Queen Tuya

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canopic jar of Queen Tuya from the Luxor Museum
canopic jar of Queen Tuya from the Luxor Museum

Queen Tuya (also called Tuy or Mut-Tuya[1]) was the wife of Pharaoh Seti I of Egypt and mother of Ramesses II, Princess Tia and perhaps Henutmire. She was the daughter of Raia who was a military officer based on his title of Lieutenant of the chariotry.[2] Tuya's daughter Princess Tia was married to an a high ranking civil servant with and identical name: Tia.[3]

As the mother of Ramesses II, enjoyed a privileged existence of a respected king's mother and was allowed the opportunity to correspond with the Hittite royal court after the Year 21 peace treaty between Egypt and Hatti under Ramesses II. A "graceful standing statue of the queen" is today housed "in the Vatican Museum where Tuya appears with her daughter or granddaughter Hentmire"[4] while a carved alabaster canopic jar stopper in the form of her head today resides in the collection of the Luxor Museum.[5] Tuya likely died soon after Year 22 of Ramesses' reign and was buried in an impressive tomb in the Valley of the Queens (QV80).[6] In her tomb, Tuya

"was stripped of the first part of her name to become plain Tuya for eternity; the loss of the prefix Mut- suggests that her death had ended in an almost divine earthly status."[7]

[edit] Queen Tuya in media

Queen Tuya
in hieroglyphs
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t w i A B7
>

[edit] References

  1. ^ Joyce Tyldesley, Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaohs, Penguin Books, 2000. p.116
  2. ^ Tyldesley, op. cit., p.116
  3. ^ Tyldesley, op. cit., p.116
  4. ^ Tyldesley, op. cit., p.122
  5. ^ C. Desroche Noblecourt, "Abou Simbel, Ramses, et les dames de la couronne" in E. Bleiberg & R. Freed (eds) Fragments of a Shattered Visage: the Proceedings of the International Symposium of Ramesses the Great, 1991. Memphis: p.129
  6. ^ Tyldesley, op. cit., p.122
  7. ^ Tyldesley, op. cit., p.122
  • Grajetzki, Wolfram (2005) Ancient Egyptian Queens – a hieroglyphic dictionary


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