Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 1: Merenptah

by Max Overton

  Fall of the House of Ramesses,

  Book 1: Merenptah

  By Max Overton

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  http://www.writers-exchange.com

  Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 1: Merenptah

  Copyright 2014, 2016 Max Overton

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  PO Box 372

  ATHERTON QLD 4883

  Cover Art by: Julie Napier

  Published by Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  http://www.writers-exchange.com

  ISBN ebook: 978-1-921636-23-3

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

  Table of Contents

  First Thoughts

  Some notes on Fall of the House of Ramesses

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Places, People, Gods & Things in

  Fall of the House of Ramesses

  About the Author

  If you want to read more about books by this author, they are listed on the following pages...

  A Cry of Shadows

  Adventures of a Small Game Hunter in Jamaica

  Ascension Series

  Fall of the House of Ramesses Series

  Glass Trilogy

  Haunted Trail A Tale of Wickedness & Moral Turpitude

  Scythian Trilogy

  Sequestered

  Strong is the Ma'at of Re

  The Amarnan Kings Series

  TULPA

  We Came From Konigsberg

  Blind Gods

  By Jack Adler

  Dance With The Devil

  Helga's Story: A Child of NAZI Germany

  Outlaw's West

  Read Into History: A Roman Tale of 123 B. C. E.

  Strings

  The Adventures of Mycroft Holmes

  The Painted Lady

  The River Series

  The Rowland Sisters Trilogy

  Wilhelmina

  First Thoughts

  A work of historical fiction comes from the mind of the writer, but it is dependent on historical facts. When I write about relatively modern times I have not only the bare bones of history to hang my story on, but also the personal writings of the characters and their contemporaries, and a host of relevant facts and opinions to flesh out the story. The further back you go in time, the less is available to draw upon, and by the time you reach Ancient Egypt, even the facts are disputed. Egyptologists have pored through the ruins of a past civilisation, examined the colourful walls of rock tombs and their contents, studied temple hieroglyphics and self-serving inscriptions of the kings, and deciphered fragments of papyrus to paint us a picture of what society was like three thousand years ago and more. It is necessarily incomplete, for much has been lost and what has not been lost is not always understood. The history of Ancient Egypt is a work in progress.

  When I, as a writer of historical fiction, attempt to tell a tale from the distant past I work with what is given me by serious researchers. But what am I to make of a character like Setnakhte, for instance? He was the first king of the Twentieth Dynasty, and features in my trilogy, but who was he really? The facts are scanty. He had a wife called Tiy-merenese and a son who became King Ramesses III. His parents are unknown, but possibly he was a son or grandson of Ramesses II. He reigned for two to four years and stabilised Egypt after a period of strife, possibly by defeating the forces of his predecessor, Queen Tausret. And that's about it for Setnakhte.

  So what do I, as a writer of historical fiction, do when faced with this paucity of factual information? I invent, but I must be careful to remain within the bounds of plausibility. I cannot make Setnakhte a favourite son of Ramesses or an older son, for the immediate succession is clear. Nor can I make him the son of a later king such as Merenptah or Seti, for their sons (or lack thereof) are known. I have to come up with a reasonable way to let him rise to prominence later in the story while remaining hidden early on.

  Similarly with other characters. Messuwy may or may not be Amenmesse, depending on which school of thought you follow. I have weighed the evidence and made my decision. Tausret's parents are unknown, but some people think Merenptah was her father. She was evidently important enough to be married to Merenptah's son Seti, which makes her a royal princess. Later on, she led her army against a challenger for the throne, where did she learn her martial skills?

  And so it goes on. The bones of history make the framework of my story and I must decide which opinions will clothe the bones in flesh and skin. If I choose well, my story takes on a life of its own.

  I have researched this period extensively, and while I cannot claim to have read everything, I believe I have weighed up sufficient evidence to make an informed decision.

  My main sources have been:

  Anglim, Simon et al, 2002, Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World, Thomas Dunne Books

  Budge, EA Wallis, 1959, Egyptian Religion: Ideas of the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, University Books

  Budge, EA Wallis, 1967, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Dover Publications

  Dodson, Aidan, 2000, Monarchs of the Nile, The American University in Cairo Press

  Dodson, Aidan, 2010, Poisoned Legacy: The Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty, The American University in Cairo Press

  Dodson, Aidan & Hilton, Dyan, 2004, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson

  Manassa, Colleen, 2003, The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century BC, Yale Egyptological Studies 5


  Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, 2005, A History of Egypt: Vol III. From the XIXth to the XXXth Dynasties, Adamant Media Corporation

