Ramesses III

Flourished Circa 1187-1156 b.c.e.

King, dynasty 20

Sources

Attempted Assassination. Ramesses III was the last significant king of the New Kingdom (circa 1539-1075 b.c.e.). His parents, King Sethnakhte and Queen Tiye-Merenaset, were the founders of Dynasty 20 (circa 1190-1075 b.c.e.). Ramesses III had at least three wives. Queen Isis-Hemdjeret was the mother of Ramesses IV, the next king. An unknown queen or queens bore ten other sons. Among these sons were the future kings Ramesses VI and Ramesses VIII. (Ramesses V was perhaps Ramesses Ill’s brother.) Another secondary queen named Tiye was the mother of Prince Pentaweret. Their plot to assassinate Ramesses III was discovered and led to their death by suicide.

Diplomacy. Ramesses Ill’s early reign was dominated by war. The Meshwesh tribe, with origins in Libya, continued to infiltrate the delta from the west. Egypt had accepted the presence of these Libyans but the king expected to control the succession of their “kings.” In Year 5 of his reign Ramesses III fought the Meshwesh to settle local disputes. Another campaign in Year 11 led to further pacification of the Meshwesh.

Sea Peoples. An even more important battle was fought against the Sea Peoples in Year 8. Scholars still debate the origins of this confederation of ethnic groups that the Egyptians called the Sea Peoples. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that they first destroyed the Hittite capital and brought the Hittite Empire to an end. They were then present in northern Syria, along the Levantine coast, and finally in Cyprus. They attacked the Egyptian delta in a huge battle commemorated at Ramesses Ill’s mortuary temple in Medinet Habu. The Egyptians must have been well prepared for this battle. Scholars do not doubt that Ramesses III successfully repulsed the Sea Peoples and forced them to settle in Syria-Palestine. They were most likely the ancestors of the Philistines. The Sea Peoples never invaded Egypt successfully but they changed the politics of the Near East and northern Africa permanently by destroying the long-established power structure of the east Mediterranean.

Internal Policy. Ramesses III built a major mortuary temple at Medinet Habu during the first twelve years of his reign. The building imitated Ramesses II’s Ramesseum in plan. In fact, Ramesses III used the reign of Ramesses II as a model. He constructed buildings at the same sites as his predecessor and named his sons after Ramesses II’s sons.

Punt and Sinai Ramesses III sent expeditions to Punt and to Sinai in Year 20. These expeditions were the first documented contact with Punt since the time of Hatshepsut more than three hundred years previously. The Sinai expeditions brought copper from Timna and turquoise from Serabit el-Khadim.

Papyrus Harris I. Scholars have offered differing interpretations of the meaning of Papyrus Harris I, the major source that described Ramesses Ill’s relationship with the god’s temples. According to the papyrus, in Year 15 Ramesses III ordered an inspection of the temples that revealed extensive internal corruption. Ramesses III both reformed the temple administration and enriched it by assigning large tracts of land to the temples of Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis. Some scholars link the temples’ increased control of land with the inflation in grain prices that occurred about ten years later. Whatever the validity of this interpretation high grain prices led to food shortages at Deir el Medina, the workman’s village. During the course of a strike in Year 29, the men refused to work until they received their wages from the temple. Perhaps in spite of these problems Ramesses III celebrated a Sed festival in Year 30 as was traditional. Some scholars have linked the lavish spending on the festival in the face of grain shortages to the assassination attempt against Ramesses III led by Tiye and Pentaweret. Jacobus van Dijk has suggested that at the least, Tiye and Pentaweret believed they could succeed because both officials and workers were so dissatisfied. Ramesses III died soon after this attempt on his life, though not all scholars believe the assassination attempt was the direct cause of his death.

Decline Thus, Ramesses Ill’s legacy was insubstantial probably because of economic problems beyond his control. With his death, the final phase of the New Kingdom began. This era ended about eighty years later after ineffective rule by eight kings named Ramesses.

Sources

Lionel Casson, The Pharaohs (Chicago: Stonehenge, 1981).

Jacobus van Dijk, “The Amarna Period and the Later New Kingdom (c. 1352-1069 BC),” in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 272–313.

Pierre Grandet, “Ramesses III,” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, volume III, edited by Donald B. Redford (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 118–120.