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Ramesses I
Pharaoh
Reign	1292 BC to 1290 BC or 1295 BC to 1294 BC
Predecessor	Horemheb
Successor	Seti I
Royal titulary Nomen Ramesses Ra bore him
Consort	Queen Sitre
Died	1290 BC
Burial	KV16
Dynasty	19th Dynasty

Menpehtyre Ramesses I (also written Ramses or Rameses) was the founding Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's 19th dynasty. The dates for his short reign are not completely known but the time-line of late 1292-1290 BC is frequently cited as well as 1295-1294 BC. While Ramesses I is widely regarded as the founder of the 19th Dynasty, in reality, his brief reign marked the transition between the reign of Horemheb who had stabilised Egypt and the rule of the powerful Pharaohs of this Dynasty, in particular Seti I and Ramesses II, who would bring Egypt up to new heights of imperial power.

Origins

Originally called Paramessu, Ramesses I was of non-royal birth, being born into a noble family from the Nile delta region, perhaps near the former Hyksos capital of Avaris. He was a career soldier, originally the chief of the archers (a position he inherited from his father, Seti), and ultimately general of the armies. He found favor with Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the tumultuous Eighteenth dynasty, who appointed Ramesses as his Vizier. He also served as the High Priest of Amun – as such, he would have played an important role in the restoration of the old religion following the Amarna heresy of a generation earlier, under Akhenaten.

Horemheb himself had been a nobleman from outside the immediate royal family, who rose through the ranks of the Egyptian army to serve as royal advisor and, ultimately, Pharaoh. Having no son of his own to continue his own lineage, Horemheb chose Ramesses to be his heir in the final years of his reign presumably because Ramesses I was both an able administrator and had a son and a grandson (the future Ramesses II) to succeed him and avoid any succession difficulties.

Upon his accession, Ramesses took a prenomen, or royal name, which is written in Egyptian hieroglyphs to the right. When transliterated, the name is mn-pḥty-r‘, which is usually interpreted as Menpehtyre, meaning "Established by the strength of Ra". However, he is better known by his nomen, or personal name. This is transliterated as r‘-ms-sw, and is usually realised as Ramessu or Ramesses, meaning 'Ra bore him'. Already an old man when he was crowned, Ramesses appointed his son, the later pharaoh Seti I, to serve as the Crown Prince and chosen successor. Seti was charged with undertaking several military operations during this time– in particular, an attempt to recoup some of Egypt's lost possessions in Syria. Ramesses appears to have taken charge of domestic matters: most memorably, he completed the second pylon at Karnak Temple, begun under Horemheb.

Death

Ramesses enjoyed a very brief reign due to the general paucity of contemporary monuments mentioning him: the king had little time to build any major buildings in his reign and was hurriedly buried in a small and hastily finished tomb. The Egyptian priest Manetho assigns him a reign of only 16 Months but this king almost certainly ruled Egypt for a minimum of 17 Months based on the date of his Year 2 Buhen stela. His only known actions was to order the provision of endowments for a Nubian temple at Buhen and "the construction of a chapel and a temple (which was to be finished by his son) at Abydos." He was succeeded by his son, Seti I on III Shemu day 24. According to Peter J. Brand, Ramesses I's Highest Year date is a Year 2 II Peret day 20 stela (Louvre C57) which ordered the provision of new endowments of food and priests for the Temple of Ptah within the Egyptian Fortress of Buhen. Jürgen von Beckerath observes that Ramesses I died just 5 Months later --in June 1290 BC--since Seti has own accession on III Shemu day 24. The aged Ramesses I was buried in the Valley of the Kings. His tomb, discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817 and designated KV16, is small in size and gives the impression of having been completed with haste. Joyce Tyldesley states in her book that Ramesses I's tomb consisted of a single corridor and one unfinished room whose

"walls, after a hurried coat of plaster, were painted to show the king with his gods, with Osiris allowed a prominent position. The red granite sarcophagus too was painted rather than carved with inscriptions which, due to their hasty preparation, included a number of unfortunate errors.

Starting from the death of Ramesses I and through to the beginning of Ramesses II's reign, some of the Shasu (perhaps the Israelites) left Egypt, via modern day Sinai, into northern Arabia, and then entered Canaan.

Rediscovery

His mummy was stolen by the Abu-Rassul family of grave robbers and brought to North America around 1860 by Dr. James Douglas. He was then placed in the Niagara Museum and Daredevil Hall of Fame in Ontario, Canada. Ramesses I remained here, his identity unknown, next to other curiosities and so-called "freaks of nature" for more than 130 years but was eventually sold in 1999 to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. His royal identity was conclusively determined through various CT scans, X-rays and radio-carbon dating tests by researchers at the University and his Mummy was returned to Egypt on October 24, 2003 with full official honors.

Possible historical context

Ahmed Osman identifies Ramesses as the Pharaoh of the Exodus and Horemheb as the Pharaoh of the Oppression, although mainstream Egyptologists disagree with this view. This is due to the brevity of Ramesses I's reign. Another reason why many scholars are skeptical about identifying Horemheb as the Biblical Pharaoh of the Oppresion is that the city of "Ra'amses" which a large majority of scholars believe to be Pi-Ramesses, may not have even existed in Horemheb's reign but it has been proposed by Osman that the city already existed by his reign and was named after Ramesses I, then Paramessu, whose family came from this region of Egypt. With Ahmed Osman's identification of the oppressing king as Horemheb, not Ramesses I, the cities mentioned in the Bible would have then been built during the reign of Horemheb, making the identification possible. Osman argues that the general identification of Ramesses II as the Pharaoh mentioned in the Bible is only based on the fact that "Ra'amses" is mentioned here. He further proposes that some of the groups of Shasu who left Egypt upon Ramesses I's death were the Israelites.

References

1. J. Von Beckerath, Chronologie des Äegyptischen Pharaonischen, Phillip von Zabern, Mainz:1997, p.190
2. Michael Rice, Who's Who in Ancient Egypt, Routledge, 1999
3. Joyce Tyldesley, Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh, Penguin Books, (2000), pp.37-38
4. Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Books, (1992), p.245
5. Peter J. Brand, The Monuments of Seti I: Epigraphic, Historical and Art Historical Analysis, Brill, NV Leiden, (2000), pp.289, 300 & 311
6. von Beckerath, Chronologie, p.190
7. Tyldesley, Ramesses, p.38
8. Ahmed Osman, Moses, Pharaoh of Egypt/Moses and Akhenaten, Bear, 1990, 2002.
10. Ahmed Osman, Stranger in the Valley of the Kings/The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt, Bear, 1987, 2003
11. Ahmed Osman, Stranger in the Valley of the Kings/The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt, Bear, 1987, 2003
12. Ahmed Osman, Moses, Pharaoh of Egypt/Moses and Akhenaten, Bear, 1990, 2002

External links

• U.S. Museum to Return Ramesses I Mummy to Egypt
• Ramesses I: The search for the Lost Pharaoh
• Ramesses I: Founder of the 19th Dynasty
• Nova: Who was Ramesses I?

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• 1290 BC deaths
• Pharaohs of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
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