The Harim Conspiracy and Ramses III’s Death

During Ramses’ reign, we have something that’s really unique in Egyptian history. There is a plot to kill him, which is now called the “Harim Conspiracy.” Was the conspiracy successful? Did he die because of the plot? Who conspired against him? Let’s find out!

Ramses III’s tomb is quite unlike the usual tombs of other Pharaohs in that it features two blind harpers.


Culprits of the Conspiracy

One of Ramses’ queens plotted to kill him by magic. Now how do we know about such a thing? Of course, this is not put on his temple wall. We have a papyrus that is in a sense a stenographer’s transcript. It is a court record of what happened, and we have some of the details of the conspiracy. The conspirators, nearly two dozen of them, were tried.

First, it involved a queen. And she was plotting to kill Ramses because she wanted her son to become pharaoh. And this is not that unusual, that queens wanted their kids to become the next pharaoh.

Additionally, it involved priests of the temple who had the Books of Magic. They were the ones who knew how to do this by magic. So we have priests involved, we have palace guards involved, we have the queen involved, and together they plot the “Harim Conspiracy.”

Penalty for the Perpetrators

Now we know that they were convicted and penalized.

In Egypt there were various penalties. Jail—incarceration—is a fairly modern concept. The ancient world didn’t throw people in jail for doing bad things. Hence, in Egypt if it was not too heinous a crime, you could cut off ears, or a nose. And that way, not only would you have punished them, but everybody would know, watch out for this person, he’s a convict. If it was a really serious crime, you would execute them. And the Egyptians executed by impaling someone on a stake.

So these conspirators had a variety of penalties. Some probably had their ears or noses cut off. But some were certainly executed, as far as we can tell from the record, although the record is now damaged.

Ramses III’s Death and his Unusual Tomb

Ramses III died before the trial was over. This is not clear whether he dies from the magic, but he dies before the trial was over. And the people are probably executed after he dies.

He is buried in the Valley of the Kings with a very unusual tomb. Pharaohs always had religious scenes on the walls of their tombs. The tombs of noblemen feature people in the fields plowing, fishing and hunting as they wanted to show the gods what they liked in this world, to continue it in the next. But the Kings had to put religious texts on their walls.

Now there’s one unusual thing about Ramses III’s tomb. There’s a secular scene, and, since he, apparently, was a music lover, it shows two men playing the harp in a side chapel. Very often in Egypt, harpers were shown as blind thinking that blind people are perhaps more sensitive to sound, so they went into music. So we have this scene of two harpers who were blind.

And this is a tomb that was seen by a man named James Bruce who was looking for the source of the Nile in the early part of the 19th century. He came into this tomb, he saw the harpers, and he told the world about it. And it became known as “Bruce’s Tomb.” To this day, some people call it “Bruce’s Tomb”, while others know it as the “Tomb of the Two Harpers.”


Ramses III’s Mummy

Ramses III’s mummy, by the way was found in the Deir el Bahri cache. And if you look closely at the mummy, it’ll look familiar to you. Why? Many of the mummy movies, they patterned the mummy after Ramses III. There were quite a few movies by the Universal Studios — The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Curse, The Mummy’s Hand, where they were patterning the mummy after Ramses III.

Ramses’ mummy has been an inspiration in depicting mummies for many Hollywood’s movie makers.

Now, Ramses III’s mummy had been damaged by tomb robbers. And when it was refurbished in ancient times, the head had come off the body. So they put a stick around where the neck is, and put it back on. But they wrapped a big bandage around it to cover that the neck was damaged. So if you look at the mummy movies, the mummy always has this big—kind of looks like a scarf almost—around its neck. That’s because Ramses III’s mummy was damaged.

Common Questions About The Harim Conspiracy and Ramses III’s Death

Q: What is the ‘Harim Conspiracy’?

‘Harim Conspiracy’ was a plot laid down by a queen to kill Ramses because she wanted her son to become pharaoh. Additionally, it involved priests of the temple who had the Books of Magic. They were the ones who knew how to do this by magic. So we have priests involved, we have palace guards involved, we have the queen involved, and together they plot the “Harim Conspiracy.”

