Amunherchepeschef

This article describes the prince and son Ramses II, for other people of the same name see Amunherchepeschef (son of Ramses III) and Ramses VI.

Amunherchepeschef in hieroglyphics
19th dynasty	Amunherchepeschef Jmn ḥr ḫpš = f Amun is with his strong arm
Ramses II. With his son Amunherchepeschef hunting wild bulls (relief in the mortuary temple of Seti I in Abydos )

Amunherchepeschef was the firstborn son of the ancient Egyptian king Ramses II and his great royal consort Nefertari . He changed his name at least twice, which caused some research confusion.

Amunherchepeschef was probably born before the ruler took office, as a battle relief of the ruler in the temple of Beit el-Wali suggests. There the prince appears together with Chaemwaset , a son of Ramses II and his second Great Royal Wife, Isisnofret . The depiction dates back to the beginning of the ruler's reign. Amunherchepeschef is expressly referred to as the eldest son of the king . The prince appears here once with the name Amunherwenemef ( Amun is on his right ).

Other representations call him Amunherchepeschef. He held various high military titles . Later, however, he seems to have changed his name again and is referred to as Schutahapaschap (which certainly corresponds to Sethherchepeschef ) in cuneiform letters that were found in the Hittite capital Hattuša . The letters date to around the 20th year of Ramses II's reign. After that, the prince no longer appears in the sources and has probably died.

Investigations of KV5 in the Valley of the Kings by Kent Weeks showed that Amunherchepeschef was buried here. The tomb contained not only inscriptions naming Amunherchepeschef and various sons of Ramses II, but also his canopic jars . Four human skeletons were found in one room, one of them in a posture typical of members of the royal family. One skull was fractured from a blow. Weeks had a facial reconstruction made of this in order to establish a similarity with Ramses II, since he assumes that this is Prince Amunherchepeschef. Skull comparisons showed strong anatomical similarities with family members of Ramses II. Genetic studies were not carried out.

literature

• Aidan Dodson , Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, London 2004, ISBN 0-500-05128-3 , p. 170.
• Heike C. Schmidt, Joachim Willeitner : Nefertari. Wife of Ramses II. (= Zabern's illustrated books on archeology . Vol. 10). von Zabern, Mainz 1994, ISBN 3-8053-1529-5 , pp. 18-19.

Individual evidence

1. ^ A. Dodson, D. Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. London 2004, p. 170.
2. ↑ Alan Boyle: A pharaoh's firstborn son is resurrected. Facial reconstruction may help solve Egyptian mystery . From: nbcnews.com December 1, 2004, accessed August 10, 2014.