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Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the Great Royal Wife of the Ancient Egypt pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of pharaoh Tutankhamun; her parents were Yuya and Thuya. In 2010, DNA analysis confirmed her as the mummy known as " The Elder Lady" found in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) in 1898.
Egyptologists have suggested that Tiye's father, Yuya, was of foreign origin due to the features of his mummy and the many different spellings of his name, which might imply it was a non-Egyptian name in origin. Some suggest that the queen's strong political and unconventional religious views might have been due not just to a strong character, but to foreign descent.
Tiye also had a brother, Anen, who was Second Prophet of Amun. Ay, a successor of Tutankhamun as pharaoh after the latter's death, is believed to be yet another brother of Tiye, despite no clear date or monument confirming a link between the two. Egyptology presume this connection from Ay's origins (also from Akhmin), because he is known to have built a chapel dedicated to the local god Min there, and because he inherited most of the titles that Tiye's father, Yuya, held at the court of Amenhotep III during his lifetime.Shaw, Ian. The Oxford history of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press: London, 2003. p.253
Tiye was married to Amenhotep III by the second year of his reign. He had been born of a secondary wife of his father and needed a stronger tie to the royal lineage. Their marriage was celebrated by the issue of commemorative scarabs, announcing Tiye as Great Royal Wife and giving the names of her parents. He appears to have been crowned while still a child, perhaps between the ages of six and twelve. The couple had at least seven, and possibly more, children.
NB * Smenkhkare – has been speculated to be a son to Tiye but in fact primary sources that list her other children make this unlikely. Traditionally seen as one of Akhenaten's immediate successors, today some Egyptologists such as Aidan Dodson believe he was the immediate predecessor of Neferneferuaten and a junior co-regent of Akhenaten who did not have an independent reign.Aidan Dodson, "Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemhab and the Egyptian Counter-reformation" (Cairo: AUC Press, 2010), pp.27-29 Sometimes identified with the mummy from KV55, and therefore Tutankhamun's father. The Younger Lady from KV35 – A daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye, mother of Tutankhamun and sister-wife of KV55. Presumably one of the already-known daughters of Amenhotep III and Tiye. Beketaten – Sometimes thought to be Queen Tiye's daughter, usually based on reliefs of Baketaten seated next to Tiye at dinner with Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Probably Nebetah who likely changed her name when her brother Akhenaten changed the religion.
Amenhotep III died in Year 38 or Year 39 of his reign (1353 BC/1350 BC) and was buried in the Valley of the Kings in WV22; however, Tiye is known to have outlived him by as many as twelve years. Tiye continued to be mentioned in the Amarna letters and in inscriptions as queen and beloved of the king. Amarna letter EA 26, which is addressed to Tiye, dates to the reign of Akhenaten. She is known to have had a house at Akhetaten (Amarna), Akhenaten's new capital and is shown on the walls of the tomb of Huya – a "steward in the house of the king's mother, the great royal wife Tiyi" – depicted at a dinner table with Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their family and then being escorted by the king to her sunshade. In an inscription approximately dated to November 21 of Year 12 of Akhenaten's reign (1338 BC), both she and her granddaughter Meketaten are mentioned for the last time. They are thought to have died shortly after that date. This information is corroborated by the fact that the shrine which Akhenaten created for her—which was later found transported from Amarna to tomb KV55 in Thebes—bore the later form of the Aten's name which was only used after Akhenaten's Year 9.Joyce Tyldesley, Nefertiti: Egypt's Sun Queen, Penguin UK, 2005
If Tiye died soon after Year 12 of Akhenaten's reign (1338 BC), this would place her birth around 1398 BC, her marriage to Amenhotep III at the age of eleven or twelve, and her becoming a widow at the age of forty-eight to forty-nine. Suggestions of a co-regency between Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten lasting for up to twelve years continue, but most scholars today either accept a brief co-regency lasting no more than one yearReeves, Nicholas. Akhenaten: The False Prophet, pp. 75-78 or no co-regency at all.
In 1898, three sets of mummified remains were found in a side chamber of the tomb of Amenhotep II in KV35 by Victor Loret. One was an older woman and the other two were a young boy who died at around the age of ten, thought to be Webensenu or Prince Thutmose, and a younger, unknown woman. The three were found lying naked side-by-side and unidentified, having been unwrapped in antiquity by tomb robbers. The mummy of the older woman, who would later be identified as Tiye, was referred to by Egyptologists as the 'Elder Lady' while the other woman was 'The Younger Lady'. Several researchers argued that the Elder Lady was Queen Tiye. There were other scholars who were skeptical of this theory, such as British scholars Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton, who once stated that "it seems very unlikely that her mummy could be the so-called 'Elder Lady' in the tomb of Amenhotep II."
A nest of four miniature coffins inscribed with her name and containing a lock of hair was found in the tomb of her grandson Tutankhamun – perhaps a memento from a beloved grandmother. In 1976, microprobe analysis conducted on hair samples from the Elder Lady and the lock from the inscribed coffins found the two were a near perfect match, thereby identifying the Elder Lady as Tiye.
By 2010, DNA analysis, sponsored by the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass, was able to formally identify the Elder Lady as Queen Tiye.Hawass, Zahi et al. "Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun's Family" The Journal of the American Medical Association pp.640-641 She was found to be about 40–50 years old at the time of her death, and tall. (2025). 9789774166730, The American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 9789774166730 DNA results published in 2020 revealed that Tiye had the mtDNA haplogroup K (as did her mother, Thuya). Tiye's father Yuya was found to have the Y-DNA haplogroup G2a and mtDNA haplogroup K.
Her mummy has the inventory number CG 61070. In April 2021 her mummy was moved from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to National Museum of Egyptian Civilization along with those of three other queens and 18 kings in an event termed the Pharaohs' Golden Parade.
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