1.
KV6
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Tomb KV6 in Egypts Valley of the Kings was the final resting place of the 20th-dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses IX. It is located in the part of the Valley. Its unusually wide entrance stands between, and slightly above, those of two particularly interesting tombs, KV5 and KV55. Running a total distance of 105 metres into the hillside, the tomb begins with a gate, following on from the ramp come three successive stretches of corridor. The first of these has four side chambers – two on each side – but none of these are decorated or finished, at the end of the corridors come three chambers. The first of these is decorated with the Opening of the Mouth ritual, the second chamber contains four large columns, but neither the stonecutting nor the decoration work were completed. At the far end of this chamber, a ramp slows down to the burial chamber. The ceiling is vaulted, and is decorated with pictures of the goddess Nut. The side walls show scenes from the Book of Caverns and the Book of the Earth, the far wall depicts Ramses on his barque, surrounded by a host of gods. The yellows, dark blues, and blacks used to decorate this chamber are visually striking, while the sarcophagus itself has long since vanished, Ramesses IXs mummy was one of those found in the Deir el-Bahri cache in 1881. KV6 has been open since antiquity, as can be seen by the left on its walls by Roman. Ramesses IX Tomb-plan Ostracon Reeves, N & Wilkinson, R. H, the Complete Valley of the Kings,1996, Thames and Hudson, London Siliotti, A. Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples,1996, A. A
2.
Pharaoh
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The word pharaoh ultimately derive from the Egyptian compound pr-ˤ3 great house, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr house and ˤ3 column, here meaning great or high. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ˤ3 Courtier of the High House, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. During the reign of Thutmose III in the New Kingdom, after the rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. During the eighteenth dynasty the title pharaoh was employed as a designation of the ruler. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ˤ3 on its own was used as regularly as hm. f, the term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated appearance of the pharaoh being attached to a rulers name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun and this new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. Shoshenq I was the successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-ˤ3 continued in traditional Egyptian narratives, by this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced *par-ʕoʔ whence Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה, from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Quran likewise spells it فرعون firawn with n, interestingly, the Arabic combines the original pharyngeal ayin sound from Egyptian, along with the -n ending from Greek. English at first spelt it Pharao, but the King James Bible revived Pharaoh with h from the Hebrew, meanwhile in Egypt itself, *par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ prro and then rro. Scepters and staves were a sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, the earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period, another scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head, the earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty
3.
Egyptian chronology
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The majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. Scholarly consensus on the outline of the conventional chronology current in Egyptology has not fluctuated much over the last 100 years. For the Old Kingdom, consensus fluctuates by as much as a few centuries and this is illustrated by comparing the chronology as given by two Egyptologists, the first writing in 1906, the second in 2000. The disparities between the two sets of result from additional discoveries and refined understanding of the still very incomplete source evidence. For example, Breasted adds a ruler in the Twentieth dynasty that further research showed did not exist, following Manetho, Breasted also believed all the dynasties were sequential, whereas it is now known that several existed at the same time. These revisions have resulted in a lowering of the chronology by up to 400 years at the beginning of Dynasty I. The backbone of Egyptian chronology are the years as recorded in Ancient Egyptian king lists. In addition, some Egyptian dynasties may have overlapped, with different pharaohs ruling in different regions at the same time, not knowing whether monarchies were simultaneous or sequential results in widely differing chronological interpretations. However, further research has shown that these censuses were taken in consecutive years. The sed festival was celebrated on the thirtieth anniversary of the Pharaohs ascension. However, once again, this may not be the practice in all cases. In the early days of Egyptology, the compilation of regnal periods may also have been hampered due to bias on the part of the Egyptologists. This was most pervasive before the mid 19th century, when Manethos figures were recognized as conflicting with biblical chronology based on Old Testament references to Egypt, in the 20th century, such biblical bias has mostly been confined to alternative chronologies outside of scholarly mainstream. A useful way to work around these gaps in knowledge is to find chronological synchronisms, over the past decades, a number of these have been found, although they are of varying degrees of usefulness and reliability. While this does not fix a person or event to a specific year, another example are blocks from the Old Kingdom bearing the names of several kings, which were reused in the construction of Middle Kingdom pyramid-temples at Lisht in the structures of Amenemhat I. The poor documentation of these finds in the Serapeum also compounds the difficulties in using these records. The best known of these is the Sothic cycle, and careful study of this led Richard A. Parker to argue that the dates of the Twelfth dynasty could be fixed with absolute precision. More recent research has eroded this confidence, questioning many of the assumptions used with the Sothic Cycle and this is useful especially for the Early Dynastic period, where Egyptological consensus has only been possible within a range of about three or four centuries
4.
Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt
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The Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt collectively mark the New Kingdom. The latter two dynasties constitute an era known as the Ramesside period, the Twentieth Dynasty is considered to be the last one of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was followed by the Third Intermediate Period. The Pharaohs of the 20th dynasty ruled for approximately 120 years, the dates and names in the table are mostly taken from Chronological Table for the Dynastic Period in Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss & David Warburton, Ancient Egyptian Chronology, Brill,2006. Many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes, more information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website. Pharaoh Setnakhte was likely already middle aged when he took the throne after Queen Twosret and he ruled for only around 4 years when he was succeeded by his son Ramesses III. Egypt was threatened by the Sea Peoples during this time period, the king is also known for a harem conspiracy in which Queen Tiye attempted to assassinate the king and put her son Pentawere on the throne. The coup was not successful in the end, the king may have died from the attempt on his life, but it was his legitimate heir Ramesses IV who succeeded him to the throne. After this a succession of kings named Ramesses take the throne, the period of these rulers is notable for the beginning of the systematic robbing of the royal tombs. Many surviving administrative documents from this period are records of investigations and punishment for crimes, especially in the reigns of Ramses IX. As happened under the earlier Nineteenth Dynasty, this group struggled under the effects of the bickering between the heirs of Ramesses III, for instance, three different sons of Ramesses III are known to have assumed power as Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI and Ramesses VIII respectively. Smendes would eventually found the Twenty-First dynasty at Tanis, the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt was the last of the New Kingdom of Egypt. The familial relationships are unclear, especially towards the end of the dynasty, pharaoh is a historical novel by Bolesław Prus, set in Egypt at the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, which adds two fictional rulers, Ramesses XII and Ramesses XIII. It has been adapted into a film of the same title
5.
Ramesses VIII
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Ramesses VIII is the most obscure ruler of this Dynasty and the current information from his brief kingship suggests that he lasted on the throne for one year at the most. Some scholars assign him a reign of two years. The fact that he succeeded to power after the death of Ramesses VII—a son of Ramesses VI—may indicate a problem in the royal succession. Ramesses VIIIs prenomen or royal name, Usermaatre Akhenamun, means Powerful is the Justice of Re, monuments from his reign are scarce and consist primarily of an inscription at Medinet Habu, a mention of this ruler in one document—Berlin stela 2081 of Hori at Abydos—and one scarab. His only known date is a Year 1, I Peret day 2 graffito in the tomb of Kyenebu at Thebes. According to Erik Hornung in a 2006 book, the date of Ramesses VIII has been established by Amin Amer to date to an 8-month interval between I Peret day 2 and I Akhet day 13. Since no year change occurs in this interval, the accession date for Ramesses VIII must fall outside this period of this text. An all-Egyptian team of researchers headed by Afifi Rohiem under the supervision of Dr. Zahi Hawass were looking for the pharaohs tomb, Ramesses VIII at Find a Grave
6.
Ramesses X
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Khepermaatre Ramesses X was the ninth ruler of the 20th dynasty of Ancient Egypt. His prenomen or throne name, Khepermaatre, means The Justice of Re Abides and his accession day fell on 1 prt 27. His highest attested year is year 3. The highest attested date in his reign is either year 3, second month of the Inundation season, day 2 or possibly year 3, month 4. Since Ramesses XI came to the throne on 3 šmw 20, the theory put forward on astronomical grounds by Richard Parker that Ramesses X may have reigned for 9 years, has since been abandoned. Likewise, the suggested ascription of Theban graffito 1860a to a hypothetical year 8 of Ramesses X is no longer supported. The English Egyptologist Aidan Dodson once wrote in a 2004 book, however, Dodsons hypothesis here on Tytis position must now be discarded since it has been proven in 2010 that Tyti was rather a queen of a previous 20th dynasty pharaoh instead. She is mentioned in the partly fragmented Harris papyrus to be Ramesses IIIs wife as Dodson himself acknowledges, Ramesses X is a poorly documented king. His year 2 is attested by Papyrus Turin 1932+1939 while his third year is documented in the Necropolis Journal of the Workmen of Deir El Medina. This diary mentions the general idleness of the workmen, at least partly due to the threat posed by Libyan marauders in the Valley of the Kings. This is partly a reflection of the massive Libyan influx into the Western Delta region of Lower Egypt during this time, Ramesses X is also the last New Kingdom king whose rule over Nubia is attested from an inscription at Aniba. His KV18 tomb in the Valley of the Kings was left unfinished and it is uncertain if he was ever buried there, since no remains or fragments of funerary objects were discovered within it. KV18, The Tomb of Ramesses X Ramesses X at Find a Grave
7.
