Cut Throats and Inflated Chests

I always enjoy the flight south from Cairo to Luxor, despite the fact that the plane leaves at 6.00, which means we have to be at the airport at 4.00 and that means leaving the hotel at 3.00. There is something virtuous about rising early, even before the blighted muezzin rouses the faithful with his cacophany of noise. We drive through deserted streets that in an hour or two will be one long traffic jam; we get off the bus into the cool pre-dawn that in an hour will be a sweltering furnace; we pass sleepy searches and security that in an hour will be petty and restrictive. Best of all, when we take off the sun has just risen and we can look down from 30,000 feet on the tortured desert below where every wadi is picked out by deep shadow.

Then we arrive at Luxor and travel in to our hotel and on the way we pass old friends - the gaunt ruins of the Luxor temple, a short line of disinterred spinxes, the mighty Nile flowing swifly and silently northwards, and beyond that the yellow hills where the Valley of the Kings awaits us. If the day is clear and we just happen to be looking in the right direction we might even catch a flash of light reflected from the polished stones of Deir el-Bahri, the fabulous temple of Hatshepsut, nestled beneath the cliffs.

Once we have unloaded our luggage at the hotel our first stop is usually the huge Karnak Temple, followed by the Luxor Temple with possibly a visit to a perfume factory in between. It is not until the following day that we cross the Nile and stop first at the Colossi of Memnon before heading for our usual sights on the west bank. Almost invariably the first of these is Medinet Habu.

The 'migdol' tower gateway into the temple enclosure of Medinet Habu. The 'harem' is on the level of the first floor window.
The 'migdol' tower gateway into the temple enclosure of Medinet Habu. The 'harem' is on the level of the first floor window.

Built by Pharaoh Rameses III as a mortuary temple and administrative centre, the massive mud-brick wall that surrounds it bears witness to the uncertain times in which it was constructed. We point out the huge stone gateway, built like a Canaanite "migdol" or tower fortress, but we don't linger for inside are the famous reliefs depicting Rameses III's defeat of the Peoples of the Sea.

There are the Peleset with their feathered headdresses; there are the invading ships with the sailors falling overboard under the showers of arrows fired by Egyptian bowmen lining the river banks; there are the scribes counting the number of dead by unmistakable proofs. In the case of the circumcised Libyans, the scribes are counting amputated right hands, which are piled up in gory heaps in front of them. In the case of the uncircumcised Peoples of the Sea, the scribes are counting even more personal objects which are a surer evidence of death. Fortunately we are at liberty to doubt that the drawings are to scale, otherwise we would have to certainly conclude that the Philistines were "mighty men of old"!

There are statues of Rameses III lined up against the pillars of the courtyard, there is the much-ruined hypostyle hall, there is even a Nileometer out in the courtyard in front of the temple, but alas, we cannot take the group to see the most remarkable of Medinet Habu's treasures, for that remains closed to the public. Only once did I find the way open and I dashed up the stairs, fearing at any moment that a guard would come after me crying "Mamnooah! Mamnooah!".

According to all the guide books, the upper chamber in that "migdol" gatehouse was used by Rameses III's harem, for it is adorned with pictures of the harem ladies in a state of undress. This has always seemed unlikely to me, but particularly so since I got into it!

The chamber is a square room about the size of a largish bedroom in a modern house. There are huge windows in front and rear walls which would let in the rain and cold winds of winter and the dust storms of summer. There are no side chambers or sleeping quarters and a brace of wives, plus assorted concubines and numerous attendants would end up extremely cramped! Either the ladies of the harem were a good deal tougher and more accepting of hardship than I have hitherto imagined, or this chamber was used for other purposes.

I strongly suspect that the reliefs are the final proof: unless the ladies of the harem were decidedly odd in their preferences, why would they wish to have their quarters decorated with nude women? Something floral and pink would seem more appropriate! The evidence would appear to point towards a male presence in the room, perhaps an exclusively male presence.

It may be, of course, that it is the end of Rameses III's reign which has led to the association between his temple and his harem. After 31 years on the throne Rameses was getting on a bit and those about him were starting to speculate on a likely successor. There were, it appears, two contenders.

