as queen urma-nofru-ra may be considered the bride of life, so we may call queen tausert the bride of the tomb, since it is from her tomb alone that we learn anything of her history, and even there the information is most meagre. her name is mentioned as ta-ursr, tauser, tausert or taosiri, and it makes her somewhat distinctive among the various neferts and tis. she is called “the great queen and the lady of the land, the princess of upper and lower egypt.”
she is noteworthy chiefly as being of the blood royal and thus conferring dignity upon her husband, siptah, or si-ptah, her name taking precedence of his on the monuments, as did that of queen ti, wife of seti i. also she was the last queen of the great nineteenth dynasty, of which seti i and rameses ii were such renounced monarchs, and of whose queens ti, nofritari mini-mut and urma-nofru-ra we have already given outline sketches. to this dynasty, called diospolites, lepsius gives the date beginning 1443 b. c., and wilkinson 1340 b. c., and one division makes it the middle empire.
the earliest egyptian monarchs of whom we[254] have any record built for themselves tombs which seemed destined to last till eternity, the pyramids, which some one has finely described as “stony tents where innumerable centuries have encamped, which time in vain seeks to drive from the field,” and which seem more like druidical remains than specimens of architecture.
says lady duff gordon, in her charming “letters:” “there is such a curious sight of a crowd of men carrying huge blocks of stone up out of a boat. one sees exactly how the stones were carried in ancient times; they sway their bodies all together like one great lithe animal, with many legs, and hum a low chant to keep time. it is quite unlike carrying heavy weights in europe.”
later kings spent their energies differently. they built palaces and temples and chose to be buried in caverns in the natural rocks through which they honeycombed innumerable passages, hewed out great halls, or constructed pits in which their mortal remains could be hidden from the light of day.
rameses ii lived to a ripe old age, his wives perhaps dying before him, as many of his children certainly did. of their lives we know little, of their death nothing. the sacred books say of one pharaoh, perhaps of rameses ii, that in heaven he will, at his pleasure, take wives from their husbands, so idolatrous was the worship accorded to these haughty, and often tyrannical kings. seti i had, as we have seen, in early years united his son, rameses, with himself in[255] the government of his kingdom, and rameses ii adopted the same plan, making his thirteenth son, meremptah, co-ruler, with himself. in the government of the kingdom. the elder sons, of whom khamus is known to have been an especial favorite of his father (as was bint-antha among the daughters), died before him, or there was some other reason which prevented their following in natural succession. the consensus of opinion seems to be that rameses ii was the oppressor of the hebrews, and meneptah the monarch from whom they escaped.
the israelites are believed to have toiled on the temples, palaces and other architectural works at tanis, and on the treasure city of paten or pithom. they are mentioned in a triumphal inscription, found by petrie, near the temple of medinet aboo, opposite thebes. it was engraved on an old slab, originally polished, inscribed and put in place in a temple, by amen-hotep iii, which meremptah, with the ruthlessness of many of the kings, took and also inscribed on the back, or rougher side, to glorify himself. part of it reads, “the hittites are quieted. taken is askelon. the israelites are
(transcriber’s note: a line (or more) seems to be missing here from the original.)
tions, who had invaded egypt. petrie also found, among the ruins of a funeral temple at thebes, a bust of this king, in grey granite, which has “a firm and rather dogged expression, not untinged with melancholy.” the wife of meremptah is given as ast-nefert or isis nefert, but of her personal history we know nothing. the mummy of a certain queen anhipu, said to belong to the[256] nineteenth dynasty, was found, but no details of her life.
amenmesses “mighty bull, beloved of maat,” is, by some authorities, said to have usurped the throne after meremptah; his mother is given as taak taakhat, “divine mother, royal mother, great lady,” and his wife as “royal spouse, the great one, lady of the two lands.” he built a tomb in the valley of the kings, and he, with his mother and wife, are buried there. it has three corridors and two chambers, and in one his mother and in another his wife are making offerings to the gods.
another list commonly given is as follows, rameses ii, then meremptah, seti ii, his grandson, and siptah, his great-grandson, perhaps by marriage. reproductions of the pictures of seti ii and siptah are given in petrie’s articles, in miss edward’s “pharaohs, fellahs and explorers,” as well doubtless as in other places, and she claims for each of them the distinctive features of the rammeside family, long heads, long noses, long bodies and long legs. photographs have been taken of siptah and others from the bas-reliefs in the valley of the tombs of the kings, at thebes. ebers, in his romance of “joshua,” mentions siptah as the nephew of meremptah and as intriguing to supplant him.
