Egyptian Enigma

by LJM Owen

  —

  The following morning Tausret called for one jar of mild beer after another. She had a headache she couldn’t banish, despite multiple appeals to the goddess Nephthys. Beside her, on the throne of Khemet, her young half-brother Siptah sat squirming. She suppressed the urge to snap at him to be still.

  She attempted to focus instead on the pathetic objections of the Chief High Priest of Ptah to a dam being built near one of his temples.

  ‘Thank you for your submission,’ Siptah recited his response. ‘I will respond after due consideration.’

  ‘Due consideration’ was generally a discussion between Tausret, Vizier Hori, Physician Seben and Chancellor Bay as to which rule of the goddess Ma’at, social priority or financial prospect should be given the greatest weight. Tausret was growing mightily tired of the seemingly endless delays to her irrigation program raised by advisers, priests and mercantile supplicants, and was sorely frustrated by Vizier Hori’s objections based on the laws of Khemet.

  Wondering for the hundredth time how Hori could be so unlike his deceased grandfather Khaenweset – one of Khemet’s greatest administrators and Tausret’s favourite uncle – Tausret signalled for another jar of beer as the haughty Priest of Ptah exited the throne room. Drinking deeply, Tausret thought about the unfolding pattern of her world and how only slightly different timing might have changed her whole life.

  Siptah had inherited Hori as Vizier from Seti, as Seti had inherited him in turn from his own father. It had often occurred to Tausret that if Hori’s grandfather Khaenweset had lived a little longer, or Ramesses the Second had passed to the Hall of Two Truths a little sooner, Khaenweset would have inherited Ramesses the Second’s throne instead of his younger brother, Seti, and Tausret’s father. Under those circumstances Tausret would not have had to shoulder the burden of restoring the balance of Ma’at to the Black Land. She would now be a matriarch in the House of Women, unburdened by state responsibilities and free to nurse her headache in private.

  The ensuing thought always gave Tausret pause: if Khaenweset had become Pharaoh, the throne would eventually have passed to his eldest son, and thence to his eldest son: Vizier Hori.

  Pharaoh Hori…the idea horrified Tausret. Under the ineffective Hori, Khemet would have fallen under Isfet’s chaotic influence in less than one season. Even in her beleaguered state, it was clear to Tausret that the goddess Ma’at had ensured she ruled Khemet for her people’s sake. Not that that made her head feel any less clouded.

  Hori and Chancellor Bay’s raised voices bored through her thoughts like a stone mason’s drill. ‘What are you arguing about?’ she hissed.

  ‘I will need a private audience, Mighty Lady,’ Hori said.

  ‘Again?’ Siptah said. ‘Good, I wanted to play with my friends this morning.’ He jumped off the throne and limped to the doorway, pausing for a guard of Medjay to form around him and escort him to his private chambers.

  ‘Well?’ Tausret demanded, once the room had cleared.

  ‘I advise against this, Vizier Hori, until incontrovertible proof is found,’ Bay said.

  Tausret was immediately suspicious. If Chancellor Bay did not want her to know what Hori had to say, perhaps it was important. Then again, in state negotiations Bay had proved a master of manipulation. Perhaps he wanted Tausret to hear what he and Hori had been talking about. She was never certain of Bay’s motives.

  ‘Ma’at is clear on this, Chancellor Bay. If I have a concern, I must raise it,’ Hori said.

  Tausret lost patience. ‘So, out with it!’

  ‘I have reports of a blockade of merchants who are seeking to halt your irrigation program…’

  ‘Hardly news.’

  ‘By removing both you, and Siptah, from the throne.’

  Tausret wondered where this was leading. ‘Seben?’

  The physician and head of Tausret’s spy network frowned. ‘There are always plots against Pharaoh. We are tracking at least twelve groups at present. Who are these merchants?’

  ‘They have…royal ties,’ Hori said.

  ‘Vizier, I think it unwise to say anything further,’ Bay said.

  The remaining traces of Tausret’s calm evaporated. ‘Tell me what has been said and by whom. Now!’

  Hori inclined his head. ‘Yes, Mighty Lady. A Medjay has reported to his leader that he was offered a bribe to give one of the conspirators access to Pharaoh’s private quarters.’