Ancient Egyptian royal titulary
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The royal titulary or royal protocol of an Egyptian pharaoh is the standard naming convention taken by the kings of Ancient Egypt. It symbolises worldly power and holy might and also acts as a sort of mission statement for the reign of a monarch. The full titulary, consisting of five names, did not come into standard usage until the Middle Kingdom, the Horus name is the oldest form of the pharaohs name, originating in the Predynastic Period. Many of the oldest-known Egyptian pharaohs were known only by this title, the Horus name was usually written in a serekh, a representation of a palace façade. The name of the pharaoh was written in hieroglyphs inside this representation of a palace, typically an image of the falcon God Horus was perched on top of or beside it. At least one Egyptian ruler, the 2nd dynasty Seth-Peribsen, used an image of the god Seth instead of Horus and he was succeeded by Khasekhemwy, who placed the symbols of both Seth and Horus above his name. Thereafter, the image of Horus always appeared alongside the name of the pharaoh, by the time of the New Kingdom the Horus name was often written without the enclosing serekh. The name is first definitively used by the First Dynasty pharaoh Semerkhet and this particular name was not typically framed by a cartouche or serekh, but always begins with the hieroglyphs of a vulture and cobra resting upon two baskets, the dual noun nebty. Also known as the Golden Horus Name, this form of the name typically featured the image of a Horus falcon perched above or beside the hieroglyph for gold. The meaning of this title has been disputed. One belief is that it represents the triumph of Horus over his uncle Seth, Gold also was strongly associated in the ancient Egyptian mind with eternity, so this may have been intended to convey the pharaohs eternal Horus name. Similar to the Nebty name, this particular name typically was not framed by a cartouche or serekh, the pharaohs throne name, the first of the two names written inside a cartouche, and usually accompanied the title nsw-bity. The term nsw-bity It has been suggested that the Berber term for strong man, the epithet neb tawy, Lord of the Two Lands, referring to valley and delta regions of Egypt, often occurs as well. This was the name given at birth and it was first introduced to the set of royal titles in the Fourth Dynasty and emphasizes the kings role as a representative of the solar god Ra. For women who became pharaoh, the title was interpreted as daughter also. Modern historians typically refer to the ancient kings of Egypt by this name, Middle Egyptian, An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Cairo, London, and New York, The American University in Cairo Press and Thames and Hudson. The Great Name, Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary, Egyptian Grammar, Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs
8.
Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul
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The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts, the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body, the other souls were aakhu, khaibut, and khat. An important part of the Egyptian soul was thought to be the jb, the heart was believed to be formed from one drop of blood from the childs mothers heart, taken at conception. To ancient Egyptians, the heart was the seat of emotion, thought, will and this is evidenced by the many expressions in the Egyptian language which incorporate the word jb. This word was transcribed by E. A. Wallis Budge as Ab, in Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as surviving death in the world, where it gave evidence for, or against. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony, if the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit. A persons shadow or silhouette, Sheut, is always present, because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows, the shadow was also representative to Egyptians of a figure of death, or servant of Anubis, and was depicted graphically as a small human figure painted completely black. Sometimes people had a box in which part of their Sheut was stored. For example, part of the Book of Breathings, a derivative of the Book of the Dead, was a means to ensure the survival of the name, a cartouche often was used to surround the name and protect it. Conversely, the names of deceased enemies of the state, such as Akhenaten, were hacked out of monuments in a form of damnatio memoriae. Sometimes, however, they were removed in order to make room for the insertion of the name of a successor. The greater the number of places a name was used, the greater the possibility it would survive to be read, the Bâ was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of personality. In the Coffin Texts one form of the Bâ that comes into existence after death is corporeal, louis Žabkar argued that the Bâ is not part of the person but is the person himself, unlike the soul in Greek, or late Judaic, Christian or Muslim thought. The word bau, plural of the ba, meant something similar to impressiveness, power. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the Bau of the deity were at work. The Ka was the Egyptian concept of essence, which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body
9.
Ra
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Ra or Re is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become a god in ancient Egyptian religion. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was merged with the god Horus and he was believed to rule in all parts of the created world, the sky, the earth, and the underworld. He was associated with the falcon or hawk, when in the New Kingdom the god Amun rose to prominence he was fused with Ra as Amun-Ra. During the Amarna Period, Akhenaten suppressed the cult of Ra in favor of another deity, the Aten, the deified solar disc. The cult of the Mnevis bull, an embodiment of Ra, had its center in Heliopolis, all forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra, who called each of them into existence by speaking their secret names. Alternatively man was created from Ras tears and sweat, hence the Egyptians call themselves the Cattle of Ra, in the myth of the Celestial Cow it is recounted how mankind plotted against Ra and how he sent his eye as the goddess Sekhmet to punish them. When she became bloodthirsty she was pacified by drinking beer mixed with red dye, to the Egyptians, the sun represented light, warmth, and growth. This made the sun deity very important, as the sun was seen as the ruler of all that he created, the sun disk was either seen as the body or eye of Ra. Ra was the father of Shu and Tefnut, whom he created, Shu was the god of the wind, and Tefnut was the goddess of the rain. Sekhmet was the Eye of Ra and was created by the fire in Ras eye, Ra was thought to travel on the Atet, two solar barks called the Mandjet or morning boat and the Mesektet or evening boat. These boats took him on his journey through the sky and the Duat, while Ra was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form. When Ra traveled in his sun boat, he was accompanied by other deities including Sia and Hu. Sometimes, members of the Ennead helped him on his journey, including Set, who overcame the serpent Apophis, and Mehen, when Ra was in the underworld, he would visit all of his various forms. Apophis, the god of chaos, was a serpent who attempted to stop the sun boats journey every night by consuming it or by stopping it in its tracks with a hypnotic stare. During the evening, the Egyptians believed that Ra set as Atum or in the form of a ram, the night boat would carry him through the underworld and back towards the east in preparation for his rebirth. When Ra was in the underworld, he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead, Ra was worshipped as the Creator god among some ancient Egyptians, specifically followers of his cult at Heliopolis. It was believed that Ra wept, and from his tears came man and these cult-followers believed that Ra was self-created, while followers of Ptah believed that Ra was created by Ptah
10.
Thebes, Egypt
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Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset, was an ancient Egyptian city located east of the Nile about 800 kilometers south of the Mediterranean. Its ruins lie within the modern Egyptian city of Luxor, Thebes was the main city of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome. It was close to Nubia and the desert, with their valuable mineral resources. It was a center and the wealthiest city of ancient Egypt at its heyday. The Ancient Egyptians originally knew Thebes as Wose or Wase A was was the scepter of the pharaohs, a staff with an animals head. Thebes is the Latinized form of the Greek Thebai, the form of the Demotic Egyptian Ta-pe. This was the name not for the city itself but for the Karnak temple complex on the northern east bank of the city. As early as Homers Iliad, the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as Thebes of the Hundred Gates, as opposed to the Thebes of the Seven Gates in Boeotia, from the end of the New Kingdom, Thebes was known in Egyptian as Niwt-Imn, the City of Amun. Amun was the chief of the Theban Triad of gods whose other members were Mut and this name appears in the Bible as the Nōʼ ʼĀmôn of the Book of Nahum and probably also as the No mentioned in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the interpretatio graeca, Amun was seen as a form of Zeus, the name was therefore translated into Greek as Diospolis, the City of Zeus. To distinguish it from the other cities by this name. The Greek names came into use after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. Thebes was located along the banks of the Nile River in the part of Upper Egypt about 800 km from the Delta. It was built largely on the plains of the Nile Valley which follows a great bend of the Nile. As a natural consequence, the city was laid in a northeast-southwest axis parallel to the river channel. Thebes had an area of 93 km2 which included parts of the Theban Hills in the west that culminates at the sacred 420-meter al-Qurn, in the east lies the mountainous Eastern Desert with its wadis draining into the valley. Significant of these wadis is Wadi Hammamat near Thebes and it was used as an overland trade route going to the Red Sea coast. In the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, Thebes was found to have neighboring towns such as Per-Hathor, Madu, Djerty, Iuny, Sumenu, according to George Modelski, Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC
11.
