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King Seti II
 Seti II was probably the fifth or sixth king of Egypt's
19th Dynasty, depending on the treatment we give Amenmessses
who may have ruled before, concurrently or even after him
(though that is less likely). Seti (mer-en-ptah) was this
king's birth name, meaning "He of the god Seti, Beloved
of Ptah". He is also sometimes referred to by his Greek
name, Sethos II. His throne name was User-kheperu-re Setep-en-re,
meaning "Powerful are the Manifestations of Re, Chosen of
Re".
 It was not unusual in ancient Egypt for the successful,
long reign of a king to be followed by succession problems. Of
course, few kings had a longer, more successful reign than
Ramesses II, and when he died, he left a son who was now old
himself as the new King. This was Merneptah, who was almost
certainly the father of Seti II. We believe that an usurper
named Amenemesses probably ruled either before him, or
concurrently with Seti II during the early part of his rule.
It may have been Amenemesses who erased the name of Seti II in
his tomb and elsewhere, but it was likewise Seti II who
probably did likewise to the names and images of Amenemesses
after taking complete control of Egypt. We believe that Seti
may have only reigned for about six years, from about 1199
until 1193 BC.
We do know that Seti II took at least three wives,
consisting of Takhat II, Tausret and Tiaa (Sutailja??).
Tausret apparently was the mother of his oldest son and heir
named Seti-Merenptah, but that child did not live to inherit
the throne. Instead, it was Siptah, a younger son who replaced
the king, though probably only as a child under Tausret's
regency even though his mother is considered to have been
Queen Tiaa. In fact, Tausret appears to  have outlived this
young king, taking full possession of the throne herself with
full royal titles much as Hatshepsut had done some 300 years
earlier.
Seti II's reign was apparently relatively peaceful. We have
no evidence of foreign policy during his reign, though there
was probably activity at the mines around Serabit el-Khadim in
the Sinai. He made a number of claims regarding building
projects, though there is little indication that his words
translate into physical accomplishments. We find surviving
trances of his work at Hermopolis, where he apparently
finished some decorations in his grandfather's, Ramesses II,
temple. He also did some work in Karnak, where he was probably
responsible for a new way station of the sacred barks in the
First Court of the temple of Amun-Re, and he probably also
completed some work in the temple of
Mut.
KV15, the Tomb of Seti II
KV15, the tomb of Seti II, has been known since antiquity
and must have lied open during most of the classical period,
judging from the 59 Greek and Latin graffiti found on its
walls. The tomb was investigated superficially by Pococke,
along with others who followed after him. However, it was
Howard Carter who cleared most of the tomb between 1903 and
1904,  though apparently the ritual well was never excavated.
One may find the entrance to KV15, rather than having steps
cut below a retaining wall, directly quarried into the base of
an almost vertical cliff face at the head of the wadi running
south west from the main Valley of the
Kings on the West
Bank at Luxor
(ancient Thebes). However, at present the tomb has been temporarily closed to allow the installation
of new flooring, hand rails and lighting. It is expected to
soon.
The history of the tomb is really unknown at this time. It
is very likely that Seti II may have originally been buried
with his wife, Tausret, in her tomb
and later moved to this tomb which
appears to have been hastily and incompletely finished, by
Sethnakht (Setakht). In fact, the tomb may have originally
been started for Seti II but the work interrupted at some
point. This may have had to do with the reign of Amenmeses, if
that king ruled concurrently with Seti II  rather than before
him. It appears that within the tomb, Seti's name was carved,
erased, and then carved out once again. The erasure may be
attributable to Amenmeses, or possibly to Saptah. It has been
suggested that his wife Tausert then had her husband's name
restored.
The tomb, which takes a Northwest to Southeast axis,
consists of a short entryway corridor followed by three long
corridors in turn followed by a well room. The well room then
communicates with a four pillared hall and then a makeshift
burial chamber, formed from what would have been another
corridor, where the king's sarcophagus was located.
This tomb is literally a straight shot leading 75.38 meters
into the cliff face with only a mild descent for the most part
leading about 6.53 meters deep, and with no lateral rooms.
However, a rectangular niche on the right side of the pillared
hall may mark the location where the usual annex would have
been cut. Missing also is the high trapezoidal niches often
found at the beginning of the third corridor.
Much of the painted decoration is intact and the plaster appears to be
relatively stable. None of the well-preserved relief was ever painted. Breaks in the surface of the walls have
recently been filled in by Antiquities Inspectorate restorers.
Due to the hurried completion of the tomb, decorations in
clearly take two forms. While those in the initial part of the
tomb are well formed using both sunk and raised reliefs, they
give way to less accomplished work executed in paint only
deeper within the tomb, with the four pillared hall being the
only exception. There, the decorations again revert to sunk
reliefs, though paint was not always applied. In some of the
deepest corridors, only preliminary sketches were made on the
plaster surface. Throughout the tomb, even including the first
corridor where we find the raised and sunk reliefs, there are
stylistic differences within the craftsmanship of the work
that might suggest the use of different artisans.
While the tomb may have been unfinished, unusually, the
walls of the entrance were carefully smoothed and covered with
a layer of white plaster, as elsewhere within the tomb.
However, no decorative theme was applied to the entrance and
entrance corridor walls.
 However, in the next, longer corridor (Corridor One) on the
doorway lintel is depicted the kneeling goddesses Isis and
Nephthys, and between them a sun disk with a scarab and a ram
headed god. Inscribed on the jambs of the doorway are the
names of Seti II with an image of Ma'at, also shown kneeling.