  Romer, John, 1984, Ancient Lives: The Story of the Pharaoh's Tombmakers, Guild Publishing

  Shaw, Garry J, 2012, The Pharaoh: Life at Court and on Campaign, Thames & Hudson

  Tyldesley, Joyce, 2000, Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh, Viking

  Wilkinson, Richard H, 2000, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson

  Wilkinson, Richard H, editor, 2012, Tausret: Forgotten Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt, Oxford University Press

  I must make special acknowledgement of Professor Colleen Manassa of Yale University, who gave me permission to use information from her translation of the 'Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah', where the account of the Battle of Perire and its aftermath is given. This battle, against the Ribu and allied Sea Peoples, is the most widely known event of that king's reign, and no fictionalised account of Merenptah would be complete without it. I am grateful to Professor Manassa for allowing me to use her translation to get the facts right.

  I would also like to acknowledge Jim Ashton, an Egyptologist, and expert on the Ramesside dynasties, who kindly read through my manuscript, pointing out any errors and inconsistencies.

  Sara Waldheim too, as a friend with a great interest and knowledge of Egypt, consented to read my manuscript and pointed out places where I could improve the story. I am grateful for her efforts.

  Julie Napier was, as always, my 'First Reader' and I am indebted to her constant attention to my storytelling. She pulls no punches and once told me, 100,000 words into a previous manuscript, that the story lacked credibility. On re-reading it, I agreed, so I scrapped several months' worth of work and started again. Excellent reviews for the finished product have proven her right. I am truly grateful for her forthrightness and honesty.

  Julie Napier also comes in for thanks as my cover artist. A skilled photographer and experienced artist, she has created all of my book covers.

  I would like to thank my many readers too. Some of them wrote to me when they reached the end of my Amarnan Kings series, asking if I would write another Egyptian series. At the time, I was writing another book in a completely different genre, but I started doing some reading and eventually put my other work aside and started Fall of the House of Ramesses.

  Some notes on Fall of the House of Ramesses

  In any novel about ancient cultures and races, some of the hardest things to get used to are the names of people and places. Often these names are unfamiliar in spelling and pronunciation. It does not help that for reasons dealt with below, the spelling, and hence the pronunciation is sometimes arbitrary. To help readers keep track of the characters in this book I have included some notes on names in the ancient Egyptian language. I hope they will be useful.

  In Ancient Egypt a person's name was much more than just an identifying label. A name meant something, it was descriptive, and a part of a person's being. For instance, Merenptah means 'Beloved of Ptah', and Tausret means 'Mighty Lady'. Knowledge of the true name of something gave one power over it, and in primitive societies a person's real name is not revealed to any save the chief or immediate family. A myth tells of the creator god Atum speaking the name of a thing and it would spring fully formed into existence. Another myth says the god Re had a secret name and went to extraordinary lengths to keep it secret.

  The Egyptian language, like written Arabic and Hebrew, was without vowels. This produces some confusion when ancient Egyptian words are transliterated. The god of Waset in Egyptian reads mn, but in English this can be represented as Amen, Amon, Ammon or Amun. The form one chooses for proper names is largely arbitrary, but I have tried to keep to accepted forms where possible. King Amenmesse's birth name was possibly Messuwy, though this royal name can have various spellings depending on the author's choice. It is also sometimes seen as Amenmesses, Amenmose, Amunmesse and Amunmose. I have used the first of these spellings (Amenmesse) in Fall of the House of Ramesses, and every name that includes that of the same god is spelled Amen-. The god himself I have chosen to call Amun, largely because the word Amen can have an alternate meaning in Western religious thought.

  Similarly, the king known in Fall of the House of Ramesses as Merenptah is often known as Merneptah. Either spelling is acceptable. There are many people called Seti and Ramesses, even among the common people, as having the name of a king was thought to lend its bearer kingly strength. To avoid undue confusion, you may come across Sethi, or Seth, or even Setau as a variant of Seti, and Ramses and Ramessu as variants of Ramesses.

  The names of the kings have been simplified. Egyptian pharaohs had five names, known as the Horus name, the Nebti name, the Golden Falcon name, the Prenomen and the Nomen. Only the Nomen was given at birth, the other names being coronation names. The Horus name dates from pre-dynastic times and was given to a king upon his coronation. All kings had a Horus name, but by the eighteenth dynasty it was seldom used. The Nebti name dates from the time of the unification of Egypt and shows the special relationship the king had to the vulture-goddess Nekhbet of Upper Egypt and the cobra-goddess Wadjet of Lower Egypt. The Golden Falcon name conveys the idea of eternity, as gold neither rusts nor tarnishes, and dates from the Old Kingdom. It perhaps symbolises the reconciliation of Horus and Set, rather than the victory of Horus over Set as the titles are usually non-aggressive in nature.

