Sitre ("Daughter of Re") or Tia-Sitre, was the

Great Royal Wife Great Royal Wife, or alternatively, Chief King's Wife ( Ancient Egyptian: ''ḥmt nswt wrt'', cop, Ⲟⲩⲏⲣ Ⲟⲩⲣϣ), is the title that was used to refer to the principal wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who served many official ...

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

Ramesses I Menpehtyre Ramesses I (or Ramses) was the founding pharaoh of ancient Egypt's 19th Dynasty. The dates for his short reign are not completely known but the time-line of late 1292–1290 BC is frequently cited as well as 1295–1294 BC. While Ra ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and mother of

Seti I Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, ruling c.1294 or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. The ...

Biography

There is some debate around the identity of Ramesses' wife and Seti's mother. Sitre is shown together with Ramesses I and Seti in Seti's

Abydos Abydos may refer to: *Abydos, a progressive metal side project of German singer Andy Kuntz * Abydos (Hellespont), an ancient city in Mysia, Asia Minor * Abydos (''Stargate''), name of a fictional planet in the '' Stargate'' science fiction universe ...

temple where she is called the King's Mother.Demas, Martha, and Neville Agnew, eds. 2012. Valley of the Queens Assessment Report: Volume 1. Los Angeles, CA: Getty Conservation Institute
Getty Conservation Institute, link to article
/ref> She is called the King's Great Wife both in Seti's temple and in Seti's tomb (where one would expect her to be mentioned as King's Mother). However, Sitre's tomb, which can stylistically be dated to this period, mentions its owner as a King's Mother.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.175 The

Year 400 Stela The Year 400 Stela, or Stela of Year 400, is an ancient Egyptian stela issued in the 13th century BCE. The meaning of this stela is not entirely clear, but is generally assumed that it celebrates the 400th anniversary of some event related to the ...

, found in

Tanis Tanis ( grc, Τάνις or Τανέως ) or San al-Hagar ( ar, صان الحجر, Ṣān al-Ḥaǧar; egy, ḏꜥn.t ; ; cop, ϫⲁⲛⲓ or or ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the ...

and dated to the reign of Sitre's grandson

Ramesses II Ramesses II ( egy, wikt:rꜥ-ms-sw, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is oft ...

describes Seti as the son of Paramessu (the name of Ramesses I before he became pharaoh) and Tia. Also, Seti's daughter was named Tia. It can be assumed that Tia and Sitre are the same person and that she altered her name when her husband became pharaoh, just like he changed his name from Paramessu to Ramesses. The fact that one of the daughters of Ramesses II was named Tia-Sitre makes it even more likely. The absence of the title ''King's Daughter'' for her indicates that Sitre was of non-royal descent. She did hold a large number of titles. She was a Hereditary Princess ( iryt-p`t), a Great King’s Mother (mwt-niswt-wrt), also described as a God’s Mother (mwt-ntr). Her queenly titles included Lady of The

Two Lands In Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the unification of the realm. The conception of Egypt as the Two Lands was an example of the duali ...

(nbt-t3wy), King’s Wife (hmt-nisw), Great King’s Wife, his beloved (hmt-niswt-wrt meryt.f) and Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt (hnwt-Shm’w-mhw). She also held the title of God’s Wife (hmt-ntr).W. Grajetzki: Ancient Egyptian Queens: a hieroglyphic dictionary. Golden House Publications 2005

Tomb QV38

She was buried in a tomb in the

Valley of the Queens The Valley of the Queens ( ar, وادي الملكات ) is a site in Egypt, where the wives of pharaohs were buried in ancient times. It was known then as Ta-Set-Neferu, meaning "the place of beauty". It was most famous for being the burial site ...

QV38. The tomb was already described by

Karl Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius ( la, Carolus Richardius Lepsius) (23 December 181010 July 1884) was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist, linguist and modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his magnum opus ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien'' ...

(tomb 13) and

John Gardner Wilkinson Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (5 October 1797 – 29 October 1875) was an English traveller, writer and pioneer Egyptologist of the 19th century. He is often referred to as "the Father of British Egyptology". Childhood and education Wilkinson ...

(tomb 19) The tomb may have been commissioned by her son

. This would be the reason she is called a King's mother in her tomb. The decoration was unfinished, consisting of just line drawings. In Porter and

Moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

a description is given of the scenes outlined in the tomb. The decorations include images of Imsety, Duamutef, Anubis,

Maat Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian: mꜣꜥt /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regul ...

, Ir-renef-djesef,

Nephthys Nephthys or Nebet-Het in ancient Egyptian ( grc-gre, Νέφθυς) was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired wi ...

Serket Serket ( egy, , italics=no, translit=srqt) is the goddess of healing venomous stings and bites in Egyptian mythology, originally the deification of the scorpion. Her family life is unknown, but she is sometimes credited as the daughter of Neith ...

, a monkey and two baboons in kiosk. Queen Sitre is further shown seated before a naos. Another scene shows a Lion-headed god, followed by Maat. Further scene include a kiosk containing a cat-headed god and Anubis, Hapi, Qebehsenuef,

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the P ...

-Irbakef,

Thoth Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a ...

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 ...

, Neith, Horus, and a kiosk containing Mut as vulture, a bird-headed god, and full-face god. Two boats are shown, with three gods below.Porter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings Volume I: The Theban Necropolis, Part 2. Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries, Griffith Institute. 1964, pg 751

References

{{Queens of Ancient Egypt 13th-century BC Egyptian women Queens consort of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt Ramesses I