Everything about Ramesses Iv totally explained
Heqamaatre
Ramesses IV (also written
Ramses or
Rameses) was the third
pharaoh of the
Twentieth Dynasty of the
New Kingdom of
Ancient Egypt. His name prior to assuming the crown was Amonhirkhopshef. He was the fifth son of
Ramesses III and was appointed the crown prince by Year 22 of his father's reign when all four of his elder brothers predeceased him. His promotion to crown prince:
» 'is suggested by his appearance(suitably entitled) in a scene of the festival of Min at the Ramesses III temple at Karnak, which may have been completed by Year 22 [ofhis father's reign]. (the date is mentioned in the poem inscribed there)'
Prince Ramesses IV employed three distinctive titles as his father's chosen successor: "Hereditary Prince", "Royal scribe" and "Generalissimo"; the latter two of his titles are mentioned in a text at Amenhotep III's temple at Soleb and all three royal titles are given in a
lintel now in Florence, Italy. Henceforth, he took on increasing responsibilities; for instance, in Year 27 of his father's reign, he's depicted appointing a certain Amenemopet to the important position of Third Prophet of Amun in the latter's TT 148 tomb. Amenemope's Theban tomb also accords prince Ramesses all three of his aforementioned sets of royal titles. Due to the three decade long rule of Ramesses III, Ramesses IV is believed to have been a man in his forties when he took the throne. His rule has been dated to either
1151 to
1145 BC or
1155 to
1149 BC.
Projects
At the start of his reign, the pharaoh initiated a substantial building campaign program on the scale of
Ramesses II by doubling the size of the work gangs at
Deir el-Medina to a total of 120 men and dispatching numerous expeditions to the stone quarries of
Wadi Hammamat and the turquoise mines of the
Sinai. The Great Rock
stela of Ramesses IV at Wadi Hammamat records that the largest expedition--dated to his Year 3, third month of Shemu day 27--consisted of
8,368 men alone including 5,000 soldiers, 2,000 personnel of the Amun temples, 800
Apiru and 130 stonemasons and quarrymen under the personal command of the High Priest of Amun,
Ramessesnakht. The scribes who composed the text conscientiously noted that this figure excluded 900 men "
who are dead and omitted from this list." Consequently, once this omitted figure is added to the tally of 8,368 men who survived the Year 3 quarry expedition, a total of 900 men out of an original expedition of
9,268 men perished during this massive endeavour
for a mortality rate of almost 10%. This gives an indication of the harshness of life in Egypt's stone quarries.
Part of the king's program included the extensive enlargement of his father's
Temple of Khonsu at
Karnak and the construction of a large mortuary temple near the
Temple of Hatshepsut. Ramesses IV also sent several expeditions to the turquoise mines the Sinai; a total of four expeditions are known prior to his fourth year. The Serabit el-Khadim stela of the Royal Butler Sobekhotep states: "Year 3, third month of Shomu. His Majesty sent his favoured and beloved one, the confident of his lord, the Overseer of the Treasury of Silver and Gold, Chief of the Secrets of the august Palace, Sobekhotep, justified, to bring for him all that his heart desired of turquoise (on)
his fourth expedition." This expedition dates to either Ramesses III or IV's reign since Sobekhotep is attested in office until at least the reign of Ramesses V. Ramesses IV's final venture to the turquoise mines of the Sinai is documented by the stela of a senior army scribe named Panufer. Panufer states that this expedition's mission was both to procure turquoise and to establish a cult chapel of king Ramesses IV at the Hathor temple of
Serabit el-Khadim. The stela reads:
» Year 5, second month of Shomu [ie:summer]. The sending by His Majesty build the Mansion of Millions of Years of Ramesses IV in the temple of Hathor, Lady of Turquoise, by Panefer, the Scribe of the Commands of the Army, son of Pairy, justified.
While little is known regarding the route that the mining missions took from Egypt to Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai, AJ Peden who wrote a biography of Ramesses IV's reign in 1994 states that there were "two obvious routes" to reach this site:
» "The first was a straightforward march from a Delta base, such as Memphis, east south-east and then south into Sinai. Surviving a march in this inhospitable land would have presented formidable logistical obstacles, perhaps forcing an alternative route to be adopted. This would involve a departure from the Delta to a site near the modern port of Suez. From here they could have proceeded by boat to the ports of Abu Zenima or El-Markha on the west coast of the Sinai peninsula and from there it's a short journey inland of only a day or two to the actual site of Serabit el-Khadim."
Attestations
Ramesses IV is attested by his aforementioned building actvity at Wadi Hammamate and Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai as well as several papyri and even one obelisk. The creation of a royal cult in the Temple of Hathor is known under his reign at Serabit el-Khadim in the
Sinai while Papyrus Mallet (or P. Louvre 1050) dates to Years 3 and 4 of his reign. Papyrus Mallet is a six column text dealing partly with agricultural affairs; its first column lists the prices for various commodities between Year 31 of Ramesses III until Year 3 of Ramesses IV. The final four columns contain a memorandum of 2 letters composed by the Superintendent of Cattle of the Estate of Amen-Re, Bakenkhons, to several mid-level administrators and their subordinates. Meanwhile, surviving monuments of Ramesses IV in the Delta consists of an obelisk recovered in Cairo and a pair of his cartouches found on a pylon gateway both originally from
Heliopolis.
The most important document to survive from this pharaoh's rule is
Papyrus Harris I, which honours the life of his father, Ramesses III, by listing the latter's many accomplishments and gifts to the temples of
Egypt, and the
Turin papyrus, the earliest known
geologic map. Ramesses IV was perhaps the last New Kingdom king to engage in large-scale monumental building after his father as "
there was a marked decline in temple building even during the longer reigns of Ramesses IX and VI. The only apparent exception was the attempt of Ramesses V and VI to continue the vast and uncompleted mortuary temple of Ramesses IV at the Assasif."
Death
Despite Ramesses IV's many endeavours for the gods and his prayer to Osiris—preserved on a Year 4 stela at Abydos—that "thou shalt give me the great age with a long reign [asmy predecessor]", the king didn't live long enough to accomplish his ambitious goals.
After a short reign of about six and a half years, Ramesses IV died and was buried in tomb
KV2 in the
Valley of the Kings. His mummy was found in the royal cache of Amenhotep II's tomb
KV35 in 1898. His chief wife is Queen
Duatentopet or Tentopet who was buried in
QV74. His son,
Ramesses V, would succeed him to the throne.
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