Seqenenre Tao

Seqenenre Tao was a 17th Dynasty Pharaoh in ancient Egypt. He was involved in skirmishes against Apopi, the Hyksos King in the north. He was killed by three wounds to the head, probably inflicted during battle or ritual execution.

His sons, Khamose and Ahmose succeeded him.

Basic Background
Seqenenre Tao, (also Seqenera Djehuty-aa or Sekenenra Taa), called The Brave, ruled over the last of the local kingdoms of the Theban region of Egypt in the Seventeenth Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period.

With his queen, Ahhotep I, Seqenenre Tao fathered two pharaohs, Kamose, his immediate successor who was the last pharaoh of the seventeenth dynasty and Ahmose I who, following a regency by his mother, was the first pharaoh of the eighteenth. Seqenenre Tao is credited with starting the opening moves in the war of liberation against the Hyksos, which was ended by his son Ahmose.

Interaction with the Hyksos
New Kingdom literary tradition states that Seqenenre Tao came into contact with his Hyksos contemporary in the north, Apepi. The tradition took the form of a tale in which the Hyksos king Apopi sent a messenger to Seqenenre in Thebes to demand that the Theban hippopotamus pool be done away with, for the noise of these beasts was such that he was unable sleep in far-away Avaris.

Seqenenre Tao participated in active diplomatic posturing, which consisted of more than simply exchanging insults with the Asiatic ruler in the North. He seems to have led military skirmishes against the Hyksos.

Mummy
Seqenenre's mummy was discovered in the Deir el-Bahri cache, revealed in 1881. He was interred along with those



of later, eighteenth and nineteenth dynasty leaders, Ahmose I (his second son to be pharaoh), Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose II, Thutmose III, Ramesses I, Seti I,Ramesses II, and Ramesses IX.

The mummy was unwrapped by Gaston Maspero on June 9, 1886. A vivid description by Gaston Maspero provides an account of the injury that was done to the pharaoh at his death:

“ ...it is not known whether he fell upon the field of battle or was the victim of some plot; the appearance of his mummy proves that he died a violent death when about forty years of age. Two or three men, whether assassins or soldiers, must have surrounded and despatched him before help was available. A blow from an axe must have severed part of his left cheek, exposed the teeth, fractured the jaw, and sent him senseless to the ground; another blow must have seriously injured the skull, and a dagger or javelin has cut open the forehead on the right side, a little above the eye. His body must have remained lying where it fell for some time: when found, decomposition had set in, and the embalming had to be hastily performed as best it might."

The wound on his forehead was probably caused by a Hyksos axe and his neck wound was probably caused by a dagger while he was prone. There are no wounds on his arms or hands, which suggests he was not able to defend himself.

Until 2009 the main hypotheses have been that he died either in a battle against the Hyksos or was killed while sleeping; A reconstruction of his death by Egyptologist Garry Shaw and a weapons expert suggested a third, which they saw as the likeliest, that Seqenenre was executed by the Hyksos king. Garry Shaw also analysed the arguments for the competing hypotheses and other physical, textual and statistical evidence concluding "that the most likely cause of Seqenenre’s death is ceremonial execution at the hands of an enemy commander, following a Theban defeat on the battlefield."

His mummy appears to have been hastily embalmed. X-rays that were taken of the mummy in the late-1960s show that no attempt had been made to remove the brain or to add linen inside the cranium or eyes, both normal embalming practice for the time. In the opinion of James E. Harris and Kent Weeks who undertook the forensic examination at the time the x-rays were taken, his mummy is the worst preserved of all the royal mummies held at the Egyptian Museum, and they noted that a "foul, oily smell filled the room the moment the case in which his body was exhibited was opened", which is likely due to the poor embalming process and the absence of the use of absorbing natron salts, leaving some bodily fluids in the mummy at the time of burial.

He is the earliest royal mummy on display in the recently revamped (2006) Royal Mummies Hall at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Alternative Death Theory
Seqenenre Tao may be the original for the story of Hiram Abif. He may have been ambushed in his three doored Theban temple by envoys

of Apophis demanding to learn the king-making secrets (of which the hippopotami were a part), and purposely or accidentally killed by them.