Khepermaatre Ramesses X (also written Ramses and Rameses) (ruled c. 1111 BC – 1107 BC) was the ninth pharaoh of the 20th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. His birth name was Amonhirkhepeshef. His prenomen or throne name, Khepermaatre, means “The Justice of Re Abides.”
His accession day fell on one prt 27 (first month of the Winter season, day 27). His highest attested regnal year is year 3. The highest attested date in his reign is either “year 3, the second month of the Inundation season, day 2” or possibly “year 3, month 4 (no day given)”.
Since Ramesses XI came to the throne on three šmw 20 (third month of the Summer season, day 20), it automatically follows that Ramesses X must have lived into an as yet unattested regnal year 4. The theory put forward on astronomical grounds by Richard Parker that Ramesses X may have reigned for nine years has since been abandoned. Likewise, the suggested ascription of Theban graffito 1860a to a hypothetical year 8 of Ramesses X is no longer supported.
The English Egyptologist Aidan Dodson wrote in a 2004 book:
No evidence indicates the relationship between the final kings, Ramesses IX, X and XI. If they were a father-son succession, Tyti, who bears the titles of King’s Daughter, King’s Wife and King’s Mother, would seem [to be] a good candidate for the wife of Ramesses X, but little else can be discerned.
However, Dodson’s hypothesis here on Tyti’s position must now be discarded since it was proven in 2010 that Tyti was instead a queen of a previous 20th dynasty pharaoh. She is mentioned in the partly fragmented Harris papyrus as Ramesses III’s wife, as Dodson himself acknowledges.
Ramesses X is a poorly documented king. His year two is attested by Papyrus Turin 1932+1939, while his third year is recorded in the Necropolis Journal of the Workmen of Deir El Medina. This diary mentions the general idleness of the necropolis workers, at least partly due to the threat posed by Libyan marauders in the Valley of the Kings. It records that the Deir El-Medina workmen were absent from work in Year 3 IIIrd Month of Peret (i.e., Winter) days 6, 9, 11, 12, 18, 21 and 24 for fear of the “desert-dwellers” (i.e., the Libyans or Meshwesh) who roamed through Upper Egypt and Thebes at will. This is partly a reflection of the massive Libyan influx into the Western Delta region of Lower Egypt during this time. Ramesses X is also the last New Kingdom king whose rule over Nubia is attested from an inscription at Aniba.
His KV18 tomb in the Valley of the Kings was left unfinished. It is uncertain if he was ever buried there since no remains or fragments of funerary objects were discovered within it.