Q: How were the conspirators punsihed?

The conspirators were convicted and penalized. In Egypt if it was not too heinous a crime, you could cut off ears, or a nose. If it was a really serious crime, you would execute them. And the Egyptians executed by impaling someone on a stake. So some of the conspirators probably had their ears or noses cut off. But some were certainly executed, as far as we can tell from the record, although the record is now damaged.

Q: What is unusual about Ramses’ tomb?

Ramses is buried in the Valley of the Kings with a very unusual tomb. Pharaohs always had religious scenes on the walls of their tombs. But, on Ramses’ tomb, there’s a secular scene, and, since he, apparently, was a music lover, it shows two men playing the harp in a side chapel.

Ancient Egypt and Elements of the Magical Realm

The Egyptians were up to the neck in magic. They believed in certain elements of magic, how it had to have a spell, a ritual, and a magician, and you needed all three to make the magic work. The Egyptians also had goddesses of magic; the gods who were associated with magic were women, so here Heka and Isis were the goddesses of magic.

What’s There in a Name?

Isis, the magic goddess, had tremendous powers. She raises Osiris even from the dead. And she bears the title “She Who Knows Everyone’s Name.” The idea was that, if you knew a person’s name, you could work magic against him. So ultimately if you know everyone’s name you can cast a spell on everyone.

There’s even a story of how Isis got her power over the god Re, where the god Re was sick. He was dying when she was going to help him. But she said, “Tell me your name” and he gave her a name. But that’s not his real name, so when she tried the magic, it did not work because the name given to her was not real.

Isis was the Egyptian goddess of magic who could cast a spell on anyone whose name she knows.

Egyptians it must be remembered, often had two names. One was the name by which everybody knew him, for example, Imhotep. But then there was your real name, which only your mother knew. Because then if somebody tried to do a magical spell on you, and they used Imhotep, then the magic wouldn’t work since that is not your real name, your real name is known only to your mother. So there was a secret name.

So Isis learnt the secret name of Re, and thereby got power over him. So she is known as “She Who Knows Every One’s Name.” Power is in knowing the name so you could say the magical words.

Elements of Magic: Spell

There are different elements associated with a magical act.

First there’s the spell – words that are spoken. There’s a tendency to think that magic is just any mumbo jumbo that any magician wants to say. Contrary to this popular perception, there were basic principles of magic.

In the same way, you may not believe in astrology today. But certainly there is a right and a wrong way to do astrology, correct ways to draw charts, to plot the heavens. It may not be efficacious but there sure is a right and a wrong way, with some logic to it. Tt is the same with magic.


So in magic, one of the basic principles is that the word is the deed. In other words, if you say it—under the right conditions—it will become so. If we say “Oh, may I live forever” it might happen if we say it under the right conditions. So the word is the deed, is a basic principle, and that’s why the spell is so important.

Elements of Magic: Ritual

Next element of magic is the ritual associated with it, it is a little bit like theater. There is some performance involved in magic that makes it work. Sometimes, for example, it might be drawing the protective circle on the ground.

It must be remembered that the pharaoh’s name is written in a cartouche, an oval shape, which magically encircles his name. Encircling was very important, a crucial concept to the Egyptians.

For example, scorpions were a real fear in ancient Egypt, and there were plenty of them. So, there were spells to make sure that you wouldn’t be bitten at night as you slept. And what did you do? There was a spell to ward off the scorpions, but the most important thing was you took, or the magician took his wand. They were found in the shape and about the size of a large boomerang, usually made of bone or ivory with magical carvings on them. So, if you wanted to make sure that this spell worked against scorpions, the magician would take his wand, and while reciting this spell, he would draw around your bed in the dirt and there would be a circle protecting you. So that was a kind of ritual.


Elements of Magic: Magician

Next the magician is the third element. You cannot just find a magician’s wand and necessarily make it work, saying the magical words. The magician has to be a special person, in a sense he is a hero, he is controlling the forces of nature.

Often, magicians came from temples, and this is where it gets hard to separate a magician from a priest. Often magicians were indeed priests also. But somehow it seemed like they could do magic also, rather than just asking the gods.

