Tausret: Forgotten Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt

This book is a summation of what is known about the life of one of the very few women to ever rule Ancient Egypt as a King.Tausret was the wife of Seti II, then regent for the child king Siptah and finally the last Pharaoh of Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty. After her death a man named Sethnakht becomes Pharaoh and initiates the Twentieth Dynasty.This book contains the results of recent excavations of Tausret's mortuary temple at Thebes and gives a detailed analysis of the recent re-examination of her tomb in the Valley of the Kings. A number of interesting facts are mentioned in the book, including:1) Tausret may be the Egyptian King mentioned in the Illiad2) Chancellor Bay, long thought to have been a supporter of Siptah and Tausret, may have been their political opponent3) A recently studied ostracon tells us that Bay was actually executed by the King (but it does not tell us which king)The book is well written; laymen and scholars alike will find it readable and interesting. The authors are all recognized experts in the field and the research is as up-to-date as possible. My only complaints are that the list price of $35 is a bit steep for a book that is only 145 pages long and that some of the color photos should have been Photshopped before being included as some of the colors are more than a little "off". The material is quite interesting however and I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Egyptian history.

I really wanted to like this book but I just had problems with following it and getting excited over the details. It was probably e and not the author.

A layperson with some knowledge about and interest in the pharoahs of ancient Egypt will find this a good read. It's a small book and probably contains everything there is to know at this point about the "forgotten queen" Tausret. It includes some really lovely photographs and inserts with added information to help the reader better appreciate Egyptian life at the time (12th century BCE, 19th dynasty). Happily, the author steers clear of too much speculation, but, at the same time, offers reasonable interpretations of the evidence at hand.

Very interesting volume about an Egyptian Pharaoh who I did not know about beforehand. The volume is well written and covers all the sources; the only frustrating thing is that the reader, after finishing the book, is left wanting more information about Tausret and who exactly the "Irsu" was (Chancellor Bey had already been executed).

Enjoyed knowing about the few and far between details of this "Forgotten Queen" of Egypt. She will probably remain pretty much forgotten because so little is actually known about her and the details of her life...........just not available. But a good book for what it is.

Wilkinson and a cast of other egyptologists provide a comprehensive review of what is known about this ruler who brought the 19th Dynasty to a close. The multiple perspectives help give life to the limited information that it is available. The book is well-written and an excellent addition to the bookshelf of any lover of ancient Egypt.

Most of the information I already knew or had researched for myself. But it a very readable text for a beginner

Homer mentions in The Odyssey, an Egyptian King named Polybus, who lived with his wife, Alcandra in Thebes during the Trojan War. Manetho changes Polybus’s name to Thuoris, and claims that he was a male king during his chronological list of the 19th dynasty pharaohs. What these two men did not realize was that King Polybus/Throuris was actually a female pharaoh named Tausret. Pharaoh Tausret has been forgotten over the years, and this book sheds some facts based on archeology to the reign of the fascinating and powerful pharaoh. Pharaoh Tausret was a descended to Ramesses II, who because of his long reign outlived many of his children and grandchildren. His longevity created a crisis in Egypt because there were very few heirs left to succeed him. His thirteenth son, Merenptah succeeded him, and he reigned for thirteen years. After Merenptah’s death there was dissent among the royal family regarding the succession, in which it involved to have an effect of Tausret. She was the queen consort of Sety II, the eldest son of Merenptah but Setty II was challenged by Amenmesse, whose origins are still unclear, that also claimed himself as Pharaoh. However Amenmesse died a few year later leaving Sety II as the sole ruler of Egypt. Like Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh who reigned Egypt before her, Queen Tausret was queen regent to Siptah after Sety II’s death. Siptah, was a child and the son of a Canaanite woman and possibly Amenmesse. There was also a man of obscure origins named Bay that rose to become the most powerful man at court. Only Bay ended up being executed by Pharaoh Siptah. However after Siptah’s sudden death there was no other legitimate ruler to succeed the Egyptian throne. In order to help preserve the succession of Egypt during this dynastic crisis, Tauret become pharaoh. Unlike the Hatshepsut, Tausret was sole ruler, and did not dress up like a man but instead kept her female image. Because there was no one to fulfill the queenly duties, she played both the roles of queen and king. The end of her reign is unknown, and the majority of her memory has been erased until the nineteenth century. The very few records of her in ancient history gives her identity as a male king. Overall, I found this book to be interesting and fascinating. The book not only recounts her reign, but it also analyzes the positions and roles of royal women in Egypt. It also undergoes a detailed study and examination of the archeology of Tausret’s monuments, tomb (Ramesses III usurped her tomb in honor of his father Sethnahkt, who was the successor and possible overthrower of Tausret), and temple. This book shows Tausret as an admirable and skilled ruler that is worthy of taking her place among powerful pharaohs of Egypt. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Egypt and others who are curious of learning about this little-known female pharaoh.

Now, this is an exceptional collation of more less everything known (so far) of Tausret and the end of the 19th Dynasty. Full of interesting and absorbing detail on a period of Ancient Egyptian history of which so little (comparitively speaking to say the Amarna period) is known. It really wets the appitite for more research and literature. I could be cheeky here and say that if this book is read in conjunction with Aiden Dodson's Poisoned Legacy we have a really good overview with the facts thus far and so the end of the 19th dynasty begins to become as tantilising, as curious and every bit as interesting as anything to do with Amarna. I would guess that as more information surfaces we will find that Tausret will become just as important as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII as oneof the great Queens of Egypt.I read this book in more or less one hit and couldn't really put it down. Richard Wilkinson has a very concise, to the point and easy writing style and this book can only be highly recommended.So come on all you budding Egyptologists out there ..........we need more flesh on the bones of this fascinating period.

very informative. Easy to read

第１９王朝といえば、セティ１世、ラムセス２世の時代が光り輝く時代なのですが、メルエンプタハ死後の混沌とした時代から第２０王朝が始まるのですが、この時期の中心にいたのが、タウセルト女王となります。この本は、彼女と彼女の生きた時代について書かれています。中身は、もう少し掘り下げてくれた方がよかったとも思いますが、読みやすく殆ど光の当たらない存在であるタウセルト女王について興味を持つ人が増えてくれたらいいのではないかと思います。多少王家の谷に興味がある方は、この本をきっかけにＫＶ１１、ＫＶ１３、ＫＶ１４、ＫＶ１５、ＫＶ４７の建設順などを考えるのも面白いと思います。

Loads of new information revealing a much more complex story about the woman herself, her reign and her temple. I certainly learnt a lot from reading this.