Amun
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Amun was a major Ancient Egyptian deity. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amaunet, with the 11th dynasty, he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom. Amun-Ra in this period held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity par excellence, he was the champion of the poor or troubled and his position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods, as the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus Ammon he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece, Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts. The name Amun meant something like the one or invisible. Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, as the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed a family or Theban Triad. The history of Amun as the god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th dynasty, major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the 18th dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have begun during the 18th dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court and this Great Inscription shows the kings campaigns and eventual return with booty and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela, which is largely a copy of the more famous Israel Stela found in the complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptahs son Seti II added 2 small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and this was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu. The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Res layout was the addition of the first pylon, the local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all their enterprises to Amun. The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the rulers, brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate
12.
Andjety
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Andjety is an Ancient Egyptian deity whose name is associated with the city of Andjet, which in the Greek language was called Busiris. This deity is known by the alternative names Anezti or Anedjti. Andjety is considered one of the earliest Egyptian gods, possibly with roots in Predynastic Egypt, Andjety is thought to have been a precursor of Osiris. Like Osiris he is depicted holding the crook and flail and has a similar to Osiriss Atef crown. King Sneferu of the 4th dynasty, builder of the first true pyramid, is wearing the crown of Andjety. In the Pyramid texts the power is associated with Andjety. In the temple of Seti I the king is offering incense to Osiris-Andjety who is accompanied by Isis. I immerse the waterways as Osiris, Lord of corruption, as Adjety, horus has revived you in this your name of Andjety
13.
Mentuherkhepeshef (son of Ramesses IX)
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Mentuherkhepeshef was an ancient Egyptian prince of the 20th Dynasty, a son of pharaoh Ramesses IX. His name also occurs as Ramesses-Montuherkhepeshef and he is likely to have been the brother of pharaoh Ramesses X and prince Nebmaatre. He was buried in the tomb KV19 in the Valley of the Kings and his titles were, First Kings Son of his Body, Eldest Kings Son of his Body, Generalissimo, Executive at the Head of the Two Lands
14.
Ramesses III
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Usimare Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. His long reign saw the decline of Egyptian political and economic power, linked to a series of invasions, Ramesses III was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. He was probably murdered by an assassin in a conspiracy led by one of his wives, Tiye. Ramesses two main names transliterate as wsr-mꜢʿt-rʿ–mry-ỉmn rʿ-ms-s–ḥḳꜢ-ỉwnw and they are normally realised as Usermaatre-Meryamun Rameses-Heqaiunu, meaning The Maat of Ra is strong, Beloved of Amun, Born of Ra, Ruler of Heliopolis. Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from March 1186 to April 1155 BC and 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. Alternate dates for his reign are 1187 to 1156 BC, in Year 8 of his reign, the Sea Peoples, including Peleset, Denyen, Shardana, Meshwesh of the sea, and Tjekker, invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles, although the Egyptians had a reputation as poor seamen, they fought tenaciously. Rameses lined the shores with ranks of archers who kept up a continuous volley of arrows into the ships when they attempted to land on the banks of the Nile. Then, the Egyptian navy attacked using grappling hooks to haul in the enemy ships, in the brutal hand-to-hand fighting which ensued, the Sea People were utterly defeated. The Harris Papyrus states, As for those who reached my frontier, their seed is not, their heart and 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 in Asia. Ramesses III was also compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in two campaigns in Egypts Western Delta in his Year 5 and Year 11 respectively. The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypts treasury and contributed to the decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia. Something in the air prevented much sunlight from reaching the ground, the result in Egypt was a substantial increase in grain prices under the later reigns of Ramesses VI–VII, whereas the prices for fowl and slaves remained constant. Thus the cooldown affected Ramesses IIIs final years and impaired his ability to provide a constant supply of rations to the workmen of the Deir el-Medina community. No temple in the heart of Egypt prior to Ramesses reign had ever needed to be protected in such a manner. Thanks to the discovery of papyrus trial transcripts, it is now known there was a plot against his life as a result of a royal harem conspiracy during a celebration at Medinet Habu. The conspiracy was instigated by Tiye, one of his three wives, over whose son would inherit the throne. Tytis son, Ramesses Amonhirkhopshef, was the eldest and the chosen by Ramesses III in preference to Tiyes son Pentaweret
15.
Ramesses XI
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Menmaatre Ramesses XI reigned from 1107 BC to 1078 BC or 1077 BC and was the tenth and final pharaoh of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. He ruled Egypt for at least 29 years although some Egyptologists think he could have ruled for as long as 30, the latter figure would be up to 2 years beyond this kings highest known date of Year 10 of the Whm Mswt era or Year 28 of his reign. One scholar, Ad Thijs, has suggested that Ramesses XI reigned as long as 33 years—such is the degree of uncertainty surrounding the end of his long reign. Piankh is known to have campaigned in Nubia during Year 28 of Ramesses XIs reign, Ramesses XI was once thought to be the son of Ramesses X by Queen Tyti who was a Kings Mother, Kings Wife and Kings Daughter in her titles. Hence, Ramesses XIs mother was not Tyti and although he could have been a son of his predecessor, Ramesses XI is believed to have married Tentamun, the daughter of Nebseny, with whom he is assumed to have fathered Duathathor-Henuttawy—the future wife of the high priest Pinedjem I. Ramesses XI may have had another daughter named Tentamun who became king Smendes future wife in the next dynasty. Sometime during his reign, the High Priest of Amun, Amenhotep, was ousted from office by Pinehesy, the Viceroy of Kush who for some time took control of the Thebais. Ramesses XIs reign is notable for a number of important papyri that have been discovered, including the Adoption Papyrus. Ambras, the Turin Taxation Papyrus, of an unspecified year 12,10068, which includes on its verso two lists, called the House-list and the Srmt-list, Pap. 9997, of an unspecified year 14 and 15, and a series of Late Ramesside Letters written by -among others- the scribes of the Necropolis Dhutmose, Butehamun. Late Ramesside Letter no.9 establishes that the Whm Mswt period lasted into a 10th year. These individuals were recorded as only an ordinary Doorkeeper and Warehouseman in Papyri BM10403 and BM10052 respectively, which are explicitly dated to Year 1 and 2 of the Whm Mswt period. Thijs proceeds to use several anonymous Year 14 and 15 dates in another papyrus, BM9997, to argue that Ramesses XI lived at least into his 32nd and 33rd Regnal Years. This document mentions a certain Sermont, who was titled a ordinary Medjay in the Year 12 House-list but is called Chief of the Medjay in Papyrus BM9997. Sermonts promotion would thus mean that BM9997 postdates the House-list Papyrus, if true, then Ramesses XI should have survived into his 33rd Regnal Year or Year 15 of the Whm Mswt era before dying. 5, line 15 this same individual is presented as a mere “Doorkeeper”. Nevertheless, Thijs case for a Year 33 proper for Ramesses XI should be treated with caution, since there are two attested promotions of individuals in 2 separate papyri, however, there is a possibility that Ramesses XI did live into his 33rd regnal Year. Due to this connection, Thijs argued that the Taxation Papyrus also belonged to the whm-mswt era
16.
KV10
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Tomb KV10, located in the Valley of the Kings near the modern-day Egyptian city of Luxor, was cut and decorated for the burial of Pharaoh Amenmesse of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. However, there is no proof that he was buried here. Later, the decoration was replaced with scenes for Takhat and Baketwernel—two royal women dating to the late 20th dynasty, the Complete Valley of the Kings,1996, Thames and Hudson, London. Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples,1996, Theban Mapping Project, KV10 - Includes description, images and plans of the tomb. KV-10 The Tomb of Amenmesse Project
17.