  ‘And? We are aware that this happens often,’ Seben said. ‘What is important is whether the Medjay was tempted.’

  ‘What is unusual in this instance is that the Medjay reported he was approached by a resident of the palace directly.’

  A member of the royal family! ‘Who?’ Tausret demanded.

  ‘Ramesses, first son of Meryt and Ramesses, son of Meryre,’ Hori said. ‘He wishes to claim the throne for himself, and said his mother wishes to be the Mother of a King.’

  Tausret’s headache pounded as she tried to recall which Ramesses Hori meant. Twisting her favourite gold bangle around her wrist, she sifted through the many offspring of Ramesses the Second in her mind. There were hundreds of men and boys named Ramesses, and scores of Meryts. Which father-mother-son combination was Hori referring to?

  Realising some moments had passed, she looked at Seben, who was chewing her lower lip.

  ‘Be very, very careful what you say next, Vizier,’ Bay warned Hori.

  ‘I lay no charges. I am reporting what has been relayed to me by the Medjay officer who revealed the conspiracy.’

  What was Tausret missing? She…oh.

  She groped behind her for something to lean on. Her fingers found the jewelled arm of the throne. Her favourite cousin Meryt’s husband was a Ramesses, as was her eldest son. No!

  Grasping the throne for support, Tausret recalled Meryt’s words of the previous evening: ‘Siptah is only half of Khemet…the divine blood of Iset does not run through his veins…not really Pharaoh…’ Was her lovely, gentle cousin plotting against her? Had it been idle servant gossip? Or was it Meryt’s true position?

  Tausret simply could not believe it. Meryt had never shown any desire to be a King’s mother; she had always said it seemed such a restricted life. Desperate for the information to be false, for the Medjay to be lying or mistaken, she turned to Seben. ‘Please investigate.’

  ‘Yes, Mighty Lady.’

  ‘Chief Physician Seben is to be given all cooperation, all resources,’ Tausret directed Hori and Bay. ‘I will have the truth of this.’

  Hori and Bay both touched their foreheads. ‘Yes, Mighty Lady.’

  —

  Several nights later, Seben entered Tausret’s private rooms and knelt in the middle of the floor, a position that, in the past, she had adopted only in jest. There was no mirth in her posture now.

  ‘I can find no doubt, Mighty Lady.’

  Tausret’s jib, her heart, was suddenly as heavy as a giant construction block. ‘If you are certain then I must act.’

  ‘I have found no reason to doubt the Medjay’s story, Mighty Lady. Even under prolonged torture he has not wavered. I arrested and questioned two further Medjay he named, who also confirmed the accusations against Meryt’s son Ramesses.’

  Tausret knew that the decision had already been made for her. Under the laws of Ma’at, she had to remove a threat to Pharaoh’s life. She met Seben’s tormented eyes. ‘Ensure it is painless.’

  The muscles in her face flickering, Seben murmured her obedience and left. Meryt, her husband, her children and grandchildren were absent from the palace by the following morning.

  That Meryt had betrayed her left Tausret diminished. By the great and holy goddess Sekhmet, how could she have been so duped, so misled by Meryt’s seemingly gentle ways?

  —

  Tausret lay on the cot in her private chambers, half-heartedly stroking
Maahes. She felt ill at the execution of Meryt, her husband and her children; all she wanted to do was curl up with Seben and Maahes beneath goddess Nut’s black, diamond-studded robes and confess the pain in her heart.

  A rap on her chamber’s entrance caused Maahes to strike at Tausret’s hand, drawing blood. Somehow, the sting made her feel a little better.

  Her Medjay admitted Seben, then closed the door behind her.

  In a rush Seben flung herself across the room to the floor beside Tausret’s bed. On her knees, she rocked back and forth, smashing her forehead on the marble, moaning.

  ‘Seben!’

  ‘All my fault, all my fault, I am so sorry.’

  Tausret sat bolt upright on the side of her cot. ‘Tell me.’

  Seben lifted her distraught face. ‘One of my palace spies became unwell weeks ago. As several others in his household were also ill, I had attributed his suffering to unfit meat. It did not cross my mind that it might have been in some way connected to the Medjay who confessed to Meryt’s plan.’

