Ramesses IX

King 1140-1121 BC.

    The later Ramesside kings (Ramesses IV to XI) ruled over a country in which society was experiencing a slow disintegration, with a constant pattern of corruption, failing food supplies, strikes and tomb-robberies.

    By Year 10 of the reign of Ramesses IX, Amenhotep-the High-priest of Amun at Thebes-had acquired a considerable degree of personal power, controlling the god's wealth and estates. This position had become hereditary and, apart from their titles, these priests now equalled the powers of the kings in the north. An unprecedented example is set by Amenhotep who, in two temple wall-reliefs, is shown as a figure equal in size to the king, thus indicating his relative status and importance.

    The records relating to the community of royal workmen who lived at Deir el Medina indicate that in the later years of Ramesses IX, the workers were terrorised by foreigners at Thebes. It is unclear whether these were incursions by a new group or whether the descendants of the prisoners-of-war were now fomenting rebellion there. Because of famine in Egypt, the food rations of the work-force were delayed and the consequent unrest led to a series of strikes and tomb-robberies in which workmen were implicated.

    Various papyri—particularly Papyri Abbott, Amherst and Mayer A—provide detailed information about the tomb-robberies and the great state trials which began in Ramesses IX's reign and lasted for many years. It is evident that the king took a close interest in the proceedings of these trials which he had inaugurated. No deterrent action was successful, because in times of hardship and hunger the lure of the royal tombs with their rich treasure was always compulsive.

    In foreign policy, Egypt was left with only her southern possessions, Kush (Ethiopia) and Wawat (*Nubia), since the Asiatic provinces had been lost soon after *Ramesses Ill's death.

BIBL. Cerny, J. A. community of workmen at Thebes in the Ramesside Period. Cairo: 1973; Peet, T.E. The Great Tomb-robberies of the Twentieth Egyptian Dynasty. (Two vols) Oxford: 1930.

Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David

* * *

(reigned c. 1126–1108 BC)

   Throne name Neferkare setepenre. Personal name Khaemwese. Epithet mereramun. Amember of the royal family of Dynasty 20 whose exact origin is uncertain. Successor to Ramesses VIII. Alarge volume of documentation survives from his reign concerning the affairs of Deirel-Medinaand the Theban area, notably the Tomb Robbery Papyri, which illustrates the gradual breakdown in law and order and the growing independence of the Theban area under its high priest. He was buried in tomb KV6 in the Valley of the Kings, and his body was recovered from the royal cache at Deir el-Bahri in 1881.

Historical Dictionary Of Ancient Egypt by Morris L. Bierbrier