Ramses IV

Ramses IV
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Name	Ramesses IV
Prenomen	Usermaatre-Meryamun
Nomen	Ramesses
Dynasty	Twentieth Dynasty
Reign	c. 1155–1149 BC
Predecessor	Ramesses III
Successor	Ramesses V
Father	Ramesses III
Mother	Iset Ta-Hemdjert
Burial	KV2

Ramses IV was a pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt who ruled in the late Bronze Age collapse era. His reign followed the death of Ramesses III and occurred during a period of political strain involving native elites, foreign mercenaries, and priestly institutions. Contemporary records and later archaeological discoveries, including his tomb in the Theban Necropolis, provide evidence for administrative continuity, building activity, and attempts to secure revenue and prestige amid regional challenges.

Early life and family

Born in the royal household at Pi-Ramesses or the Theban court, he was a son of Ramesses III and Iset Ta-Hemdjert, connecting him to prominent royal lineages that included ties with officials from Memphis, Amun-Ra priestly circles, and Nile Delta elites. Siblings and half-siblings in the extended household included members of the royal family documented in court records and Wilbour Papyrus-era land documents. His upbringing likely involved training in royal titulary, craft patronage remembered in inscriptions alongside officials such as Pebekkamen and military leaders known from late New Kingdom rolls. Marriages and consorts are attested in titulary and reliefs referencing royal women associated with Thebes and administrative households serving the palace and temple estates.

Accession and coronation

Following the assassination plot against Ramesses III described in the Harem Conspiracy trials, succession passed to this prince, whose accession was recorded in palace annals and formalized through a coronation that invoked the ritual authority of Amun-Ra, the priesthood of Karnak, and royal titulary models from earlier New Kingdom rulers such as Seti I and Ramesses II. Coronation rituals would have involved the Opet Festival forms and legitimizing investiture comparable to records of Thutmose III and practices preserved in temple inscriptions at Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple Complex.

Reign and administration

His reign, spanning approximately six years, shows administrative measures recorded in papyri and stelae associated with the Workmen of Deir el-Medina, the Royal necropolis workforce, and bureaucrats who managed cereal and land registers like the Wilbour Papyrus scribes. Fiscal dispatches list audits and reassignments reminiscent of reforms attributed to earlier officials under Amenhotep III and late Ramesside ministers. His chancellery employed titulary and seals comparable to those under Seti II and retained officials who interfaced with the Sea Peoples veterans and Asiatic mercenary contingents documented in Near Eastern correspondence similar to archives from Ugarit and Hattusa.

Military campaigns and foreign policy

Military activity during his rule appears limited but includes expeditions to secure mining districts in Wadi Hammamat and trading contacts with Byblos, Kassite Babylonia, and Anatolian polities resonant with contemporaneous interactions in the Late Bronze Age. Naval provisioning, fort maintenance at Per-Ramesses, and garrisoning of Nubian frontiers invoked classical campaign models recorded by earlier pharaohs like Thutmose III and Ramesses II. Diplomatic exchanges and mercantile links with islands and city-states of the eastern Mediterranean mirror patterns seen in letters from Ugarit and treaties comparable in function to those between Hittite Empire rulers and Levantine kings.

Building projects and economic policies

Ramses IV invested in monumental works, completing and initiating construction at Theban temples, quarries, and mortuary complexes, following architectural conventions established by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II. His building program included decoration at Karnak Temple Complex, additions at Medinet Habu, and outfitting mining expeditions to Serabit el-Khadim and Tura for stone and minerals used in statuary and obelisks. Economic measures relied on reallocating temple revenues, adjusting workforce provisions recorded in ostraca from Deir el-Medina, and royal decrees affecting landholdings similar to provisions in Wilbour Papyrus. Trade in copper, tin, and cedar continued through contacts with Byblos, Ugarit, and Cyprus intermediaries, while Nubian gold procurement connected him to the networks of Kerma and Nile caravan routes.

Religious activities and priesthood relations

He maintained formal patronage of major cults, prominently the priesthood of Amun-Ra at Karnak, the priesthood of Ptah at Memphis, and local cults at Luxor and Abydos, employing customary titulary that emphasized ma'at and divine kingship as in inscriptions of Seti I. Liturgical donations, festival sponsorship, and tomb endowments sought support from powerful clergy whose archives influenced temple economy, echoing tensions observable in the increasing autonomy of the Amun priesthood during the late New Kingdom. Ritual involvement during the Opet Festival and funerary cultic provisioning linked royal policy to temple estates and land tenure practices familiar from earlier reigns.

Death, burial, and mummy discoveries

He was buried in KV2 in the Valley of the Kings, a tomb whose architecture and decoration follow the models of royal burials from the Ramesside period such as KV6 and KV9. The burial assemblage and funerary texts reflect solar and underworld themes consistent with Book of Gates and royal mortuary liturgy used since the Eighteenth Dynasty exemplified by Tutankhamun and Horemheb burials. His mummy, examined in modern times by archaeologists and Egyptologists in the tradition of research by Howard Carter and institutions like the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, showed evidence of embalming practices of the late New Kingdom and was studied with techniques akin to those applied to other royal mummies, including radiographic analysis and osteological assessment used in projects involving Grafton Elliot Smith-era comparisons and later conservation campaigns.

Category:Pharaohs of the Twentieth Dynasty Category:12th-century BC pharaohs