  The blood in Tausret’s veins ran as cold as the deepest waters of the Aur. ‘And?’

  ‘My spy has only just recovered sufficiently to speak. Oh, my Lady, it was a trick!’ Seben began to bang her head on the floor again. ‘I have failed in my duties. I understand if you must execute me. I will not resist.’

  ‘Stop that! Sit beside me and explain.’

  ‘My spy reported that, shortly before he became ill, he overheard Chancellor Bay whispering to someone in one of the storerooms near the palace kitchens. He was unable to see who the second person was, but it was most likely the Medjay who reported being approached by Lady Meryt’s son Ramesses.’

  Tausret’s hand rose to cover her mouth.

  ‘Bay was threatening to kill the second person’s children if they did not report such a conversation to their superior.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘My spy said it was implied, though not stated, that the conversation the Medjay was to report was a falsehood.’

  Tausret’s head reeled. Meryt’s son had not plotted Siptah’s death. The true threat came from Chancellor Bay, meaning Tausret had murdered her beloved cousin, nieces and nephews for no reason. ‘But what on earth could Bay hope to gain? It’s impossible for him to take the throne, foreigner that he is. And Siptah, his own nephew, already sits on the throne.’

  ‘I don’t know, my Lady. I cannot fathom what advantage he seeks either, but it is likely that he is the enemy we have been seeking, that he was responsible for Seti’s death and is behind the blockade to your irrigation program.’

  The desire to take revenge flooded Tausret. Whatever Bay’s motivation, he had tricked her into murdering her sweet cousin Meryt and her innocent children. She might have failed her family, but she would not fail her country. In Meryt’s name she would outwit Bay, have him executed, and find a way to build the dams needed to save her people.

  Chapter Six

  Now

  Canberra, Australia

  ‘But it’s supposed to be a man,’ Rhoz said. ‘The prince from the Golden Tomb.’

  Elizabeth thought back to her first investigation of Olmec remains recovered from a cave deep in the Mexican jungle and chuckled. ‘This seems rather familiar.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Llew asked.

  ‘It isn’t the first time I’ve been told a certain skeleton was male, only to discover it actually belonged to a woman.’

  ‘How is it possible to make such an obvious mistake?’ Nathan asked.

  ‘Prejudice,’ Rhoz said.

  ‘Well,’ Elizabeth hedged, ‘it can be tricky to tell, if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. But, yes, a lot of the time it’s down to prejudice. Some archaeologists tend to assume that anyone who was important enough to be buried with the regalia of power, war or leadership was male.’

  ‘But these are mummies,’ Henry said. ‘Didn’t they check for, you know, the obvious bits?’

  ‘Those bits often don’t stand up to the millennia all that well.’ Elizabeth grinned. ‘And in the case of Egyptian mummies, not all men were buried with them still attached.’

  ‘I’m letting that last statement go without comment,’ Nathan said. ‘But surely, if you can see so quickly that this person was female, another researcher or museum worker must have noticed something.’

  ‘Even if they did,’ Alice said, ‘would you want to be the one to tell your boss that a drawcard to your museum wasn’t what they thought it was?’

  Nathan thought about it. ‘Probably not. Depending on the institution, I might not have a job the next day.’

  ‘Even when a person in power was quite clearly a woman,’ Rhoz said, flicking a lock of dark red hair over one shoulder, ‘they’re often stripped of their status post-mortem when archaeologists or historians insist they must have had a man in the background who made all their decisions for them.’

  ‘Ironically,’ Elizabeth said, ‘that’s exactly what would not have happened in ancient Egypt.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Alice asked.

  ‘In ancient Egypt, women were considered equal,’ Rhoz explained. ‘Equal under the law, they were free to marry, free to divorce, free to own property, run their own businesses, and received equal pay for equal work.’

  ‘Wow! I’m surprised. I’d assumed men dominated Egyptian life,’ Nathan said.

  ‘Not necessarily, not until they were conquered by the Greeks,’ Elizabeth said. ‘The third Pharaoh of the First Dynasty, Neithhotep, ruled all of Upper and Lower Egypt over five thousand years ago. She’s possibly the earliest attested female ruler in human history.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Alice asked. ‘Why didn’t I learn that at school?’

