Khaemweset Articles & Khaemweset Websites

Stone head of Khaemweset

See also: Khaemwaset (18th dynasty); Khaemwaset (20th dynasty).

Prince Khaemweset (also translated as Khamwese, Khaemwese or Khaemwaset)^[1] was the fourth son of Ramesses II, and the second son by his queen Isetnofret. He is by far the best known son of the king, and his contributions to Egyptian society were remembered for centuries after his death.^[2] Khaemwaset has been described as "the first Egyptologist" due to his efforts in identifying and restoring historic buildings, tombs and temples.

[edit] Life

Khaemwaset grew up with his brothers during a time of foreign conflict. He apparently was present at the Battle of Kadesh, at the siege of Qode (Naharin), the siege of Dapur in Syria and earlier in Nubia. After this initial period where Khaemwaset may have had some military training, or at least was present at the battlefield, he became a Sem-Priest of Ptah in Memphis. This appointment occurred in c. Year 16 of Ramesses II's reign. He would have initially been a deputy to the High Priest of Ptah in Memphis named Huy. During his time as Sem-Priest Khaemwaset was quite active in rituals, including the burial of several Apis Bulls at the Serapeum.

Pectoral and buckle found in the Saqqara burial of prince Kaemwese

Around the 25th regnal year of his father, his older brother Ramesses became Crown-Prince, and in the 30th year Khaemwaset's name started to appear in the announcements of the (Heb-)Sed Festivals. These Heb-Sed festivals were traditionally held in Memphis, but some of the announcements were made in the south of Egypt at El-Kab and Silsila. While he was a Sem-Priest, Khaemwaset may have constructed and built additions to the temple of Ptah in Memphis. There are several inscriptions which attest to Khaemwaset's activities in Memphis. ^[3]

Khaemwaset restored the monuments of earlier kings and nobles, such as Shepseskaf, Sahure and Nyuserre Ini. He also restored the pyramid of Unas at Saqqara. He seems to have undertaken these tasks during his later tenure as Sem-Priest and some of the inscriptions mention his title as 'Chief of the Artificers' or 'Chief of Crafts'. Hence, some of these restorations were undertaken after Khaemwaset's promotion as the High Priest of Ptah in Memphis about the 45th year of the reign of Ramesses II.

Khaemwaset held the position of Crown Prince to the throne between Year 50 and Year 55 of his father's reign when he died. He was succeeded in this position by his full brother Merneptah.^[4] He also served as Governor of Memphis.

In later periods of Egyptian history, Khaemwaset was remembered as a wise man, and portrayed as the hero in a cycle of stories dating to Greco-Roman times.^[2] One example is the 'Stories of Setne Khamwas'. He is believed to have been buried at Saqqara, "perhaps below his hilltop sanctuary between Abusir and Saqqara."^[2]

[edit] Family

Funerary object from Khaemwaset's alleged burial in the Serapeum

Khaemwaset is known to have had two sons and a daughter.

• His eldest son, Ramesses, is mentioned on a block statue from Memphis. Ramesses holds the title King's Son on the statue, which here should be interpreted as King's grand-son. On the Dorsal Pillar the text reads: [It is] his dear [son] who perpetuates his name - The King's Son, excellent in wisdom, upright in mind in every deed, great in his enlightenment at all times to maintain the offerings for his father, - the King's Son Ramesses, justified and venerated one. (Kitchen) ^[5]
• His second son, Hori, became High Priest of Ptah at Memphis during the later part of the 19th dynasty.
• Khaemwaset is also known to have had a daughter named Isetnofret (also written as Isitnofret). She was named after her grandmother Queen Isetnofret I, wife of Ramesses II, and an aunt of the same name. Khaemwaste's daughter Isetnofret may have married her uncle, the Pharaoh Merneptah. If so, she would be identical to Queen Isetnofret II. ^[6] Isetnofret's tomb may have recently been found in Saqqara during excavations by Waseda University. ^[7]
  

Not much is known about Khaemwaset's wife, though in the demotic story, Setna II, his wife bears the name Meheweskhe. ^[8]

One grandson of his is known to us. His son Hori, had a son who was also named Hori. This grandson of Khaemwaset would later serve as Vizier of Egypt during the tumultuous period at the end of the 19th dynasty. He was still performing these duties under Ramesses III.

[edit] Burial

Whilst first exploring the Serapeum between 1851 to 1853, French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette was confronted by a huge rock, which could only move by the use of explosives. Once the shattered remnants of the rock were removed an intact coffin and numerous funerary treasures were discovered which contained the mummy of a man. A gold mask covered his face, and amulets gave his name as Prince Khaemwaset, son of Ramesses II and builder of the Serapeum. However these remains have now been lost, and Egyptologists believe that this was not the grave of Khaemwaset but were the remains of an Apis Bull made into a human form to resemble the Prince.

Egyptologist Aidan Dodson is quoted saying in "Canopic Equipment from the Serapeum of Memphis":

"Designated Apis XIV, it comprised a wooden sarcophagus, largely embedded in the ground, with its upper part largely crushed. Inside, there was what had the appearance of a human mummy, its face covered by a somewhat crude gold mask, damaged by damp and bearing a considerable quantity of jewellery, some bearing the name of Prince Khaemwaset. In spite of its appearance, the mummy proved to be a mass of fragrant resin, containing a quantity of disordered bone. Although frequently stated to be the mummy of Khaemwaset, on the basis of its possessing his jewellery, the mass of resin containing bony fragments is far more reminiscent of the undoubted Apis of tombs E and G. Its formation into the simulacrum of a human mummy also finds echo in the anthropoid coffin lids that covered the resinous masses within the sarcophagi of Apis VII and IX, there can thus be no doubt that the burial is actually that of the bull, Apis XIV."^[9]

The Waseda University expedition found during earlier excavations the remains of a monument which may have been Khaemwaset’s ‘ka-house’. ^[10]

[edit] References

• Nos ancêtres de l'Antiquité, 1991, Christian Settipani, p.175

[edit] External links

• Prince Khaemwaset