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The Mystery of Ramses I’s Mummy.

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Originally called Pa-ra-mes-su, Ramesses I, was of non-royal birth, born into a noble military family from the Nile Delta region, perhaps near the former Hyksos capital of Avaris. He was the son of a troop commander called Seti. His uncle Khaemwaset, an army officer, married Tamwadjesy, the matron of Tutankhamun’s Harem of Amun, a relative of Huy, the viceroy of Kush, a vital state post. This shows the high status of Ramesses’ family. Ramesses I found favour with Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the tumultuous Eighteenth Dynasty, who appointed the former as his vizier. Ramesses also served as the High Priest of Set – as such, he would have played an important role in restoring the old religion following the Amarna heresy of a generation earlier, under Akhenaten.

Ramses I making an offering before Osiris. Amsterdam. Alland Pierson Museum (Wikipedia)

I once published an article about this amazing Pharaoh (Here), and now we are reading a supplement on this fascinating story.

Here, we will read Marie Grillot‘s excellent description of the mysteries surrounding the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses I.

The image at the top, Egyptian Antiquities: Pharaoh Ramses I (1320-1310 BC), represents burning incense and pouring water at a ceremony. Volume of Ramses I, Valley of the Kings, Egypt (Meisterdrucke)

The tomb of Ramses I and the questions about his mummy…

via égyptophile

Pharaoh is welcomed into the afterlife by Anubis and Horus
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings – KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

At the beginning of October 1817, Giovanni Battista Belzoni, working on behalf of the British consul Henry Salt, commissioned a team of around twenty fellahs to carry out surveys in the Valley of the Kings. On October 11, while they were at work in the southeastern wadi, their research was crowned by an extraordinary discovery. Belzoni thus relates it in “Journey to Egypt and Nubia”: “Around midday, I was told that the entrance to the tomb discovered the day before had been widened enough for us to enter… I was the first to enter the opening, which had just been made to see if the way was passable. After having traversed a passage thirty-two feet long and eight wide, I descended a staircase of thirty-eight feet and arrived in a room quite large and decorated with beautiful paintings.

Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

The key to reading the hieroglyphs was unknown; its “owner” – Ramesses I – would only be identified a few years later.

With an area of barely 148 m2, this tomb – referenced KV 16 – is one of the smallest in the necropolis. Its architectural plan is simple and rectilinear, with a stepped entrance followed by a sloping corridor that leads to a second staircase directly serving the burial chamber.

Signage panel with plan of the tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

“It is clear that the plan owes much to the tomb of Horemheb (KV 57). This appears particularly in the decorative style, using blue-grey as a background for the scenes and texts. Some think that the same artists were at the origin of these two tombs,” specifies Kent Weeks.

The scenes for which “we have renounced all relief” (Erik Hornung) reveal a high pictorial quality and seduce with their chromatic richness of luminous harmony. The hieroglyphs are of extraordinary finesse, and the king’s cartouches are set against a white background. The lower part of the vignettes is, all around, bordered by two thick bands of colour: the first yellow bordered with black, the second red ocher. Then, the rest of the wall, down to the ground, is painted black. As for the upper part bordering the ceiling, which has not been painted, is composed of a frieze of Khekerous resting on a strip of alternating coloured rectangles.

A priest standing before Osiris prepares to receive Ramses I, led by Horus, Atum and Neith
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

“The entrance to the sepulchral chamber is guarded by two figures of the goddess Maat, who welcome the deceased; the king is represented in the presence of the Memphite gods, Ptah and Nefertoum, and the deities of Abydos represented by the pillar-djed of ‘Osiris and the knot of lsis. On the side walls, several scenes from the Book of Doors evoke the Sun’s nocturnal journey. The back wall combines an Osirian scene on the right and a solar scene on the left. Far left, the king is shown in a position of jubilation, surrounded by the Souls of Pé and the Souls of Nekhen, the mythical ancestors of royalty.

Ramses I facing the god Nefertum
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

The room has three small “annexe” rooms. The one dug into the southwest wall has a very beautiful scene representing Osiris standing between a divinity with the head of a ram and the serpent goddess Nesret, “the fiery breath” (it is, in fact, the Uræus ).

At the height, we note the presence of four small niches intended to accommodate the “magic bricks. “

One of the niches intended to accommodate the “magic bricks.”
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

Most of the room is occupied by an imposing red granite sarcophagus. Although damaged during looting, its domed lid is still there. “The sarcophagus was hastily finished, as evidenced by its decoration. Indeed, it is painted yellow, the texts and figures not having had time to be incised. In addition, the representations of the two goddesses, sisters and protectors of their dead brother Osiris are quite clumsily made. As is customary, Isis is at the foot, and Nephthys is at the head of the sarcophagus. The two goddesses stand on the hieroglyphic sign “Noub”, which represents gold”, explains Thierry Benderitter (osirisnet).