  Rhoz rolled her eyes. ‘So many reasons. And yes, seriously. There are records from the same time of a female doctor, Merit-Ptah, who was the country’s Chief Physician, meaning she attended the Pharaoh and directed the medical schools of Egypt.’

  ‘Five thousand years ago?’

  Elizabeth nodded. ‘The Egyptians were somewhat of an outlier in the Mediterranean at the time, though, as most of their male neighbours preferred women to be subjugated and housebound.’

  Rhoz harrumphed. ‘The Athenians.’

  Elizabeth nodded again. ‘Unfortunately, it’s those ideas about women – I’d call it the “Athenian Attitude” – that were propagated through the centuries to influence the thought patterns of modern Western archaeologists, who routinely dismiss any evidence that women held power in ancient cultures.’

  The room was silent.

  Henry cleared his throat. ‘So, to summarise, when it comes to the occupants of the Golden Tomb we’re not to trust the records of the original excavators?’

  ‘Precisely.’

  ‘Which brings us back to the replica remains of this New Kingdom lady,’ he continued. ‘What else can you divine from her bones, O knowledgeable and scientifically minded one?’

  Elizabeth pulled a face at the laptop screen. ‘All righty, from the top…the small mastoid process, lack of brow ridge, broad, shallow pelvis, and overall light muscle markings on the postcranial remains indicate this person was female.’ She shifted to the middle of the table. ‘There are two other indications.’ She pointed to some tiny depressions on the inside of the pelvic girdle. ‘This pitting can be an indication of pregnancy, in this instance multiple pregnancies.’

  ‘Does that always happen?’ Rhoz asked. ‘The pitting I mean.’

  ‘No, and even if it’s there it doesn’t guarantee the person gave birth, but combined with everything else, it’s a fair bet this woman had a few children.’

  ‘You said two indications?’ Nathan prompted.

  Elizabeth pointed at some faint lines across the forehead and zygomatic arches – the cheeks – of the plastic cranium. ‘These could be marks from the face being slas
hed, another strong indication this person was female.’

  Nathan looked outraged. ‘Why would cuts on the face mean it was a woman?’

  Elizabeth shifted uncomfortably on her feet, unsure how to handle Nathan’s anger. ‘There were a few instances early in Egyptian history where embalmers were caught becoming,’ she searched for the right word, ‘amorous with women’s cadavers. It became an offence punishable by death, but to help prevent it the face of any woman who was young, pretty, wealthy or noble was slashed soon after she died. And her body was retained by the family until it began to putrefy before it was turned over to the embalmers, to reduce its “attractiveness”.’

  ‘Ugh.’ Nathan blanched. Alice touched his arm in sympathy.

  Llew looked from Elizabeth to Rhoz. ‘You don’t seem disturbed by that?’

  The French woman shrugged, her delicate grey blouse shifting across toned shoulders. ‘I already knew of this custom. Besides, I’ve had much practice dealing with the disturbing things men do to women.’

  ‘Moving right along.’ Elizabeth tilted the cranium back to examine the upper and lower dentition. ‘Her teeth are fairly worn and she’s missing three molars. Based on the wear patterns I saw in the ancient Egyptians I examined for my PhD, I’d say this lady was approximately forty to fifty years old when she died.’

  ‘How can you tell?’ Alice asked.

  Elizabeth pointed to flattened crowns and exaggerated wear patterns. ‘Teeth that have been worn down to this degree, in a society where the food was not always grit free, usually belonged to a person of forty to fifty.’

  ‘So, our erstwhile prince was actually a lady of around forty-five?’ Llew said.

  ‘It would appear so.’

  ‘Are you able to work out how tall she was?’ Rhoz asked.

  ‘Absolutely.’ Elizabeth reached for a tape measure she had placed on an empty bookshelf. ‘It’s fairly straightforward, actually.’ She picked up the skeleton’s right femur and placed it in a position separate from the other replica bones. ‘First, you measure the length of one of the thigh bones, then run that number through a formula. Nathan, could you please pull the calculator function up on your phone?’