Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Murder of Ramesses III: Revision


Recent CT scans on the mummy of ancient Egypt's last great Pharaoh Rameses III has found evidence that the king was murdered by having his throat slit. The murder of Ramesses was long suspected from a 3000 year old document known as the harem conspiracy papyrus.

The papyrus is a court record which tells of a plot within Ramesses harem in order to put a son on the throne who was not in line to be king. These events took place as Egypt's great period of Empire was in decline with the 20th dynasty King Ramesses III being the last significant king of the New kingdom.

The papyrus tells us that one of Ramesses wives wanted her son Pentaware to take the throne over Ramesses namesake and rightful heir. She enlisted a number of officials and the aid of black magic to these ends including the making of wax figures.

The conspiracy was found out and all were put to death with the guilty royal family members involved being allowed to commit suicide. The fate of Ramesses has never been fully understood until the CT scans of the pharaohs throat recently revealed a deep cut across the neck below the larynx, a cut that almost certainly would have caused the kings immediate death.

Also present and never seen before the scientists found a eye of Horus amulet embedded in the wound. After more than 3000 years it appears that the conspiracy was successful. As a side note to the story tests have shown that a screaming mummy found with Ramesses III in 1881 and today known as unknown man "E" is in fact a son of Ramesses III and possibly the disgraced prince allowed to commit suicide Pentaware.

There are conflicting articles on this subject so I present the article from Al Ahram which appears to show a picture of the back of the mummies neck though I think it may be a CT scan of the pharaohs throat. I would think if it was on the back of the neck it would have been noticed by now?

1 comment:

Timothy Reid said...

I have a better feeling about the first article?