Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 3: Tausret Read online

  Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 3: Tausret

  By Max Overton

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  http://www.writers-exchange.com

  Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 3: Tausret

  Copyright 2015 Max Overton

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  PO Box 372

  ATHERTON QLD 4883

  Cover Art by: Julie Napier

  Published by Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  http://www.writers-exchange.com

  ISBN ebook: 978-1-925191-17-2

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

  Table of Contents

  First Thoughts

  Some notes on Fall of the House of Ramesses

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Places, People, Gods & Things in Fall of the House of Ramesses

  About the Author

  A Cry of Shadows

  Adventures of a Small Game Hunter in Jamaica

  Ascension Series

  Fall of the House of Ramesses Series

  Glass Trilogy

  Haunted Trail A Tale of Wickedness & Moral Turpitude

  Scythian Trilogy

  Sequestered

  Strong is the Ma'at of Re

  The Amarnan Kings Series

  TULPA

  We Came From Konigsberg

  Blind Gods

  Dance With The Devil

  Helga's Story: A Child of NAZI Germany

  Outlaw's West

  Read Into History: A Roman Tale of 123 B. C. E.

  Strings

  The Adventures of Mycroft Holmes

  The Painted Lady

  The River Series

  The Rowland Sisters Trilogy

  Wilhelmina

  First Thoughts

  A work of historical fiction comes from the mind of the writer, but it is dependent on historical facts. When I write about relatively modern times I have not only the bare bones of history to hang my story on, but also the personal writings of the characters and their contemporaries, and a host of relevant facts and opinions to flesh out the story. The further back you go in time, the less is available to draw upon, and by the time you reach Ancient Egypt, even the facts are disputed. Egyptologists have pored through the ruins of a past civilisation, examined the colourful walls of rock tombs and their contents, studied temple hieroglyphics and self-serving inscriptions of the kings, and deciphered fragments of papyrus to paint us a picture of what society was like three thousand years ago and more. It is necessarily incomplete, for much has been lost and what has not been lost is not always understood. The history of Ancient Egypt is a work in progress.

  When I, as a writer of historical fiction, attempt to tell a tale from the distant past, I work with what is given me by serious researchers. But what am I to do with an almost unknown king like Siptah? He occurs in the record as Ramesses-Siptah and Merenptah-Siptah, and researchers are unsure whether they are the same person or even if they are king Siptah. Some people consider them to be sons of Ramesses the Great. Nobody knows for certain whom Siptah's parents are either. He has been called a son of Merenptah, and of Seti II, but is perhaps more likely a son of Amenmesse, and his mother is thought to be a foreigner, possibly a Syrian called Suterere. There was another Syrian who rose to prominence at about this time--Bay. He rose to become Chancellor (Treasurer) of Egypt and styled himself as a kingmaker who put Siptah on the throne 'of his father'. If Bay (a Syrian) was brother to Suterere (a Syrian), then that might make Bay the uncle of Siptah and give him a reason for making him king.

  It is known that Seti II left behind an infant son Seti-Merenptah, yet Siptah, also a child, became king instead. Chancellor Bay supported him, but probably few other people did. The kingdoms had just come through a long civil war that ended with Amenmesse's defeat, yet only a year later, Seti II died and Amenmesse's son was on the throne. Tausret ruled as regent, but why did she favour her nephew over her son? Then a few years later three deaths occurred that changed everything. Were the three deaths coincidence or were they connected?

  FLong hours were spent disentangling the blood lines and making reasoned assumptions of relationships and motives. Some of my decisions can be seen at a glance in the Simplified Family Tree of Fall of the House of Ramesses (below), and others appear in the pages of this book.

  And so it goes on. The bones of history make the framework of my story and I must decide which opinions will clothe the bones in flesh and skin. If I choose well, my story takes on a life of its own.

  I have researched this period extensively, and while I cannot claim to have read everything, I believe I have weighed up sufficient evidence to make an informed decision.

  My main sources have been:

  Anglim, Simon et al, 2002, Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World, Thomas Dunne Books

  Budge, EA Wallis, 1959, Egyptian Religion: Ideas of the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, University Books

  Budge, EA Wallis, 1967, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Dover Publications

  Dodson, Aidan, 2000, Monarchs of the Nile, The American University in Cairo Press

  Dodson, Aidan, 2010, Poisoned Legacy: The Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty, The American University in Cairo Press

  Dodson, Aidan & Hilton, Dyan, 2004, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson

  Frood, Elizabeth, 2007, Biographical Texts from Ramessid Egypt, Society of Biblical Literature

  Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, 2005, A History of Egypt: Vol III. From the XIXth to the XXXth Dynasties,
Adamant Media Corporation

  Romer, John, 1984, Ancient Lives: The Story of the Pharaoh's Tombmakers, Guild Publishing

  Shaw, Garry J, 2012, The Pharaoh: Life at Court and on Campaign, Thames & Hudson

  Tyldesley, Joyce, 2000, Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh, Viking

  Wilkinson, Richard H, 2000, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson

  Wilkinson, Richard H, editor, 2012, Tausret: Forgotten Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt, Oxford University Press

  I would like to acknowledge Jim Ashton, an Egyptologist, and expert on the Ramesside dynasties, who kindly read through my manuscript, pointing out any errors and inconsistencies. Similarly, Sara Waldheim, an enthusiastic and knowledgeable reader of all things Egyptian, gave my manuscript her careful attention.

  Julie Napier was, as always, my 'First Reader' and I am indebted to her constant attention to my storytelling. She pulls no punches and once told me, over 100,000 words into a previous manuscript, that the story lacked credibility. On re-reading it, I agreed, so I scrapped several months' worth of work and started again. Excellent reviews for the finished product have proven her right. I am truly grateful for her forthrightness and honesty.

  Julie Napier also comes in for thanks as my cover artist. A skilled photographer and experienced artist, she has created all of my book covers.

  I would like to thank my many readers too. Some of them wrote to me when they reached the end of my Amarnan Kings series, asking if I would write another Egyptian series. At the time, I was writing another book in a completely different genre, but I started doing some reading and eventually put my other work aside and started Fall of the House of Ramesses. I am hoping they will write to me again and tell me what they would like me to write next.

  Some notes on Fall of the House of Ramesses

  In any novel about ancient cultures and races, some of the hardest things to get used to are the names of people and places. Often these names are unfamiliar in spelling and pronunciation. It does not help that for reasons dealt with below, the spelling, and hence the pronunciation is sometimes arbitrary. To help readers keep track of the characters in this book I have included some notes on names in the ancient Egyptian language. I hope they will be useful.

  In Ancient Egypt a person's name was much more than just an identifying label. A name meant something, it was descriptive, and a part of a person's being. For instance, Merenptah means 'Beloved of Ptah', and Tausret means 'Mighty Lady'. Knowledge of the true name of something gave one power over it, and in primitive societies a person's real name is not revealed to any save the chief or immediate family. A myth tells of the creator god Atum speaking the name of a thing and it would spring fully formed into existence. Another myth says the god Re had a secret name and went to extraordinary lengths to keep it secret.

  The Egyptian language, like written Arabic and Hebrew, was without vowels. This produces some confusion when ancient Egyptian words are transliterated. The god of Waset in Egyptian reads mn, but in English this can be represented as Amen, Amon, Ammon or Amun. The form one chooses for proper names is largely arbitrary, but I have tried to keep to accepted forms where possible. King Amenmesse's birth name was possibly Messuwy, though this royal name can have various spellings depending on the author's choice. It is also sometimes seen as Amenmesses, Amenmose, Amunmesse and Amunmose. I have used the first of these spellings (Amenmesse) in Fall of the House of Ramesses, and most names that include that of the same god is spelled Amen-. The god himself I have chosen to call Amun.

  Similarly, the king known in Fall of the House of Ramesses as Merenptah is often known as Merneptah. Either spelling is acceptable.

  The names of the kings have been simplified. Egyptian pharaohs had five names, known as the Horus name, the Nebti name, the Golden Falcon name, the Prenomen and the Nomen. Only the Nomen was given at birth, the other names being coronation names. The Horus name dates from pre-dynastic times and was given to a king upon his coronation. All kings had a Horus name, but by the eighteenth dynasty it was seldom used. The Nebti name dates from the time of the unification of Egypt and shows the special relationship the king had to the vulture-goddess Nekhbet of Upper Egypt and the cobra-goddess Wadjet of Lower Egypt. The Golden Falcon name conveys the idea of eternity, as gold neither rusts nor tarnishes, and dates from the Old Kingdom. It perhaps symbolises the reconciliation of Horus and Set, rather than the victory of Horus over Set as the titles are usually non-aggressive in nature.

  By the time of the eighteenth dynasty, the prenomen, or throne name, had become the most important coronation name, replacing the Horus name in many inscriptions. Since the eleventh dynasty, the prenomen has always contained the name of Re or Ra.

