Menpehtyre
Ramesses I (traditional English:
Ramesses or
Ramses) was the founding
PharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
of
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
's
19th dynastyThe Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in modern Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.The warrior kings of the...
. The dates for his short reign are not completely known but the time-line of late
1292-1290 BC-Events and trends:* c. 1295 BC – 1186 BC – Great Temple of Amun, Karnak, is built. New Kingdom.* 1292 BC—End of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, start of the Nineteenth Dynasty.* 1292 BC—The coronation of Ramses I....
is frequently cited as well as
1295-1294 BC-Events and trends:* c. 1295 BC – 1186 BC – Great Temple of Amun, Karnak, is built. New Kingdom.* 1292 BC—End of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, start of the Nineteenth Dynasty.* 1292 BC—The coronation of Ramses I....
. While Ramesses I was the founder of the 19th Dynasty, in reality his brief reign marked the transition between the reign of
HoremhebHoremheb was the last Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty from 1319 BC to late 1292 BC, although he was not related to the preceding royal family and is believed to have been of common birth. Before he became pharaoh, Horemheb was the commander in chief of the army under the reigns of Tutankamun and Ay...
who had stabilised Egypt and the rule of the powerful Pharaohs of this dynasty, in particular
Seti IMenmaatre Seti I was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , the son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II...
and
Ramesses IIRamesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty...
, who would bring Egypt up to new heights of imperial power.
Menpehtyre
Ramesses I (traditional English:
Ramesses or
Ramses) was the founding
PharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
of
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
's
19th dynastyThe Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in modern Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.The warrior kings of the...
. The dates for his short reign are not completely known but the time-line of late
1292-1290 BC-Events and trends:* c. 1295 BC – 1186 BC – Great Temple of Amun, Karnak, is built. New Kingdom.* 1292 BC—End of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, start of the Nineteenth Dynasty.* 1292 BC—The coronation of Ramses I....
is frequently cited as well as
1295-1294 BC-Events and trends:* c. 1295 BC – 1186 BC – Great Temple of Amun, Karnak, is built. New Kingdom.* 1292 BC—End of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, start of the Nineteenth Dynasty.* 1292 BC—The coronation of Ramses I....
. While Ramesses I was the founder of the 19th Dynasty, in reality his brief reign marked the transition between the reign of
HoremhebHoremheb was the last Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty from 1319 BC to late 1292 BC, although he was not related to the preceding royal family and is believed to have been of common birth. Before he became pharaoh, Horemheb was the commander in chief of the army under the reigns of Tutankamun and Ay...
who had stabilised Egypt and the rule of the powerful Pharaohs of this dynasty, in particular
Seti IMenmaatre Seti I was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , the son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II...
and
Ramesses IIRamesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty...
, who would bring Egypt up to new heights of imperial power.
Origins
Originally called
Pa-ra-mes-su, Ramesses I was of non-royal birth, being born into a noble military family from the
Nile deltaLower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the fertile Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
region, perhaps near the former
HyksosbfThe Hyksos were an Asiatic people who invaded the eastern Nile Delta, in the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt initiating the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt...
capital of
AvarisAvaris , was located near modern Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta. As the main course of the Nile migrated eastward and the delta sedimented up and moved with the river, its position at the hub of Egypt's delta emporia made it a major administrative capital of the Hyksos...
, or from
TanisTanis , the Greek name of ancient Djanet , is a city in the north-eastern Nile delta of Egypt. It is located on the Tanitic branch of the Nile which has long since silted up.-History:...
. He was a son of a troop commander called
SetiSeti or Suti was an ancient Egyptian soldier during the late 18th dynasty , the commander of the army, later mentioned as vizier on monuments of his son, Pharaoh Ramesses I....
. He had five sisters and three brothers who were named Pay, Minamon and Hawnefer. His uncle Khaemwaset, an army officer married Tamwadjesy, the matron of the Harem of
AmunAmun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a deity in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...
, who was a relative of Huy, the Viceroy of
KushThe Kingdom of Kush or Cush was an ancient African state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now the Republic of Sudan. It was one of the earliest civilizations to develop in the Nile River Valley...
, an important state post. This shows the high status of Ramesses' family. Ramesses I found favor with
HoremhebHoremheb was the last Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty from 1319 BC to late 1292 BC, although he was not related to the preceding royal family and is believed to have been of common birth. Before he became pharaoh, Horemheb was the commander in chief of the army under the reigns of Tutankamun and Ay...
, the last pharaoh of the tumultuous
Eighteenth dynastyThe Eighteenth Dynasty is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. As well as boasting a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, it included Tutankhamun, the finding of whose tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 was a sensational...
, who appointed the former as his
VizierThe vizier was the highest official in Ancient Egypt to serve the king, or pharaoh during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. Vizier is the generally accepted rendering of ancient Egyptian tjati, tjaty etc, among Egyptologists...
. Ramesses also served as the
High PriestA priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which may also apply to such persons collectively.Priests and priestesses...
of
AmunAmun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a deity in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...
– as such, he would have played an important role in the restoration of the old religion following the
AmarnaThe site of Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya, some 58 km south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor...
heresyHeresy is proposing some unorthodox change to an established system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established opinion of scholars of that belief such as canon. It is sometimes confused with apostasy which is disaffiliation from orthodoxy and blasphemy which is...
of a generation earlier, under
AkhenatenAkhenaten was known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV . A Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, he ruled for 17 years and died in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
.
Horemheb himself had been a nobleman from outside the immediate royal family, who rose through the ranks of the Egyptian army to serve as the royal advisor to Tutankhamun and Ay and, ultimately, Pharaoh. Since Horemheb was childless, he ultimately chose Ramesses to be his heir in the final years of his reign presumably because Ramesses I was both an able administrator and had a son (Seti I) and a grandson (the future
Ramesses IIRamesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty...
