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Volume 9 issue 5 April 2009

ANCIENT EGYPT explores the WORLD WIDE WEB ...

THE REIGN OF RAMESES III

This month’s NETFISHING continues its look at the history of Egypt by seeing what the World Wide Web has to say about ‘The Last Great Pharaoh’ of Pharaonic times – Rameses III.

The death of Queen Tausret marks the end of the Nineteeth Dynasty, and the short, three year, reign of her successor, a King Sethnakhte (a possible grandson of Rameses II), was devoted to restoring order to the kingdom. Refer:

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/setnakhte.htm

The reign of Rameses III began with a co-regency with his father Sethnakhte, but after his father’s death Rameses III began to make his mark upon the ancient world. As early as Year Five of his reign, he had to fight a coalition of Libyan and Western tribes who were seeking to infiltrate Egypt’s borders. Rameses was successful, but was to face a far greater challenge in Year Eight of his reign, when the ‘Sea Peoples’ launched a major attack against Egypt. Refer:

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/ramessesiii.htm

The world at this time appears to have been in turmoil, with the fall of Mycenae, and widespread famine, which displaced thousands of people in the Aegean and the Levant. Egypt had always been seen as a source of riches and food and so, as entire populations migrated, Egypt became the ultimate goal. The ‘Sea Peoples’ appear to have been a confederation of displaced peoples from the Eastern Mediterranean who launched a concerted attack against the Delta in an attempt to settle, with their families, in Egypt. Refer:

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/seapeople.htm

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/hittites/f/seapeople.htm

Rameses III succeeded in defeating the joint forces of the ‘Sea Peoples’, a major victory for a desert kingdom, and he recorded this and his other military victories on the walls of his magnificent Mortuary Temple at Medinet Habu, one of the best preserved temples of the New Kingdom. Refer:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/habu.htm

http://egyptsites.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/temple-of-rameses-iii/

The king’s other major building work to have survived is the small temple ‘way station’ he erected just outside the Temple of Amun at Karnak. Built to house the sacred barques of the gods when in procession, this small temple of Rameses is now enclosed, on the outhern side, of the First Courtyard of Karnak Temple. Refer:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/egypt/explore/karnakrams.html

http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/feature/RamessesIIITemple

One of the most prominent events of his reign occurred in his twenty-ninth year, when the builders of his tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV11) went on strike. This is the first-ever record of ‘a sit-down strike’, when the workers of Deir el Medina Village literally ‘downed tools’ and refused to work until their wages were paid in full. It appears that certain members of the village administration had been siphoning off a portion of the workers’ grain rations for many months, and in the end the workers staged a protest against this injustice. Refer:

http://libcom.org/history/records-of-the-strike-in-egypt-under-ramses-iii

http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/texts/turin_strike_papyrus.htm

http://www.ancient-egypt.co.uk/Deir%20el%20Medina/index.htm

The final event of his reign is still controversial and is open to different interpretations. This is the ‘harem conspiracy’, in which a junior wife in the harem plotted to assassinate the king and place her own son, one Penta-Waret, on the throne. A popular uprising was also to have been instigated throughout Egypt and magic was used to injure the king in the form of ‘waxen images’ of his majesty. The plot appears to have been discovered in time, however, and a ‘Royal Commission’ was set up to bring those involved to trial, as described in the ‘Judicial Papyrus of Turin’. Rameses III himself may have set this Commission up, but he appears to have died before it could make its final report, as he is referred to as ‘the Great God’ in latter parts of the papyrus – the title given to a deceased pharaoh. Refer:

http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/judicial_turin_papyrus.htm

http://historicalarchaeologyintheancientmediterranean.typepad.com/historical_archaeology_in/2008/04/the-harem-consp.html

Ramesses III was buried in KV11, a beautiful tomb, famous for its unique depiction of a blind harpist. Refer:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/ramesses3t.htm

http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/sites/browse_tomb_825.html

http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/articles/article_4.5b.html

The work undertaken by the villagers of Deir el Medina must not be forgotten, for two of the most famous monuments of Rameses III are the tombs of his two sons, Amun-Her-Khepeshef, and Prince Khaemwaset. Refer:

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/Amenherkhepshef.htm

http://egyptsites.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/tomb-of-prince-amunherkhopshef-qv55/

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/khaemwasett.htm

http://egyptsites.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/tomb-of-prince-khaemwaset-qv44/

Victor Blunden

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