Abbott Papyrus
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The Abbott Papyrus serves as an important political document concerning the tomb robberies of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom. It also gives insight into the scandal between the two rivals Pewero and Paser of Thebes, the Abbott Papyrus is held and preserved at the British Museum under the number 10221. The original owner/finder of the papyrus is unknown, but it was bought in 1857 from Dr. Henry William Charles Abbott of Cairo, the Abbott Papyrus dates back to the Twentieth Dynasty, around 1100 BC under the reign of Ramesses IX in his 16th year. According to T. Eric Peet, the content takes place in a four-day period from the 18th to the 21st of the third month of the inundation season. The Abbott Papyrus is 218 centimetres in width and 42.5 centimetres in height, the main document consists of seven pages on the recto side, and on the verso side there are two lists of thieves, which have been called the Abbott dockets. The document is in great condition, on the 18th day, the Abbott Papyrus describes a search of the tombs claimed by Pawero to be violated. The commission searched ten royal tombs, four tombs of the Chantresses of the Estate of the Divine Adoratrix, and finally the tombs of the citizens of Thebes. The result of the search is the tomb of King Sobekemsaf II, two out of the four tombs of the Chantresses of the Estate of the Divine Adoratrix, and all of the citizen tombs were disturbed. On the 19th day, the Abbott Papyrus states that there was another search of tombs in the Valley of the Queens, while searching, the coppersmith could not point to the tombs he violated, even after being brutally beaten. The rest of the day was spent searching the tombs, also on the 19th day, there was a celebration for the tombs being undisturbed. Paser believed and stated to officials that the celebration was an aim at him. On the 20th day, the Abbott Papyrus describes a conversation between Pawero and the vizier Khaemwaset, the conversation ended in an investigation into the five charges claimed by Paser. On the 21st day, the Great Court of Thebes convened, after examining the charges made by Paser about the 19th and questioning the coppersmith, Paser is discredited. The Abbott Papyrus is important in the scheme of political trials dealing with tomb robberies. The Abbott Papyrus with relation to the Amherst Papyrus helps to form a complete picture of the tomb robberies of the twentieth dynasty under Ramesses IX. The Abbott connects with the Amherst Papyrus through the tomb of King Sobekemsaf, in the Abbott Papyrus, the tomb of King Sobekemsaf II was investigated and found vandalized. The Amherst Papyrus records the confession of thieves charged with vandalizing the tomb of King Sobekemsaf, from this era, which started in year 19 of the reign of Ramesses XI, several tomb-robbery papyri have survived, most notably, Papyrus Mayer A, Papyrus B. M. The list of thieves in the Abbott dockets foreshadows two trials described in Papyrus Mayer A, the first trial foreshadowed from the Abbot Dockets in Papyrus Mayer A is the trial concerning the thieves of the tombs of Ramesses II and Seti I
18.
Amherst Papyrus
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It contains the confessions of eight men who had broken into the tomb of Sobekemsaf II and a description of the reconstruction of the crime. The document remains an important document for understanding the importance of burial, the grave robbery described in the Amherst-Leopold document came during the 20th Dynasty of ancient Egypt and a background of economic trouble and incipient national disunity. This was a time for Egypt and one that certainly was not prosperous. Egypt was no able to control its foreign territories and lost them, whilst foreign powers, such as Libya. During this period regional leaders, foreign dignitaries and administrative representatives found themselves with power as Pharaohs attempted to control civil order. As such tomb-robbing became a lucrative and more appealing way to get riches during a period of ancient Egypt. Intact burials are very poor ones, the ancient plunderers having known well that they were not worth the trouble of investigation. ”Efforts had been made in the past to discourage tomb-robbers. Despite all the measures to stop these robbers, the lure of potential treasures during the hard times can be seen to have led to robberies like those described in the Amherst-Leopold Papyrus. The actual content of the papyrus is concerned with the confessions of the perpetrators on the crime committed as well as the punishment handed out to them, the tomb that was robbed belonged to Sobekemsaf II and the crimes dated to Year 13 of Ramesses IX. Amenpnufer is shown as the player in the robbery. The robbery was not just limited to Sobekemsaf, we found the royal wife. We took objects of gold, silver, bronze, and divided them amongst us, both the accused and the witnesses were beaten as an aid to their memories. The punishment we are given as listed is that of impalement, a punishment used for the most serious of crimes, the punishment for violating a royal tomb, impalement. In 1935 the missing part was found by the Belgian Egyptologist Jean Capart in the Musées Royaux dArt et dHistoire at Brussels. This fragment had been hidden inside a wooden statuette which had acquired by the future Belgian king Leopold II during one of his visits to Egypt in 1854 or 1862. As such efforts in coordinating the documentation and understanding of the Amherst-Leopold Papyrus have been difficult, the Amherst-Leopold Papyrus is of great importance in helping understand the culture of ancient Egypt and give us more detail than we could ever have recovered from purely archaeological evidence. The document shows us the prevalence of tomb-robbing in ancient Egypt and the rewards it offered, the punishments given for the crime itself also can be seen to be important, the harshness of impalement shows that tomb-robbing was taken very seriously. What we do know for sure is that this source is a view into Egyptian culture and administration, giving us an idea of what life
19.
Recto and verso
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The terms recto and verso refer to the text written on the front and back sides of a leaf of paper in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. The terms are shortened from Latin rectō foliō and versō foliō, translating to on the side of the page and on the turned side of the page. The page faces themselves are called folium rectum and folium versum in Latin, in codicology, each physical sheet of a manuscript is numbered and the sides are referred to as rectum and folium versum, abbreviated as r and v respectively. Editions of manuscripts will thus mark the position of text in the manuscript in the form fol. 1r, sometimes with the r and v in superscript, as in 1r, or with a superscript o indicating the ablative recto, verso and this terminology has been standard since the beginnings of modern codicology in the 17th century. The use of the recto and verso are also used in the codicology of manuscripts written in right-to-left scripts, like Syriac, Arabic. However, as these scripts are written in the direction to the scripts witnessed in European codices. The reading order of each folio remains first recto, then verso regardless of writing direction, the distinction between recto and verso can be convenient in the annotation of scholarly books, particularly in bilingual edition translations. The recto and verso terms can also be employed for the front and back of a one-sheet artwork, a recto-verso drawing is a sheet with drawings on both sides, for example in a sketchbook—although usually in these cases there is no obvious primary side. Some works are planned to exploit being on two sides of the piece of paper, but usually the works are not intended to be considered together. Paper was relatively expensive in the past, indeed good drawing paper still is more expensive than normal paper. In some early printed books, it is the rather than the pages. Thus each folium carries a number on its recto side. This was also common in e. g. internal company reports in the 20th century. Book design Obverse and reverse in coins Page spread
20.
Ramesses VI
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Ramesses VI Nebmaatre-Meryamun was the fifth ruler of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt who reigned from 1145 to 1137 BC and a son of Ramesses III by Iset Ta-Hemdjert. His royal tomb, KV9, is located near Tutankhamuns tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first to establish beyond doubt that Ramesses VI lived into his 8th Regnal Year was the Dutch Egyptologist Jac. He based this on Ostracon IFAO1425, which mentions the loan of an ox in year 8 of a king which can only have been Ramesses VI. His 8th Regnal Year also seems to be attested in Theban graffito 1860a, in the past, this graffito has been ascribed to Ramesses X, but this interpretation has been abandoned and its ascription to Ramesses VI seems by far the best solution. Raphael Venturas interesting reconstruction of a sum in Turin Papyrus 1907+1908. The latest scholarly publication on Egyptian chronology in 2006 also assigned Ramesses VI8 years of rule, Ramesses VI probably lived for two months into his brief 9th regnal year before he died and was succeeded by his son, Ramesses VII. Ramesses VIs chief queen was Nubkhesbed who is mentioned on a stela of Iset E from Koptos and this pharaoh would be succeeded on the throne by his son Ramesses VII. Egypts political and economic decline continued unabated during Ramesses VIs reign, shortly after his burial, his tomb was penetrated and ransacked by grave robbers who hacked away at his hands and feet in order to gain access to his jewelry. A medical examination of his mummy which was found in KV35 in 1898 revealed severe damage to his body, with the head and torso being broken into several pieces by an axe used by the tomb robbers. The creation of Ramesses VIs tomb, however, protected Tutankhamuns own intact tomb from grave robbers since debris from its formation was dumped over the entrance to the boy kings tomb. J. Janssen, Year 8 of Ramesses VI Attested, Göttinger Miszellen 29, peden, Where did Ramesses VI bury his nephew. GM181, 83-88 Ramesses VI at Find a Grave
21.
