Chancellor Bay on the door jamb of the Amada temple, Nubia, shown adoring the cartouch of Siptah

Chancellor Bay was an important non-Egyptian official who rose to prominence and high office under Seti II Userkheperure Setepenre and later became an influential powerbroker in the closing stages of the 19th Dynasty. He is sometimes given the name of Irsu, or Iarsu, which can be read in Egyptian as 'the one who has made himself' or the "self made" man.^[1] This was a derogatory method by the Ancient Egyptians to refer to Bay without mentioning his name. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... nomen or birth name Userkheperure Setepenre/Meryamun Seti II (reigned 1200 BC - 1194 BC) was the sixth ruler of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt. ... Known rulers, in the History of Egypt, for the Nineteenth Dynasty. ...

Bay's importance is emphasized by the fact that he was given permission, possibly by Seti, or more probably by Siptah to construct his own tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings (KV13). His tomb was clearly constructed as part of a triad of tombs, including that of the Pharaoh Spiptah and Twosret, who during Bay's life was the Queen Regent. This was an unprecedented privilege, never previously accorded to a commoner, let alone a foreigner but only to members of the royal family. It is possible that Bay was accorded this tomb because he was a relation of Siptah's mother, a Canaanite concubine of Seti II, or perhaps even of Amenmesse. His tomb was later usurped in the 20th Dynasty for prince Mentuherkhepshef, the son of Rameses IX, in the Twentieth Dynasty. nomen or birth name Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the son of Seti II and Queen Tiaa. ... Location of the valley in the Theban Hills, West of the Nile, October 1988 (red box shows location) The Valley of the Kings (Arabic: وادي الملوك Wadi Biban el-Muluk; Gates of the King)[1] is a valley in Egypt where for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to... Tomb KV13, located in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt was used for the burial of the noble Bay of the Nineteenth Dynasty. ... nomen or birth name Queen Twosret Sitre Meryamun was a Queen of Egypt and the last Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. ... Canaanite can describe anything pertaining to Canaan: in particular, its languages and inhabitants. ... Menmire–setepenre Eternal like Re, Chosen by Re Nomen Amenmesse Born of Amun Horus name Kanakht Merymaat Sementawy Nebty name Werbiaytemipetsut[1] Golden Horus Unclear Consort(s) Baktwerel Father Merneptah Mother Takhat Died 1200 BC Burial KV10[2] Amenmesse (also Amenmesses) was the 5th ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty in... History of Ancient Egypt, Twentieth Dynasty The Twentieth Dynasty was founded by Setnakhte, but its only important member was Rameses III, who modelled his career after Rameses II the Great. ...

Origins

Bay/Irsu is called a Syrian (Hurru = Hurrian or Harran-born) Asiatic, and may have entered Egyptian service during the reign of Merenptah or even Rameses II Usermaatre Setepenre. At this period many Asiatics enterred the Egyptian royal harem to be held as hostage to their father's good behaviour and raised as loyal servants to their Egyptian masters. For the history of the kingdom of Mitanni (1500–1300 BC), see Mitanni. ... Harran, also known as Carrhae, is a district of Şanlıurfa Province in the southeast of Turkey, near the border with Syria, 24 miles (44 kilometres) southeast of the city of Şanlıurfa, at the end of a long straight road across the roasting hot plain of Harran. ... Ramesses II, Abu Simbel Ramesses II (also known as Ramesses the Great and alternatively transcribed as Ramses and Rameses) was an Egyptian pharaoh. ... Coming from the Arab tradition, the harîm حريم (compare haram) is the part of the household forbidden to male strangers. ... A hostage is a person (sometimes another entity) which is held by a captor (often a criminal abductor) in order to compel another party (relative, employer, government. ...

It is even possible that Bay/Irsu may have been taken to Egypt following Merentah's victories as outlined in the Merenptah or Israel Stele The Merneptah Stele is the reverse of a stela erected by Amenhotep III written by Merneptah. ...