) to succeed him and thus avoid any succession difficulties.
Upon his accession, Ramesses assumed a
prenomen, or royal name, which is written in Egyptian hieroglyphs to the right. When transliterated, the name is mn-pḥty-r‘, which is usually interpreted as
Menpehtyre, meaning "Established by the strength of
RaRA is an abbreviation or code which may refer to :Science* Right ascension, an astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system...
". However, he is better known by his
nomen, or personal name. This is transliterated as r‘-ms-sw, and is usually realised as
Ramessu or
Ramesses, meaning 'Ra bore him'. Already an old man when he was crownded, Ramesses appointed his son, the later pharaoh
Seti IMenmaatre Seti I was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , the son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II...
, to serve as the Crown Prince and chosen successor. Seti was charged with undertaking several military operations during this time– in particular, an attempt to recoup some of Egypt's lost possessions in
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
. Ramesses appears to have taken charge of domestic matters: most memorably, he completed the second
pylonPylon is the Greek term for a monumental gateway of an Egyptian temple It consists of two tapering towers, each surmounted by a cornice, joined by a less elevated section which enclosed the entrance between them. The entrance was generally about half the height of the towers...
at
Karnak TempleThe very old Karnak Temple Complex — usually called simply Karnak — comprises a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings, notably the Great Temple of Amen and a massive structure begun by Pharoah Amenhotep III . It is located near Luxor, some 500 km south of Cairo,...
, begun under Horemheb.
Death
Ramesses I enjoyed a very brief reign, as evidenced by the general paucity of contemporary monuments mentioning him: the king had little time to build any major buildings in his reign and was hurriedly buried in a small and hastily finished tomb. The Egyptian priest
ManethoManetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic era, ca. 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca...
assigns him a reign of 16 months but this pharaoh certainly ruled Egypt for a minimum of 17 months based on his highest known date which is a
Year 2 II Peret day 20 (Louvre C57) stela which ordered the provision of new endowments of food and priests for the Temple of
PtahIn Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land, though Tatenen was a god in his own right before being assimilated with Ptah...
within the Egyptian fortress of Buhen. Jürgen von Beckerath observes that Ramesses I died just 5 months later--in June 1290 BC--since his son Seti I succeeded to power on
III Shemu day 24. Ramesses I's only known action was to order the provision of endowments for the aforementioned Nubian temple at Buhen and "the construction of a chapel and a temple (which was to be finished by his son) at Abydos." The aged Ramesses was buried in the Valley of the Kings. His tomb, discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817 and designated
KV16Tomb KV16, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was used for the burial of Pharaoh Ramesses I of the Nineteenth Dynasty. It was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in October 1817....
, is small in size and gives the impression of having been completed with haste.
Joyce TyldesleyJoyce Ann Tyldesley is a British archaeologist and Egyptologist, academic and freelance writer and broadcaster.Tyldesley was born in Bolton, Lancashire and attended Bolton School. In 1981 she earned a first-class honours degree in archaeology from Liverpool University, and a doctorate from Oxford...
states that Ramesses I's tomb consisted of a single corridor and one unfinished room whose
Seti I, his son, and successor, later built a small chapel (or temple) with fine reliefs in memory of deceased father Ramesses I at
AbydosAbydos may mean:*Abydos, Egypt, an Ancient Egyptian city*Abydos, Hellespont , an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor*Abydos , a 2004 solo musical project of Andy Kuntz, member of Vanden Plas*La Fiancée d'Abydos of Eugène Delacroix...
. In 1911, John Pierpont Morgan donated several exquisite reliefs from this chapel to the
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, USA. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial...
in New York.
Rediscovery and repatriation
According to current theory, his mummy was stolen by the Abu-Rassul family of grave robbers and brought to North America around 1860 by Dr.
James DouglasJames S. Douglas was a Canadian businessman. His Scottish-born father, Dr. James Douglas, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, had earned the reputation of being the fastest surgeon in town, capable of performing an amputation in less than one minute. Dr...
. It was then placed in the
Niagara Museum and Daredevil Hall of FameThe Niagara Falls Museum was a museum located in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Opened in 1827, by Thomas Barnett of Birmingham, England who moved to Canada in the early 1820s, it was subsequently closed in 1999.It was Canada's oldest museum.-Collection:...
in
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Ramesses I remained there, his identity unknown, next to other curiosities and so-called freaks of nature for more than 130 years. When the owner of the museum decided to sell his property, Canadian businessman William Jamieson purchased the contents of the museum. In 1999, Jamieson sold the Egyptian artifacts in the collection, including the various mummies, to the
Michael C. Carlos MuseumThe Michael C. Carlos Museum is administered by Emory University on its campus in DeKalb County near Atlanta, Georgia.The Carlos Museum has the largest collections in the Southeast United States of objects from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near East, and the ancient Americas...
at
Emory UniversityEmory University is a private research university in the metropolitan area of Atlanta in unincorporated Dekalb County, Georgia. In addition to its three undergraduate divisions, Emory has nine graduate and professional schools, including schools of business, law, medicine, theology, nursing, and...
in Atlanta, Georgia for US $2 million. His identity cannot be conclusively determined, but is persuasively deduced from CT scans, X-rays, skull measurements and radio-carbon dating tests by researchers at the University, as well as aesthetic interpretations of family resemblance. Moreover, the mummy's arms were found crossed high across his chest which was a position reserved solely for Egyptian royalty until 600 BC. His mummy was returned to Egypt on October 24, 2003 with full official honors and is on display at the Luxor Museum.
External links