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depicting Ramesses III]]
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Also written Ramses and Rameses<br/>
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<hiero>G39-N5</hiero><hiero><-C2-ms-z:z-HqA-q-iwn-></hiero> <br> '''Ramesse Hekaiunu'''<br> Ra bore him, Ruler of Heliopolis
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<hiero>M23-L2</hiero><hiero><-ra-wsr-mAat-i-mn:n:N36-></hiero> <br>'''Usermaatre Meryamun'''<br>Powerful one of Ma'at and Ra , Beloved of Amun
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1186 to 1155 BC
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Setnakhte
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Ramesses IV
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20th Dynasty
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Setnakht
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Tiy-Merenese
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Iset Ta-Hemdjert , Tiye
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Ramesses IV , Ramesses VI , Ramesses VIII ,<br /> Amun-her-khepeshef , Khaemwaset , Meryamun , <br /> Meryatum , Montuherkhopshef , Pareherwenemef ,<br /> Pentawer , Duatentopet ()
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1155 BC
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KV11
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Medinet Habu
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(also written '''Ramses''' and '''Rameses''') was the second Pharaoh of the
Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great
New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. He was the son of
Setnakht and Queen '''Tiy-merenese.''' Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from
March 1186 to
April 1155 BC . This is based on his known accession date of I Shemu day 26 and his death on Year 32 III Shemu day 15, for a reign of 31 years, 1 month and 19 days.E.F. Wente & C.C. Van Siclen, "A Chronology of the New Kingdom" in Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes, (SAOC 39) 1976, p.235, ISBN 0-918986-01-X (Alternate dates for this king are
1187 To 1156 BC ).
A fixed chronological point for this pharaoh's reign was the eruption of the Hekla III Iceland volcano from 1159 BC onwards. Since it is well known that the king experienced difficulties provisioning his workmen at knew Ramesses III as which is a corruption of his popular Egyptian name, Ra-messu-pa-neter.
Rhampsinitus Online Encyclopedia
During his long tenure in the midst of the surrounding political chaos of the
Greek Dark Ages , Egypt was beset by foreign invaders (including the so-called
Sea Peoples and the
Libyans ) and experienced the beginnings of increasing economic difficulties and internal strife which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Twentieth Dynasty. In Year 8 of his reign, the Sea Peoples, including
Peleset ,
Denyen ,
Shardana ,
Weshwesh of the sea, and
Tjekker , invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles. He claims that he incorporated them as subject peoples and settled them in Southern Canaan, although there is evidence that they forced their way into Canaan. Ramesses III, unable to admit defeat, claimed that it was his idea in the first place. Their presence in Canaan may have contributed to the formation of new states in this region such as Philistia after the collapse of the Egyptian Empire. He was also compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in 2 major campaigns in Egypt's Western Delta in his Year 6 and Year 11 respectively.Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Books, 1992. p.271
The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypt's treasury and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia. The severity of these difficulties is stressed by the fact that the first known labor strike in recorded history occurred during Year 29 of Ramesses III's reign, when the food rations for the Egypt's favoured and elite royal tomb-builders and artisans in the village of (now known as
Deir El Medina ), could not be provisioned.William F. Edgerton, The Strikes in Ramses III's Twenty-Ninth Year, JNES 10, No. 3 (July 1951), pp. 137-145 The main reason for this deficiency was presumably caused by the massive and extended
1159 BC to
1140 BC eruption of the
Hekla III volcano in Iceland, which expelled large amounts of plume and rock into the atmosphere thereby causing large-scale failures of Egypt's crop harvest.Frank J. Yurco, "End of the Late Bronze Age and Other Crisis Periods: A Volcanic Cause" in ''Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente'', ed: Emily Teeter & John Larson, (SAOC 58) 1999, pp.456-458 The presence of significant quantities of volcanic soot in the air prevented much sunlight from reaching the ground and also arrested global tree growth for almost two full decades until 1140 BC. The result in Egypt was a substantial inflation in grain prices under the later reigns of Ramesses VI-VII whereas the prices for fowl and slaves remained constant.Frank J. Yurco, op. cit., p.456 The eruption, hence, affected Ramesses III's final years and impaired his ability to provide a constant supply of grain rations to the workman of the Deir el-Medina community.
