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Yuya and Thuyu- Pharaoh Akhenaten's Maternal Grandparents
© 04/20/03; Rev. 05/03/06
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Nicholas Reeves |
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The tomb of a son of Ramesses III (KV3) visible at left, the unused sepulcher of Ramesses XI at right. |
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| On February the sixth
1905, a stone step was uncovered on a steep slope in Egypt's Valley of
the Kings. The man in charge of this excavation was an American millionare
named Theodore M. Davis who funded archaelogical work in the Valley of
Kings as a hobby. He knew that buried stairs lead to hidden tombs, and
ordered his workmen to concentrate on the steps, which led down to a door
which was revealed on the twelfth.
The following day Davis, accompanied by Arthur Wiegall (the local Inspector for the Egyptian Antiquities Service) and Gaston Maspero (the head of the Antiquities Service) entered the tomb. Inside they found a small room filled with a jumble of artifacts which included two sets of nested coffins. On these Maspero read the names of Yuya and Thuyu (or 'Iouiya' and 'Touiyou' as they were translated back then). Although this tomb was non-royal in architecture and equipment it was obviously a burial of some importance, but, unlike the similar tomb of the nobleman Maiherpri found six years earlier, Yuya and Thuyu were known to egyptologists by name. When Pharaoh Amenhotep III married a woman called Tiye in the second year of his reign (ca. 1390 b.c.) he issued a commemorative scarab with the following inscription on its base: "May he live, Nebmaatre Amenhotep, given life, and the King's Great Wife Tiye, who lives. The name of her father is Yuya, the name of her mother is Thuyu; she is the wife of a mighty king whose southern boundry is as far as Karoy, and northern as far as Naharin!" Several of these scarabs had been found prior to 1905, and were well known to Maspero. |
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| Besides being parents of a queen, just who were Yuya and Thuya? Their uninscribed tomb lacked the tomb-biography most nobles liked to have on the walls of their "House of Eternity," and the only clues to their careers is summed up in their titles. For Yuya, Gaston Maspero divided them into two groups, actual and honorary, some of which are excerpted here: |
| Yuya's actual titles:
Prince One Attached to the Person of The King Friend [of The King] First Among The King's Companions Prophet of Min Superintendent of the Oxen of Min, Lord of Ipu Master of The Horse Divine Father |
Yuya's honorary titles:
The Wise One He whom The King has made Grand and Wise For Whom The King has Made His Double Master to Do What Pleases Him The Favorite Excellent Above All Favorites The Favorite of The Good God/ Lord of The Two Lands The Great of The Great Ones |
| Thuyu had fewer titles, hers include:
Dresser to The King Chantress of Amen Lady of The Harem of Min The Favoured of Hathor Mother of The Chief Wife of The King |
| Maspero summed them up as follows:
Strictly speaking, these two individuals are not in themselves historical characters... we do not see that they played any part in State affairs: they remained the private parents of a queen and were never otherwise. In Yuya's "Book of The Dead" papyrus there was another title, that of 'haty-rekhyt'- 'Chief of the Commoners,' obviously Yuya was a man of the people. Outside of their tomb, which though pillaged in antiquity was still largely intact when discovered, the only point of interest regarding Yuya and Thuyu are their descendants and those who may be descended from them. |
| The known descendants of Yuya and
Thuyu:
Tiye, Chief Royal Wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (daughter) Anen, Second Prophet of Amen (son) Pharaoh Akhenaten (grandson by Amenhotep III and Tiye) Sitamen, Queen and Daughter of Amenhotep III (grand-daughter by Amenhotep III and Tiye) Queen Ankhesenamen (great-grand-daughter by Akhenaten) |
Possible descendants, with reasons
to believe their may be a link:
Pharaoh Ay (son, based on similarity of names of Ay, Yuya and Yuya's father Yey; also all three bore titles "Father of The God and "Master of The Horse") Pharaoh Tutankhamen (grandson [son of Akhenaten?]) Queen Nefertiti (grand-daughter [daughter of Ay?]) Queen Mutnodjmet (grand-daughter [daughter of Ay/sister of Nefertiti?]) |
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| How did a rather low-status couple end
up related to half (or most) of the royalty of the late 18th dynasty?
The gallant Maspero imagined a love affair bewteen Amenhotep III and the
young Tiye, probably toiling as a servant in the palace, which ended in
their marriage and the elevation of her parents to noble status.
In reality, Amenhotep III was only ten years old at the time of his marriage to Tiye, who had probably not reached puberty herself. One can only speculate on whatever unrecorded intrigue followed the death of Pharaoh Thutmose IV and led not only to the marriage of Amenhotep to the daughter of commoners, but her elevation to the singular status of "Great Royal Wife." |
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| As to Yuya and Thuyu, they were accorded
one of the greatest honors that could be afforded an Egyptian noble- burial
in the Valley of The Kings.
Even though robbers broke into the tomb on two or three occasions and carried away all 'recyclable' linen, metal and provisions, the bulk of the tomb's furnishings survived through the millenia until they could be excavated with 'scientific' techniques and preserved. |
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