RAMSES IV

died 1150 BC king of Egypt (reigned 115650 BC) who strove through extensive building activity to maintain Egypt's prosperity in an era of deteriorating internal and external conditions. Upon his accession, Ramses compiled a lengthy document recording his father's gifts to the gods, blessings for his son, and a survey of his reign (the Harris Papyrus). The unusual titulary and his overzealous devotion to the gods, however, suggest that Ramses IV's succession was irregular. Soon afterward the new king proclaimed a general amnesty and undertook a vast building program. In his first year, the graywacke (coarse sandstone) quarries in the Wadi Hammamat, east of Coptos in Upper Egypt, were surveyed and reopened to extract building stone. More quarrying occurred the next year, and cutting of the royal tomb began after the gang of workmen assigned to it was doubled. The greatest activity occurred in the third year of his reign, when three expeditions quarried stone in the Wadi Hammamat, including one consisting of 8,368 men, of whom 5,000 were soldiers, led by the high priest of Amon, Ramsesnakht. The king started two major temples at Dayr al-Bahri in western Thebes and continued the decoration of a small temple built by his father at Karnak, the temple complex of Amon. He also built a small funerary temple near his father's great structure in western Thebes and left inscriptions at many places throughout Egypt. In return for these works, Ramses asked for a reign longer than that of his predecessor of the 19th dynasty, Ramses II. A judicial papyrus of the following reign, however, reveals that problems existed in Egypt during Ramses IV's reign. At Elephantine, near modern Aswan, a group of officials began extensive criminal careers that went unpunished for 10 years. Also during Ramses' reign, Ramsesnakht, the high priest of Amon, arrogated unprecedented duties for himself after securing control of many key priestly offices for his family. Finally, in Palestine, only the Sinai copper mines remained in Egypt's possession. Already middle-aged when he ascended the throne, Ramses IV died after six years of rule, leaving most of his projects uncompleted. He was succeeded by Ramses V, who was probably his son.