For example, if you’ll remember in the Old Testament, when Pharaoh calls for his magicians, the word that is used in Coptic—the late form of Egyptian—and in the Coptic Bible, which still exists today, is sesperonch. That’s the word for magician in Coptic. Ses is “scribe,” per is “house,” and onch is “life.” These were “scribes of the House of Life.” These were priests who were schooled in the House of Life, which was a school associated with the temple.

Even today, we have the tradition in Egypt of the schools being attached to temples and mosques. Next to the mosque is a place of learning called “madrassas.” So the magician was a special person, sometimes a priest, but also a layman other times.

Often in the rural areas, where there were no large temples, no books available to look up things, then there were laymen filling in this role. These were the magicians who sort of made it up as they went along. Maybe not really schooled that well, but they could do it.

Common Questions about the Elements of the Magical Realm

Q: Who were the gods of magic in ancient Egypt?

Ancient Egypt had goddesses of magic; the gods who were associated with magic were women, so here Heka and Isis were the goddesses of magic.

Q: What are the three elements of magic?

The three elements of magic are spell, ritual, and the magician.

Q: What kind of magic wands were used in the ancient Egypt?

The ancient Egypt used magic wands that were found in the shape and about the size of a large boomerang, usually made of bone or ivory with magical carvings on them.

Ushabtis and Oracles: Egyptian Magical Statuettes for the Next Life

There is one element of magic that is common to Egyptologists and can be found all the time, they are magical servant statues. The Egyptians were resurrectionists who believed that in the next world, they were literally going to get up and go again and work. They viewed the next world as a continuation of this one where you bring everything you could.

Ushabtis are small servant statutes placed in the tomb to be carried into the next life.

Hope For the Better

Egypt was mainly agrarian, a farming country, and they viewed the next world as a place where there’s going to be a lot of farming. They were going to be in the Elysian Fields, so to speak. And if you look on tomb walls, you see these scenes of people farming in the fields of the next world. There’s a plow, there might be an oxen pulling the plow. But, the people were always dressed up in their finest linens because they believed the next life is going to be better than this one.

The ancient Egyptians, when they thought about the next world, figured that they were going to be called upon to do farm labor in the next world, but the next world was going to be better

Ushabti – the Servant Statues

The Egyptians believed that the next life will be better because they will have servant statues. So, statues called ushabtis were made and placed in the tomb. It is an ancient Egyptian word which means “answerer,” from the verb wesheb, “to answer.” “W” and “u” are the same, so it’s wesheb or usheb. Ushabtis—meaning “I’m answering.” So, when you were called in the next world to do work, these little statues would say, “Here I am!” and it would get up and work for you.

Many Egyptians were buried with 365 of these statues — one for each day of the year. The kind of statues you had depended upon what you could afford. Some of them are beautiful works of art, made out of faïence, which is a quartzite paste.

The Figure of the Ushabti Statues

Usually, the ushabti has two or three characteristics that explicitly denoted that this was a servant statue. One is, the legs are together because he’s wrapped like a mummy. It’s associated with Osiris, because it’s going to be in the Land of the Dead. But also, the hands are crossed across the chest. And in the hands are farm implements since they are going to work in the next world.

Sometimes, over the back of the shoulder of these statues is a seed pack for them to go through the fields and throw out the seeds in the next world. Also on every ushabti statue, if you were wealthy, is a magical spell from the “Book of the Dead.” So these ushabti statues became a central part of Egyptian culture. There were whole factories that made these, cranking them out of molds.

For every 10 ushabtis you had, you had an overseer ushabti to make sure they worked. And the overseer ushabti, you can tell, is different – he has a starched kilt on. While going into the tomb, they were packed very neatly in boxes—little ushabti boxes.

If you were real poor, you couldn’t afford these big beautiful faïence ushabti statues. They would be made out of perhaps terracotta.


Oracle Statues

There were also statues that were called “oracle statues”. These were statues of the gods, that could supposedly talk. There is no statue ever found that we could think is an oracle statue. They are a little like a mannequin, almost like a puppet, where the jaw might drop open and close.

