Tetisheri

Tetisheri (?- Thebes 1541 BC) was a queen of the Egyptian royal family of the late 17th Dynasty and the matriarch of the 18th Dynasty. She was the wife of Senajtenra Ahmose, mother of Seqenenra and Kamose and grandmother of Ahmosis I. Tetisheri participated in the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt and established a precedent for a queen with power, which anticipated great women descendants of hers such as Ahhotep, Ahmose-Nefertari, Hatshepsut, Tiy or Nefertiti.

Biography

Luneta de la estela de Amosis en honor de Tetisheri. Cairo Museum.

Tetisheri was born into a commoner family, the daughter of a judge named Tyenna and a housewife named Neferu, and was chosen by Senajtenra to be his chief wife., giving her the title of Great Royal Wife. This fact was quite unusual in Ancient Egypt. Senajtenra granted Tetisheri many privileges that previous queens had not had. She was the first queen to wear the vulture crown indicating that the position of chief wife had become an integral part of pharaonic power. When her son Seqenenra rose up against the Hyksos, Tetisheri helped and helped recruit troops. Seqenenra was killed in battle, as was his successor, Kamose.

His grandson Ahmosis managed to drive the Hyksos out of Egypt. Tetisheri was a wise adviser to three kings during the war against the Hyksos and was regarded by the Egyptian people as the motor of national resistance. During Ahmose's war campaign, Tetisheri ruled along with his daughter Ahhotep, who acted as regent. It seems that Amosis was very close to her grandmother and when she was in her 70s she commissioned several more projects of hers in her honor.

Testimonies of his time

• Fragment of a papyrus granting an endowment in Lower Egypt on his behalf.
• In the cenotaph of Amosis and Ahmose-Nefertary in Abidos there is a trail in which another built for Tetisheri, whose location is unknown.
• In the British Museum a statuette was preserved which was believed to represent the image of Tetisheri, but it has been shown that the name is a forgery.
• His tomb has not been found, but his mummy is probably one of those found in the DB320 hideaway, which has his name and that of his parents written in the bandages. It corresponds to an old woman from 70 to 75 years old, of white natural hairs braided with other dark poles. The body lacks the right hand pulled by the looters of ancient tombs and the mummification technique is the very beginning of the XVIII dynasty

Tetisheri in hieroglyphic

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