongly implies that Seti II held no grudge against Messuwy and would be improbable if Messuwy was indeed Amenmesse.^[11] Yurco also observes that Messuwy's tomb objects which identified a Pharaoh all named only Merneptah, Seti II's father which leads to the conclusion that Messuwy died and was buried in his tomb at Aniba, Nubia during Merneptah's reign and could not be Amenmesse.^[12]

The records of a court case early in the reign of Seti II also throw some light on the matter. A certain Neferhotep, one of the two chief workmen of the necropolis, had been replaced by another named Paneb, against whom many crimes were alleged by Neferhotep's brother Amennakhte in a violently worded indictment preserved in a papyrus in the British Museum. If Amennakhte can be trusted, Paneb had stolen stone for the embellishment of his own tomb from that of Seti II in the course of its completion, besides purloining or damaging other property belonging to that monarch. Also he had allegedly tried to kill Neferhotep in spite of having been educated by him, and after the chief workman had been killed by 'the enemy' had bribed the vizier Pra'emhab in order to usurp his place. Whatever the truth of these accusations, it is clear that Thebes was going through very troubled times. There are references elsewhere to a 'war' that had occurred during these years, but it is obscure to what this word alludes, perhaps to no more than internal disturbances and discontent. Neferhotep had complained of the attacks upon himself to the vizier Amenmose, presumably a predecessor of Pra'emhab, whereupon Amenmose had punished Paneb. This trouble-maker had then brought a complaint before 'Mose', who had deposed the vizier from his office. Evidently this 'Mose' must have been a personage of the most exalted station, and was quite possibly the person later recognised as Amenmesse.

[edit] Family

His mother is known to be Queen Takhat, who was either a minor wife of Merneptah or a later royal wife of Ramesses II. Amenmesse's wife was once thought to be a woman named Baktwerel but more recent analysis of his royal tomb proves that she was not a contemporary of this Pharaoh. As Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton state:

"Contrary to what has often been asserted, the Queen Baketwerel depicted in the tomb of Amenmesse, KV10, cannot have been a wife of his. The reliefs [of the Queen] in question are secondary, carved in plaster over the mutilated decoration of the king, reflecting later usurpation of the sepulchure, probably in the 20th Dynasty."^[13]

Dodson suggests that Baktwerel was perhaps the wife of Ramesses IX, and that this lady later usurped Amenmesse's tomb and added her own scenes and inscriptions there (Dodson 1987).

Six quartzite statues originally placed along the axis of the hypostyle hall in the Amun Temple at Karnak are thought to be his, although these were defaced and overwritten with the name of Seti II ^[14]. One of these statues, with the inscription, "the Great Royal Wife Takhat", lends credence to the argument that Takhat was Amenmesse's wife. Amenmesse was also responsible for restoring a shrine dating from Thutmose III that stands before a temple at Tod.

There is confusion about the events surrounding his death. His mummy was not amongst those found in the cache at Deir el Bahri, and from the destruction of his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, it is assumed that Seti II took revenge upon his usurping half-brother.

[edit] Aftermath

Amenmesse was buried in a rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings which is now identified as Tomb KV10. However, almost all of its texts and scenes were either erased or usurped by Seti II's agents. No mention of Amenmesse was spared.^[15][16] A number of officials associated with Amenmesse were also attacked or replaced, chief among them being the Theban High Priest of Amun, Roma-Roy, and Kha-em-ter, a former viceroy of Kush.^[17]

Amenmmesse's tomb was also opened in antiquity. While the remains of three mummies were found in this tomb, two women and one man, it is uncertain if any of these remains belong to Amenmesse, Takhat or the later Baketwerel without further testing or whether they were later intrusions. It seems more likely, however, that Seti II had Amenmesse's remains desecrated since his mummy was never found "in either of the two great caches of royal mummies found in 1881 and 1901" ^[18] Surviving inscriptions mentioning Takhat's name along with the wall inscriptions suggest she was buried in Amenmesse's tomb. Artifacts from the tombs of Seti I and Rameses VI were also found in the KV10 tomb adding to the uncertainty. After his death, Seti II also conducted a damnatio memoriae campaign against the memory of Amenmesse's Vizier, Kha-em-ter. Egyptologist Frank Yurco notes that Seti II's agents erased all of Kha-em-ter's depictions and inscriptions – even those that Kha-em-ter had inscribed when he served as a Viceroy in Nubia.^[19]