These oracle statues were central to the culture. Again there is actually a papyrus that records the case of an oracle statue who solved a crime. Some watchman was sleeping on the job at the warehouse. And some shirts were stolen while he was sleeping. And the question was, who took it?

Now, this watchman, who thought he knew who stole his shirts, went before an oracle and named the person he thought stole the shirts. That person came and denied stealing the shirts. But, the oracle nodded or indicated in some way, that he was indeed the person who stole the shirts.

They were allowed a second hearing and they went to another oracle statue. And this watchman who had slept on the job started reading the names of the people in the village. And when he got to the name of the person he had accused, the oracle indicated that he was really the person stealing the shirts. That person was then convicted. So oracle statues could in some way speak and had legal weight.

Common Questions about Egyptian Magical Statuettes for the Next Life

Q: What is a Ushabti?

Ushabtis were small magical servant statues that were placed in the tomb to get up and work in your place in the next life. It is an ancient Egyptian word which means “answerer,” from the verb wesheb, “to answer.” “W” and “u” are the same, so it’s wesheb or usheb. Ushabtis—meaning “I’m answering.” So, when you were called in the next world to do work, these little statues would say, “Here I am!”.

Q: What were oracle statues?

Oracle statues were statues of the gods, that could supposedly talk. They are a little like a mannequin, almost like a puppet, where the jaw might drop open and close. These oracle statues were central to the culture and they also held legal weightage.

Q: What were the characteristics of Ushabtis statues?

Usually, the ushabti has two or three characteristics that explicitly denoted that this was a servant statue. One is, the legs are together because he’s wrapped like a mummy. It’s associated with Osiris, because it’s going to be in the Land of the Dead. But also, the hands are crossed across the chest. And in the hands are farm implements since they are going to work in the next world.

How Amulets Were Important in Ancient Egypt

The bit of magic that dominates Egyptian life more than anything else are magical amulets, a small object worn for protection. That, by the way, is the ancient Egyptian etymology of the word. Originally, these things were called things like “protectors”. There were many amulets prevalent, different amulets for different goals intended.

The Eye of the Horus was the most popular of all amulets and represent good health and vigor.

The Eye of Horus

The Eye of Horus was one of the most popular of all amulets. It was a small thing worn around the neck usually representing the eye of the falcon god Horus.

Horus fought in a battle with Seth, his evil uncle and he tried to kill him, but he didn’t. Instead, he beats him up. But, during the battle, Horus’s eye is taken out. Now the eye was magically regenerated by the god Toth, god of writing, also the god of magic, and it became the sign of health. It represents the very sort of characteristic markings of a falcon’s eye.

If you look in a natural history museum, at a falcon, you’ll see the parts of the eye are really carefully reproduced in this magical amulet. There is another representation of the Eye of Horus, that has become a sign of health – the pharmacist’s “Rx” seen in prescriptions nowadays.

The pharmacist’s “Rx” is really a corruption of part of the Eye of Horus. The Eye of Horus, in the Middle Ages, became a kind of sign of health, and that that was corrupted eventually by the apothecaries to be the “Rx.” So the Eye of Horus becomes our symbol of health also. So if you wanted to be healthy, the Eye of Horus was worn. These were things that were worn both by the living and by the deceased.

The Popular Scarab

The most common of all magical amulets was the scarab, it was found in thousands. The scarab is a carved beetle. The word for beetle was a pun, in ancient Egyptian it was pronounced “kheper.” That meant two things – one, it meant “beetle” but the other meant “to exist.” So if you wore a beetle around your neck, you would exist. It was for continuing existence.

Another thing about the scarab and the Egyptians’ interest in scarabs and beetles had to do with bad biology. Egyptians weren’t great on biology really by any means. They believed that the scarab procreated without a male and female. They thought that there was only a female, or maybe only a male. The reason is, they saw the scarab—a dung beetle, also called scarabeus sacre in Latin. That’s where we get scarab, from scarabeus sacre, “the sacred scarab” or the sacred beetle. They saw scarabs pushing their dung balls in front of them, the female lays the eggs in a dung ball so that it will have, they’ll have food when they hatch and it looked like the sun, this large disk being rolled across the horizon. They thought this was a very special animal so the scarab became sacred.