Necropolis
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A necropolis is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek νεκρόπολις nekropolis, literally meaning city of the dead, the term usually implies a separate burial site at a distance from a city, as opposed to tombs within cities, which were common in various places and periods of history. They are different from fields, which did not have remains above the ground. While the word is most commonly used for ancient sites, the name was revived in the early 19th century and applied to planned city cemeteries, such as the Glasgow Necropolis. Aside from the pyramids which were reserved for the burial of Pharaohs the Egyptian necropoleis included mastabas, naqsh-e Rustam is an ancient necropolis located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars Province, Iran. The oldest relief at Naqsh-i Rustam dates to c.1000 BC, though it is severely damaged, it depicts a faint image of a man with unusual head-gear and is thought to be Elamite in origin. The depiction is part of an image, most of which was removed at the command of Bahram II. Four tombs belonging to Achaemenid kings are carved out of the face at a considerable height above the ground. The tombs are known locally as the Persian crosses, after the shape of the facades of the tombs, later, Sassanian kings added a series of rock reliefs below the tombs. In the Mycenean Greek period pre-dating ancient Greece burials could be performed inside the city, in Mycenae for example the royal tombs were located in a precinct within the city walls. This changed during the ancient Greek period when necropoleis usually lined the roads outside a city, there existed some degree of variation within the ancient Greek world however. Sparta was notable for continuing the practice of burial within the city, the Etruscans took the concept of a city of the dead quite literally. The typical tomb at the Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri consists of a tumulus which covers one or more rock-cut subterranean tombs and these tombs had multiple chambers and were elaborately decorated like contemporary houses. The arrangement of the tumuli in a grid of streets gave it a similar to the cities of the living. The art historian Nigel Spivey considers the name cemetery inadequate and argues that only the term necropolis can do justice to these burial sites. Etruscan necropoleis were located on hills or slopes of hills. In ancient Rome families originally buried deceased relatives in their own homes because of the Roman practice of ancestor worship, the enactment of the Twelve Tables in 449 BC forbade this, which made the Romans adopt the practice of burial in necropoleis. List of necropoleis Funerary art Catacombs
22.
Sobekemsaf II
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Sobekemsaf II was an Egyptian king of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt who reigned during the Second Intermediate Period, when Egypt was ruled by multiple kings. His throne name, Sekhemre Shedtawy, means Powerful is Re, Ryholt believed that Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf intervened between the line of Intef kings and the accession of Senakhtenre—the first 17th Dynasty kings from the Ahmoside family line. This means that Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf ruled on the throne before the Intef kings took power early in the 17th Dynasty—and that he would be Sobekemsaf I instead and the father of Sobekemsaf II. Sobekemsaf II would, therefore, be the son of Sobekemsaf I, the Abbott and Leopold-Amherst Papyruses, which are dated to Year 16 of Ramesses IX, state that this kings royal pyramid tomb was violated and destroyed by tomb robbers. The document ends with the conviction of the thieves—with a probable death sentence—and notes that a copy of the trial transcripts was dispatched to Ramesses IX in Lower Egypt. Amenpnufer himself would have been sentenced to death by impalement, a punishment which was reserved for the most heinous crimes in Ancient Egypt, kim Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800–1550 B. C, Museum Tuscalanum Press,1997. ISBN 87-7289-421-0,393 File 17/2 Leonard Cottrell, The Lost Pharaohs, Pan Books London and Sydney, 8th printing,1977
23.
Paweraa
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Paweraa was the Mayor of Western Thebes during a series of tomb robberies that occurred in the Valley of the Kings during the late New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The vizier Khaemwaset ordered an investigation by a commission of which Paweraa himself was the head, the investigation was considered corrupt by the people of Deir el Medina. In the ensuing trial seventeen work-men from near-by temples were convicted and executed, Paweraa, however, was never charged due to the lack of clear evidence of his guilt. He continued to serve in office while Paser, his accuser, vanished from history, Paweraa later appears in the House-list papyrus which dates to Year 12 of the pre-Whm Mswt era of Ramesses XI. The events surrounding the investigation has been dramatised in the episode of the British docutainment serial Ancient Egyptians. Ancient Records of Egypt by J. H. Breasted, Part Four, §511ff
24.
Valley of the Kings
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The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Thebes, within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi consists of two valleys, East Valley and West Valley, with the 2005 discovery of a new chamber. And the 2008 discovery of two further tomb entrances, the valley is known to contain 63 tombs and chambers and it was the principal burial place of the major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom, as well as a number of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues as to the beliefs, almost all of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the Pharaohs. This area has been a focus of archaeological and egyptological exploration since the end of the eighteenth century, in modern times the valley has become famous for the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In 1979, it became a World Heritage Site, along with the rest of the Theban Necropolis, exploration, excavation and conservation continues in the valley, and a new tourist centre has recently been opened. The types of soil where the Valley of the Kings is located are a sandwich of dense limestone and other sedimentary rock. During the Pleistocene the valley was carved out of the plateau by steady rains, there is currently little year-round rain in this part of Egypt, but there are occasional flash floods that hit the valley, dumping tons of debris into the open tombs. The quality of the rock in the Valley is inconsistent, ranging from finely-grained to coarse stone, the occasional layer of shale also caused construction and conservation difficulties, as this rock expands in the presence of water, forcing apart the stone surrounding it. It is thought that some tombs were altered in shape and size depending on the types of rock the builders encountered, builders took advantage of available geological features when constructing the tombs. Some tombs were quarried out of existing limestone clefts, others behind slopes of scree, the problems of tomb construction can be seen with tombs of Ramesses III and his father Setnakhte. Setnakhte started to excavate KV11 but broke into the tomb of Amenmesse, so construction was abandoned and he usurped the tomb of Twosret. When looking for a tomb, Ramesses III extended the partly-excavated tomb started by his father, the tomb of Ramesses II returned to an early style, with a bent axis, probably due to the quality of the rock being excavated. The area of the Theban hills is subject to infrequent violent thunder storms, recent studies have shown that there are at least seven active flood stream beds leading down into the central area of the valley. This central area appears to have been flooded at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the tombs KV63, KV62, and KV55 are dug into the actual wadi bedrock rather than the debris, showing that the level of the valley was five meters below its present level. This was the area that was the subject of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project ground scanning radar investigation, the Theban Hills are dominated by the peak of al-Qurn, known to the Ancient Egyptians as ta dehent, or The Peak. It has an appearance, and it is probable that this echoed the pyramids of the Old Kingdom. Its isolated position also resulted in reduced access, and special police were able to guard the necropolis
25.
Dakhla Oasis
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Dakhla Oasis, translates to the inner oasis, is one of the seven oases of Egypts Western Desert. Dakhla Oasis lies in the New Valley Governorate,350 km from the Nile and it measures approximately 80 km from east to west and 25 km from north to south. But about 6,000 years ago, the entire Sahara became drier, however, specialists think that nomadic hunter-gatherers began to settle almost permanently in the oasis of Dakhleh in the period of the Holocene, during new, but rare episodes of wetter times. In fact, the climate didnt mean that there was more water than today in what is now known as the Western Desert. In the third millennium BC lived here people that were most likely nomads and are called the Sheikh Muftah culture, the first contacts between the pharaonic power and the oases started around 2550 BCE. During the late 6th Dynasty, hieratic script was sometimes incised into clay tablets with a stylus, about five hundred such tablets have been discovered in the governors palace at Ayn Asil in the Dakhla Oasis. At the time the tablets were made, Dakhla was located far from centers of papyrus production and these tablets record inventories, name-lists, accounts, and approximately fifty letters. The fortified Islamic town of Al Qasr was built at Dakhla Oasis in the 12th century probably on the remains of a Roman era settlement by the Ayyubid kings of Egypt, the first European traveller to find the Dakhla Oasis was Sir Archibald Edmonstone, in the year 1819. He was succeeded by other early travellers, but it was not until 1908 that the first egyptologist, Herbert Winlock, visited Dakhla Oasis. Dakhla Oasis consists of communities, along a string of sub-oases. The main settlements are Mut, El-Masara, Al-Qasr, Qalamoun, some of the communities have identities that are separate from each other. Qalamoun has inhabitants that trace their origins to the Ottomans, Dakhla Oasis has a hot desert climate, typical of much of Egypt. In 1979, the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History at Monash University began to cooperate in the project, the DOP studies the interaction between environmental changes and human activity in the Dakhleh Oasis. The director of the DOP is Anthony J. Mills, former curator at the Royal Ontario Museum, the excavations at Ismant el-Kharab, Mut el-Kharab, Deir Abu Metta and Muzawwaqa are undertaken with the cooperation of Monash University, under the direction of Gillian E. Bowen. Bowen and Colin Hope, also of Monash, are the principal investigators at Ismant el-Kharab, the DOP has also excavated at Ain el-Gazzareen, El Qasr el-Dakhil, Deir el Hagar and Ain Birbiyeh. In addition, excavations are undertaken at Amheida under the direction of Roger S. Bagnall and these were originally conducted under the auspices of Columbia University, but are currently conducted for New York University. Excavations are also underway at Balat under the auspices of the IFAO under the direction of Georges Soukiassian in conjunction with the Ministry for State Antiquities, the Dakhleh Trust was formed in 1999 and is a registered charity in Britain. Its declared aim is to understanding of the history of the environment and cultural evolution throughout the Quaternary period in the eastern Sahara
26.