It is possible that Siptah, the Pharaoh who succeeded Seti II was the son of Amenmesse and not of Seti II. A statue of Siptah in Munich shows the Pharaoh seated in the lap of another, clearly his father. The statue of the father however has been completely destroyed. Dodson states "The only ruler of the period who could have promoted such destruction was Amenmesse, and likewise he is the only king whose offspring required such explicit promotion. The destruction of this figure is likely to have closely followed the fall of Bay or the death of Siptah himself, when any short-lived rehabilitation of Amenmesse will have ended"^[20]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Peter Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1994. p.158
2. ^ [1] King Amenmesse
3. ^ [2] KV-10 The Tomb of Amenmesse
4. ^ Edward Wente and Charles Van Siclen III, "A Chronology of the New Kingdom," 218
5. ^ Michael Rice, Who's Who in Ancient Egypt, Routledge, 1999
6. ^ Vandersleyen, ĽÈgypte et la Vallée du Nil, vol 2: 575
7. ^ K. A. Kitchen, "The Titularies of the Ramesside Kings as Expression of Their Ideal Kingship," ASAE 71 (1987): 134-35.
8. ^ Krauss 1976, 1977, 1997; Dodson 1997
9. ^ Dodson 1997
10. ^ Frank J. Yurco, Was Amenmesse the Viceroy of Kush, Messuwy?, JARCE 34 (1997), pp.53-54 & 56
11. ^ Yurco, JARCE 34, p.56
12. ^ Yurco, JARCE 34, pp.55-56
13. ^ Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.286, no.130
14. ^ Cardon 1979; Yurco 1979
15. ^ Dodson, Aidan. The Tomb of King Amenmesse: Some Observations. DE 2 (1985): 7-11.
16. ^ Dodson, Aidan. Death after Death in the Valley of the Kings. In Death and Taxes in the Ancient Near East, ed. Sara E. Orel, 53-59. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
17. ^ Dodson, Aidan (2004), ibid, p.176
18. ^ Yurco, JARCE 34 (1997), p.54
19. ^ Yurco, JARCE 34 (1997), pp.49-56.
20. ^ Dodson, Aidan,(2004),"The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt" (American University of Cairo Press), p.181

[edit] Bibliography

• Cardon, Patrick D. “Amenmesse: An Egyptian Royal Head of the Nineteenth Dynasty in the Metropolitan Museum.” MMJ 14 (1979): 5-14.
• Dodson, Aidan. “The Takhats and Some Other Royal Ladies of the Ramesside Period.” JEA 73 (1987): 224-29.
• ________. and Dyan Hilton, “The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt“, Thames & Hudson, 2004.
• ________. “Death after Death in the Valley of the Kings.” In Death and Taxes in the Ancient Near East, ed. Sara E. Orel, 53-59. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
• ________. “Amenmesse in Kent, Liverpool, and Thebes.” JEA 81 (1995): 115-28.
• ________. "Messuy, Amada and Amenmesse." JARCE 34 (1997): 41-48.
• Habachi, Labib. “King Amenmesse and Viziers Amenmose and Kha’emtore: Their Monuments and Place in History.” MDAIK 34 (1978): 39-67.
• Kitchen, Kenneth A. “The Titularies of the Ramesside Kings as Expression of Their Ideal Kingship.” ASAE 71 (1987): 131-41.
• Krauss, Rolf. “Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse (1.Teil).” SAK 4 (1976): 161-99.
• ________. “Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse (2. Teil).” SAK 5 (1977): 131-74.
• ________. “Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse: Nachträge.” SAK 24 (1997): 161-84.
• Vandersleyen, Claude. ĽÉgypte et la Vallée du Nil. Vol. 2, De la fin de ľAncien Empire á la fin du Nouvel Empire. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995
• Wente, Edward and Charles Van Siclen III. "A Chronology of the New Kingdom." In Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes: January 12, 1977, 217-61. Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1976.
• Yurco, Frank Joseph. “Was Amenmesse the Viceroy of Kush, Messuwy?,” JARCE 34 (1997): 49-56.

[edit] External links

• KV-10 at The Theban Mapping Project

Preceded by Merneptah

Pharaoh of Egypt Nineteenth Dynasty

Succeeded by Seti II