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Lineage of Ramses I and Horemheb

Posted By: Charles Pope
Date: Friday, 8 November 2002, at 7:02 p.m.

In Response To: The mummy of Ramses I (Oscar Calle)

In four places, including the "400 Year Stela", Ramses I acknowledges "Captain Sety" as his father. I have not studied these four inscriptions personally, however if memory serves me correctly this Sety is sometimes referred to as Setre (Seth-Re). I'll have to look for the reference on this. Egyptologists interpret "captain" as an officer of low rank. However, in the Biblical sense, captain means "general" and even "field marshal," a commander over hundreds of thousands of troops. See 2 Chronicles 17:14-18 (KJV). From Josephus in Contra Apion, the name "Sethos" (Sety) was an alternate name of "Rameses" (Ramose?).

Sith-ri is named as a grandson of Levi in Exodus 6:16. Levi in this case refers to Thutmose III and not to the son of Amenhotep II (Jacob) by that name. Sith-ri is a son of Uzziel (Reuben) son of Kohath (Amenhotep II-Jacob) son of Levi (Thutmose III). Alternate names for the sons of Reuben are also provided in Exodus 6:14. The eldest son of Reuben is named as Hanoch, which is a clear match with Vizier Amenhotep, eldest son of Ramose. An expanded genealogy of Reuben is given in 1 Chronicles 4:16. Only 8 generations (kings) are named between Reuben and Beerah, who was deported by Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria. This is consistent with the chronology that I am proposing.

Egyptologist Daniel Kolos sent me a very nice web page on the tomb of Ramose.

http://members.tripod.com/~ib205/tt55.html

I tried to take some pictures inside this tomb with my digital camera, but there was only so much I could do without a flash. It is interesting that the web site proposes that Ramose son of Neby (mayor of Zarw?) died without an heir and the tomb had to be finished by his brother, Vizier Amenhotep son of Heby (mayor of Memphis). William Murnane instead proposed that "Ramose's elder half brother, the steward Amenhotep, was evidently dead, for his son Ipy is already shown with his father's title." Murnane also wrote that Heby had succeeded his father (whom he doesn't name) as mayor of Memphis. (quoting from "Amenhotep III" pp 194, 204. Regarding Heby, Murnane cites J. Malek, "The Saqqara Statue of Ptahmose, Mayor of the Memphis Suburbs. Revue d'Egyptology 38:117-3.)

In a previous Domain Of Man post, Oscar provided the following link about Horemheb-son-of-Neby:

http://inicia.es/de/alex_herrero_pardo/Neby_estela.htm

Oscar wrote: "Helck identifies this Horemheb [son-of-Neby] with Pharaoh Horemheb (and Osman agrees with him), but I think that there is not anything established out of these speculations."

Ahmed Osman does argue strongly in favor of pharaoh Horemheb being a son of Neby. See his book "Moses: Pharaoh of Egypt."

The Leiden stela caption on the above web page reads (in Spanish):

Stela of Leiden. lines xi-4, of the Mayor of Zarw, Neby

In the upper registry appears Neby and his wife Ta-Useret in front of Osiris.

In the lower registry: to the left, Meret-Hor, daughter of Neby, in front of the parents of Neby: Amenemhat and Ta-Tjuia.

To the right, Horemheb, son of Neby, in front of his own parents: Neby and TaUseret.

A reasonable male lineage for both Horemheb and his half-brother (?)Ramose is then: Thutmose III - Prince Amenemhat - Neby - Ramose/Sety - Ramses I - Seti I - Ramses II.

Horemheb stated that Thutmose III was "the father of his fathers."

Apparently, Neby and Heby are the same person unless Amenhotep and Ramose had the same mother but different fathers. Considering the prominence of Heby/Neby and his sons in the administration of Amenhotep III, it is plausible that his father Amenemhat/Amenemhet was prince Amenemhet/Amenemhat, son of Thutmose III and Nefrure/Sityah, the heiress daughter of Hatshepsut. It also seems likely that the more formal name of Heby/Neby was that of Webensenu, whom I have identified as the "eldest son" of pharaoh Amenhotep II.

