Chancellor Bay was an important Asiatic official in ancient Egypt, who rose to prominence and high office under Seti II

Seti II

Seti II , was the fifth ruler of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt and reigned from 1203 BC to 1197 BC. His throne name, Userkheperure Setepenre, meant "Powerful are the Manifestations of Re, Chosen by Re.' He was the son of Merneptah and wife Isisnofret and sat on the throne during a...

 Userkheperure Setepenre and later became an influential powerbroker in the closing stages of the 19th Dynasty

Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.The warrior kings of the...

. He is generally identified with Irsu (alt. Arsu, Iarsu, Yarsu) mentioned in the Great Harris Papyrus, although no contemporary source connects Bay with Irsu. The name Irsu can be read in Egyptian as 'the one who has made himself' or the "self made" man. This was a derogatory method by the Ancient Egyptians to refer to Bay without mentioning his name.

Bay's importance is emphasized by the fact that he was given permission, possibly by Seti but more probably by Siptah

Siptah

Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the penultimate ruler of the 19th Dynasty. His father's identity is currently unknown. Both Seti II and Amenmesse have been suggested. He was not the crown prince, but succeeded to the throne as a child after the death of Seti II...

, to construct his own tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings

Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings , less often called the Valley of the Gates of the Kings , is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the Pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom .The valley stands on the west bank of...

 (KV13

KV13

Tomb KV13, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was cut and decorated for the burial of the noble Bay of the Nineteenth Dynasty. An ostraca published in the French Egyptological journal BIFAO in 2000 records that Chancellor Bay was executed by pharaoh Siptah. Consequently, Bay was never...

). His tomb was clearly constructed as part of a triad of tombs, including that of the Pharaoh Siptah

Siptah

Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the penultimate ruler of the 19th Dynasty. His father's identity is currently unknown. Both Seti II and Amenmesse have been suggested. He was not the crown prince, but succeeded to the throne as a child after the death of Seti II...

 and Queen Twosret

Twosret

Queen Twosret was the last known ruler and the final Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty.She is recorded in Manetho's Epitome as a certain Thuoris, who in Homer is called Polybus, husband of Alcandara, and in whose time Troy was taken. She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this...

. This was an unprecedented privilege, the likes of which were rarely accorded to a commoner, let alone a foreigner (though previous exceptions, such as that of Yuya

Yuya

Yuya was a powerful Egyptian courtier during the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt...

, have occurred). It is possible that Bay was accorded this tomb because he was a relation of Siptah's mother, a Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...

ite concubine of Seti II, or perhaps even of Amenmesse

Amenmesse

Amenmesse was the 5th ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt, possibly the son of Merneptah and Queen Takhat. Others consider him to be one of the innumerable sons of Ramesses II. Very little is known about this king, who ruled Egypt for only three to four years...

. His tomb was later usurped under the Twentieth Dynasty by prince Mentuherkhepshef, a son of Ramesses IX.

Origins and career

Bay/Irsu is called a Syrian (Hurru = Hurrian

Hurrians

The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East who lived in Northern Mesopotamia and adjacent regions during the Bronze Age.The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni. The population of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia to a large part consisted of Hurrians, and...

 or Harran

Harran

Harran was a major ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia whose site is near the modern village of Altınbaşak, Turkey, 24 miles southeast of Şanlıurfa...

-born) Asiatic. While his precise background is unknown except for his Syrian origins, Bay is first attested as scribe and butler, an important position in Egypt, during the reign of Seti II. However, Bay probably entered Egypt's civil administration earlier under a previous pharaoh–either Merneptah

Merneptah

Merneptah was the fourth ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He ruled Egypt for almost ten years between late July or early August 1213 and May 2, 1203 BC, according to contemporary historical records...

, Seti II's father, or Ramesses II

Ramesses II

Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...

.

Indeed, Bay's first official position may have been that of a priest in the temple at Heliopolis, where a small statue of him has been found. By the time of the death of Seti II, Bay had risen to the post of Chancellor

Treasurer (Ancient Egypt)

The Treasurer in Ancient Egypt is the modern translation of the title imi-r ḫtmt . The office is known since the end of the Old Kingdom, where people with this title appear sporadically in the organisation of private estates...

 and played the role of "kingmaker." Bay's status at Siptah's court was so great that on several of the young king's monuments, "the chancellor is shown in scenes with the pharaoh on the same scale as the latter, the earliest occasion in which a commoner was depicted in such a manner." Furthermore, Bay explicitly claims, in several inscriptions with reference to Siptah

Siptah

Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the penultimate ruler of the 19th Dynasty. His father's identity is currently unknown. Both Seti II and Amenmesse have been suggested. He was not the crown prince, but succeeded to the throne as a child after the death of Seti II...

, that it was he who established the king "on the throne of his father" without providing further details on how this came about. Bay was also included in the cult of the mortuary temple of Siptah in Year 3 of the latter's reign. During the same period the tomb of Queen Twosret

Twosret

Queen Twosret was the last known ruler and the final Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty.She is recorded in Manetho's Epitome as a certain Thuoris, who in Homer is called Polybus, husband of Alcandara, and in whose time Troy was taken. She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this...

, KV14

KV14

Tomb KV14 is a joint tomb, used originally by Twosret and then reused and extended by Setnakhte. It has been open since antiquity, but was not properly recorded until Hartwig Altenmüller excavated it from 1983 to 1987....

 was also started, and built as part of a threesome with those of Siptah and Irsu/Bay. The tombs of Bay and Twosret (2nd building phase) are smaller copies of the royal tomb.

