Tuya | |||||||
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Queen consort of ancient Egypt Great Royal Wife | |||||||
Born | Thebes | ||||||
Died | ca. 1257 BC Thebes | ||||||
Burial | QV80, Valley of the Queens, Thebes | ||||||
Spouse | Seti I | ||||||
Issue | Tia Ramesses II Henutmire (possibly) | ||||||
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Egyptian name |
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Dynasty | 19th of Egypt | ||||||
Father | Raia | ||||||
Mother | [R]uia or [T]uia | ||||||
Religion | Ancient Egyptian religion |
Tuya (also called Tuy or more rarely Mut-Tuya or Muty;[1][2] in transliteration from hieroglyphic, Twy, Twjȝ, or Twyȝ, as well as Mwt-Twjȝ,[3]; in cuneiform texts from the Hittite correspondence, Tūya, SALTu-u-ia.[4]) was the wife of Pharaoh Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and mother of Tia, Ramesses II, and possibly Henutmire.[5]
She was the daughter of Raia (Rʿjȝ), Lieutenant in the Chariotry,[6] by his wife Ruya or Tuya (the name is partly broken: [R/T]wjȝ).[7] Seti I and Tuya's daughter Tia (Ṯjȝ) was married to a high-ranking civil servant who was also called Tia (Ṯjȝ), the son of Amenwahsu (Jmn-wȝḥ-sw).[8] [6] The vast majority of Tuya's attestations as queen date to the reign of her son, making it less than completely certain that she bore the title of King's Great Wife during the reign of her husband.[9] On the other hand, as mother of king's only known son, she might well have become Seti's chief queen, unlike another spouse, the royal daughter Tanodjmy.[10]
As the mother of Ramesses II, Tuya enjoyed a privileged existence of a respected king's mother. Ramesses dedicated a monumental structure within his mortuary temple, the Ramesseum, to his mother,[11] and also constructed a fine new tomb for her in the section of the Valley of the Queens that he developed for the burials of the women in his family.[12] Following the peace treaty between Egypt and Hatti in Year 21 of Ramesses II (1259 BC according to the "Low Chronology"), Tuya sent congratulatory letters to the Hittite great king Ḫattušili III and to his queen Puduḫepa, whom she addressed as her symbolic "brother" and "sister," respectively.[13] However, by the time of the inauguration of Ramesses II's temple at Abu Simbel in Year 24 (1256 BC), Tuya appears to have been dead.[14]