Ramesses II
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Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great and Ozymandias, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He often is regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and his successors and later Egyptians called him the Great Ancestor. Ramesses II led several expeditions into the Levant, reasserting Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali, at age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I. He is believed to have taken the throne in his teens and is known to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC. Manetho attributes Ramesses II a reign of 66 years and 2 months, most Egyptologists today believe he assumed the throne on May 31,1279 BC, estimates of his age at death vary,90 or 91 is considered most likely. Ramesses II celebrated an unprecedented 14 sed festivals during his reign—more than any other pharaoh. On his death, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, his later was moved to a royal cache where it was discovered in 1881. The early part of his reign was focused on building cities, temples and he established the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital and used it as the main base for his campaigns in Syria. He is known as Ozymandias in the Greek sources, from a transliteration into Greek of a part of Ramesses throne name, Usermaatre Setepenre, The justice of Rê is powerful – chosen of Rê. Early in his life, Ramesses II embarked on campaigns to restore possession of previously held territories lost to the Nubians and Hittites. He also was responsible for suppressing some Nubian revolts and carrying out a campaign in Libya, during Ramesses IIs reign, the Egyptian army is estimated to have totaled about 100,000 men, a formidable force that he used to strengthen Egyptian influence. The Sherden people probably came from the coast of Ionia, from southwest Anatolia or perhaps, a stele from Tanis speaks of their having come in their war-ships from the midst of the sea, and none were able to stand before them. In that sea battle, together with the Sherden, the pharaoh also defeated the Lukka, the immediate antecedents to the Battle of Kadesh were the early campaigns of Ramesses II into Canaan. The inscription is almost totally illegible, due to weathering, additional records tell us that he was forced to fight a Canaanite prince who was mortally wounded by an Egyptian archer, and whose army subsequently, was routed. Ramesses carried off the princes of Canaan as live prisoners to Egypt, Ramesses then plundered the chiefs of the Asiatics in their own lands, returning every year to his headquarters at Riblah to exact tribute. In the fourth year of his reign, he captured the Hittite vassal state of Amurru during his campaign in Syria, the Battle of Kadesh in his fifth regnal year was the climactic engagement in a campaign that Ramesses fought in Syria, against the resurgent Hittite forces of Muwatallis. The pharaoh wanted a victory at Kadesh both to expand Egypts frontiers into Syria, and to emulate his father Seti Is triumphal entry into the city just a decade or so earlier and he also constructed his new capital, Pi-Ramesses
27.
Ramesses VII
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Usermaatre Setepenre Meryamun Ramesses VII was the sixth pharaoh of the 20th dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He reigned from about 1136 to 1129 BC and was the son of Ramesses VI, other dates for his reign are 1138-1131 BC. The Turin Accounting Papyrus 1907+1908 is dated to Year 7 III Shemu day 26 of his reign and has been reconstructed to show that 11 full years passed from Year 5 of Ramesses VI to Year 7 of his reign. Ramesses VIIs seventh year is also attested in Ostraca O. Strasbourg h 84, in 1980, C. J. Eyre demonstrated that a Year 8 papyrus belonged to the reign of Ramesses VII. 1883 +2095, dated to Year 8 IV Shemu day 25, details the record of the commissioning of some copper work, the new Year 8 papyrus proves that Hormose succeeded to his fathers office as foreman by Year 8 of Ramesses VII. The respected German Egyptologist Jürgen von Beckerath also accepts C. J. Eyres evidence that Year 8 IV Shemu day 25 was Ramesses VIIs highest known date. However, the date of his successor, Ramesses VIII, has been fixed by Amin Amer to an 8-month period between I Peret day 2 and I Akhet day 13. Or 5 months after the Year 8 IV Shemu day 25 date of Ramesses VII, therefore, it is possible that Ramesses VII could have ruled Egypt for almost 8 years, at present, his certain reign length is 7 years and 5 months. Very little is known about his reign, though it was evidently a period of turmoil as grain prices soared to the highest level. Ramesses VII was buried in Tomb KV1 upon his death and his mummy has never been found, though four cups inscribed with the pharaohs name were found in the royal cache in DB320 along with the remains of other pharaohs. K. A. Kitchen, Ramses VII and the Twentieth Dynasty, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 58, 182-194 Benoît Lurson, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 98, 297-304 Ramesses VII at Find a Grave
28.
Heliopolis (ancient Egypt)
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Heliopolis was a major city of ancient Egypt. It was the capital of the 13th or Heliopolite Nome of Lower Egypt and it is now located in Ayn Shams, a northeastern suburb of Cairo. Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, occupied since the Predynastic Period and it greatly expanded under the Old and Middle Kingdoms but is today mostly destroyed, its temples and other buildings having been scavenged for the construction of medieval Cairo. Most information about the ancient city comes from surviving records, the major surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the obelisk of the Temple of Ra-Atum erected by Senusret I of Dynasty XII. It still stands in its position, now within Al-Masalla in Al-Matariyyah. The 21 m high red granite obelisk weighs 120 tons, Heliopolis is the latinized form of the Ptolemaic Greek name Hēlioúpolis, meaning City of the Sun. Helios, the personified and deified form of the sun, was identified by the Greeks with the native Egyptian gods Ra and Atum and its native name was I͗wnw, whose exact pronunciation is uncertain because ancient Egyptian recorded only consonantal values. Its traditional Egyptological transcription is Iunu but it appears in biblical Hebrew as Ôn and Āwen, variant transcriptions include Awnu and Annu. The city also appears in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts as the House of Ra, in ancient Egypt, Heliopolis was a regional center from predynastic times. It was principally notable as the center of the sun god Atum. The primary temple of the city was known as the Great House or House of Atum and its priests maintained that Atum or Ra was the first being, rising self-created from the primeval waters. A decline in the importance of Ras cult during Dynasty V led to the development of the Ennead, the high priests of Ra are not as well documented as those of other deities, although the high priests of Dynasty VI have been discovered and excavated. During the Amarna Period of Dynasty XVIII, Pharaoh Akhenaten introduced a kind of worship of Aten. As part of his projects, he built a Heliopolitan temple named Elevating Aten. The cult of the Mnevis bull, another embodiment of the Sun, had its altar here as well and their personal formal burial ground was situated north of the city. The store-city Pithom is mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible, and according to one theory, ptolemy II had Manetho, the chief priest of Heliopolis, collect his history of the ancient kings of Egypt from its archives. By the 1st century BC, in fact, Strabo found the deserted. In Roman Egypt, Heliopolis belonged to the province Augustamnica, causing it to appear as Heliopolis in Augustamnica when it needed to be distinguished from Baalbek and its population probably contained a considerable Arabian element
29.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially the Met, is located in New York City and is the largest art museum in the United States, and is among the most visited art museums in the world. Its permanent collection contains two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the edge of Central Park along Manhattans Museum Mile, is by area one of the worlds largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains a collection of art, architecture. On March 18,2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side, it extends the museums modern, the Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, Indian, and Islamic art. The museum is home to collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, as well as antique weapons. Several notable interiors, ranging from first-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in its galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day and it opened on February 20,1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, the museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. A number of interiors, ranging from 1st century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Mets galleries. In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the Met organizes and hosts traveling shows throughout the year. The director of the museum is Thomas P. Campbell, a long-time curator and it was announced on February 28th,2017 that Campbell will be stepping down as the Mets director and CEO, effective June. On March 1st,2017 the BBC reported that Daniel Weiss shall be the acting CEO until a replacement is found, Beginning in the late 19th century, the Met started to acquire ancient art and artifacts from the Near East. From a few tablets and seals, the Mets collection of Near Eastern art has grown to more than 7,000 pieces. The highlights of the include a set of monumental stone lamassu, or guardian figures. The Mets Department of Arms and Armor is one of the museums most popular collections. Among the collections 14,000 objects are many pieces made for and used by kings and princes, including armor belonging to Henry VIII of England, Henry II of France, Rockefeller donated his more than 3, 000-piece collection to the museum. The Mets Asian department holds a collection of Asian art, of more than 35,000 pieces, the collection dates back almost to the founding of the museum, many of the philanthropists who made the earliest gifts to the museum included Asian art in their collections
30.