Images of Bay exist showing him standing behind the throne of Pharaoh Siptah, an unusual position for a commoner, and also opposite Twosret on the doorjamb of the Amada temple where he faces the queen. Tablets unearthed by excavators at Ras Shamra prove Ugarit

Ugarit

Ugarit was an ancient port city in the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland near Latakia, Syria. It is located near Minet el-Beida in northern Syria. It is some seven miles north of Laodicea ad Mare and approximately fifty miles east of Cyprus...

 was communicating with Bay of Egypt (RS 86.2230), who described himself the "head of the bodyguard of the Great King, the King of Egypt".

Like Siptah's and Twosret's, Bay's name was later removed from the tomb, probably by the new Pharaohs of the 20th Dynasty, who did not recognise his legitimacy, nor that of any of the late 19th Dynasty monarchs who ruled after Seti II, including Siptah and Amenmesse. Some even think that during this period Bay and Twosret

Twosret

Queen Twosret was the last known ruler and the final Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty.She is recorded in Manetho's Epitome as a certain Thuoris, who in Homer is called Polybus, husband of Alcandara, and in whose time Troy was taken. She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this...

 were lovers, the chancellor encouraging her to take the throne as a full Pharaoh on the death of her stepson. If tradition is to be believed, Bay enjoyed an evil reputation: he reportedly seduced the pharaoh's widow, Twosret

Twosret

Queen Twosret was the last known ruler and the final Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty.She is recorded in Manetho's Epitome as a certain Thuoris, who in Homer is called Polybus, husband of Alcandara, and in whose time Troy was taken. She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this...

, who then gave him full control over Egypt's treasury. But this speculation is unlikely, since Bay died in Siptah's Year 5, at least two years before Twosret assumed the throne.

Fate

While it was previously assumed that Bay served under Twosret

Twosret

Queen Twosret was the last known ruler and the final Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty.She is recorded in Manetho's Epitome as a certain Thuoris, who in Homer is called Polybus, husband of Alcandara, and in whose time Troy was taken. She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this...

 and may even have attempted to usurp the throne on her demise, a newly discovered ostracon

Ostracon

An ostracon is a piece of pottery , usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In archaeology, ostraca may contain scratched-in words or other forms of writing which may give clues as to the time when the piece was in use...

 published by Pierre Grandet in BIFAO 100 titled "L'execution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864," (BIFAO 100 [2000]: pp. 339–345), reveals otherwise. According to the information in Ostraca IFAO 1864, which is composed of two inscribed potsherd fragments that were reunited in February 2000, Bay was executed on or shortly before Year 5, III Shemu day 27 of Siptah, on the king's orders. The recto of the ostracon is essentially a public announcement to the workmen of Deir el-Medina and reads thus:

Year 5 III Shemu the 27th. On this day, the scribe of the tomb Paser came announcing 'Pharaoh LPH, has killed the great enemy Bay.(sm3 Pr-‘3 ‘.w.s. khrw ‘3 B3y)

Although the king is not named, the dating of the ostracon under Siptah

Siptah

Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the penultimate ruler of the 19th Dynasty. His father's identity is currently unknown. Both Seti II and Amenmesse have been suggested. He was not the crown prince, but succeeded to the throne as a child after the death of Seti II...

 is certain and accords well with Bay's last known public appearance in Regnal Year 4 of this king. It is not known what event or palace conspiracy brought about Bay's sudden downfall. However, the prime beneficiary of his death appears to be Twosret, who assumed the throne without opposition a year later when Siptah died. The intention of the public announcement was to tell the Deir el-Medina workmen to abandon all work on completing Bay's tomb. Bay, hence, was not buried in the dignified style which he sought and instead met a traitor's fate. After his fall, his tomb was subsequently usurped in the 20th Dynasty for prince Mentuherkhepshef, a son of Rameses IX. http://www.leidenuniv.nl/nino/aeb92/aeb92_5.html#V.f

Memory

Papyrus Harris I

Papyrus Harris I

Papyrus Harris I is also known as the Great Harris Papyrus and simply the Harris Papyrus . Its technical designation is Papyrus British Museum 9999...

 portrays his tenure in office as a time when Egypt was in chaos and temple offerings were denied to the gods. After the death of Twosret, Egypt seems to have fallen into anarchy, with many temples being looted by Asiatic followers of Irsu/Bay.

Twosret's successor Setnakhte

Setnakhte

Userkhaure-setepenre Setnakhte was the first Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and the father of Ramesses III....

's Elephantine stele records how he expelled these Asiatic rebels who, on their flight from Egypt, abandoned much of the gold, silver and copper which they had stolen from Egypt, and with which they had intended to hire reinforcements among the Asiatics. His pacification of Egypt is also referred to in the Great Harris Papyrus.

It is possible that memories of these events were distortedly reported in the third century BCE by the Hellenistic Egyptian historian and priest, Manetho

Manetho

Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic era, approximately during the 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca...

, who claimed that a certain Egyptian priest from Heliopolis called Osarseph

Osarseph

Osarseph is a legendary figure of Ancient Egypt who has been equated with Moses. His story was recounted by the Ptolemaic Egyptian historian Manetho in his Aigyptiaca ; Manetho's work is lost, but the 1st century AD Jewish historian Josephus quotes extensively from it.The story depicts Osarseph as...

, led leprous Asiatics out of Egypt, in an Exodus later reportedly that of Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

.