Tetisheri: The Much-loved Queen

The blog post for this week is written by Linda Kimmel, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. When she retired from full-time work as a data research manager in late 2020, she began studying the ancient world and serving as a docent at the University of Michigan’s Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Linda had never heard of the Egypt Centre before the pandemic but has taken every course offered since she first noticed a tweet about the Centre in the fall of 2020 and has been taking online courses there ever since. She hopes to visit the Egypt Centre in the fall of 2024, provided the trains are running!

In the fourth session of the latest Egypt Centre class, Causing Their Names to Live, Ken Griffin introduced us to many interesting individuals. From the fascinating Iwesenhesetmut (whose gorgeous coffin is housed at the Egypt Centre) to Udjahorresnet (“the collaborator”) who worked with the Persians during their reign in Egypt, to the notorious Paneb (accused of so many crimes it is hard to remember them all). However, from the minute Ken mentioned Queen Tetisheri, I thought she sounded familiar, and knew I wanted to write about her. Once the class was over, I went back and reviewed the notes I had taken from a 2021 class Ken offered on Egyptian History. Yes, Queen Tetisheri appeared in my notes, but there was nothing there that fit with the odd feeling of familiarity I had with her name.

Finally, it came to me. Queen Tetisheri features prominently in The Hippopotamus Pool by Elizabeth Peters (fig. 1)! Decades before I took my first course from the Egypt Centre, I became interested in ancient Egypt from Peters’ Amelia Peabody mystery series. The books feature Amelia Peabody and her husband, the fictional Egyptologist Radcliffe Emerson. Elizabeth Peters is the pseudonym of Barbara Mertz, who received her Ph.D. from the then Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. Given her background, it is not surprising that the series is filled with real-life Egyptologists and archaeologists.

Fig. 1: Book cover of The Hippopotamus Pool 

In The Hippopotamus Pool, the eighth entry in the series, the Emersons search for, and eventually find, the tomb of Queen Tetisheri. Along with the mystery, we get many tidbits about ancient Egypt in general, and Queen Tetisheri in particular. At one point, Amelia Peabody notes: 

“In my opinion historians have never given enough attention to the ladies, and what a remarkable woman this Tetisheri must have been – the first of that line of great queens who wielded so much power.” (Peters, p. 72).

How could I resist writing about Queen Tetisheri!

Tetisheri was the daughter of Tjenna and his wife Neferu. Tjenna is unknown except for the appearance of his name on the mummy bandages of his daughter (Dodson and Hilton 2004). Tetisheri was the Great Royal Wife of King Senakhtenre Ahmose I, a ruler of the late Seventeenth Dynasty. It appears that when her husband died, Tetisheri became regent for her son, Seqenenre Tao, one of several women at the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty who became regent or co-regent with their young sons. Tao is said to have been responsible for instigating the war with the Hyksos, which eventually led to the reunification of Egypt. Tetisheri’s daughter Ahhotep I was Tao’s sister and wife. 

Perhaps more significantly, it is through her grandchildren that we learn of the lasting impact of Tetisheri. Tetisheri’s daughter Ahhotep I was the mother of Nebpehtyre Ahmose II, and served as his regent after King Seqenenre Tao was killed during the battle for liberation. Consequently, Ahhotep I played a significant role in Seventeenth Dynasty politics (one of those powerful women alluded to in The Hippopotamus Pool). Ahmose II is credited with being the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty (Popko, 2013). 

But what remains of Tetisheri? Her mummy has been identified as coming from the Deir el-Bahari Cache, but the location of her original burial site remains a mystery. Ken said it likely was at Dra Abu el-Naga, as that was the royal burial site for the Seventeenth Dynasty.

Fig. 2: Statue of Tetisheri (British Museum EA 22558)

Sadly, the most well-known object related to Tetisheri, a small statue with inscriptions, located in the British Museum (fig. 2), was determined to be a modern copy of an original statue that is only partially preserved (Davies 1984). Mertz (1964), in a non-fiction work, Temples, Tombs & Hieroglyphs laments the loss of the statue as a true artifact, no doubt leading to the frequent mention of Tetisheri statues in the fictional The Hippopotamus Pool. However, more spectacular monuments to Tetisheri do exist. Her grandson, Ahmose II, built a memorial structure or cenotaph for her at Abydos, just several hundred meters from his own pyramid. Tetisheri’s structure includes a pyramid, making her one of the last Egyptians to have a pyramid constructed in their honor (fig. 3). The pyramid has been under excavation for several decades. Ken joined the excavation in 2010 and told us they found a lot of mummified dogs on site dating to Roman times. The pyramid can be explored in more detail virtually at the Mused website (https://tetisheri.mused.org/en/topics/510/pyramids).

Fig. 3: Restored pyramid of Tetisheri (Ahram Online)

A large dedication stela was found inside the pyramid by Charles Trick Currelly for the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1902 and is now located in the Cairo Egyptian Museum (fig. 4). The stela has mirror images of Ahmose II presenting great offerings to his grandmother, Queen Tetisheri (The Egyptian Museum, 2022). An inscription on the stela notes that Tetisheri’s grave was currently in Thebes, and her cenotaph was in Tawer. So why did Ahmose II build this new structure for his grandmother? This portion of the inscription gives us some clues: 

“Dug out was its lake, planted were its trees, confirmed was its sacrificial bread, it was staffed with people, it was provided with fields, it was endowed with cattle, mortuary priests and lector priests are at their duty, every man knows his regulations. That is, His Majesty spoke these words when the construction of this was being done. His Majesty did this because he loved her more than anything.” 

Fig. 4: Stela of Tetisheri (Cairo Museum)

It was designed to be grand, carefully landscaped, and fully staffed with priests to ensure Tetisheri’s memory would endure. But touchingly, Ahmose II had it built because “he loved her more than anything.” And since this past week included Valentine’s Day, it seems a fitting reason to write about Tetisheri, and to repeat her name. 

 

References

Daymarany, Ayman. The life of Queen Tetisheri. Mused. https://tetisheri.mused.org/en/stories/209/the-life-of-queen-tetisheri [Accessed February 13, 2024]

Dodson, Aidan and Dyan Hilton. 2004. The complete royal families of ancient Egypt. London; New York: Thames & Hudson.

Davies, W. V. 1984. The statuette of queen Tetisheri: a reconsideration. British Museum Occasional Paper 36. London: British Museum.

Mertz, Barbara. 2007. Temples, tombs & hieroglyphs: a popular history of ancient Egypt. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Peters, Elizabeth. 1996. The hippopotamus pool. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Popko, Lutz, 2013, Late Second Intermediate Period to early New Kingdom. In Wolfram Grajetzki, Willeke Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles. http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002hgq2

The Egyptian Museum. 2022. https://egyptianmuseumcairo.eg/artefacts/stela-of-the-king-ahmose/#:~:text=Artefact%20Details&text=This%20commemorative%20stela%2C%20bears%20a,a%20symbol%20of%20royal%20protection [Accessed February 13, 2024]