Within this corridor, are depictions of Seti II making
offerings to Re-Horakhty and offering vases to
Nefertem
followed by the initial passages of the Litany of Re on the
east wall. The scene of Seti II and Nefertem were cut over the
original opening vignette of the Litany of Ray which was then
reinscribed further down the corridor. On the west wall are
scenes of Sokar and Seti II making offerings of incense and
libations to Re-Horakhty. The remainder of the corridor
continues with the tests of the Litany of Re. On the ceiling
of this corridor we find painted flying vultures, some with
the head of a cobra and not completely painted. Between the
vultures the king's name is inscribed, and along the edges of
the ceiling are texts relating to Osiris and Re-Horakhty.
The scenes on the next two corridors are oriented towards
the rear of the tomb on the eastern walls, while on the west
they run towards the tomb's entrance.
 Over the outer lintel of the second corridor is found a
winged disk, while on the doorjambs the Litany of Re is
continued. On the walls within this corridor, the decorative
theme is executed in red, preliminary sketches only. On the
east wall we find Seti II making offerings to Re-Horakhty,
while on the west wall he makes an offering to Sokar. The
remainder of this corridor continues with sections of the
Litany of Re, including the 75 forms of the sun
god. Further
on, we also find the second and third hours of the Amduat on
both the east and west walls. In this corridor, the ceiling
once again portrays Isis and Nephthys, this time as kites, on
either side of a sun disk containing the ram headed bird
representing the ba (soul) of Re. This scene is followed by
more text from the Litany of Re. Stars were to have filled the
remainder of the ceiling, but were never completely
rendered.
The outer lintel of the third corridor is decorated with a
winged disk, while on the door jams we find the names and a
depiction of Seti II. Within this corridor, the east wall is
inscribed with representations from the fourth hour of the
Amduat, while the west wall depicts the fifth hour.
Within the well room (ritual shaft) the niches at the
entrance are, for the first time, fully cut. Here, an
innovation is the depiction of various divine statues, many imitations
of actual wooden figures similar to those found in the
tomb of
Tutankhamun. Normally we would find the
 depiction of
protective deities such as the Four Sons of Horus and the
related goddesses, but for unexplained reasons these figures
have been omitted.
Left: Double scene of Seti II making
offerings
The walls within the four pillared chamber are rendered
with the fourth and fifth divisions of the Book of
Gates. On
the rear wall is a double scene of Seti II offering an image
of Ma'at and two vases to Osiris. Here, the pillars depict
Seti II, Horus-Iwn-mutef,
Ptah, who is in a shrine, along with
other deities. The innovative decorations on the pillars,
which have only one figure on each side and two adjacent sides
forming a "scene, was a development used consistently
from this time forward.
 
Scenes from within the Well Room
 Finally, in the makeshift burial chamber are several
registers. The upper of these contain images of Anubis the
jackal on a shrine and two rows of deities representing the
followers of Re and Osiris. On the lower registers are scenes
of mummified figures on snake style beds representing the
fifth division of the Book of Gates. Along the length of the
ceiling is Nut, with down swept wings, and above her head
perhaps the remains of depictions of ba of Re. James Burton
tells us that:
"It seems they bought in the body before the tomb
was finished and then went on working - a large figure of a
Deity with outspread wings painted on the ceiling of above
the sarcophagus - very rough. Some beautifully drawn figures
of the king in red lines."
 Not much in the way of funerary equipment was discovered
within this tomb, and the body of Seti II had been removed
during antiquity to the tomb of
Amenhotep II (KV35), along
with the mummies of other royalty, for safe keeping. Fragments
of his red granite sarcophagus lid were present within this
tomb, but no trance of the actual box was ever discovered.
These fragments remain in the tomb, and have been restored and
placed on supports so as to suggest the original appearance of
the sarcophagus. On the top of this sarcophagus is an Osirian
depiction of Seti II, while the goddess Nut stretches across
the reverse side. Unfortunately, the top of the lid is
missing, along with the face of the king. However, the head of
the goddess Nut is now in the Egyptian collection at the
Louvre in Paris. Because this is the smallest of any New
Kingdom sarcophagus ever discovered, it has been suggested by
Aidan Dodson that it might in fact have been meant to nest
within a larger sarcophagus, similar to that of Ramesses
III.
General Site Information
- Structure: KV 15
- Location: Valley of the Kings, East Valley, Thebes West Bank, Thebes
- Owner: Seti II
- Other designations: 10 [Champollion], 15 [Lepsius], 21, T [Hay], B [Burton], I, plan H
[Pococke], VIe Tombeau à l'ouest [Description]
- Site type: Tomb
Orientation
- Axis in degrees: 223.75
- Axis orientation: Southwest
Site Location
- Latitude: 25.44 N
- Longitude: 32.36 E
- Elevation: 192.62 msl
- North: 99,355.431
- East: 94,001.317
- JOG map reference: NG 36-10
- Modern governorate: Qena (Qina)
- Ancient nome: 4th Upper Egypt
- Surveyed by TMP: Yes
Measurements
- Maximum height: 3.5 m
- Mininum width: 2.17 m
- Maximum width: 8.06 m
- Total length: 88.65 m
- Total area: 298.11 m²
- Total volume: 816.53 m³
Additional Tomb Information
- Entrance location: Base of sheer cliff
- Owner type: King
- Entrance type: Ramp
- Interior layout: Corridors and chambers
- Axis type: Straight
Decoration
- Graffiti
- Painting
- Raised relief
- Sunk relief
Categories of Objects Recovered
- Human mummies
- Tomb equipment
Dating:
History of Exploration
- Pococke, Richard (1737-1738): Mapping/planning
- Napoleonic Expedition (1799): Mapping/planning
- Burton, James (1825): Mapping/planning
- Franco-Tuscan Expedition (1828-1829): Epigraphy
- Lepsius, Carl Richard (1844-1845): Epigraphy
- Carter, Howard (1903-1904): Excavation
References:
Archives
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