Ramesses III’s Mortunary Temple at Menin Hubub
Episode 31 Dynasty XX The Decline Continue
The History of Ancient Egypt
Professor Robert Brier
Film Review
As the Egyptian economy steadily declined, pharaohs left behind fewer and fewer monuments extolling their achievements. The first pharaoh of Dynasty XX, Sethket (“Set is Mighty”*) ruled between 1185-1182 BC and totally erased the name of his predecessor female pharaoh Twosret’s name from public monuments.** The only information we have about Sethket’s reign is from Papyrus Harris written during the reign of his successor Ramses III. It describes Sethket successfully repulsing Asiatics who tried to invade Egypt.
His successor Ramesses III, also a strong military leader, crushed a Libyan invasion and and an invasion by “Sea Peoples” (believed to be a confederation of Philistines and Mediterranean peoples from the vicinity of Sicily.***
By the time of Ramesses III’s reign, the Temple of Amun owned 90% of Egypt’s temple land, and most of Karnak was devoted to small workshops manufacturing oils and the white linens worn by priests. None of the Karnak temples contained large rooms as technology was yet to be invented to support a large roof.
Rameses III built a massive mortuary at Menin Habud in the style of a Syrian fortress, complete with crenelations on the roof where Syrian archers stood. Ramesses III stayed there during annual festivals when the gods were brought out and paraded among the people.
Ramesses III (unrelated to Rameses II) chose his name. He also named his children after Ramesses II’s children. After ruling for 30 years, he was assassinated by one of his secondary wives. Several priests and palace guards were also charged with involvement in the conspiracy. Their trial is recorded in the Harem Conspiracy Papyrus. They were all convicted and executed by being impaled on a stake.
He was succeeded by three sons all named Ramses:
- Ramesses IV (1151-1145 BC) – sent expedition of 2,000 men to Wadi Hammamet to mine black granite
- Ramesses V (1145-1441 BC) – had smallpox
- Ramesses VI (1141-1133 BC) – lost nearly all the foreign lands paying tribute to Egypt. Ceased to organize expeditions to Syria for turquoise
- Ramesses VII (1133-1125 BC) – Egypt racked by soaring inflation
- Ramesses IX 1126-1108 BC) – associated with numerous (pharaoh) tomb robberies and arrest and prosecution of the thieves.
- Ramses XI (1108 -1079 BC) final XX pharaoh, associated with split between Upper and Lower Egypt. Continued to rule in the north, while the high priest Heri-Hor set himself up as king in the South.
*Set came to be viewed as the Egyptian god of evil, owing to the murder of his brother Osiris (see The Ancient Egyptian Origin Myth), equivalent to Lucifer in the Abrahamic religions. It may be significant that as Egyptian power and wealth, it somehow became acceptable for pharaohs to name themselves after the god of evil.
**Egypt always declined economically under female rulers because they didn’t lead military campaigns to capture booty from neighboring countries.
***Believed to be escaping harsh conditions in their native lands, given all their ox carts piled high with possessions.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492866
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