We now see a
series of Ramesseses taking the throne, as the succession became increasingly haphazard.
First, there was Ramesses IV (c. 1151 - 1145), who sent expeditions to
gather stone and turquoise. He was buried in KV2, which had been open since antiquity, and
his mummy was found in Amenhotep II's tomb on 1898.
There seems to have been civil war during the reign of Ramesses V (c.
1145 - 1141), who was perhaps usurped by his brother. He was buried in year 2 of his
brother's reign, yet the mummification process was only allowed to have 70 days allocated
to it, possibly indicating that he lived beyond the end of his reign. Whatever the truth
behind his fate, he was buried in KV9 and his mummy (which had marks on its face, perhaps
to indicate that he was a smallpox sufferer) was found in Amenhotep II's tomb.
When Ramesses VI (c. 1141 - 1133) was on the throne, the size of the
Egyptian Empire decreased drastically. The turquoise mines in the Sinai were abandoned,
and the eastern border was pulled back from Palestine to the eastern Delta.Ramesses usurped KV9, and his mummy was found in
Amenhotep II's tomb. His mummy had, however, been hacked to pieces by ancient tomb robbers
looking for jewels, and the head and torso had been wrongly reassembled - there were body
parts belonging to at least 2 other people, and where the neck should have been was in
fact his left hip and part of his pelvis.
There was hyperinflation under Ramesses VII (c. 1133 - 1126), as recorded
in surviving papyri. He was buried in KV1, which has been open since antiquity, and his
mummy has never been identified.
Ramesses VIII (c. 1126) seems to have been a son of Ramesses III. No tomb
or mummy has been identified.
Ramesses IX (c. 1126 - 1108) placed increasing emphasis on Lower Egypt,
and allowed the High Priests of Amun based in Thebes to control Upper Egypt. He was buried
in KV6 and his mummy was found at Deir el-Bahari in 1881.
The exact length of the reign of Ramesses X (c. 1108 - 1098) is unknown.
He was buried in KV18, which has never been fully explored. His mummy has never been
identified.
The reign of Ramesses XI (c. 1098 - 1070) is the last covered by this
survey in its current form. From surviving papyri, we can tell that there was civil war
during his tenure of the throne, and that it was unsafe to travel anywhere in Egypt. After
a struggle, Ramesses was forced to accept that Herihor, the High Priest of Amun, was his
equal in Upper Egypt, and he himself had to be content with ruling the northern half from
his capital at Piramesse.
Ramesses's tomb was in KV4, but it has been
open since antiquity and was probably never used. Judging by the implements found there
though, it was probably used as a workshop by the priests who re-wrapped mummies before
they were removed either to Deir el-Bahari or Amenhotep II's tomb. His own mummy has never
been identified.
As we have seen, by 1070BC, the great days of Egypt were past. The last great Pharaoh
(Ramesses III) had died in c. 1151BC, and his successors were simply not up to the task of
keeping the Empire together. Despite this, Egypt would survive as an independent state
until the last century BC, apart from a few periods in between, during which it was ruled
either from Nubia, Greece, or Persia. The capture of the country by Octavian (the Roman
Emperor Augustus) signalled the end of its independence, and it would not be governed by
an Egyptian again until the 1950s.
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