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QV60: Queen Nebettawy

Queen's Valley - The Valleys - The Places

Princess and later Queen Nebettawy was the Daughter of Pharaoh Ramses II and probably Queen Isis-Nofret. She was half-sister to Princess Bentanat and half-sister to Princess Meritamen. She lived during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty.

As with her sisters Princess Bentanat and Princess Meritamen, she married her father, Pharaoh Ramses II, and was elevated to take on the role as Great Royal Wife. She may have only taken over the role when then Queen Meritamen died and so her father needed a “replacement” Great Royal Wife.

Her Titles extended to include:

                                    Hereditary Princess            Great Royal Wife            Lady of the Two Lands            King’s Daughter            
                                                       Mistress of Upper & Lower Egypt                    King’s Daughter of his Body, his Beloved

Again, although it may seem unorthodox today, the Pharaohs found the marriage of a daughter to her father to continue a Great Royal Wife’s role as keeping within the religious and moral roles as well as offering continuity to Egypt as a whole.

Queen Nebettawy served as her father’s Great Royal Wife while her half-sister Queen Bentanat served as her father’s Queen of Egypt, whilst Pharaoh Ramses II entered into the diplomacy marriage with the Hittite Princess Ma’athorneferure.

Tomb
Regrettably nearly every image of the Queen from her Tomb is damaged, and it is structurally unsound. The Tomb itself was placed slightly away from the other Great Royal Wives of Pharaoh Ramses II though this is thought to be due to room in the Valley rather than having any other reasoning to it. It remains one of the largest Tombs in the Valley of the Queens and we can presume that it would have had outstanding paintings and reliefs.

The Walls inside the Tomb included Spells from the Book of the Dead including the popular, “Declaration of Innocence” which is written under a painted figure of the Goddess Isis who is seated. The standout image of the whole Tomb is of the Queen herself wearing the Vulture Crown with a Rearing Egyptian Cobra, known as an Uraeus, with a tall “Jar like shaped” object, known as a Modius, and a number of Flowers. Egyptologists believe that this Crown has only been depicted in the Tomb of:

  • QV51: Queen Iset Ta-Hemdjert
  • QV52: Queen Tyti and
  • QV60: that of Queen Nebettawy

 

The Burial Chamber has very little to identify it remaining as such. Its decoration is hugely damaged. Remaining images do show the Gods Osiris, Ptah, Thoth, Ra, Duamutef, Kebehsenuef, Hapi and Geb; and the Goddesses Hathor, Ma’at, Nephthys, Isis, Selkis; depicted throughout the Tomb along with the Wadjet Eye.

The Tomb was reused but never within the Pharaonic Period but may well have been plundered during this time. The Coptic Christians seem to have used her Tomb as one of those they needed to live in and convert into a Chapel during their occupation of the Queens Valley. QV60 was in use as such until roughly the 8th Century BC.

They are considered the source of the damage to the decoration in the Tomb. Including, but not limited to covering the Deities illustrations with mud and adding red painted crosses over them; with numerous individual occurrences of graffiti bring added throughout.

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