Iset Ta-Hemdjert

Who is Iset Ta-Hemdjert?

Iset Ta-Hemdjert or Isis Ta-Hemdjert, simply called Isis in her tomb, was an Ancient Egyptian queen of the twentieth dynasty; the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses III and the Royal Mother of Ramesses VI.

She was probably of Asian origin; her mother's name Hemdjert is not an Egyptian name but a Syrian one. One of her children are known to us, Ramesses VI, who succeeded his nephew Ramesses V, the short-lived son of Ramesses IV. Other than Ramesses V, the grandchildren of Iset Ta-Hemdjert include Ramesses VII, the God's Wife of Amun Iset, and princes Amunherkhopsef and Panebenkemyt; these are all the children of Ramesses VI. Ramesses IV was once thought to be this queen's own son too until it was revealed in a recent 2010 Journal of Egyptian Archaeology article that Queen Tyti was most likely to be this king's mother from copies of fragments of the tomb robbery papyri that Anthony Harris made revealing that she was Ramesses III's own wife plus the fact that she is known to have been a king's mother.

Apart from the Great Royal Wife designation, she also held the titles of God's Wife, and, during the reign of her sons, "King's Mother". She is shown on a statue of Ramesses III in the Mut temple at Karnak. She was still alive during the reign of Ramesses VI, when her granddaughter Iset became God's Wife of Amun. She was buried in the Valley of the Queens, in tomb QV51.