The imposing red granite sarcophagus
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

As Ali Reda Mohamed, the site inspector, told us, this tomb, which had been closed since 2008 for restoration by an Egyptian team, was reopened to the public on January 2, 2021.

Upon Khaled el-Enani’s inauguration, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities detailed the work carried out: “The floors we” e restored, and the walls were cleaned of bird and bat droppings… The existing inscriptions were also restored and cleaned, and the soot was removed… The sarcophagus also benefited from the care of the restorers, and the lighting system was improved”…

A member of the Egyptian restoration team cleaning the sarcophagus
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings – KV 16 – 19th dynasty
discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
reopened to the public after restoration on January 2, 2021 – photo Ali Reda Mohamed

When Pa-Ramessou, a high dignitary and seasoned soldier, was chosen by Horemheb to succeed him, he was already around fifty years old. Around 1306-1307 BC, he became Pharaoh under Ramses I. Thus, this 19th dynasty, initiated by his predecessor, was marked by “the arrival to power of a family from the Delta (Ramses I, Séthy I)” and then marked “the transition to the Ramesside Empire”.

Pa-Ramessou is particularly known for two identical black granite statues representing him “as a scribe, ” discovered by Georges Legrain near the 10th pylon of Karnak on October 25, 1913 (Egyptian Museum in Cairo – JE 44863 – JE 44864).

One of the two granite statues representing Pa-Ramessou as a scribe – future Ramses I
discoveries near the 10th pylon of Karnak, October 25, 1913, by Georges Legrain
Egyptian Museum in Cairo – JE 44863

According to Manetho, his reign was short: 1 year and four months. This simple observation could explain the modest size of his tomb and its unfinished state.

If, in his account, Belzoni points out that the sarcophagus contained two mummies, these were not the remains of the sovereign…

Indeed, after the looting that occurred in the necropolis, his mummy, like that of Ramses II, would first have passed through the tomb of Sethy I before joining the “hiding place of the royal mummies” (DB 320), where it was placed in the tomb and sheltered by the high priests of Amun during the 21st dynasty. This collective tomb was discovered in Deir el-Bahari by the Abd el-Rassoul family in 1871. The Antiquities Service only became aware of it in July 1881 and then transported all the mummies to the Boulaq Museum.

“Rediscovery”, in July 1881, by the Antiquities Service, of the Cache of the Royal Mummies (DB 320)
discovered in 1871 by the Abd el-Rassoul Brothers near Deir el-Bahari

In “The Find of Deir-el-Bahari”, Gaston Maspero thus evokes the successive “displacements” which are “recorded” on the coffins of the sovereigns before their final reburial in DB 320: “The three mummies of the 19th dynasty had a common destiny. The coffins of Seti I and Ramses II bear three identical inscriptions or almost, and which date back to three different periods; what remains of the coffin of Ramses I bears the remains of a hieratic text similar to the second inscription of the text of Seti I”.

What really happened to Ramses I’s mummy? How can we imagine that after these “post-mortem” wanderings, he has not yet found rest? How could it have been sold to an American, then passed through a museum in Ontario before being exhibited at the Michael Carlos Museum in Atlanta?

In 1909, in his “General Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities from the Cairo Museum – Coffins of Royal Hiding Places”, Georges Daressy thus presents, under the ref. CG 61018, the: “Fragment of coffin in the name of Ramses I. Sycamore wood – The original coffin of Ramses I having been destroyed, his mummy had been placed in another coffin of the XXIst dynasty; but this second coffin was it – even broken during the multiple transports of the royal mummies and only two fragments have come down to us: the lid and the head of the vat. The question then arises as to whether the mummy resting inside was indeed that of the sovereign?