"The princes are prostrate saying: "Shalom!"
Not one of the Nine Bows lifts his head:
Tjehenu is vanquished, Khatti at peace,
Canaan is captive with all woe.
Ashkelon is conquered, Gezer seized,
Yanoam made nonexistent;
Israel is wasted, bare of seed,
Hurru is become a widow for Egypt.
All who roamed have been subdued.
By the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Banere-meramun,
Son of Re, Merenptah, Content with Maat,
Given life like Re every day." ^[2]

Bay may also have witnessed the events of the great near Eastern Famine, which saw nomadic Semites from Edom, possible remnants expelled by the kings campaign, petitioning the king to be allowed to water their livestock in the "land of Goshen, the fields of Tanis", near the royal capital of Per Rameses, the Hyksos capital of Avaris, as recorded in the Anastasi Papyrus.

Career

While his background is unknown except for his Syrian origins, Bay first began his career as a scribe and butler--an important position--during the reign of Seti II.^[3]

Whatever his origins, Bay may have first entered service as a priest to the temple at Heliopolis, where a small statue of him has been found. By the time of the death of Seti II, Bay had risen to the post of Chancellor and played the role of "kingmaker." Bay's status at Siptah's court was so great that on several of the young king's monuments, "the chancellor is shown in scenes with the pharaoh on the same scale as the latter, the earliest occasion in which a commoner was depicted in such a manner."^[4] Furthermore, Bay explicitly claims, in several inscriptions with reference to Siptah, that it was he who established the king "on the throne of his father" without providing further details on how this came about.^[5] Bay was also included in the cult of the mortuary temple of Siptah in Year 3 of the latter's reign.^[6] The tomb of Queen Twosret, KV14 was also started, and built as part of a threesome with those of Siptah and Irsu/Bay, during the same period. The tombs of Bay and Twosret (2nd building phase) are smaller copies of the royal tomb. For other uses, see Chancellor (disambiguation). ... nomen or birth name Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the son of Seti II and Queen Tiaa. ... nomen or birth name Queen Twosret Sitre Meryamun was a Queen of Egypt and the last Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. ... Tomb KV14 is a joint tomb, used originally by Twosret and then reused and extended by Setnakhte. ...

Images of Bay exist showing him depicted standing behind the throne of Pharaoh Siptah, an unusual position for a commoner, and again opposite Twosret on the doorjamb of the Amada temple where he faces the queen.

Like the other two, his name was later removed from the tomb, possibly by the new Pharaohs of the 20th Dynasty, who did not recognise the his legitimacy, nor that of any of the monarchs of the later 19th Dynasty. Some have even considered that during this period Twosret and Bay to have been or to have become lovers, encouraging her to take the throne as a full Pharaoh on the death of her step-son. If tradition is to be believed, Bay enjoyed an evil reputation: he repotedly seduced the pharaoh's widow, Twosret, who then gave him full control over Egypt's treasury.^[7] nomen or birth name Queen Twosret Sitre Meryamun was a Queen of Egypt and the last Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. ... nomen or birth name Queen Twosret Sitre Meryamun was a Queen of Egypt and the last Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. ...

Fate

While it was previously assumed that Bay later survived to serve under Twosret, a newly discovered ostracon published by Pierre Grandet in BIFAO 100 titled "L'execution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864," (BIFAO 100 [2000]: pp. 339-345), reveals otherwise. According to the information in Ostraca IFAO 1864, which is composed of 2 inscribed potsherd fragments that were reunited in February 2000, Bay was executed on or shortly before Year 5, III Shemu day 27 of Siptah, on the king's orders. The recto of the ostracon is basically a public announcement to the workmen of Deir el-Medina and reads thus: nomen or birth name Queen Twosret Sitre Meryamun was a Queen of Egypt and the last Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. ... An ostracon with Pericles name written on it (c. ... Deir al-Madinah is the Arabic name of an Ancient Egyptian village that was home to the artisans who built the temples and tombs ordered by the pharaohs and other dignitaries during the New Kingdom period (18th to 20th dynasties). ...

