Page "Amenmesse" Paragraph 2

Rolf Krauss, followed by Aidan Dodson, suggests that Amenmesse was once a Kushite Viceroy called Messuwy.

In particular, two representations of Messuwy on the temple of Amida allegedly shows that a royal uraeus had been added to his brows in a way consistent with other pharaohs such as Horemheb, Merenptah and some of the sons of Rameses III.

Also an inscription at the temple of Amada also calls him " the king's son himself " but this may be merely a figure of speech to emphasize Messuwy's high stature as Viceroy under Merneptah.

However, Frank Yurco notes that various depictions of Messuwy in several Nubian temples were never deliberately defaced by Seti II's agents compared to the damnatio memoriae meted out to all depictions of another Viceroy of Kush, Kha-em-ter, who had served as Amenmesse's Vizier.

This strongly implies that Seti II held no grudge against Messuwy which would be improbable if Messuwy was indeed Amenmesse.

Yurco also observes that the only objects from Messuwy's tomb which identified a Pharaoh all named only Merneptah, Seti II's father which leads to the conclusion that Messuwy died and was buried in his tomb at Aniba, Nubia during Merneptah's reign, and could not be Amenmesse.