  By the time of the eighteenth dynasty, the prenomen had become the most important coronation name, replacing the Horus name in many inscriptions. Since the eleventh dynasty, the prenomen has always contained the name of Re or Ra.

  The nomen was the birth name, and this is the name by which the kings in this book are commonly known. The birth names most common in the nineteenth and twentieth dynasty were Ramesses and Seti. Successive kings with the same birth name did not use the method we use to distinguish between them, namely numbers (Ramesses I and Ramesses II). In fact, the birth name often ceased to be used once they became king and the coronation prenomen distinguished them. Ramesses I became Menpehtyre, and Ramesses II became Usermaatre, while Merenptah became Baenre. I have decided to use the coronation prenomen for the most part on formal occasions, and the nomen when the occasion is informal or if I am describing who goes where. Sometimes I use them together just to make sure everyone knows who I am talking about.

  Another simplification has occurred with place names and titles. In the thirteenth century B.C.E., Egypt as a name for the country did not exist. The land around the Nile Valley and Delta was called Kemet or The Black Land by its inhabitants, and the desert Deshret or The Red Land. Much later, Greeks called it Aigyptos from which we get Egypt. Other common terms for the country were The Two Lands (Upper and Lower Kemet), and the Land of Nine Bows (the nine traditional enemies). Likewise Lower Egypt (to the north) was known as Ta Mehu, and Upper Egypt (to the south) was known as Ta Shemau. The name 'Nile' is also from the Greek, so I have used the usual designation of the time, Great River, or Iteru.

  Similarly, the king of Egypt or Kemet was later known as 'pharaoh', but this term derives from the phrase Per-aa which originally meant the Great House or royal palace. Over the years the meaning changed to encompass the idea of the central government, and later the person of the king himself. The Greeks changed Per-Aa to Pharaoh. I have decided to remain with 'king' as a term that would have been in use at the time.

  During the eighteenth dynasty, the kings ruled from a city known variously as Apet, No-Amun or Waset in the Fourth province or sepat of Ta Shemau, which itself was also called Waset; or just 'niwt' which meant 'city'. This capital city the Greeks called Thebes. The worship of Amun was centred here and the city was sometimes referred to as the City of Amun. I have called this great city by its old name of Waset.

  Ramesses II built a new capital city in the eastern delta and called it Per-Ramesses, meaning literally 'House of Ramesses'. Merenptah moved the capital to the ancient city of Men-nefer, known to the Gree
ks as Memphis, as this city belonged to the god Ptah and Merenptah was literally 'Beloved of Ptah'.

  The gods of Egypt are largely known to modern readers by their Greek names; for instance, Osiris, Thoth and Horus. I have decided to keep the names as they were originally known to the inhabitants of Kemet, Asar, Djehuti and Heru. The Greek names for unfamiliar gods can be found in the section Places, People, Gods & Things in the Fall of the House of Ramesses at the end of this book.

  Mention should be made of the incidence of writing amongst the characters in this book. It is generally accepted that no more than 1% of ancient Egyptians were literate and that knowledge of the complex hieroglyphic writing was the purview of the scribes and priests. Hieroglyphics are commonly seen in the formal inscriptions on temple and tomb walls. However, there was also another form of writing in ancient Egypt. This is called hieratic writing and is a form of cursive script used for writing administrative documents, accounts, legal texts, and letters, as well as medical, literary, and religious texts. This form of writing is commonly found on papyrus scraps, painted on wood or stone, or scratched onto pottery ostraca (shards). Thousands of these ostraca have been found, often closely associated with the lower strata of society, and it is believed that many more people were at least marginally literate than is commonly accepted. There is every reason to believe that people for whom some form of notation was essential to their everyday lives were capable of some level of writing.

  When I refer to a person writing in Fall of the House of Ramesses, it should not be assumed that the person is fully literate, but instead has knowledge of writing consistent with their place in Egyptian society.

  Prologue

  Year 5 of Usermaatre Ramesses

  Heat rippled the air and acrid dust bit at the throat of the young man standing in the chariot on the low swell of land overlooking the river. The two horses in the traces of the chariot stamped and blew, their muscles shivering and the sweat of their exertion drying on their flanks. Leaning his bow against the front of the chariot, the young man used both hands to remove the blue leather war crown from his sweating head and pass it to the shield-bearer standing beside him. The shield-bearer said nothing, but looked meaningfully toward the river and the scenes of devastation along its western banks.