New Kingdom
Amenmesse (Menmire)
19th Dynasty · 1295-1186 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Amenmesse is one of the more genuinely obscure rulers of the 19th Dynasty: even his parentage and his relationship to the legitimate king, Seti II, remain unresolved, and the surviving evidence is too damaged and contradictory to settle the question. This entry states plainly what is and is not known rather than presenting a confident narrative the sources do not support. Research: UCL Digital Egypt; KV10 Amenmesse Project.
Reign dates: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
The usurper
The succession following Merneptah's death was chaotic. Amenmesse—whose exact lineage remains heavily debated, though he may have been a son of Ramesses II or a younger brother of Seti II—revolted against the legitimate heir. He successfully seized control of Upper Egypt and lower Nubia, holding power for up to four years before being defeated. His monuments were subsequently destroyed or usurped by his rivals.
An unresolved identity
Some Egyptologists, including Rolf Krauss and Aidan Dodson, have proposed that Amenmesse was previously a Viceroy of Kush named Messuy, pointing to images of Messuy at the temple of Amada later altered to add a royal uraeus. Other scholars, such as Frank Yurco, find this unconvincing, noting that Messuy's monuments were never defaced the way Seti II's agents defaced those of other officials he held grudges against. Amenmesse's mother is usually identified as a woman named Takhat, but even her own relationship to the royal family, whether daughter of Ramesses II, wife of Merneptah, or wife of Seti II, is disputed. His tomb, KV10, was left unfinished, damaged by flooding, and later reused for burials of Twentieth Dynasty royal women, so the few mummy fragments recovered from it cannot be confidently identified as his own.
Sources for this profile
- Baker, D. D. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume 1. Stacey International.
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- University College London. Kings of the New Kingdom.
- Reeves, N., & Wilkinson, R. H. (1996). The Complete Valley of the Kings. Thames & Hudson.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.