queen tausert’s husband is elsewhere spoken of as meremptah siptah, the son of an usurper, giving color to the idea that it was she and not he who was the descendant of rameses ii. among ordinary people the tomb was often prepared[257] for husband and wife together, and occasionally the mummy of the first who died was kept in the house till the death of the second, a constant suggestion that they might soon be reunited, and in pictures they are often betrayed with the arm of one around the neck or waist of the other, showing that affectionate relations were usual. death and the future life appear to have occupied so large a share in the thoughts of the ancients that their daily life was a sort of appian way, lined with tombs, and we know much more of their funerals than of their marriages and other festivities.
the egyptians were among the earliest, if not the earliest nation to regard literature, to write books (the inscribed papyrus roll being their printed page, to be handed down to posterity) and to preserve and value them.
the book of the dead, of which sections belonging to different periods have been found, was a sort of bible, for which the egyptians entertained the most profound respect and whose maxims they seem to have used, both as a guide in life and in their preparation of the dead for the tomb. the papyrus containing the tale of “the two brothers,” in which the younger was unjustly accused of wrongdoing towards his elder brother’s wife, bears some resemblance to the bible story of joseph’s experiences, and belongs to the period of seti ii.
diodorus speaks of a sacred library which he said was inscribed “dispensary of the mind,” and belonged to the period of rameses iii; some[258] ruins believed to have been this building have been found. there was a great hall and several smaller rooms, supported by columns. “on the jamb of one of the smaller rooms,” says kendrick, “was sculptured thoth, the inventor of letters, and the goddess saf, his companion, with the title of ‘lady of letters and president of the hall of books,’ accompanied, the former with an emblem of the sense of sight, the latter with that of hearing.”
treaties with foreign nations were often inscribed, like that of rameses ii and the father of queen urma-nofrura, on tablets of silver or other metal, while accounts, letters and more trivial matters, were written on pottery, fragments of which have come down to our own day. in these times, or even earlier, the greeks made their way into egypt, and through them, as well as from the monuments, we have derived much of our knowledge of the egyptians.
a late writer on egypt, isaac meyer, draws a parallel between christianity and the old egyptian religion, and advances a theory, more ingenious than reliable, that christ may have been in egypt later than in his infancy. the “book of the dead,” said to be the great storehouse of egyptian theology, shows refined and ethical ideas. horus, the sun-god, the victorious of the resurrection from the dead to eternal life, is found chief among the deities there represented, wearing the osirian crown, and with an endless serpent, symbolic of eternity. chapters of this book were found in isolated places, and[259] at different times, “a collection of preceptus and maxims on the conduct of life.” many had fragments of the revered volume buried beside them or engraved on scarabeii as ornaments and decorations. in later times than those which we are now considering the mummy of a young girl was found, with part of homer in her coffin, having in life probably been devoted to his poetry.
some archeologists and students see traces of original monotheism in the religion of the egyptians, one central idea of deity perhaps under many forms, but the idea is not supported by general testimony. “deities,” says one writer, “were merged into one another, qualities of one were attributed to another till the pantheon resembled the shifting pictures of the kaleidoscope.”
some of the egyptian precepts and maxims are not without their value in modern times, such as “if thou humblest thyself in obeying a superior, thy conduct is wholly good before god. knowing who ought to obey and who ought to command, lift not thy heart against the latter.” and again, “if thou desirest thy conduct to be good and preserved from evil, keep thyself from attacks of bad temper. it is wrong to fly in a passion with one’s neighbor to the point of not knowing how to manage one’s words.”
siptah is sometimes spoken of as an anti-king, regarded as an usurper, rather than a rightful heir, and his name is occasionally omitted from the list of kings. his horus name is said to mean horus rising in khebit; he added nothing important to the temples and, though depicted in[260] relief in silsila and other places, it is probably only commemorative of small repairs. buried in his wife’s tomb, he was removed, in the troublous times of the twentieth dynasty, to the tomb of amenhetep ii. the original tomb has three or four corridors and several chambers. a picture of the queen, offering gifts to the gods, was plastered over by sek-nebta, who usurped the tomb. the remains of the funeral temple of the king and queen were excavated by professor petrie in 1896. her temple was between those of meren-ptah and thothmes iv, and his north of the temple of amenhetep ii.
another suggestion as regards siptah is that he may have ruled over one part of egypt—the rightful king over another. but, whatever the ambiguity of his earlier history, it is known that he was buried with his wife in the valley of the tombs of the kings, queen tausert taking her place with her husband, and not among the tombs of the queens where so many of the royal ladies were laid.