On the other hand, in the 1900s, in order to overcome its financial problems, the Cairo Museum did not hesitate to get rid of a number of antiquities; it actually had its own auction room, but from there, it separated from a royal mummy…

The exact scenario still remains an enigma…

Still, in an article dated March 6, 2004, on the Atlanta mummy entitled “Rameses I Mummy Returned to Cairo”, the magazine “World Archeology” reports that: “After three years of intensive investigation into the royal mummy, including X-rays, CAT Scan, radiocarbon dating, computer imaging and other techniques, researchers are 95% certain that this is the mummy of Ramesses I. Arms crossed on the chest indicates that the mummy is indeed royal because this specific position was only reserved for royal characters”…

In 2003, through Zahi Hawass, it was finally returned to Egypt… Since March 9, 2004, it has been exhibited at the Louqsor Museum in the room dedicated to the glory of ancient Thebes… On its cartel, however, a doubt remains: “It is a royal mummy from the end of the 18th dynasty – beginning of the 19th. It may be that of Ramses I, founder of the 19th dynasty”…

Mummy attributed to Ramses I exhibited since March 2004 at the Louqsor Museum
in the hall to the glory of ancient Thebes

Marie Grillot

Sources:
Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Journey to Egypt and Nubia, Pygmalion, 1979
Kent Weeks, Illustrated Guide to Luxor, Tombs, Temples and Museums, White Star Publishers 2005
Kent Weeks, The Valley of the Kings, The Tombs and Funerary Temples of Western Thebes, Gründ, Paris, 2001.
Alberto Siliotti, The Valley of the Kings, guide to the best sites, Gründ, 1996
Nicholas Reeves, Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings, Thames and Hudson, 1997
Claude Obsomer, Ramses II, Pygmalion, 2012
Pierre Tallet, Frédéric Payraudeau, Chloé Ragazzolli, Claire Somaglino, Pharaonic Egypt, history, society, culture, Armand Colin, 2019
Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts, reliefs and paintings, Second Edition, Volume II, p. 534-535, Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1994
Theban mapping project                  https://thebanmappingproject.com/tombs/kv-16-rameses-i Ramses I – KV 16 – Thierry Benderitter, osirisnet.net           https://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/pharaons/ramses1/ramses1_01.htm             Georges Legrain, At the Harmhabi pylon in Karnak (Xth pylon), ASAE 14, 1914, p. 13-44 https://archive.org/details/annalesduservice14egypuoft/page/12/mode/2up           Gaston Maspero, The Find of Deir-el-Bahari. Twenty photographs, by M. E. Brugsch, French printing house F. Mourès & Cie, Cairo, 1881            https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8626666s/f1.item?fbclid=IwAR2kq2S6I6J4p5Sgs1J__8cR1XKUhIsnOFeTohkBxXme-lg1UEr9NZs4hSs#     

Elisabeth David, Gaston Maspero, The Gentleman Egyptologist, Elisabeth David, Pygmalion, 1999
World Archeology, Rameses I Mummy Returned to Cairo, March 6, 2004,        https://www.world-archaeology.com/world/africa/egypt/rameses-i-mummy-returned-to-cairo/    Luc Gabolde, Royal mummies in search of identity, Egypt, Africa & Orient, 2005      https://hal.science/hal-01895058/document            

Cairo Museum No. 61001-61044, Coffins from the royal hiding places, Cairo Print. from the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1909
https://archive.org/details/DaressyCercueils1909

Publié il y a 17th February 2021 par Marie Grillot

Libellés: Belzoni DB 320 JE 44863 KV 16 momie musée de l’Ontario Musée de Louqsor Pa-Ramessou Ramsès I Ramsès Ier Vallée des Rois

Stele of the Serpent King (Stela of Djet)

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It is unimaginable that this Stele is over five thousand years old. Thanks to human curiosity and the joy of discovery, fascinating artefacts continued to appear.

Djet, also known as Wadj and Zet, was the fourth pharaoh of the First Dynasty and Djer’s successor. Djet’s Horus name means “Horus Cobra” or “Serpent of Horus. “.

Here, we read the story of this huge ancient stele by brilliant Marie Grillot, which shows humans merging with the divines.

The title image: Wikipedia

At the Louvre, the stele of Djet, the “Serpent King”

via: égyptophile

Stele of the Serpent King – limestone – circa 3100 – 2900 BC – discovered at Abydos, in the royal tomb (“Z”) of Djet
Necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna – Oumm el-Qaab – by Émile Amélineau during the excavations of 1895 – 1896
Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum E 11007
(by acquisition in November 1904 in Drouot of lot 303 of the Amélineau sale)
photo © 2023 Louvre Museum / Maurice Chuzeville

This large limestone stele, with a current height of 1.43 m and a width of 0.65 m, is one of the oldest monuments in the Egyptian department of the Louvre Museum.

It is dated 3100 – 2900 BC. It comes from the tomb of one of the founding sovereigns of the 1st dynasty and thus bears witness, with elegance and sobriety, to a page of history 5000 years old.

