Bay (treasurer)

Bay in hieroglyphics
Surname
Image of the Bay in the Temple of Amada

Bay , also Bai , Baja or Beja , was an ancient Egyptian treasurer, probably of Syrian origin, and lived at the end of the 19th dynasty under Pharaoh Sethos II and Siptah , with whom he appears on various monuments .

Bay's career began under Seti II as a royal scribe and steward . After his death he supported his widow Tausret in the accession to the throne of the royal son Siptah, under whose reign he was "Great Treasurer of the Country".

He is also named as treasurer on objects from the foundation stone offerings in the mortuary temple of Siptah, which seems to indicate his unusual position. Apparently Bay fell out of favor during the reign of Siptah. After in 2000 by Pierre Grandet published Ostracon IFAO 1864 he was in the fifth year of the reign Siptah 27 of the third month of the season Schemu executed as a public enemy. After that, Bay's name was no longer mentioned in official documents. In the Great Harris Papyrus , which first describes the chaotic conditions in Egypt, then the arrival of Ramses III. to praise, a Syrian is called Iarsu , who is said to have made Egypt tributary . It is very likely a reference to Bay. The meaning of the term Iarsu - bay should obviously not be called by name - is controversial, but may mean the one who made himself .

After Siptah's death, Bay was certainly ostracized . A grave has even been prepared for him in the Valley of the Kings ( KV13 ), but he was never buried there.

literature

• Wolfgang Helck : Bai. In: Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). Volume I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 , Sp. 604-605.
• Thomas Schneider : Siptah and Beja: reassessment of a historical constellation. In: Journal of Egyptian Language and Antiquity. No. 130, 2003, pp. 134-146.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bertha Porter , Rosalind LB Moss , Ethel W. Burney: Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. I. The Theban Necropolis. Part 2. Royal Tombs and smaller Cemeteries. 2nd revised and expanded edition. The Clarendon Press / Griffith Institute / Ashmolean Museum , Oxford 1964, p. 527 ( PDF file; 22.3 MB ); Retrieved from The Digital Topographical Bibliography .
2. ^ Hermann A. Schlögl : The old Egypt. (= Beck series 2305; CH Beck Wissen ). Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-48005-5 , p. 108.
3. ^ Wolfgang Helck : Bai. In: Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). Volume I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 , Sp. 604-605.
4. ^ Pierre Grandet: L'exécution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864. In: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. (BIFAO) No. 100, Cairo 2000, pp. 339–345 ( online ( memento of the original from February 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
5. ↑ Hartwig Altenmüller : Tausret's way to royalty. Metamorphoses of a Queen. In: Rolf Gundlach, Ursula Rössler-Köhler (Hrsg.): The monarchy of the Ramesside period: requirements, realization, legacy. Files of the 3rd symposium on the Egyptian royal ideology in Bonn 7.-9. 6. 2001. 2003, p. 110.
6. ↑ Pierre Grandet (2014): Early to Mid-20th Dynasty. In: Wolfram Grajetzk, Willeke Wendrich (eds.): UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE). Los Angeles, p. 1, ( online ).