Selection of scarabs including Scarab with the Name of Hatshepsut, 1473-1458 BC, Heart Scarab of Ruru, 1550-1070 BC, and Naturalistic Scarab, 688-30 BC, via The Met Museum, New York

Hence, scarabs are another thing the Egyptians loved to wear. They also used them as signet rings. On the bottom of the scarab, the flat part, you would carve your name and you could seal your wine jar. So the servants couldn’t get into it.

The Rare Ankh

Another one is the magical amulet that everybody knows about today –the ankh, the Egyptian cross that means life. It’s a loop on top, and then the regular cross, so there are two arms going across and down.

The surprising thing is the ankh is perhaps the rarest of all amulets. We never find them. You never find them in excavations. We always see gods painted on temples holding them and touching it to the nose of the pharaoh, giving him life. So this may have been something reserved to the gods because it is very rare as an amulet.

Djed Pillar for the Dead

There is another amulet called the djed pillar. This is a little amulet, usually carved, and it looks like a pillar with some lines across it.

This represents the backbone of the god Osiris and wearing this gave stability, because the backbone is what gives you stability. The lines across really represent vertebrae going across.

Essentials in an Amulet

The material of the amulet was equally important since it had magical properties. For example, the backbone of Osiris, the djed pillar, was best if it was carved out of bone, because Osiris’s real backbone was bone, of course. So the idea is that, as close as you can come to the association, make it look like the backbone, make it out of the same material, then maybe it’ll work.

Similarly important for many of these amulets is color. The Egyptians were just as interested in the color as they were in the material. For example, sometimes red would represent blood. And the “knot of Isis,” a knot that she used to tie her garment with, always had to be red, associating with blood. So it’s not just the amulet itself, but the color and the material, as well.

Common Questions about the Significance of Amulets in Ancient Egypt

Q: What was the eye of Horus?

The Eye of Horus was one of the most popular of all amulets. It was a small thing worn around the neck usually representing the eye of the falcon god Horus. The Eye of Horus becomes our symbol of health. So if you wanted to be healthy, the Eye of Horus was worn.

Q: Why was a scarab worn?

The scarab is a carved beetle. The word for beetle was a pun, in ancient Egyptian it was pronounced “kheper.” That meant two things – one, it meant “beetle” but the other meant “to exist.” So if you wore a beetle around your neck, you would exist. It was for continuing existence.

Q: What does the djed pillar represent?

The djed pillar represents the backbone of the god Osiris and wearing this gave stability, because the backbone is what gives you stability.

Ancient Egypt: The Southern Kings of Dynasty XXI

At the end of the XXth Dynasty, something absolutely outrageous for Egyptian history occurred:  southern kings. The High Priest of Amun at Thebes, a man named Heri-Hor, wrote his name in a cartouche indicating that he was king of Egypt. He built his temple at Karnak Temple, dedicated to Khonsu. On the walls of the temple, he is shown the same size as the king of Egypt, who is ruling in the north.

By building himself a temple at Karnak Temple, where he is shown the same size as the king in the north, Heri-Hor announced himself as king. (Image: Tizianok/Public domain)

How Did the Southern Kings Divide Egypt?

So in a sense, he’s claiming I’m king of Egypt also. Two people claim to be Egypt’s king—one is Ramses XI in the north and the other Heri-Hor.

Now how does this happen? Well, the dynasty we’re going to look at today, the XIh Dynasty, is unique. It’s, in a sense, a tale of two cities. We have two simultaneous dynasties ruling. One from the north. And one from the south. We have the descendants of Heri-Hor calling themselves kings, ruling from Thebes. And in the north, we have a separate dynasty, also calling themselves kings.  

Many Egyptologists think that what we’ve got really is warring factions. We’ve got the Hatfields and the McCoys slugging it out over who was king of Egypt. However, we have a kind of peaceful co-existence. 

