Heqamaatre Setepenamun Ramesses IV (also written Ramses or Rameses) was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. He was the second son of Ramesses III and crown prince when his elder brother Amenherkhepshef died aged 15 in 1164 BC when Ramesses was only 12 years old. His promotion to the crown prince:
Is suggested by his appearance (suitably entitled) in a scene of the festival of Min at the Ramesses III temple at Karnak, which may have been completed by Year 22 [of his father’s reign]. (the date is mentioned in the poem inscribed there)
As his father’s chosen successor, the Prince employed three distinctive titles: “Hereditary Prince”, “Royal scribe”, and “Generalissimo”; the latter two of his titles are mentioned in a text at Amenhotep III’s temple at Soleb, and all three royal titles appear on a lintel now in Florence, Italy. As heir-apparent, he took on increasing responsibilities; for instance, in Year 27 of his father’s reign, he is depicted appointing a certain Amenemope to the vital position of Third Prophet of Amun in the latter’s TT 148 tomb. Amenemope’s Theban tomb also accords prince Ramesses with all three of his sets mentioned above of royal titles. Despite the 31-year reign of his father, Ramesses III, Ramesses IV was only 21 when he became pharaoh. His rule was dated from 1155 to 1149 BC.
Family of Ramesses IV
It is now believed that Ramesses IV’s mother was most likely Queen Tyti from recently discovered notes published in the 2010 issue of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. They reveal that Tyti—a king’s daughter, a king’s wife and a king’s mother in her own right—was identified in Papyrus BM EA 10052 (i.e., the tomb-robbery papyri) to be a queen of Ramesses III, Ramesses IV’s father. The 2010 JEA article authors—including Aidan Dodson—write that since Ramesses VI’s mother is known to be a particular lady named Iset Ta-Hemdjert or Isis:
Only Ramesses IV and Ramesses VIII remain candidates [for the son of Tyti]. Given that Ramesses VIII only reigned briefly some 25 years after his father’s death, it is hardly likely that the decoration of QV52, with the mwt-nsw (i.e., king’s mother) title intimately mixed with Tyti’s other titles, could have been delayed this late to refer to him. This leaves Ramesses IV as the only credible primary ‘subject’ of the mwt-nsw title in the tomb. As for which–if any–of the other sons of Ramesses III were borne to Tyti, no unequivocal data is available, other than the fact that Amenhirkhopeshef B, buried in QV55, was ms n Hmt-nTr mwt-nTr Hmt-nsw-wrt, paralleling Tyti’s titles so closely that he may with some confidence be proposed as her son.
Thus, the identity of Ramesses IV’s mother has been resolved in favour of Queen Tyti, who was once erroneously thought to be the mother of another king in the mid-1980s: Ramesses XI. Ramesses IV was succeeded to the throne by his 13-year-old son Ramesses V.
Projects
Ramesses IV came to the throne under challenging circumstances. Ramesses III, his father, was assassinated by conspirators led by Tiye, one of his secondary wives, to establish Pentawer, her son and Ramesses IV’s half-brother, on the throne. Ramesses IV, however, was able to secure himself on the throne and had the conspirators arrested and executed.
At the start of his reign, the pharaoh initiated a substantial building program on the scale of Ramesses II by doubling the size of the work gangs at Deir el-Medina to a total of 120 men and dispatching numerous expeditions to the stone quarries of Wadi Hammamat and the turquoise mines of the Sinai. The Great Rock stela of Ramesses IV at Wadi Hammamat records that the largest expedition—dated to his Year 3, the third month of Shemu day 27—consisted of 8,368 men alone, including 5,000 soldiers, 2,000 personnel of the Amun temples, 800 Apiru and 130 stonemasons and quarrymen under the personal command of the High Priest of Amun, Ramessesnakht. The scribes who composed the text also noted that this figure included 900 men “who are dead and omitted from this list.” Consequently, once this omitted figure is included in the tally of 8,368 men who served in the Year 3 quarry expedition, a total of 900 men out of an original expedition of 8,368 men perished during this endeavour for a mortality rate of 10.7%. Some stones dragged 60 miles to the Nile from Wadi Hammamat weighed 40 tons or more. Other Egyptian quarries, including Aswan, were much closer to the Nile, enabling them to use barges to transport stones long distances.
