Editing Seti II (section)

==Wives and treasure==
Of the wives of Seti II, [[Tausert]] and [[Takhat]] seem certain. Tausert would rule as regent for Siptah and later as Pharaoh. Her name is recorded in [[Manetho|Manetho's Epitome]] as a certain 'Thuoris' who is assigned a reign of 7 years.

Takhat bears the title of ''King's Daughter'' which would make her the offspring of either Ramesses II or Merenptah. A list of princesses dated to Year 53 of Ramesses II names a Takhat who is not included in earlier lists. This would make her about the same age or younger than Seti II. The traditional view has been that the rivals were half-brothers, with Takhat as Queen to Merenptah and mother to Amenmesse while the mother of Seti II was Isetnofret II.

Takhat is shown on several statues of Amenmesse and on one of these, she is called ''King's Daughter'' and ''King's Wife'' with the word 'wife' inscribed over 'Mother'. According to Aidan Dodson the title was recarved when Seti regained control and usurped the statue. This would seem to indicate that Takhat was married to Seti and that Amenmesse was Seti's son and usurped the throne from his own father.<ref>Dodson, A.; ''Poisoned Legacy: The Decline and Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty'', American University Press in Cairo, 2010. Appendix 4, p 40</ref> Dodson allows that there may have been two women named Takhat, but the treatment of the image of Takhat makes it unlikely.

[[File:Seti II gold earrings from KV56.jpg|thumb|right|Gold earrings containing Seti II's name discovered in [[KV56]]]]
[[File:LosetaSetiII (45287991525).jpg|thumb|A Faience tile bearing the cartouche of Seti II.]]
For many years, a certain [[Tiaa, wife of Seti II|Tiaa]] was also accepted as a wife of Seti II and mother of Siptah. This was based on a number of funerary objects found in the tomb of Siptah bearing the name of Tiaa as King's Wife and King's Mother. However, it now seems that these items washed into Siptah's tomb from the nearby tomb, [[KV32]], as the result of an accidental breakthrough. KV32 is the tomb of the wife of Thutmose IV, Tiaa.<ref>Dodson, A, (2010), p 91</ref>

In January 1908, the Egyptologist [[Edward R. Ayrton]], in an excavation conducted for [[Theodore M. Davis]], discovered a small burial in tomb [[KV56]] which Davis referred to as 'The Gold Tomb' in his publication of the discovery in the Valley of the Kings; it proved to contain a small cache of jewelry that featured the name of Seti II.<ref>Davis, T. M., The Tomb of Sipthah, the Monkey Tomb and the Gold Tomb, No.4, Bibân el Molûk, Theodore M. Davis' Excavations, A. Constable, London, 1908</ref> A set of "earrings, finger-rings, bracelets, a series of necklace ornaments and amulets, a pair of silver 'gloves' and a tiny silver sandal" were found within this tomb.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nicholasreeves.com/item.aspx?category=Events&id=257 |title=Re-excavating 'The Gold Tomb' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916151013/http://www.nicholasreeves.com/item.aspx?category=Events&id=257 |archive-date=16 September 2009 |year=2001 |first=Nicholas |last=Reeves |author-link=Nicholas Reeves |publisher=[[University College London]] |work=Nicholasreeves.com}}</ref>