New Kingdom
Ramesses IV (Heqamaatre)
20th Dynasty · 1186-1069 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Ramesses IV came to the throne in the shadow of his father's assassination and used both a criminal tribunal and a monumental papyrus praising his father's reign to shore up his own legitimacy, before dying after only six years on the throne despite his stated hope of matching Ramesses II's record-breaking reign. Research: UCL Digital Egypt; British Museum.
Dynastic chronology: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
The treason trials
Ramesses IV survived the assassination plot that killed his father. He immediately established a special tribunal of 12 judges to prosecute the conspirators. The court documents, known as the Judicial Papyrus of Turin, record that the guilty parties, including Prince Pentawere, were forced to commit suicide, and their names were permanently hacked out of monuments.
Massive quarrying expeditions
He initiated enormous building programs and sent massive expeditions to the Wadi Hammamat to acquire stone. One expedition involved over 9,000 men, with records casually noting that roughly 900 laborers died from the brutal working conditions. He prayed to Osiris for a reign double the length of Ramesses II's, but he died after only six years on the throne.
A papyrus written to secure a throne
Soon after his father's death, Ramesses IV commissioned what would become Papyrus Harris I, at roughly 41 meters the longest surviving papyrus from ancient Egypt. Framed as a record of Ramesses III's temple donations and achievements, its unusually elaborate praise of his father's reign is generally read by historians as a political document as much as a religious one, composed to reinforce Ramesses IV's own claim to a throne that had so recently been the target of a palace conspiracy.
Sources for this profile
- Baker, D. D. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume 1. Stacey International.
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- University College London. Kings of the New Kingdom.
- Reeves, N., & Wilkinson, R. H. (1996). The Complete Valley of the Kings. Thames & Hudson.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.