  The nomen was the birth name, and this is the name by which the kings in this book are commonly known. The birth names most common in the nineteenth and twentieth dynasty were Ramesses and Seti. Successive kings with the same birth name did not use the method we use to distinguish between them--namely numbers (Ramesses I and Ramesses II). In fact, the birth name often ceased to be used once they became king and the coronation prenomen distinguished them. Ramesses I became Menpehtyre, and Ramesses II became Usermaatre, while Merenptah became Baenre, and Seti II became Userkheperure. Birth names were still used by family members on informal occasions and I have often used prenomen and nomen together, just so the reader is absolutely sure of the person's identity.

  Another simplification has occurred with place names and titles. In the thirteenth and twelfth century B.C.E., Egypt as a name for the country did not exist. The land around the Nile Valley and Delta was called Kemet or The Black Land by its inhabitants, and the desert Deshret or The Red Land. Much later, Greeks called it Aigyptos from which we get Egypt. Other common terms for the country were The Two Lands (Upper and Lower Kemet), and the Land of Nine Bows (the nine traditional enemies). Likewise Lower Egypt (to the north) was known as Ta Mehu, and Upper Egypt (to the south) was known as Ta Shemau. The name 'Nile' is also from the Greek, so I have used the usual designation of the time--Great River, or Iteru.

  Similarly, the king of Egypt or Kemet was later known as 'Pharaoh', but this term derives from the phrase Per-aa which originally meant the Great House or royal palace. Over the years the meaning changed to encompass the idea of the central government, and later the person of the king himself. The Greeks changed Per-Aa to Pharaoh. I have decided to remain with the ubiquitous title of 'king'.

  During the eighteenth dynasty, the kings ruled from a city known variously as Apet, No-Amun or Waset in the Fourth province or sepat of Ta Shemau, which itself was also called Waset; or just 'niwt' which meant 'city'. This capital city the Greeks called Thebes. The worship of Amun was centred here and the city was sometimes referred to as the City of Amun. I have called this great city by its old name of Waset.

  Ramesses II built a new capital city in the eastern delta and called it Per-Ramesses, meaning literally 'House of Ramesses'. Merenptah moved the capital to the ancient city of Men-nefer, known to the Greeks as Memphis, as this city belonged to the god Ptah and Merenptah was literally 'Beloved of Ptah'.

  The gods of Egypt are largely known to modern readers by their Greek names; for instance, Osiris, Thoth and Horus. I have decided to keep the names as they were originally known to the inhabitants of Kemet--Asar, Djehuti and Heru. The Greek names for unfamiliar gods can be found in the section Places, People, Gods & Things in the Fall of the House of Ramesses at the end of this book.

  Mention should be made of the incidence of writing amongst the characters in this book. It is generally accepted that no more than 1% of ancient Egyptians were literate and that knowledge of the complex hieroglyphic writing was the purview of the scribes and priests. Hieroglyphics are commonly seen in the formal inscriptions on temple and tomb walls. However, there was also another form of writing in ancient Egypt. This is called hieratic writing and is a form of cursive script used for writing administrative documents, accounts, legal texts, and letters, as well as me
dical, literary, and religious texts. This form of writing is commonly found on papyrus scraps, painted on wood or stone, or scratched onto pottery ostraca (shards). Thousands of these have been found, often closely associated with the lower strata of society, and it is believed that many more people were at least marginally literate than is commonly accepted. There is every reason to believe that people for whom some form of notation was essential to their everyday lives were capable of some level of writing.

  When I refer to a person writing in Fall of the House of Ramesses, it should not be assumed that the person is fully literate, but instead has knowledge of writing consistent with their place in Egyptian society.

  Chapter 1

  Interregnum

  The rescue attempt took place in the darkness before the dawn on the last day of the last month of Akhet, when the palace guards dozed at their posts and the servants were just rising from their sleep. A small party of armed men slipped ashore at the Waset docks and crept silently through deserted streets, rushing the sleepy guards at the kitchen entrance and invading the palace. They encountered a few yawning servants who barely had time to widen their eyes or open their mouths in surprise before they were cut down. Torches guttered low in the passages and hallways of the great building, scarcely lighting the Kushite soldiers as they rushed toward the inner chamber where King Menmire Amenmesse was housed.

  The guards outside the prison suite were tired but still alert when the Kushite warriors hurled themselves out of the shadows with bronze spear heads glinting in the torchlight. Two men died immediately, but the others stood back-to-back and fought with spear, sword and axe. Shouts and screams aroused the palace, but the last guard died before help could arrive. The Kushites broke down the door and found a naked middle-aged man facing them, clutching a chair as if to defend himself.

  One of the Kushites dropped to his knees on the cold tiles and stretched out his arms to the naked man. "Greetings, Menmire, Lord of the Two Lands. We have come to release you from the bonds of the enemy."