Let’s start with the priest-kings of the south. These people are all high priests of Amun, and they are ruling from Thebes. The one who starts this whole thing is Heri-Hor, the high priest who builds his little temple there, depicts himself as large as the king and puts his name in a cartouche. He died before Ramses XI, who was ruling in the north. He is succeeded by another High Priest of Amun—Piankh. Piankh died about the same time as Ramses XI. In the south, in Thebes, we have a pattern established. The high priest will take over and call himself king.


Pinedjem and His Co-existence with the King in the North

Now, the next high priest who rules in Thebes is Pinedjem. And he is important. Now first, how does he become a high priest? Well, that’s hereditary. You didn’t have to have a special religious calling to be a priest. You just had to say the right words, do the deeds. So, he can do that easily enough. 

But how does he become king? There’s a theory that you became pharaoh by marrying the right woman. The heiress theory is that a woman carries the right to be king in her royal blood. So whom does he marry? He married the daughter of Ramses XI, the king who had ruled in the north. But Pinedjem does other things, not just marrying a daughter. 

Now, he’s the high priest. One of his jobs is to make sure that the religion remains intact. And he has an inspection of the Valley of the Kings, in which he discovers the tombs of the pharaohs have been plundered. Now remember, he’s trying to be a king himself. So he is going to view these people as pharaohs and his ancestors, both. He restores the mummies. He has some of them rewrapped, and he labels them. So he’s trying to carry out what a pharaoh should do. 

He also dates his reign in a very interesting way. The pharaoh was so central to the Egyptian mentality that their calendar depended on who was king. It was a pharaoh-centric calendar. Still, Pinedjem dates his years according to the king who was ruling in the north. Somebody who’s now replaced, Ramses XI. This is a sign of deference to the kings of the north that they’re really the kings. 

Pinedjem II moved the mummies of pharaohs from the Valley of the Kings to Deir el Bahri, where he was mummified and buried. (Image: G. Elliott Smith/Public domain)

But Pinedjem dies. And he’s succeeded by two of his sons, Masaherta and Menkheperre. These guys don’t reign for long. Menkheperre’s successors are two of his sons. One is Smendes II, who reigns for a few years, and the next is Pinedjem II.

Pinedjem II and the Revolution in Pharaoh Burials

Pinedjem II carries out another inspection of the royal necropolis. He finds that virtually all of the tombs have been robbed. He realizes the Valley of the Kings cannot be protected anymore. He’s given up on the Valley of the Kings. Things have deteriorated so much in Egypt that he’s got to move the mummies.

He gathers together many of these mummies and has them moved to a secret cliff tomb at Deir el Bahri. He thinks that this tomb is so safe that he will choose it as his final burying place. And it is safe. It has remained safe for more than 3,000 years. So no longer will the pharaohs be buried in the Valley of the Kings. 

After Pinedjem II dies, he is buried in his safe tomb. And he’s succeeded by a minor king—Psusennes. With him, this minor pharaoh, it’s the end—it’s the end of these high priests ruling out of Thebes.

Common Questions about the Southern Kings of Dynasty XXI

Q: How did high priests get to rule as southern kings in the first place?

Heri-Hor began the dynasty of the southern kings by appointing himself king. Then he put his name in a cartouche and built a temple where he is represented as important as the king in the north. After that, the high priests of Thebes in the south took over the role of king.

Q: During the reign of Pinedjem, how was the relationship between the king in the north and the southern kings?

Pinedjem and the king in the north, Ramses XI, ruled the land peacefully. Pinedjem married the daughter of Ramses XI, and he kept his dates according to Ramses XI. This was significant because each pharaoh counted his reigning years in a pharaoh-centred calendar. By choosing the Ramses XI calendar, Pinedjem made it clear that the southern kings considered the king in the north to be the true ruler.

Q: How did the southern kings revolutionize pharaoh burials?

Pinedjem II inspects the Valley of the Kings when he becomes king. During the inspection, he finds that all the tombs have been robbed. He concludes that the Valley of the Kings is no longer safe and moves the mummies he found and restored in the tombs of Thebes to a safe place called Deir el Bahri, where he was buried along with other southern kings.