This term "son" is used so liberally that it is almost of no value in determining family relationships. Kings did not share their daughters or wives, except in cases of infertility or alliance, and only with closely related males. Because the ancient royal house was maximally inbred, infertility has been underestimated as a social/sexual dynamic. It was also the role of the king to play the role of royal matchmaker. In Chapter 12 of my book, we saw that it was Abram's father who was determined to give him a son through Sarah, whether he desired this or not.

In recent posts we have also been discussing the significance of the term "firtborn." It seems that the "firstborn" was often in reference to the mother rather than the father. As an example, Isaac was the firstborn son of Sarah and not of Abraham. It seems to have been the custom for the firstborn of a woman to either be sacrificed or redeemed with an appropriate animal sacrifice. Daniel Kolos (www.horemheb.com) writes about the young Egyptian maiden joining up with the festival troupe as a rite of passage. After producing a healthy child and herself surviving child birth, the maiden was deemed fit for marriage. However, the fate of the "love child" is not discussed.

It may have also been the custom of royalty for a young princess to have a child before being formally married. This child may not always have been through her husband to be, but would have been through another royal male relative. The name of a king's mother is often specified in the Bible. It didn't seem to matter whether he was the biological son of the previous king, at least publically.

Privately, it did matter. A dynasty established though one's own natural line was the ultimate kingly pursuit. Even if a "firstborn" son was redeemed, he probably would be passed over for kingship unless he was also a natural son. This seems to be the case with respect to Reuben. That is, he was the "firstborn" of Jacob, but not his natural son. I have wondered why Reuben the firstborn son of Jacob was denied the birthright (kingly succession) for such a trivial reason (by ancient standards). If Reuben was not Jacob's own natural son, then he would have looked for an excuse to "disgrace" him in favor of sons who were of his own loins.

Reuben (Egyptian Webensenu/Neby/Heby) appears to have been the natural son of Prince Amenemhet son of Thutmose III by the heiress Nefrure/Sitya (See Chapter 12 of the book). Prince Amenemhet was only a few years younger than Amenhotep II. Amenhotep II died in his late fifties or early sixties, and was possibly survived by the younger Amenemhet. The male line of Amenemhet would have represented a very important collateral line, and one that could have ultimately "seized the two lands" as a result of the Amarna debacle. The Biblical name of Amenemhet is Merari (1 Chron 6:16-30), whose sons are called Mahli and Mushi. Reuben is apparently Mushi ("sensitive", i.e. ebullient). Compare the characterization of Reuben in the blessing of Jacob in Genesis 49. The father-in-law of Ramose, named as May (Biblical Mahli), would then be the eldest son of prince Amenemhet.

Horemheb now appears to have been a son born to Neby "in his old age." Horemheb may have been sired on behalf of one of Neby's older sons. Besides Amenhotep and Ramose, another prominent son of Neby/Heby may have been called Itj-tawy. He may have been a younger full-brother of Vizier Amenhotep. His sons were Setau and Amenemhet/Surer. The mother of Amenemhet had the distinction of being an "ornament of the king." (See again Murnane in Amenhotep III, p 212) Itj-tawy ("seizer of the two lands") was the epithet of Amenemhet I of the 12th Dynasty, so perhaps it is not surprising to find this name in the 18th Dynasty family of prince Amenemhet.

The title "ornament of the king" indicates that Amenemhet was not the biological son of Itj-tawy, but that of the king or another close male relative, e.g., Neby. Amenemhet was favored by Amenhotep III at a very young age, and could be the original Egyptian name of Horemheb. The name Amenemhet would not have been "kosher" at the city of Akhet-aten. At Akhet-aten, Horemheb was evidently called Pa-aten-em-heb. After the fall of Akhenaten, the name further evolved into Horemheb.

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