Pharaoh Ramses VI

The inscriptions which mention him speak with a certain emphasis of his monuments in honor of the gods; but of these, those which have survived the ravages of time are reduced to a very small number. The most important edifice, and the most instructive on account of its representations and inscriptions, is his great and splendid tomb in the royal valley of Biban-el-Moluk. The tables of the hours, with the times of the risings of the stars, which formed the houses of the sun's course in the 36 or 37 weeks of the Egyptian year, will be for all times the most valuable contribution to astronomical science in the 12th century before our era. According to the researches of the French savant, Biot, whose labors in the department of astronomical calculation, in order to fix certain epochs of Egyptian history, are almost the only ones which have treated the subject with scientific accuracy, the drawing up of these tables of stars would fall in the reign of Pharaoh Ramses VI, in the year 1240 B.C. Our learned fellow countryman, Professor Lepsius, has, however, from his own point of view, sought to prove that herein lay an error and that, on the authority of the already cited table of hours in the grave of this king, the year 1194 is indicated as the only proper date. This last view does not difier very much from our calculation of 1166, deduced from the number of successive generations. The foregoing inscription is found in a rock-tomb at Anibe, little visited by travelers, on the western bank of the Nile, opposite the village of Ibrim, about fifty kilometers (31 miles) north of Ibsambul. 
 
The owner of the tomb was an official of Pharaoh Ramses VI, of the name of Penni, who, in his office as Adon or governor of the land of Wawa, died and was buried in this lonely region. The directions he left behind him, particularly with regard to the number of estates, the produce of which was devoted to the maintenance of the service of a statue of the king, hardly require an explanation. What makes the inscription particularly valuable is the designation of lands in those parts, and the offices connected with them. He himself, as we have already remarked, was Adon of Wawa. Another Adon is mentioned by the name of Meri. The sun-city of Pira is the ancient designation of the modern place Derr, or Dirr. The city mentioned by the name of Ama, in which a Nubian Horus enjoyed an especial worship, is very often named in the inscriptions, and seems to have been the ancient appellation of Ibrim. At Pira (Derr), in all probability, was the seat of the administration of the whole country of Wawa. The districts of Ahi and the gold land of Akita belonged to it, the revenues of which Penni had to collect and pay over to the Pharaoh. For his especial diligence in the fulfillment of his service to the court he was most warmly commended by the “King's son of Kush” of that time, whose name unfortunately is passed over in silence. On a royal visit, the king appears accompanied by the above-named Meri, who is also called “the superintendent of the temple”, to recommend his officials to the grace of Pharaoh. The statue of the royal lord, which had been set up, plays here an important part. His Majesty appears to have been much pleased with the services of his faithful servant, since he presented Penni with two silver vessels filled with precious ointments, as a reward of honor. Penni was certainly an artist, as is shown by the statue of Pharaoh, and his rock tomb adorned with rich sculptiu-es in stone, but especially by his office, mentioned in the inscriptions, of “master of the quarry”, besides that of a “superintendent of the temple of Horus”, the lord of the town of Ama. These and similar statements are confirmed by the pictures and writings in his eternal dwelling, where he rests surrounded by his numerous relations. The several members of his family appear all to have held during their lifetime various offices in the Horus-city of Ama. I find among them a chief priest of Isis, whose son was the Amenemapi named in the inscription; also two treasurers of the king in Ama, a captain of the city of Ama, a priest and a scribe, while the women are mostly named as female singers of Amon or of Horus, the lord of the town of Ama. When all historical data for depicting the life and deeds of a king fail, the family information contained in the tomb of a contemporary becomes of importance, even if it teaches us nothing else than that in the times of Ramses VI. the Egyptian dominion south of the tropic was still maintained, and that among the "King's sons of Kush" there were several Adons, corresponding to the districts of Kush, to whom again were subordinated the H'a, or governors of the towns. 
 
Related Pages:

Ramses II's Father, Sons and Daughters

It is scarcely worth while to relate what Ramses II did for the buildings of his father at Abydus. In the course of his long reign the king completed the temple. When the great building was completely finished, Ramses must have been already advanced in years, since not less than sixty sons and fifty-nine daughters of Ramses II greeted in their pictures the entrance of the pilgrims at the principal gate. In proportion as the works executed under Seti, the father, present to the astonished eyes of the beholder splendid examples of Egyptian architecture and sculpture, just so poor and inferior are the buildings which were executed under the reign of Ramses, and which bear the names of the Conquering King. The feeling also of gratitude towards his parent seems to have gradually faded away with Ramses, as years increased upon him, to such a degree, that he did not even deem it wrong to chisel out the names and memorials of his father in many places of the temple walls, and to substitute his own. As we wish to leave it to our readers to form their own opinion on the boastful Ramses, we will turn to another field of his activity, and follow him, in the 5th year of his reign, to the stream of the Orontes in Syria, the waters of which washed the fortress of Kadesh on all sides. 
 