We have few details about Rameses' personal life, but it would seem that he had two chief wives, Tiye and Iset Ta-Hemdjert. Great Royal Wife Iset - or Isis - was the daughter of Hemdjert, a woman with a Syrian name and almost certainly a Syrian, perhaps one of the diplomatic marriages that Rameses III contracted as part of his effort to keep the Egyptian empire intact. Although her son, Ramesses-Hekma-Meriamun, was the favourite to succeed his father, it was doubtless the fact of his foreign blood that led Tiye to feel that her son, Pentawer, would be a more suitable candidate.

Although Tiye was secluded in the harem, she managed to assemble quite a serious conspiracy. Among the plotters were Mastsuria, a royal butler plus six other butlers, Pebekkamen, chamberlain, Panhayboni, overseer of cattle, a couple of administrators, Iyroy, Rameses' personal physician, and Prekamenef, the court magician. The magician was important because his incantations were used to ensure that the conspiracy was not discovered. Quite why Iyroy wasn't used to slip something into pharaoh's morning tea I don't know; perhaps there was a royal taster who could not be "squared"? In addition the army was involved in the persons of two standard bearers, two scribes and a herald.

We know about this conspiracy because of several papyrus scrolls, now in the Turin museum. The great Judicial Papyrus is a record of the trial of the conspirators: 27 men and 6 women were charged with treason, 5 men with corruption. The papyrus was found by some unknown tomb robber who, in an attempt to increase his profits, carefully cut it up into sections. These were sold to travellers and came to be known by their names: Papyrus Rollin, Papyrus Varzy, Papyrus Lee and Papyrus Rifaud I and II. Fortunately the sections were recognised as part of one original document and were brought together in Turin, where Professor A. de Buck translated them in 1937.

According to the Papyrus, Rameses III himself set up the court to try the conspirators, but by the time the verdicts are announced he is being referred to as "the great god", a title reserved for dead pharaohs. It has always been assumed, therefore, that the conspirators attacked the king in some way but their attack was foiled, but not before Rameses was wounded or poisoned, leading to his death some short time later.

The mummy of Rameses III. What appears to be a cravat in fact hides the wound in his throat which killed him.
The mummy of Rameses III. What appears to be a cravat in fact hides the wound in his throat which killed him.

This interpretation of the Papyrus was furthered by the fact that the mummy of Rameses III appears to be intact. Enough was unwrapped to reveal the pharaoh's face, but some of the grave clothes were left in place, perhaps because they could not be removed without damaging the mummy. As an amulet intended to protect against snakebite was found with the mummy, some even suggested that the conspirators anticipated Cleopatra and attempted to kill the pharaoh with an asp or viper!

Last year the Science Channel assembled a team of scholars to try and solve the problem of how Rameses III died. The team was led by Dr Albert Zink, who has worked on the famous Iceman of the Alps. Among other investigations, they subjected Rameses III to a CT scan and discovered, to their amazement, that the bandages that had been left in place around the pharaoh's throat in fact hid a deep cut that went all the way back to his vertebrae! The wound was 2.7" wide and severed the trachea, oesophagus and nearby large blood vessels. The trachea was so completely cut in two that the two ends retracted nearly an inch apart.

It would not be correct to say - as some newspaper reports have said - that Rameses III had his throat cut. That implies a side-to-side blow that would result in a much wide cut and would probably involve the jugular vein and carotid artery. Rather he was stabbed in the throat, probably with a spear or large dagger, as Egyptian swords were intended for slashing rather than stabbing.

Such a wound was not only not survivable, but death almost certainly followed within a couple of minutes at most, even though Dr Zink himself cautiously says, "We still cannot be sure that the cut killed him, but we think it did." Certainly the embalmers realised just how deadly it was because they inserted an amulet of the Eye of Horus, believed to promote healing, in the cut before they put the bandages in place.

The Turin Papyrus occupies most of one wall of a room in the Turin Archaeological Museum.
The Turin Papyrus occupies most of one wall of a room in the Turin Archaeological Museum.

So if Rameses was killed, who ordered the trial? Indeed, how did there come to be a trial at all? We can only assume that a secondary conspiracy - for which we have no evidence - to dispose of Rameses-Hekma-Meriamun failed and the heir apparent survived to lead a party of loyalists against the conspirators. Was there fighting in the streets? Were the conspirators caught weapons in hand, so to speak, or was it all done more gradually over a period of weeks or months?