It was discovered in 1895 – 1896 by Émile Amélineau. This Egyptologist, a graduate of the École Pratique des Hautes Études where his teachers included Gaston Maspero and Eugène Grébaut, and also a member of the French Archaeological Mission in Cairo, returned to Egypt in November 1895 to carry out research excavations on a site that he does not yet know… “It was not without great apprehension that I agreed to go and excavate the necropolis of Abydos: the shadow of the great Mariette seemed to guard it against any rash attempt, and I knew, having read his works, that he had searched it for eighteen years. From then on, I wondered what I could discover in such circumstances because I had never been to Abydos… Therefore, I set to work with ardour, and he relates this ardour I preserved during the five months that “the campaign lasted, despite many setbacks and disappointments ” in “The New Excavations of Abydos”.

“Map of the Abydos necropolis, according to Mariette” – published by Émile Amélineau in
“New excavations of Abydos … full account of the excavations
description of the monuments and objects discovered” in 1899

In the necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna, “Oumm el-Qaab” (the “Mother of jugs” or “Mother of pots”), of which Jacques de Morgan had granted him the concession, he brought numerous tombs to light – with the help of more than 450 workers! – and several royal burials from the “Thinite” period (- 3100 – 2700 BC). “To the west of the large hill, almost perpendicular to the tomb of Osiris and in the first line”, he relates, he discovers that of the one he will identify as “the Serpent King, whom others have called Dja, or even Djet”. Son and successor of Djer, he was the fourth sovereign of the 1st dynasty and the father of Den, to whom he left power.

This royal tomb – later referenced as “Z” – notably contained this stele, broken into three pieces. “The lower fragment, undecorated, must have been left on site. The stele, which measured 2.50 meters or 2.60 meters in its original state, was significantly more slender. Sculpted in relief on a recessed background, the name of the sovereign is written, one of his names rather, since the kings of the time generally had two,” specifies Jean-Louis de Cenival in “A century of French excavations in Egypt, 1880 -1980”.

Stele of the Serpent King – limestone – circa 3100 – 2900 BC – discovered at Abydos, in the royal tomb (“Z”) of Djet
Necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna – Oumm el-Qaab – by Émile Amélineau during the excavations of 1895 – 1896
Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum E 11007
(by acquisition in November 1904 in Drouot of lot 303 of the Amélineau sale)
published by Émile Amélineau in “The new excavations of Abydos, Report of the excavations of Abydos, 1896-1898”)

In “Ancient Egypt at the Louvre”, Christiane Ziegler makes this enlightening reading: “The sovereign image of a large falcon dominates that of a snake framed by the enclosure of a fortress; the whole reads like a royal name, the name of the Serpent King. The falcon is the personification of the god Horus, protector of royalty. The serpent is the hieroglyph reading DJ or the sign used to write the name of the cobra. The enclosure is the image of the palace, with its raw brick walls reminiscent of a fortress with defence towers; the walls, pierced with high doors, present a succession of projections and recesses crowned with a cornice “.

For Georges Bénédite (“The so-called stele of the Serpent King” ): “It is logical to consider the building illustrated by the serekh as the residence of the Double, that is to say, the Tomb”… In “The Serekh as an Aspect of the Iconography of Early Kingship”, Alexandra A. O’Brien gives us these precious explanations: “The serekh is a way of writing the king’s name. It is generally made up of three elements: at the bottom, a part of the facade in a niche; above, a panel on which the king’s name is written; and, seated on it, a falcon. This is the ‘classic’ model. Sometimes, the falcon is joined by a Sethian animal, replaced by another, completely absent, or joined by a second falcon. This may seem like a simple motive, as the implication of each element is quite easy to explain. The facade of the niches probably represents a large building associated with the king – his palace perhaps or his tomb, and either would serve to represent the wealth, power and authority of the monarch”…

Stele of the Serpent King – limestone – circa 3100 – 2900 BC – discovered at Abydos, in the royal tomb (“Z”) of Djet
Necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna – Oumm el-Qaab – by Émile Amélineau during the excavations of 1895 – 1896
Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum E 11007
(by acquisition in November 1904 in Drouot of lot 303 of the Amélineau sale)
photo © 2002 Louvre Museum / Christian Décamps

During these three excavation missions from 1895 to 1898, Émile Amélineau discovered hundreds, even thousands of artefacts. According to the legislation in force (law on antiquities of 1891), they were distributed between Egypt and the “digger” during a “division carried out in Abydos under the supervision of Jquier, who replaced Morgan, who was bedridden at this period”, specifies Marc Étienne in “Émile Amélineau (1850-1915). The misunderstood scholar”.