Part of the king’s program included the extensive enlargement of his father’s Temple of Khonsu at Karnak and the construction of a large mortuary temple near the Temple of Hatshepsut. Ramesses IV also sent several expeditions to the turquoise mines in the Sinai; a total of four expeditions were known before his fourth year. The Serabit el-Khadim stela of the Royal Butler Sobekhotep states: “Year 3, the third month of Shemu. His Majesty sent his favoured and beloved one, the confidant of his lord, the Overseer of the Treasury of Silver and Gold, Chief of the Secrets of the august Palace, Sobekhotep, justified, to bring for him all that his heart desired of turquoise (on) his fourth expedition.” This expedition dates to either Ramesses III or IV’s reign since Sobekhotep is attested in office until at least the power of Ramesses V. Ramesses IV’s final venture to the turquoise mines of the Sinai is documented by the stela of a senior army scribe named Panufer. Panufer states that this expedition’s mission was to procure turquoise and establish a cult chapel of king Ramesses IV at the Hathor temple of Serabit el-Khadim. The stela reads:
Year 5, the second month of Shomu [i.e., summer]. The sending by His Majesty to build the Mansion of Millions of Years of Ramesses IV in the temple of Hathor, Lady of Turquoise, by Panefer, the Scribe of the Commands of the Army, son of Pairy, justified.
While little is known regarding the route that the mining missions took from Egypt to Serabit el-Khadim, AJ Peden, who wrote a biography of Ramesses IV in 1994, states that there were “two obvious routes” to reach this site:
The first was a straightforward march from a Delta base, such as Memphis, east south-east and then south into Sinai. Surviving a march in this barren land would have presented formidable logistical obstacles, perhaps forcing an alternative route to be adopted. This would involve a departure from the Delta to a site near the modern port of Suez. From here, they could have proceeded by boat to the ports of Abu Zenima or El-Markha on the west coast of the Sinai peninsula, and from there, it is a short journey inland of only a day or two to the actual site of Serabit el-Khadim.
Attestations
Ramesses IV is attested by the activity mentioned above at Wadi Hammamat and Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai, as well as several papyri and even one obelisk. The creation of a royal cult in the Temple of Hathor is known under his reign at Serabit el-Khadim, while Papyrus Mallet (or P. Louvre 1050) dates to Years 3 and 4 of his power. Papyrus Mallet is a six-column text dealing partly with agricultural affairs; its first column lists the prices for various commodities between Year 31 of Ramesses III and Year 3 of Ramesses IV. The final four columns contain a memorandum of 2 letters composed by the Superintendent of Cattle of the Estate of Amen-Re, Bakenkhons, to several mid-level administrators and their subordinates. Meanwhile, surviving monuments of Ramesses IV in the Delta consists of an obelisk recovered in Cairo and a pair of his cartouches found on a pylon gateway, both originally from Heliopolis.
The most important document to survive this pharaoh’s rule is Papyrus Harris I, which honours the life of his father, Ramesses III, by listing the latter’s many accomplishments and gifts to the temples of Egypt, and the Turin papyrus, the earliest known geologic map. Ramesses IV was perhaps the last New Kingdom king to engage in the large-scale monumental building after his father, as “there was a marked decline in temple building even during the long reigns of Ramesses IX and VI. The only apparent exception was the attempt of Ramesses V and VI to continue the vast and uncompleted mortuary temple of Ramesses IV at the Assasif.”
Death
Despite Ramesses IV’s many endeavours for the gods and his prayer to Osiris—preserved on a Year 4 stela at Abydos—that “thou shalt give me the great age with a long reign [as my predecessor]”, the king did not live long enough to accomplish his ambitious goals.
After a short reign of about six and a half years, Ramesses IV died and was buried in tomb KV2 in the Valley of the Kings. His mummy was found in the royal cache of Amenhotep II’s tomb KV35 in 1898. His chief wife is Queen Duatentopet, Tentopet or Male, who was buried in QV74. His son, Ramesses V, would succeed him on the throne.
Originally, Ramesses IV had a tomb built for him in the Valley of the Queens, QV55.
In April 2021, his mummy was moved from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization along with those of 17 other kings and four queens in an event termed the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade.