Year 5 III Shemu the 27th. On this day, the scribe of the tomb Paser came announcing 'Pharaoh LPH, has killed the great enemy Bay.(sm3 Pr-‘3 ‘.w.s. khrw ‘3 B3y)'[2]

Although the king is not named, the dating of the ostracon under Siptah is certain and accords well with Bay's last known public appearance in Regnal Year 4 of this king. It is not known what event or palace conspiracy brought about Bay's sudden downfall. However, the prime beneficiary of his death appears to be Twosret, who assumed the throne without opposition a year later when Siptah died. Bay, hence, was not buried in the dignified style which he sought and instead met a traitor's fate.^[8] After his fall, his tomb was subsequently usurped in the 20th Dynasty for prince Mentuherkhepshef, son of Rameses IX. [3] nomen or birth name Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the son of Seti II and Queen Tiaa. ... The Egyptian Prince Rameses Mentuherkhepeshef was the son of Rameses IX. He is buried in tomb KV19, in the Valley of the Kings, near Thebes, in Egypt. ... Ramses IX (1129 – 1111 BC) was the eighth king of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. ...

Memory

Papyrus Harris I portrays his tenure in office as a time when Egypt was in chaos and temple offerings were denied to the gods. After the death of Twosret, Egypt seems to have fallen into anarchy, with many temples being looted by Asiatic followers of Irsu/Bay. For instance, the Harris papyrus reads: Papyrus Harris I is also known as the Great Harris Papyrus and (less accurately) simply the Harris Papyrus (though there are a number of other papyri in the Harris collection). ... Papyrus Harris I is also known as the Great Harris Papyrus and (less accurately) simply the Harris Papyrus (though there are a number of other papyri in the Harris collection). ...

"The land of Egypt was overthrown from without and every man was thrown out of his right; they had no chief for many years formerly until other times. The land of Egypt was in the hands of chiefs and of rulers of towns; one slew his neighbor great and small. Other times having come after it, with empty years, Iarsu, a certain Syrian was with them as chief. He set the whole land tributary before him together; he united his companions and plundered their possessions. They made the gods like men and no offerings were presented in the temples."^[9]

Setnakhte's Elephantine stele records how he expelled these Asiatic rebels who, on their flight from Egypt, left behind much of the gold, silver and copper they had stolen from Egypt, and with which they had intended to hire reinforcements among the Asiatics. Setnakht Meryamunra (stX-nxt mrr-imnra) Seth Is Victorious ; Beloved Of Amon-Re[1] Praenomen Userkhaure-setepenre (wsr-xaw-ra stp. ...

It is possible that memories of these events were distortedly reported in the third century BCE by the Hellenistic Egyptian historian and priest, Manetho, who claimed that a certain Egyptian priest from Heliopolis called Osarseph, led leprous Asiatics out of Egypt, in an Exodus later reportedly that of Moses, although Irsu/Bay's career has a greater resemblance to that of the Biblical Joseph (Yusuf). Manetho's claim of a connection between Osarseph as Moses was vigorously denied by Josephus. The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... Manetho, also known as Manethon of Sebennytos, was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolematic era, circa 3rd century BC. Manetho recorded Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt). ... Osarseph is a person that Manetho (writing in the first millenium BC) claimed was a high priest mainly during the reign of Amenhotep III. According to Manetho, he was part of the priesthood at Heliopolis, and supported the introduction of monotheism by Akhenaten. ... Moses with the Tablets, 1659, by Rembrandt This article is about the Biblical figure. ... Joseph interprets the dream of the Pharaoh. ... A representation of Flavius Josephus, a woodcutting in John C. Winstons translation of his works Josephus (37 – shortly after 100 AD/CE)[1], who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as Flavius Josephus[2], was a 1st-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal...

References

Bibliography

• Clayton, Peter A. Chronicle of the Pharaohs (The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt) (ISBN 0-500-05074-0)
• Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. Blackwell Books, 1992, pp. 270–271.
• Pierre Grandet, "L'execution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864," BIFAO 100 (2000), pp.339-356
• Altenmüller, Hartwig, "Zweiter Vorbericht über die Arbeiten des Archäologischen Instituts der Universität Hamburg am Grab des Bay (KV 13) im Tal der Könige von Theben", SAK 19 (1992), 15-36.
• Tydlesey, Joyce. The Complete Queens of Egypt (American University of Cairo Press)

External links

• King Siptah and his Tomb in the Valley of the Kings