Tausret, also spelled Tawosret or Twosret (d. 1188 BC) was the last known ruler and the final pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She is recorded in Manetho's Epitome as "Thuoris, who in Homer is called Polybus, husband of Alcandra, and in whose time Troy was taken." She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this figure included the nearly six-year reign of Siptah, her predecessor. Tausret simply assumed Siptah's regnal years as her own. While her sole independent reign could have lasted for perhaps one to one and a half years, from 1191-89 BC, this number now appears more likely to be closer to three full years instead. Excavation work by the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition on her memorial temple ("temple of millions of years") at Gournah strongly suggests that it was completed and functional during her reign and that Tausret started a regnal year 9, which means that she had two and more likely three independent years of rule, once one deducts the nearly six-year reign of Siptah. Her royal name, Sitre Meryamun, means "Daughter of Re, beloved of Amun."
Family
Parentage Twosret or Tausret's birth date is unknown. She did not hold title of "King's Daughter", meaning she was not daughter of any Pharaoh and her later claim to kingship would come solely through her marriage to Seti II.
Marriage and Children She was thought to be the second royal wife of Seti II. There are no children for Tausret and Seti II, unless tomb KV56 represents the burial of their child.
Unidentified KV 56 Theodore Davis identified Tausret and her husband's names in a cache of jewelry found in tomb KV56 in the Valley of the Kings. This tomb also contained objects bearing the name of Rameses II. There is no consensus about the nature of this tomb. Some (Aldred) thought this was the tomb of a daughter of Seti II and Tawosret, but others (Maspero) thought this was a cache of objects originally belonging with the tomb of Tawosret herself.
Reign During the reign of Ramesses III, a list of kings at Medinet Habu shows Merneptah, Seti II followed directly by Setnakhte (founder of the 20th Dynasty), omitting Amenmesse, Tausret and Siptah as illegitimate. Her relationship with Seti II and the chronology of Amenmesse, Tausret and Siptah are based on much speculation and conjecture.
Regent After her husband's death, she became first regent to Seti's heir Siptah jointly with Chancellor Bay, a West Asian. Siptah was likely a stepson of Tausret since his mother is now known to be a certain Sutailja or Shoteraja from Louvre Relief E 26901.
Pharaoh When Siptah died, Tausret officially assumed the throne for herself as the "Daughter of Re, Lady of Ta-merit, Twosret of Mut", and assumed the role of a Pharaoh. While it was commonly believed that she ruled Egypt with the aid of Chancellor Bay, a recently published document by Pierre Grandet in a BIFAO 100 (2000) paper shows that Bay was executed on Siptah's orders during Year 5 of this king's reign. The document is a hieratic ostracon or inscribed potshard and contains an announcement to the workmen of Deir al Madinah of the king's actions. No immediate reason was given to show what caused Siptah to turn against "the great enemy Bay," as the ostracon states. The recto of the document reads thus:
Year 5 III Shemu the 27th. On this day, the scribe of the tomb Paser came announcing 'Pharaoh, life, prosperity, and health!, has killed the great enemy Bay'. This date accords well with Bay's last public appearance in Year 4 of Siptah. The ostracon's information was essentially a royal order for the workmen to stop all further work on Bay's tomb since the latter had now been deemed a traitor to the state. Aidan Dodson believes that Tausret engineered Bay's downfall so that she would have total control at the palace court and need no longer share power with her political rival. As Dodson writes:
Although [this act was nominally] carried out in the name of the still young Siptah, one can probably safely assume that the initiative was taken by Tawosret, signaling her intention to share power no longer with her erstwhile colleague in regency [Bay]. While Bay’s name remained intact on many of his monuments, it was probably at this point that his extraordinary representations in the bark-shrine at Karnak were erased. Meanwhile, Egyptian territories in Canaan seem to have become effectively independent under the overlordship of a man called Irsu. Papyrus Harris I, the main source on these events, claims that Irsu and Tausret had allied themselves, leaving Irsu free to plunder and neglect the land.
Year 8
Mortuary Temple Foundations
Tausret's highest known date is a Year 8 II Shemu day 29 hieratic inscription found on one of the foundation blocks (FB 2) of her mortuary temple at Gournah in 2011 by the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition. Since this was only a foundation inscription and Tausret's temple, although never finished as planned, was at least built and completed, it is logical to assume that some time must have passed before her downfall and the termination of work on her temple project. Richard H. Wilkinson stressed that Tausret's mortuary temple was "structurally completed" with a roof over the temple and walls bearing plastered walls with minimal decoration before work was halted. Wilkinson notes:
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