Poisoned Legacy: The Decline and Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty pdf

Dodson, born in London on 11 September 1962, studied at Langley Grammar School (1975–81), before moving to Collingwood College, Durham (1981-2). He completed a BA at the University of Liverpool (1985), and an MPhil (1986, Museum Practice and Archaeology) and PhD (1995, Egyptology) at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He began teaching at the University of Bristol in October 1996, also holding the post of Simpson Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo from January to July 2013. His primary research interests concern Ancient Egypt, with a particular focus on dynastic history and chronology, tomb architecture, sarcophagus and coffin design, canopic equipment, and the history of Egyptology; he is also an historian of late 19th and early 20th century navies, and has written on the royal tombs of Great Britain.

Poisoned Legacy: The Decline and Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty pdf by Aidan Dodson

The reign of Rameses II is one of the best-known of Egyptian history, with almost every ancient site preserving traces of his time. However, after his death, his dynasty, the Nineteenth, soon fell into decline and familial conflict, culminating in a final civil war that ended with theaccession of a new dynasty. Sethy I and Rameses II's promotion of a concept of a wider 'royal family' may have sown the seeds for the conflicts among their descendants. Aidan Dodson explores the mysteries of the origins of the usurper-king Amenmeses and the career of the 'king-maker' of the period,the chancellor Bay. Having helped to install at least one pharaoh on the throne, Bay's life was ended by his abrupt execution, ordered by the woman with whom he had shared the regency of Egypt for the young and disabled King Siptah. Finally, the author considers how that woman-Tawosret-became thelast true female pharaoh, and how she finally lost her throne to the founder of the Twentieth Dynasty, Sethnakhte.