Siese ( egy, zꜣ-ꜣst "son of

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

", Egyptological pronunciation: Zaaset) was a

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

and

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

of the

Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some s ...

. He was most likely in office under

Senusret III Khakaure Senusret III (also written as Senwosret III or the hellenised form, Sesostris III) was a pharaoh of Egypt. He ruled from 1878 BC to 1839 BC during a time of great power and prosperity, and was the fifth king of the Twelfth Dynasty of the ...

(about 1878 to 1839 BCE).

Career

From objects it is possible to reconstruct elements of his career. He started as a chamberlain, then was appointed high steward, and later became treasurer. At Dahshur, information about Siese is primarily derived from his

mastaba A mastaba (, or ), also mastabah, mastabat or pr- djt (meaning "house of stability", " house of eternity" or "eternal house" in Ancient Egyptian), is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inwar ...

, which was excavated by

Jacques de Morgan Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French people, French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Khedivate of Egypt, Egypt during the 19th ...

around 1894–95 and rediscovered in 2008 by an Egyptian team. The mastaba was decorated with a palace facade and with scenes showing Siese and his family. Four panels with the image of Siese in front of an offering table were excavated by de Morgan and are now on display in the Egyptian Museum of

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. The burial chamber of the tomb is decorated with the

Pyramid Texts The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranea ...

. On the chamber, he is given the title "Treasurer". Towards the end of his career he was appointed vizier. The dating of Siese is uncertain. For a long time it has been assumed that he was in office under king

Amenemhat II Nubkaure Amenemhat II, also known as Amenemhet II, was the third pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Although he ruled for at least 35 years, his reign is rather obscure, as well as his family relationships. Family Archaeological fi ...

, as his mastaba is close to that of this king. However, in his mastaba appear scenes showing single family members sitting on the ground with a small pile of offerings in front of them. This type of scene is only attested from the reign of king Senusret III onwards. Furthermore, the realistic depiction of Siese's face had parallels in on reliefs in the mastaba of

Sobekemhat Sobekemhat was an ancient Egyptian treasurer under the king Senusret III in the Twelfth Dynasty. Sobekemhat is only known from his mastaba excavated in 1894 next to the pyramid of Senusret III at Dahshur. The mastaba was decorated on the outside ...

, who dates under Senusret III. These observations indicate that Siese dates under this king. Adela Oppenheimː ''Elite tombs at the residence: the decoration and design of Twelfth Dynasty tomb chapels and mastabas at Lisht and Dahshur''. Iːn Jiménez-Serrano, Alejandro and Antonio J. Morales (eds), ''Middle Kingdom palace culture and its echoes in the provinces: regional perspectives and realities'', Leiden; Boston 2021, ISBN 9789004442818, p. 380

Literature

*Wolfram Grajetzki: ''Court Officials of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom'', London 2009 p. 56-57, pl. 2 *Samy el-Husseiny, Adel Okasha Khafagy: ''The Dahshur tomb of Vizier Siese rediscovered'', In: ''Egyptian Archaeology'' 36 (2010), p. 21-24 *William Kelly Simpson: ''Lepsius Pyramid LV at Dahschur: the Mastaba of Si-Ese, Vizier of Amenemhet II'', In: ''Pyramid studies and other essays presented to I. E. S. Edwards'', John Baines rsg. London 1988, p. 57–60, *William Kelly Simpson: ''Rulers and Administrators - Dynasty 12, The Rule of the House of Itj-towy with Some Personal Reminiscenes'', In: D. P. Silverman, W. K. Simpson, J. Wegner (Hrsg.): ''Archaism and Innovation: Studies in the Culture of Middle Kingdom Egypt'', New Haven, Philadelphia 2009 p. 302 {{ISBN, 978-0-9802065-1-7

External links

The Tomb of Sa-Iset at Dashur

References

Ancient Egyptian treasurers Viziers of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian high stewards