KV19
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The first corridor was still incomplete when work was abandoned, and the tomb was used as is. The tomb decorations show the owner being escorted by his father and presented to several deities, including Osiris, Khonsu, Thoth. What decoration which remains in this corridor is considered to be of the highest quality, the Complete Valley of the Kings,1996, Thames and Hudson, London. Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples,1996, media related to KV19 at Wikimedia Commons Theban Mapping Project, KV19 - Includes description, images, and plans of the tomb
31.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
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Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
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Graffiti
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Graffiti are writing or drawings that have been scribbled, scratched, or painted illicitly on a wall or other surface, often within public view. Graffiti range from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and they have existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, in modern times, paint and marker pens have become the most commonly used graffiti materials. In most countries, marking or painting property without the property owners permission is considered defacement and vandalism, Graffiti may also express underlying social and political messages and a whole genre of artistic expression is based upon spray paint graffiti styles. Within hip hop culture, graffiti have evolved alongside hip hop music, b-boying, unrelated to hip-hop graffiti, gangs use their own form of graffiti to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Controversies that surround graffiti continue to create disagreement amongst city officials, law enforcement, both graffiti and its occasional singular form graffito are from the Italian word graffiato. Graffiti is applied in art history to works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface, a related term is sgraffito, which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was used by potters who would glaze their wares. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, the word originates from Greek γράφειν — graphein — meaning to write. The term graffiti referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, use of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD, the first known example of modern style graffiti survives in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus. Local guides say it is an advertisement for prostitution, located near a mosaic and stone walkway, the graffiti shows a handprint that vaguely resembles a heart, along with a footprint and a number. This is believed to indicate that a brothel was nearby, with the handprint symbolizing payment, the ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments, examples of which also survive in Egypt. Graffiti in the world had different connotations than they carry in todays society concerning content. One inscription gives the address of a woman named Novellia Primigenia of Nuceria, another shows a phallus accompanied by the text, mansueta tene. Etched on the surface of the Mirror Wall, they contain pieces of prose, poetry, the majority of these visitors appear to have been from the elite of society, royalty, officials, professions, and clergy. There were also soldiers, archers, and even some metalworkers, the topics range from love to satire, curses, wit, and lament. Many demonstrate a high level of literacy and a deep appreciation of art. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there, one reads, Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems
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Mummy
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Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least 1615 CE. Mummies of humans and other animals have found on every continent. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats, in addition to the well-known mummies of ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of America and Asia with very dry climates. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old. Before this discovery, the oldest known deliberate mummy was a child, one of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Camarones Valley, Chile, which dates around 5050 BCE. The oldest known naturally mummified corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old. These substances were defined as mummia, the OED defines a mummy as the body of a human being or animal embalmed as a preparation for burial, citing sources from 1615 CE onward. However, Chambers Cyclopædia and the Victorian zoologist Francis Trevelyan Buckland define a mummy as follows, also applied to the frozen carcase of an animal imbedded in prehistoric snow. Wasps of the genus Aleiodes are known as mummy wasps because they wrap their prey as mummies. While interest in the study of mummies dates as far back as Ptolemaic Greece, prior to this, many rediscovered mummies were sold as curiosities or for use in pseudoscientific novelties such as mummia. The first modern scientific examinations of mummies began in 1901, conducted by professors at the English-language Government School of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt. The first X-ray of a mummy came in 1903, when professors Grafton Elliot Smith, British chemist Alfred Lucas applied chemical analyses to Egyptian mummies during this same period, which returned many results about the types of substances used in embalming. Lucas also made significant contributions to the analysis of Tutankhamun in 1922, pathological study of mummies saw varying levels of popularity throughout the 20th century. In 1992, the First World Congress on Mummy Studies was held in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, more than 300 scientists attended the Congress to share nearly 100 years of collected data on mummies. This was not possible prior to the Congress due to the unique, in more recent years, CT scanning has become an invaluable tool in the study of mummification by allowing researchers to digitally unwrap mummies without risking damage to the body. The level of detail in such scans is so intricate that small linens used in areas such as the nostrils can be digitally reconstructed in 3-D. Such modelling has been utilized to perform autopsies on mummies to determine cause of death and lifestyle. Mummies are typically divided into one of two categories, anthropogenic or spontaneous
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Deir el-Bahari
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Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of the Theban Necropolis, the first monument built at the site was the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh dynasty. It was constructed during the 15th century BC, during the Eighteenth dynasty, Amenhotep I and Hatshepsut also built extensively at the site. Mentuhotep II, Eleventh Dynasty king who reunited Egypt at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom and his mortuary temple was built on several levels in the great bay at Deir el-Bahari. It was approached by a 16-metre-wide causeway leading from a temple which no longer exists. As the temple faces east, the structure is likely to be connected with the sun cult of Rê and the resurrection of the king. From the eastern part of the forecourt, a called the Bab el-Hosan leads to an underground passage. On the western side, tamarisk and sycamore trees were planted beside the ramp leading up to the terrace, at the back of the forecourt and terrace are colonnades decorated in relief with boat processions, hunts, and scenes showing the kings military achievements. Statues of the Twelfth Dynasty king Senusret III were found here too, the inner part of the temple was actually cut into the cliff and consists of a peristyle court, a hypostyle hall and an underground passage leading into the tomb itself. The cult of the dead king centred on the small shrine cut into the rear of the Hypostyle Hall, the mastaba-like structure on the terrace is surrounded by a pillared ambulatory along the west wall, where the statue shrines and tombs of several royal wives and daughters were found. These royal princesses were the priestesses of Hathor, one of the main ancient Egyptian funerary deities, although little remained of the kings own burial, six sarcophagi were retrieved from the tombs of the royal ladies. Each was formed of six slabs, held together at the corners by metal braces, the sarcophagus of Queen Kawit, now in the Cairo Museum, is particularly fine. The burial shaft and subsequent tunnel descend for 150 meters and end in a burial chamber 45 meters below the court, the chamber held a shrine, which once held the wooden coffin of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep. A great tree-lined court was reached by means of the processional causeway, beneath the court, a deep shaft was cut which led to unfinished rooms believed to have been intended originally as the king’s tomb. A wrapped image of the pharaoh was discovered in area by Howard Carter. The temple complex also held six mortuary chapels and shaft tombs built for the pharaohs wives, the focal point of the Deir el-Bahari complex is the Djeser-Djeseru meaning the Holy of Holies, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. It is a structure, which was designed and implemented by Senenmut, royal steward and architect of Hatshepsut, to serve for her posthumous worship. Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series of colonnaded terraces, reached by ramps that once were graced with gardens
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DB320
