New Kingdom
Queen Tawosret (Sitre)
19th Dynasty · 1295-1186 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Tawosret became the last ruler of the 19th Dynasty and only the second woman known to have taken full pharaonic titles in her own right, but the exact circumstances of how her short reign ended, and how much of it was later rewritten by her successor, remain genuinely unclear. Research: UCL Digital Egypt; Theban Mapping Project.
Chronological source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
The final female pharaoh
Tawosret was the Great Royal Wife of Seti II. During the reign of the young and sickly Siptah, she served as the powerful queen regent. Upon Siptah's premature death, Tawosret claimed full pharaonic titles and ruled Egypt directly. She began construction of her own royal tomb, KV14, in the Valley of the Kings, an unprecedented move for a queen consort.
Erasing the past
She systematically erased Siptah's name from official documents and his tomb, attempting to create the illusion that she directly succeeded her husband Seti II. However, her reign was highly unstable, and it ended amid renewed civil war and the rise of Setnakhte, founder of the 20th Dynasty.
An ending rewritten by the victor
What actually happened to Tawosret is less certain than older popular accounts suggest. The main evidence comes from Setnakhte's own Elephantine Stela, which describes the preceding years as a time of chaos, but it does not say outright that he overthrew her in battle, and some Egyptologists think she may simply have died before a succession struggle among rival court factions brought Setnakhte to power. Setnakhte later usurped her unfinished tomb, KV14, reburying Seti II elsewhere and having Tawosret's own image and inscriptions throughout the tomb reworked into his own, a literal overwriting of her memory that mirrors how uncertain her final months remain in the historical record.
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.