New Kingdom
Ramesses IX (Neferkare Setepenre)
20th Dynasty · 1186-1069 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Ramesses IX ruled for nearly two decades, but his reign is remembered above all for a wave of royal tomb robberies at Thebes and the politically compromised investigation that followed, preserved in unusual detail in the Abbott and Amherst papyri. Research: UCL Digital Egypt; Lapham's Quarterly.
Chronological source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
The great tomb robberies
Ramesses IX ruled for nearly two decades, but his reign is infamous for total administrative breakdown and rampant corruption. During his 16th and 17th years, an official investigation uncovered massive looting across the royal cemeteries of Western Thebes. Trial papyri record the confessions of stonemasons who brazenly broke into the tombs of past kings, such as Sobekemsaf II, to strip their mummies of gold and burn their coffins, often with the complicity of corrupt local mayors.
A trial shaped by rivalry
The surviving account, known as the Abbott Papyrus, records that Paser, mayor of Thebes's east bank, publicly accused his rival Pawero, mayor of the west bank responsible for guarding the necropolis, of complicity in the robberies. The investigating commission was headed by Pawero himself, who was never charged for lack of clear evidence, while seventeen lower-ranking workmen were convicted and executed and Paser, his accuser, disappears from the historical record entirely. The affair reads less like a resolved scandal than a case of institutional cover-up, and the tomb robberies at Thebes continued after it.
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.