170: Mutnodjmet and Ramesses

The Mother is Sweet, Born of the Sun. In the second half of Horemheb’s reign, Egypt’s Queen died in childbirth. Subsequently, pharaoh chose one of his servants, Paramessu (Ramesses) as a successor. This choice arguably established the 19th royal Dynasty. Why did Horemheb do this? 

Episode details:

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Intro music: Keith Zizza.

Interlude sounds and Outro music: Luke Chaos.

Additional research by Elissa Day.

See Geoffrey Martin discussing the discovery of Horemheb's Saqqara tomb at the Associated Press (1975).


Select Bibliography:

G. Brunton, ‘The Inner Sarcophagus of Prince Ramessu from Medinet Habu’, Annales du Services des Antiquités de l’Egypte 43 (1943), 133—156.

G. Brunton and R. Engelbach, Gurob (1927).

E. Cruz-Uribe, ‘The Father of Ramses I: OI 11456’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 37 (1978), 237–44.

A. Dodson, Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation (2017).

W. Grajetzki, Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary (London, 2005).

G. T. Martin, ‘Excavations at the Memphite Tomb of Ḥoremḥeb, 1977: Preliminary Report’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 64 (1978), 5–9.

G. T. Martin, The Memphite Tomb of Ḥoremḥeb, Commander-in-Chief of Tutʻankhamūn, 1 (1989).

G. T. Martin, Tutankhamun’s Regent: Scenes and Texts from the Memphite Tomb of Horemheb (2016).

G. T. Martin, ‘Bestower and the Recipient: On a Controversial Scene in the Memphite Tomb of Horemheb’, in C. Demarée et al. (eds), Imaging and Imagining the Memphite Necropolis: Liber Amicorum René van Walsem (2017), 47—56.

D. Polz, ‘Die Särge des (Pa-)Ramessu’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 42 (1986), 145—166.

E. Strouhal, ‘Queen Mutnodjmet at Memphis: Anthropological and Paleopathological Evidence’, L’Egyptologie en 1979 II (1982), 317—322.

E. Strouhal, The Memphite Tomb of Ḥoremḥeb, Commander-in-Chief of Tutʻankhamūn IV: Human Skeletal Remains (2008).

E. Strouhal and V. G. Callender, ‘A Profile of Queen Mutnodjmet’, Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 3 (1992), 67—75.

J. van Dijk, ‘Horemheb and the Struggle for the Throne of Tutankhamun’, Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 7 (1996), 29—42.


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