Usermaatre Sekheperenre Ramesses V (also written Ramses and Rameses) was the fourth
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...
of the
Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore toget ...
and was the son of
Ramesses IV
Heqamaatre Setepenamun Ramesses IV (also written Ramses or Rameses) was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. He was the second son of Ramesses III and became crown prince when his elder brother Amenherk ...
and
Duatentopet
Duatentopet or Tentopet was an ancient Egyptian queen of the 20th Dynasty, the wife of Pharaoh Ramesses IV, and mother of Ramesses V. Even though the identity of Ramesses IV's wife has not been clearly stated in history, she is considered the mos ...
. His mummy is now on display at the
National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) is a large museum ( ) in the ancient city of Fustat, now part of Cairo, Egypt. The museum partially opened in February 2017 and will display a collection of 50,000 artefacts, presenting Egyptian ...
in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
.
Reign
Ramesses V's reign was characterized by the continued growth of the power of the priesthood of
Amun
Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as (Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → (Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egyptian ...
, which controlled much of the
temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
land in the country and the state finances, at the expense of the ruling pharaohs. The Turin 1887
papyrus
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
records a financial scandal during Ramesses' reign that involved the priests of
Elephantine
Elephantine ( ; ; arz, جزيرة الفنتين; el, Ἐλεφαντίνη ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological sites on the island were inscribed on the UNESCO ...
. A period of domestic instability also afflicted his reign, as evidenced by the fact that, according to the Turin Papyrus Cat. 2044, the workmen of
Deir el-Medina
Deir el-Medina ( arz, دير المدينة), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom of ...
periodically stopped work on Ramesses V's
KV9
Tomb KV9 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings was originally constructed by Pharaoh Ramesses V. He was interred here, but his uncle, Ramesses VI, later reused the tomb as his own. The layout is typical of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt, 20th Dynasty &nd ...
tomb in this king's first regnal year, out of fear of "''the enemy''", presumably Libyan raiding parties, who had reached the town of
Per
Per is a Latin preposition which means "through" or "for each", as in per capita.
Per or PER may also refer to:
Places
* IOC country code for Peru
* Pér, a village in Hungary
* Chapman code for Perthshire, historic county in Scotland
Math ...
-Nebyt and "''burnt its people''." Another incursion by these raiders into Thebes is recorded a few days later.
[Peden, p.21] This shows that the Egyptian state was having difficulties ensuring the security of its own elite tomb workers, let alone the general populace, during this troubled time.
The
Wilbour Papyrus
The Wilbour Papyrus is the largest known non-funerary papyrus from Ancient Egypt, named after the New York journalist Charles Edwin Wilbour who acquired it in 1893.
History
Charles Edwin Wilbour purchased seventeen papyri from a farmer when he ...
, believed to date to Year 4 of Ramesses V's reign, was a major land survey and tax assessment document which covered various lands "extending from near
Crocodilopolis
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
(Medinet el-Fayyum) southwards to a little short of the modern town of El-Minya, a distance of some 90 miles." It reveals most of Egypt's land was controlled by the Amun temples, which also directed the country's finances. The document highlights the increasing power of the High Priest of Amun
Ramessesnakht
Ramessesnakht was High Priest of Amun during many years in the 20th Dynasty. He was appointed as the High Priest at Thebes under Ramesses IV. He served in office until the reign of Ramesses IX. It was during Ramessesnakht's tenure that the ...
whose son, a certain Usimare'nakhte, held the office of chief tax master.
Death
The circumstances of Ramesses V's death are unknown but it is known he had a reign of almost four full years. An
ostracon
An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ston ...
records that this king was only buried in Year 2 of Ramesses VI, which was highly irregular since Egyptian tradition required a king to be mummified and buried precisely 70 days into the reign of his successor.
![Ramses V mummy head](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Ramses_V_mummy_head.png)
However, another reason for the much delayed burial of Ramesses V in Year 2, second month of
Akhet day 1 of Ramesses VI's reign (see KRI, VI, 343) may have been connected with Ramesses VI's need "to clear out any Libyans
nvadersfrom Thebes and to provide a temporary tomb for Ramesses V until plans for a double burial within tomb KV9 could be put into effect."
Moreover, a Theban work journal (''P. Turin'' 1923) dated to Year 2 of Ramesses VI's reign shows that a period of normality had returned to the Theban West Bank by this time.
The
mummy
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...
of Ramesses V was recovered in 1898 and seemed to indicate that he suffered and subsequently died from
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, due to lesions found on his face. He was thought to be one of the earliest known victims of the disease. While a 2016 discovery has found that the shared ancestral form of smallpox dates back to 1580 AD, this study merely indicates that the strains of smallpox circulating at the time of smallpox eradication had a common ancestor in the late 16th century, specifically that "the VARV lineages eradicated during the 20th century had only been in existence for ∼200 years, at a time of rapidly expanding human movement and population size in the face of increasingly widespread inoculation and vaccination." Indeed, they say merely about ancient cases of smallpox that "if they were indeed due to smallpox, these early cases were caused by virus lineages that were no longer circulating at the point of eradication in the 1970s." The advent of vaccination, or variolation in China and Japan during the middle ages, could have altered the relative presence of smallpox strains and diminished the presence of ancient strains. A 2015 review summarizing recent research into the question of smallpox evolution and divergence from its common ancestors suggests it is most likely that smallpox evolved 3000–4000 years ago in East Africa or India, which is not inherently contradicted by the study described the latter of which contains descriptions of smallpox from before the first century AD at least. Finally, another genomic analysis places the evolution of smallpox at 16,000 years before present, and mentions Ramses V: "if the pustular eruption of Ramses V was from smallpox, it could represent a smallpox outbreak from imported cases... rather than regional endemic disease. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that only three mummies in that period had similar lesions."
References
Further reading
* A.J. Peden, Where did Ramesses VI bury his nephew?, GM 181 (2001), 83-88
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramesses 05
12th-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt
Ancient Egyptian mummies
Year of birth unknown
1145 BC deaths
Deaths from smallpox
Ramesses IV