Rameses III and the 20th Dynasty

How the next dynasty gained power remains imclear. The only indications of the political events at this date derive from a stele erected on the island of Elephantine by its first nder, Sethnakht (1186-1184 and an account written down in the Great Harris Papyrus from the beginning of the reign of Rameses IV (1153-1147 bc), some thirty years later. On the stele, Sethnakht relates how he expelled rebels who on their flight left behind the gold, silver, and copper they had stolen from Egypt and with which they had wanted to hire reinforcements among the Asiatics. The papyrus describes how a state of lawlessness and chaos had broken out in Egypt because of forces from ‘outside’; after several years in which there was no one who nUed, a Syrian called Irsu (a made-up name meaning ‘one who made himself—that is, ‘upstart’) seized power, and his confederates plundered the country; they treated the gods like ordinary human beings and no longer sacrificed in the temples, a description that resembles the one given of the Amarna Period in the years of the Restoration. The gods then chose Sethnakht to be the next ruler, just as they had Horemheb at the end of the i8th

Dynasty, and he re-established order.

From these texts we may perhaps conclude that, after the death of Tausret, Bay had tried to seize power and may even have succeeded for a brief time until he was expelled by Sethnakht. The date of the Elephantine stele is not Sethnakht’s regnal year i, as one might expect on a victory stele, but year 2, and this date is not given at the beginning of the text, as was customary on stelae, but towards the end. It has, therefore, been suggested that it represents the date of Sethnakht’s victory and at the same time the true date of his accession, having counted in retrospect the time it took him to overcome his adversaries as his first year. Be that as it may, he did not enjoy his newly gained kingship for long, for he died soon afterwards and was succeeded by his son Rameses III (1184-1153 bc).

Although the new king inherited peace and stability from his father, he soon had his fair share of troubles as well. In year 5 he had to fight off further advances by Libyan tribes, who had used the period of internal struggle to penetrate into the western Delta as far as the central Nile branch. By this time the Egyptians appear to have accepted this peaceful immigration as inevitable, but, when a revolt against the pharaoh broke out because he interfered in the succession of their ‘king’, Rameses III quickly responded and brought them back under Egyptian control. A further Libyan campaign took place in year ii. Far more challenging, however, was the great battle against the Sea Peoples in year 8.

Since the days of Merenptah, when some of the Sea Peoples had first tried to enter Egypt from the west, their movements had turned the whole of the Middle East upside down. They had destroyed the Hittite capital Hattusas and swept away their whole empire: they had conquered Tarsus and many of them had settled in the plains of Cilicia and northern Syria, razing Alalakh and Ugarit to the ground. Cyprus had also been overwhelmed and its capital Enkomi ransacked. Clearly their ultimate goal was Egypt, however, and in year 8 of Rameses III they launched a combined land and sea attack on the Delta. But the Egyptians were well aware of the imminent danger and had moved a large defence force to Djahy (southern Palestine, perhaps the Egyptian garrisons in the Gaza strip) and fortified the mouths of the Nile branches in the Delta. When the assault finally came, Rameses’ troops were well prepared for it and were able to beat the invaders back. Although the Sea Peoples had changed the east Mediterranean world for good, they never succeeded in conquering Egypt and their presence in Syria-Palestine does not at first seem to have affected Egypt’s sway

Over its northern territories.

At home, Rameses III spent a lot of time and energy on his building projects, foremost of which was his large mortuary temple at Medinet Habu, begun shortly after his accession and finished by year 12: it still stands today as one of the best preserved temples of the New Kingdom (the decoration on its exterior walls including scenes from the battle with the Sea Peoples). It was closely modelled on the Ramesseum of his great predecessor Rameses II, whom Rameses III tried to emulate in many other ways; his own royal names were all but identical to those of Rameses II and he even named his sons after the latter’s numerous offspring. The building of Medinet Habu and other projects, including the expansion of Piramesse, do not appear to have been hampered by the various threats to Egypt’s borders. We also hear of a major expedition to Punt, perhaps the first since the famous venture to that remote land in the days of Hatshepsut, and another one to Atika, perhaps the copper mines of Timna.

All was not well in Egypt, however. The period of turmoil before Rameses’ accession had led to corruption and various abuses, and he was forced to inspect and reorganize the various temples throughout the country. The Great Harris Papyrus enumerates the huge donations of land he made to the most important temples in Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, and to a lesser extent to many smaller institutions as well. By the end of his reign a third of the cultivable land was owned by the temples and of this three-quarters belonged to Amun of Thebes. This development upset the balance between temple and state and between the king and the ever more powerful priesthood of Amun. An overall loss of control over the state finances and economic crisis were the result; grain prices soared and the monthly rations to the workmen at Deir el-Medina, which had to be paid by the state treasury, were soon in arrears, leading in year 29 to the first recorded organized strikes in history. Things were made worse by repeated raids by groups of Libyan nomads in the Theban area, which created a general sense of insecurity.

This gradual breakdown of the centralized state may well have been one of the reasons behind an attempt on the life of Rameses III, or, if it was not, the general unrest and insecurity may at least have given the conspirators the idea that they could count on general support if they succeeded. The plot originated in the king’s harem, presumably in Piramesse, where one of the officials involved, the scribe of the harem, Pairy, had a house. He was just one of several harem officials implicated; the ringleaders were one of Rameses’ wives, called Tiy, and some other women from the harem, as well as several royal butlers and a steward; all of them were ‘stirring up the people and inciting enmity in order to make rebellion against their lord’. The ultimate goal was to put Tiy’s son Pentaweret on the throne instead of the king’s lawful heir. Apparently the plan was to murder the king during the annual Opet Festival in Thebes, but included in the preparations were also magical spells and wax figurines, which were smuggled into the harem. The plot must have failed, however, for the king’s mummy shows no signs of a violent death, and his crown prince, Rameses IV, and not Pentaweret eventually succeeded him. When all of this happened we do not know, but the records of the court hearings and the sentences passed on ‘the great criminals’ (most of them were forced to commit suicide) were written down at the beginning of the reign of Rameses IV, who also compiled the Great Harris Papyrus, which contains his father’s ‘testament’, suggesting that the assassination attempt took place towards the end of Rameses Ill’s thirty-one-year reign.