Émile Amélineau, Egyptologist
(La Chaize-Giraud – Vendée, 28-8-1850 – Châteaudun – Eure-et-Loir – 12-1-1915)

The missions have been financed by a company of shareholders (bankers, collectors, etc.), and they expect a fair return on their investments… On his return to France, Émile Amélineau is responsible for selling the artefacts to be able to compensate them. But, faced with the difficulties encountered and the sales deadlines, which promise to be long, he will be forced to reimburse the investors, thus becoming the owner of all the objects brought back. The transactions he then pursued, notably with the Louvre to which he hoped to sell the entire collection, for obscure reasons, did not succeed… Finally, the Egyptologist decided to put his collection up for public sale at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris on November 3 and 4, 1904… “Due to the clauses of the shareholders’ company, three groups were formed by the remains unearthed during the excavations; this is what Amélineau designated in 1904 in the preface to the sales catalogue by the terms ‘first, second and third collection’, designating respectively the product of the excavations of the campaigns of winter 1895 – spring 1896, winter 1896 – spring 1897 and finally winter 1897 – spring 1898 (Amélineau sale, 1904)” specifies Marc Étienne.

Stele of the Serpent King – limestone – circa 3100 – 2900 BC – discovered at Abydos, in the royal tomb (“Z”) of Djet
Necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna – Oumm el-Qaab – by Émile Amélineau during the excavations of 1895 – 1896
Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum E 11007
(by acquisition in November 1904 in Drouot of lot 303 of the Amélineau sale)
photo © 2002 Louvre Museum / Christian Décamps

At this sale, the Louvre Museum will acquire this stele of King Serpent, presented under number 303. Thus, it will enter its collections under inventory number E 11007.

Marie Grillot

sources:

Stele of the Serpent King                           https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010012035   

Émile Amélineau, The new excavations of Abydos, Report of the excavations of Abydos, 1896-1898, Imprimerie A. Burdin, Angers, 1896  https://archive.org/details/lesnouvellesfoui00am/page/n5/mode/2up

Émile Amélineau, Mission Amélineau. The new excavations of Abydos, 1895-1896, full report of the excavations, description of the monuments and objects discovered (September 1, 1898) https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58048302/f438.item.r=jeu

Émile Amélineau, New excavations of Abydos … full report of the excavations, description of the monuments and objects discovered, Ernest Leroux Editeur, Paris, 1899 https://archive.org/details/nouvellesfouille00amel/page/n11/mode/2up  

Amélineau sale – Egyptian antiquities found in Abydos. Ivories, carved wood, enamelled earthenware, amulets, scarabs, funerary statuettes, gold and bronze objects, flint, terracotta, and pottery, various sculptures, hard stone vases and cups, steles, tables, and fragments with hieroglyphic inscriptions, etc. Hôtel Drouot Paris, February 8-9, 1904     https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1247688b/f6.item 

Émile Amélineau, The new excavations of Abydos 1897-1898, Ernest Leroux Editor, Paris, 1905 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58048302/f438.item.r=jeu

Georges Bénédite, The so-called stele of the Serpent King (Louvre Museum), Monuments and memories of the Eugène Piot Foundation, volume 12, fascicle 1, 1905. pp. 5-18  https://doi.org/10.3406/piot.1905.1260              https://www.persee.fr/doc/piot_1148-6023_1905_num_12_1_1260

Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, Jean Vercoutter, A century of French excavations in Egypt, 1880 – 1980, cat. exp. (Paris, Musée d’Art et d’Essai, Palais de Tokyo, May 21 – October 15, 1981), Cairo, French Institute of Oriental Archeology (IFAO), 1981, p. 6, illus. p. 6, no. 2                   Alexandra A. O’Brien, The Serekh as an Aspect of the Iconography of Early Kingship, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt                             Flight. 33, 1996, pp. 123-138 (16 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000610

Guillemette Andreu, Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya, Christiane Ziegler, Ancient Egypt at the Louvre, Paris, Hachette, 1997, p. 43; 250-251                                Marc Etienne, Émile Amélineau (1850-1915). The misunderstood scholar, Archéonil, 17, 2007, p. 27-38, p. 30, fig. 4 https://www.persee.fr/doc/arnil_1161-0492_2007_num_17_1_929

Publié il y a 29th December 2023 par Marie Grillot

Libellés: 1895-1896 1904 3100 – 2900 av. J.-C. Abydos Den Djer Djet Drouot dynastie I E 11007 El-Araba el-Madfouna lot 303 Louvre Oumm el-Qaab stèle roi Serpent thinite tombe “Z” Émile Amélineau