These difficult realities are completely ignored by the images of continuity and stability presented in Ramesses' official monuments—most of which seek to emulate his more famous predecessor,
Ramesses II . He built important additions to the temples at
Luxor and
Karnak , and his funerary temple and administrative complex at
Medinet-Habu is amongst the largest and best preserved in Egypt – however, the uncertainty of Ramesses' times is apparent from the massive fortifications which were built to enclose the latter. No Egyptian temple in the heart of Egypt prior to Ramesses' reign had ever needed to be protected in such a manner.
Ramesses' two main names, shown left, transliterate as wsr-m3‘t-r‘–mry-ỉmn r‘-ms-s–ḥḳ3-ỉwnw. They are normally realised as , meaning "Powerful one of
Ma'at and
Ra , Beloved of
Amun ,
Ra bore him, Ruler of
Heliopolis ".
Thanks to the discovery of
Papyrus trial transcripts (dated to Rameses III), it is now known that there was a plot against his life as a result of a royal
Harem conspiracy during the celebration of Medinet Habu. The conspiracy was instigated by Tey, one of his two principal wives (Isis and Tey), over whose son would inherit the throne. Isis's son,
Ramesses IV , was the eldest and the chosen successor by Ramesses III rather than
Tey 's son
Pentawere . It is not known if the plot succeeded because the body of Ramesses III shows no obvious wounds while the crown passed to Ramesses III's designated successor, Ramesses IV. Some have put forth a hypothesis that a snakebite from a
Viper was the cause of the king's death but this proposal has not been proven. Ramesses III may perhaps have initiated the trials himself to capture the perpetrators of the conspiracy late in his life.It is also known that he lived as long as about 2 weeks after the assassination attempt. His mummy includes a protective amulet to protect Ramesses III in the afterlife from a snakebite, which is very unusual for a pharaoh. The servant in charge of his food and drink was among the listed conspirators, but there were also some conspirators called the snake and the lord of snakes that might have been the most responsible.
The documents also emphasize the extensive scale of the conspiracy to assassinate the king since at least 40 individuals were implicated in the plot.
Ramesses III: Egypt's last great pharaoh Chief among them was Queen Tey and her son did such a thorough job of this that the only references to them are these ancient documents and the remains of their tombs. The harem women tried to seduce the members of the judiciary who tried them but were caught in the act.
It has been recently suggested that Pentawere, being a noble, had been spared the humiliating fate of the other conspirators. The others would have been burned alive with their ashes strewn in the streets. Such punishment would serve to make a strong example since it conveyed the gravity of their treason for ancient Egyptians who believed that one could only attain an afterlife if one's body was mummified and preserved. In other words, not only were the criminals killed in the physical world, but also in the afterlife. They would have no chance of living on in the next world, a kind of 'second death'. Pentawere, however, may have been given the option to commit suicide by taking poison and so avoid the harsher punishment of second death. This could have allowed him to be mummified and, theoretically, move on to the afterlife.
The Great Harris Papyrus or
Papyrus Harris I , which was commissioned by his son and chosen successor
Ramesses IV , chronicles this king's vast donations of land, gold statues and monumental construction to Egypt's various temples at
Piramesse ,
Heliopolis ,
Memphis ,
Athribis ,
Hermopolis ,
Thinis, Egypt ,
Abydos ,
Coptos ,
El Kab and other cities in Nubia and Syria. It also records that the king dispatched a trading expedition to the
Land Of Punt and quarried the copper mines of Timna in southern Canaan. Papyrus Harris I has Ramesses III relating that:
More notably, Ramesses began the reconstruction of the
Temple Of Khonsu at
Karnak from the foundations of an earlier temple of
Amenhotep III and completed the Temple of
Medinet Habu (temple) around his Year 12.Jacobus Van Dijk, 'The Amarna Period and the later New Kingdom' in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, ed. Ian Shaw, Oxford University Press paperback, (2002) p.305 He decorated the walls of his Medinet Habu temple with scenes of his Naval and Land battles against the
Sea Peoples . This monument stands today as one of the best preserved temples of the New Kingdom.Van Dijk, op. cit., p.305
The
Mummy of Ramesses III was discovered by antiquarians in
1886 and is regarded as the prototypical Egyptian Mummy in numerous Hollywood movies.Bob Brier, The Encyclopedia of Mummies, Checkmark Books, 1998., p.154 His tomb (
KV11 ) is one of the largest in the
Valley Of The Kings .