Related Pages:

Magic Wand: Dynasty 12
Magic rod segment, lion: New Kingdom
Lower Half of Kohl Tube: New Kingdom
Lotus Petal Bead Inscribed with the Throne Name of...
Lotus inlay: Dynasty 18
Limestone Heart Scarab
Limestone Heart Scarab: New Kingdom
Libation Vessel of Manuwai
Length of Very Sheer Linen Cloth: Dynasty 18
Leg from a Model Bed: Dynasty 18
Leather ball: Second Intermediate Period
Large Tray of Amethyst Fragments: Ancient Egypt
Large Ointment Jar with Lid: Dynasty 18
Kohl Tube in the Shape of a Monkey Holding a Vesse...
Kohl Jar: Second Intermediate Period
Kohl jar with lid: Early New Kingdom
Kohl Jar Inscribed with the Names of Amenhotep III...
Kohl jar decorated wtih Horus falcon and grotesque...
Knob (?) with the cartouche of Aya
Knife Razor: Dynasty 18
Knife: New Kingdom
Kneeling Statue of Yuny
Kneeling statue of Hatshepsut
Kneeling official: New Kingdom

Monuments of Ramses II

This is the king who above all others bears the name of honor of A-nakhtu "the Conqueror", and whom the monuments and the rolls of the books often designate by his popular names of Ses, Sestesu, Setesu, or Sestura, that is, the "Sethosis, who is also called Ramesses" of the Manethonian record, and the renowned legendary conqueror Sesostris of the Greek historians. The number of his monuments, which still to the present day cover the soil of Egypt and Nubia in almost countless numbers, as the ruined remnants of a glorious past, or are daily brought to light from their concealment, is so great and almost countless, that the historian of his life and deeds finds himself in a difficulty where to begin, how to spin together the principal threads, and where to end his work. If to honor the memory of his father be the chief duty and the first work of a dutiful son, and we shall see that this was the persuasion of Ramses II, the beginning is made easy for us, and we shall honor the king's memory in the worthiest manner by using the very words of the great Sesostris about his first acts on entering upon his sole reign. Temple of Ramses II in Abydos: King Seti had died. The temple of Abydus stood half finished. The first royal care of Ramses was to complete the work, and in a long inscription on the left wall of the entrance, to record the intention with which his heart was charged, for the imitation of his contemporaries and of posterity. The lord of the land arose as king, to show honor to his father, in his first year, on his first journey to Thebes
 
He had caused likenesses of his father, who was King Seti I, to be sculptured, the one in Thebes, the other in Memphis at the entrance gate, which he had executed for himself, besides those which were in Nifur, the necropolis of Abydus. Thus he fulfilled the wish which moved his heart, since he had been on earth, on the ground of the god Unnofer. He renewed the remembrance of his father, and of those who rest in the under world, in that he made his name to live, and caused his portraits to be made, and fixed the revenues set apart for his venerated person, and filled his house and richly decked out his altars. The walls were rebuilt, which had become old in his favorite house, the halls in his temple were rebuilt, its walls were covered, its gates were raised up; whatever had fallen into decay in the burial place of his father in the Necropolis was restored, and the works of art which had been carried away were brought back into the interior. All this did the Conquering King Ramses II for his father Seti I. He established for him the sacrifices in rich profusion, in his name and in that of the earlier kings. His breast had a tender feeling towards his parent, and his heart beat for him who brought him up. 
 
Related Pages:

Storage jar: Dynasty 18
Stool with woven seat: New Kingdom
Stela of the Sculptor Qen worshipping Amenhotep I ...
Stela of the Scribe Amenhotep
Stela of the Overseer of the Treasurers Isi
Stela of Tetu and Nefertjentet
Stela of Qenamun worshipping Amenhotep I and Senus...
Stela of Itubaal and Masutu
Stela of Amenhotep Adoring the Rising and Setting ...
Stela of Ahmose
Stela of Aamtju
Stela from New Kingdom, Dynasty 18
Statuette of Taweret
Statuette of Huwebenef
Statuette of Amun
Statuette: New Kingdom
Statue of Kneeling Captive: Dynasty 6
Statue of Kedamun and His Family
Statue of an asymmetrically seated man: Early New ...
Statue of a seated baboon: Ptolemaic Period
Statue of a man: Middle Kingdom
Statue of a Female Figure: Middle Kingdom
Standing figure of Amenhotep III
Spoon Decorated with a Duck's Head: New Kingdom
Spindle whorl: New Kingdom

Labels