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TT320 is an unfinished tomb located in the Theban plateau just south of Deir al-Bahari. It was used as a cache for royal mummies during the Twenty-first Dynasty, Each mummy entombed at TT320 had its own tomb but pillaging of their tombs, lead to these royal mummies being moved here to protect them. During Ramesses IX’s reign, he had teams that went out, if it were discovered that repairs to the tomb or the mummy were needed, arrangements would be made to make the necessary repairs. The tombs that were inspected were found untouched at that time, during Herihor’s reign some tombs and mummies were in need of what they called “renewing the burial places”. The tombs of Ramesses I, Sety I, and Ramesses II required “renewing”,1 Each coffin found in TT320 had dockets on them stating when they were moved and where they were reburied. The mummies were moved when it was discovered that their tombs had been plundered, some of the mummies were moved multiple times before they were placed in TT320. The tomb is thought to have initially been the last resting place of High Priest of Amun Pinedjem II, his wife Nesikhons, pinudjem II died around 969 BC in a time of decline of the Egyptian kingdom. In this time the mummies from former dynasties were vulnerable to grave robbery and were moved here to protect the remains of royal personages. It is believed that this tomb belonged to an Eighteenth dynasty queen who was found buried here. However, mummies were cached here in the Twenty-first Dynasty and the Eighteenth Dynasty queen was found at or near the entrance of TT320 suggesting that she was placed in this tomb last and this would suggest that this was not her tomb. The first documented case of finding this tomb was in 1881. It is possible that this tomb was discovered prior to 1881, as he looked around, he discovered that this was no ordinary tomb. He saw that the mummies entombed in TT320 were royal and this was indicated by the royal cobra head dress on some of the coffins. Abd and his brother plundered this tomb and lived off of the profits for years until they were caught.6 Local authorities were expecting to find several tombs belonging to the family of Herihor. Authorities arrived at TT320 without the head of the Egyptian Service of Antiquities because he was on vacation. Instead, the only other European member of the team, Emil Brugsch was sent with one of the first Egyptian Egyptologist, Ahmed Kamal, to explore and examine TT320. Rather than just exploring, Brugsch had all of the contents, including the mummies, neither Brugsch nor Kamal documented the tomb before having the contents removed which made future study of this tomb difficult. Locations of the coffins were not documented and items were not catalogued, Brugsch went back later to document the tomb but the problem with this is that when he went back, he was not able to remember every detail of the tomb
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Neskhons
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Neskhons, once more commonly known as “Nsikhonsou”, was a noble lady of the 21st dynasty of Egypt. These are named on a decree written on a wooden tablet and this suggests family problems around the time of her death. She predeceased her husband and her corpse was placed with that of Pinedjem II in Tomb DB320 in the Theban Necropolis. She was buried in the 5th regnal year of Siamun in coffins that were made for Pinedjems sister. Both the inner and outer coffins were found, but one of them was reused for the reburial of Ramesses IX and it is unknown whether her coffin was reused after her death or that she donated it to the reburial of Ramesses. The corpse was partially unwrapped by Gaston Maspero on 27 June 1886, twenty years later, Neskhons did not have any gray hairs, so it is likely that she died young, according to Smith, she was either pregnant or giving birth at her death. The gold decoration of her coffin has been stolen in antiquity, her heart scarab was stolen by the Abd-el-Rassul family of grave robbers and her titles were, First Chantress of Amun, Kings Son of Kush. Battiscombe Gunn, The Decree of Amonrasonther for Neskhons, JEA41, 83-95 Andrzej Niwiński, The Wives of Pinudjem II -a topic for discussion, JEA74, 226-230
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Grafton Elliot Smith
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Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, FRS FRCP was an Australian-British anatomist, Egyptologist and a proponent of the hyperdiffusionist view of prehistory. He believed in the idea that cultural innovations occur only once, based on this, he traced the origins of many cultural and traditional practices across the world, including the New World, to ideas that he believed came from Egypt and in some instances from Asia. An expert on anatomy, he was the first to study Egyptian mummies using radiological techniques. He took an interest in extinct humanoids and was embroiled in controversy over the authenticity of the Piltdown Man, Smith was born in Grafton, New South Wales to Stephen Sheldrick Smith who had moved to Australia from London in 1860 and Mary Jane, née Evans. He received his education from Grafton Public School where his father was headmaster. When the family moved to Sydney in 1883 he went to Darlington Public School before joining Sydney Boys High School and he attended evening classes on physiology by Thomas Anderson Stuart and took an early interest in biology. In an autobiographical note Smith noted that Stuart had shown them the convolutions of the human brain, Smith decided at that point that he would work towards understanding them. He received a James King travelling scholarship and went to St Johns College, Cambridge, afterwards he catalogued the human brain-collection of the British Museum. Smith obtained an appointment at the Cairo School of Medicine in 1900 on the suggestion of his anthropologist friend Alexander Macalister, Smith became archaeological advisor to the archaeological survey of Nubia in the wake of plans to construct the Aswan Dam which threatened to drown numerous archaeological sites. Smith conducted investigations on the brains of Egyptian mummies and he was the first to non-destructively use x-rays to study mummies. Smith took a special interest in the pathologies indicated in ancient skeletal remains and he noted for instance that many Egyptian skulls had biparietal thinning which had been common in European aristocrats in the past. Smith hypothesized this was the result of wearing heavy wigs or headgear, from 1909 to 1919 he was Professor in anatomy in Manchester, 1919–1937 he held the chair of Anatomy at the University College London. He was elected President of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain, during World War I he took an interest in the neurology of shell shock, visiting military hospitals and serving on the British General Medical Council. Smith was the leading specialist on the evolution of the brain of his day, many of his ideas on the evolution of the primate brain still form the core of present scholarship. He became Fellow of the Royal Society in 1907, FRCP, cross of the French Legion of Honour, British anthropologists Arthur Keith and Grafton Elliot Smith both supported the European origin of humankind as opposed to models of Asian and African origin. In several of his works, Smith argued that Europe was the cradle of humanity and his cradle was large, as he claimed the Mediterranean race had occupied the Levant, Egypt and western Europe, including the British isles. He especially linked the Mediterranean race to the civilization of Egypt, Smiths arguments later became known as his theory of diffusionism. According to Smith and William James Perry, Egypt was the source of all cultural innovations, according to Smith, Man did not become truly erect until his brain had developed in a very particular way to make it possible for him to use his hands
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Siamun
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Neterkheperre or Netjerkheperre-setepenamun Siamun was the sixth pharaoh of Egypt during the Twenty-first dynasty. He built extensively in Lower Egypt for a king of the Third Intermediate Period and is regarded as one of the most powerful rulers of this Dynasty after Psusennes I. Siamuns prenomen, Netjerkheperre-Setepenamun, means Divine is The Manifestation of Ra, very little is known of the family relationships of Siamun. In 1999, Chris Bennett made a case for a Queen Karimala known from an inscription in the temple of Semna being the daughter of Osorkon the Elder and she is called both Kings Daughter and Kings Wife. Her name suggests she may have been Libyan, which would fit in with her being the daughter of Osorkon the Elder, given the date of the inscription, she might have been the queen of either king Siamun or king Psusennes II. What is more, a marriage to her might explain how Siamun, Siamun is often identified with the last king of Manethos 21st Dynasty, Psinaches. This king is credited with a reign of only 9 Years, however, there is no real basis for interpreting the name Psinaches as a corruption of the name Netjerkheperre-setepenamun Siamun. Recently, it has suggested that Manethos Psinaches might rather be a reference to king Tutkheperre Shoshenq as the direct successor of Manethos Osorkon the Elder. The highest attested yeardate for Siamun is a Year 17 the first month of Shemu day, mentioned in fragment 3B and it records the induction of Hori, son of Nespaneferhor into the Priesthood at Karnak. This date was a lunar Tepi Shemu feast day, based on the calculation of this lunar Tepi Shemu feast, Year 17 of Siamun has been shown by the German Egyptologist Rolf Krauss to be equivalent to 970 BC. Hence, Siamun would have taken the throne about 16 years earlier in 986 BC, a stela dated to Siamuns Year 16 records a land-sale between some minor priests of Ptah at Memphis. Henceforth, references to Pharaoh Psusennes II, Pharaoh Shoshenq I, Pharaoh Osorkon I, prior to Siamuns reign and all throughout the Middle and New Kingdom, the word pharaoh referred only to the office of the king. According to the French Egyptologist Nicolas Grimal, Siamun doubled the size of the Temple of Amun at Tanis and he also built at Heliopolis and at Piramesse where a surviving stone block bears his name. Siamun constructed and dedicated a new temple to Amun at Memphis with 6 stone columns, finally, he bestowed numerous favours onto the Memphite Priests of Ptah. These activities are dated from Year 1 to Year 10 of Siamuns reign, one fragmentary but well known surviving triumphal relief scene from the Temple of Amun at Tanis depicts an Egyptian pharaoh smiting his enemies with a mace. Siamun appears here in typical pose brandishing a mace to strike down prisoners now lost at the right except for two arms and hands, one of which grasps a remarkable double-bladed ax by its socket. More recently Paul S. Ash has put forward an argument that Siamuns relief portrays a fictitious battle. He points out that in Egyptian reliefs Philistines are never shown holding an axe, and he also argues that there is nothing in the relief to connect it with Philistia or the Levant
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