We will never know, but what we do know is that the harem ladies involved in the case went down fighting - but in their own way. Chosen for their beauty and desirability, the ladies invited five of the fourteen judges back to their accommodation, possibly for a private discussion of the evidence! The judges, with a most unjudicial gleam in their eyes, accepted the invitation. Scandalised officials interrupted proceedings and discovered that whatever it was that the ladies wished to reveal was being gone into very thoroughly indeed. One of the judges committed suicide, three were mutilated - perhaps castrated - and the fifth, for unknown reasons, was let off with a mere reprimand.

Like most ancient documents, the Turin Judicial Papyrus is somewhat formulaic. Each of the accused is listed by name and crime and followed by the laconic sentence: "He was placed before the nobles of the court of examination; they found him guilty; they brought his punishment upon him." In view of the charges, it is almost certain that the sentence was death, but the papyrus does not record this nor the manner of the death. Some have suggested that the accused were burned - either before or after death - because then there would be no body to be preserved and without the body, a person had no hope of an afterlife.

A couple of the most high-born of the accused - among them Pentawer, Tiye's son - were given a different sentence. "The judges left him in his place, he took his own life."

Near where Rameses III was found was the mummy of a young man. There was no name associated with the mummy, which had been treated in an unusual way: instead of the normal mummification the body was wrapped in a goatskin, an animal regarded by the Egyptians as "impure". This led some to suggest that the body was that of Pentawer and that the young man had been allowed to commit suicide by taking poison.

Dr Zink and his team examine the DNA of both Rameses III and the young man and established that they two men were linked. Dr Zink revealed, "They share the same Y chromosome and 50% of their genetic material, which is typical of a father-son relationship."

When they turned to the body, however, they noted that the skin around his neck was wrinkled in a distinctive manner and that his chest was inflated. Normally when someone dies they breathe out and fail to breathe in again, so this discovery might indicate that Pentawer - if that is who the body is - was unable to breathe out. In other words, something was put around his neck which caused the skin to wrinkle and prevented normal respiration. The conclusion has to be that Pentawer was hung and most probably hung himself.

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cacophany of noise Early travellers to the Middle East speak of the muezzin's call - some even call it "song" - sounding sweetly through the air or mingling with the sounds of the street like the cry of a bird. That was before the days of electronic amplification! Today every mosque in the east is equipped with a sound system that would put many a rock group to shame and there is nothing more horrendous than to be woken from a peaceful sleep by the harsh bellow of some croup-ridden muezzin whose inharmonious yowling causes the walls to vibrate and bring flakes of paint floating down from the ceiling.

And then the Muslims have the nerve to ban church bells in their lands! Not even twelve hours of Plain Bob Minor from the church next door can compete with the awfulness of five minutes of amplified wailing by some ancient who fancies that he can sing but is handicapped by a total lack of musical ability and the discordant notes of Arabic music. Return

Peleset Velikovsky claims that, like modern Japanese, the ancients found 'l' and 'r' similar in sound and that the word should really be "Pereset" or "Persians". On this basis he dates Rameses III to the Persian period and finds in the reliefs at Medinet Habu reference to battles between Egyptians and Greek mercenaries as well as the struggle against the Persian invaders.

He makes an interesting case, but I am not sure whether he is correct. For example, although there may not be much difference between an English 'l' and 'r', in the Middle East 'r' is always rolled, which does tend to make it a quite distinctive sound. Even more problematic is the fact that the Persians were never "peoples of the sea" and their attempts at using naval power against Greece are proof of their nautical ineptitude. Return

nude women Before anyone's imagination gets too overheated, I should point out that the ladies in question are depicted very much as any other Egyptian women and it is merely the absence of the lines at neck and ankle which indicate hemlines which give the game away. I have no doubt that ancient Egyptian women were as attractive as their modern counterparts, but the conventions of ancient Egyptian art are not exactly conducive to sweaty palms and racing pulses. Return

overseer of cattle This may sound like a glorified farm-hand, but in fact cattle were an important part of Egyptian life and nearly every nobleman's tomb has a relief or a model showing the "counting of the cattle", in which the man's cattle were driven past him while he and several attendant scribes count them. Almost certainly Panhayboni was an important and trusted courtier. Return

© Kendall K. Down 2012