there were probably revolutions and counter revolutions, till the reins of government were once more finally in the hands of rameses iii. whether from the ambition of an usurper to be laid with the true line of kings, or from a deep affection, siptah and tausert shared their tomb, the queen probably having died first, and the king subsequently, no doubt by special order being laid beside her. the tomb was elaborately painted and inscribed, but much is faded by time and the light and air admitted by explorers. champoleon[261] believed, we are told, that he had discovered a cartouch of seti-nekht, engraved above that of seti ii, and the latter above that of tausert and siptah; but “there is no visible trace of this superposition which would assign to siptah a date anterior to seti ii.”
one writer says of tausert that who the queen was is unknown; she may have been a queen dowager, with special rights as daughter of a pharaoh, and may have been the widow of seti i and mother of the prince of cush, if so siptah was her husband’s brother and child’s uncle. she is also spoken of as “hereditary daughter—exalted.”
belzone made a close investigation of these tombs, discovering various points of interest which had escaped the notice of earlier explorers. the tombs were cut in the face of the limestone rock, with passages, steps and doorways, and a pit at the end, probably to discourage intruders. he broke through a wall which gave a hollow sound when struck, and discovered several more pillared halls and passages. the body, which, by embalming, was converted into a mummy, was, especially in the case of royalty and other distinguished people, most carefully preserved. first placed in a casket of cedar or other wood elaborately painted with figures of the gods, this again in an outer casket of wood, more roughly decorated, and finally in a stone sarcophagus.
reference has been made before to a sort of court or trial which was held at the entrance to[262] the grave to decide if the deceased was worthy to enter the presence of osiris.
in a modern arab funeral a number of men walk first, chanting a ritual. the bier, with a high peak in front, like the prow of a nile boat, is carried by friends and comes next, and upon the bier a tin horn is placed if the corpse is a man, a shawl and jewelry and other ornaments, if a woman, and a red shawl indicates youth. a more minute description of this is given by pollard, in the “land of the monuments.” the funerals take place within a few hours of death. different from the old egyptian custom, the body in its winding sheet is covered with shawls, and the procession is closed by the chief mourners, followed by friends, sometimes walking hand in hand.
details as regards the tomb of tausert and siptah are to be found in the guide books, but the passing traveller will probably glance hastily at pictures and inscriptions and hurry on; only the student has leisure or inclination for minute or accurate investigation. the tomb represents the royal couple absorbed in religious exercises, offering to the various gods and goddesses their prayers, praises and gifts. the queen stands before harmachus, “god of the morning,” and anubis, “the god of the dead,” and ne-fer-tum-hor, and again before ptah, “the opener,” and ma, “goddess of truth.” all representations of this last goddess are said to be “refined, calm and peaceful” in expression and worthy of the character of the goddess of truth.
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then the king stands before isis, “the mother,” and horns, “the son,” and in other pictures the royal consorts are together before some god, perhaps carrying or crowned with flowers. and again the queen before harmachus, hathor, the egyptian venus, and nepthys, “lady of the house.” the sarcophagus of tausert bears her likeness, between isis and nepthys, a conventional idea of what a goddess was or should be, setting the pattern.
the tomb has also other pictures of some of the lesser gods, armed with knives, keeping guard over a chapel, to ward off evil ones, hathor standing in the doorway. again the king and the high priest, sacrificing to osiris and the winged goddess ma in the doorway of a chapel, signifying that only truth may enter. here is what is called the act of opening the mouth of the royal likeness in the hall of gold. the high priest appears with his staff and panther skin, the kereb and lower priests, who take part in the ceremony, and the people as “those who come to the tomb,” offering incense. various rooms are carved and ornamented with pictures of numerous gods, thoth with the moon upon his head, ma with outspread wings, serpents, boats and other symbols.
mrs. stevenson, who has made an especial study of egyptian symbols, says that most of the egyptian goddesses may be said, broadly speaking, to represent either luminous space, or the activity of the god with whom they are associated, and their common attributes make it easy[264] for the egyptians to reduce them to one type. sekhet, “the striker”; neith, who “shoots”; hat-hor, meaning “the home of horus,” the mother of horus; one of those designations is “the mighty striker,” son of hat-hor, and who, at dendereh, where she was especially worshipped as the “holy one,” is expressly called sekhet-neith, while all are called “eye of ra.” “there are,” she continues, “exceptions, such as maut, who represents abstract truth and justice, safekh, etc.; and in certain localities where the goddess stood alone, like neith at sais, she included all the attributes of divinity, but her place in the local triad is as indicated above.”
but to return to the tomb. one hall with seats seems to suggest that another sarcophagus rested there. so we spell out, read and speculate over these monuments of long ago. this king and queen were doubtless buried with great honors; which was it, love or ambition, that ruled their lives and stamped with its signet even their tomb? could it be said of them that “they were lovely in their lives and in death they were not divided”? evidently they did not wish to accept the common lot of man, to pass away and be forgotten.
