Siptah
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Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the son of Seti II and Queen Tia'a. He was not the crown prince, but succeeded to the throne as a child because his elder brother predeceased Seti II. Gae Callender, in her recent analysis of the 19th Dynasty successors of Ramesses II in KMTGae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT, 2006 notes that Louvre relief E 26901, pairs Siptah's name together with the name of his mother, a certain Sutailja or Shoteraja. Sutailja was a Canaanite name, rather than a native Egyptian name which means that she was almost certainly a king's concubine from Canaan. Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT, 2006, p.52 The identity of his father is unknown. Siptah ruled Egypt for almost 6 Years from 1194 to 1188 BC as a young man. His step-mother and Seti II's Chief Queen, Twosret, became the Queen Regent at the Royal Court because of his relative youth.
Chancellor Bay publicly boasts that he was instrumental in installing Siptah on the throne in several inscriptions including an Aswan stela set up by Seti, the Viceroy of KushLD III, 202c and at Gebel es Silsila LD III, 202aGae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT, 2006, p.63 Bay, however, fell out of favour at Court and last appears in public in a dated Year 4 inscription from Siptah's reign. He was executed in the Fifth Year of Siptah's reign, on orders of the king himself. News of his execution was passed to the Workmen of Deir el-Medina in Ostraca IFAO 1254. This ostraca was translated and published in 2000 by Pierre Grandet in a French Egyptological journalPierre Grandet, "L'execution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864," BIFAO 100(2000) pp.339-345. Callendar notes that the reason for the king's message to the workmen was to notify them to cease work on decorating Bay's tomb since Bay had now been deemed a traitor to the state. Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT, 2006, p.54 Siptah himself died in his 6th Regnal Year. After his death, Twosret simply assumed his Regnal Years and ruled Egypt as a Queen for another 2 Years.
Tomb
Siptah was buried in the Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV47[link] King Siptah and his Tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but his mummy was not found within this tomb. In 1898, it was discovered along with 18 others in the mummy cache within the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35). An examination of his mummy reveals that he died around age 16 and likely suffered from polio with a severely deformed and crippled left foot. Gae Callender, The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North, KMT, 2006, p.52References
| Preceded by: Seti II | Pharaoh of Egypt Nineteenth Dynasty | Succeeded by: Twosret |
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