Seti II

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Userkheperure Setepenre/Meryamun Seti II (reigned 1200 BC - 1194 BC) was the sixth ruler of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt. He ruled in a period known for dynastic intrigue and short reigns, and his rule was no different. He had to deal with many plots, most significantly the preceding reign of the usurper, Amenmesse, who seized the throne when Seti II was away from the royal palace after the death of his father Merneptah.

Seti II promoted Chancellor Bay, to become his most important state official and built 3 tombs--KV13, KV14, and KV15--for himself, his Senior Queen Twosret and Bay in the Valley of the Kings. This was an unprecedented act on his part for the burial of Bay, who was not even of Egyptian descent(he was Syrian) and who was not connected by marriage or blood ties to the royal family. Due to the relative brevity of his reign, Seti's tomb was unfinished at the time of his death. Twosret later rose to power herself after the death of Siptah, Seti II's son and successor. According to a graffito written in the first corridor of Twosret's KV14 tomb, Seti II was buried in his tomb, KV15, on "Year 1, IV Peret day 11" of Siptah.

Seti II's earliest prenomen in his First Year was 'Userkheperure Setepenre' which is written above an inscription of Messuwy, a Viceroy of Nubia under Merneptah, on a rock outcropping at Bigeh Island. However, Messuwy's burial in Tomb S90 in Nubia has been discovered to contain only funerary objects naming Merneptah which suggests that 1)Messuwy died during Merneptah's reign and 2)Seti II merely associated himself with an official who had actively served his father as Viceroy of Kush. Seti II soon changed his prenomen to 'Userkheperure Meryamum', which was the most common form of his prenomen.

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Bibliography:

Frank Joseph Yurco, "Was Amenmesse the Viceroy of Kush, Messuwy?" JARCE 39 (1997), pp.49-56
Aidan Dodson, "The Decorative Phases of the Tomb of Sethos II and their Historical Implications’, JEA 85 (1999), pp.131-42.

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