Khâemouaset (wire of Ramsès II)

The prince Khâemouaset ( Ḫˁ-m-wȝs.t ) is the fourth wire of Ramsès {{II}} and the second of the second Grande royal wife Isis-Néféret. He occupies the eleventh place in the list of wire of Ramsès.

Genealogy

Khâemouaset, having a perfect command of the writing, appreciating the texts and having acquired great knowledge in theology, was made a reputation of scholar.

Towards the 20 years age, it was named Prêtre sem Ptah, responsible for the worship of the crowned bulls. It very quickly decided to modify and codify the principle of the setting to the tomb of the Apis. It made dig the small gallery of the Sérapéum giving access to several rooms, so that each bull had its own vault, and created a temple intended for the celebration of the funerary rites of all Apis deceased.

It was also interested in the buildings set up by its ancestors; it was saddened by the deplorable state of certain monuments invaded by sands and got busy to safeguard them and to restore them, making engrave on each monument the name of its owner, that of the Pharaon Ramsès {{II}}, as well as a text ordering their safeguard.

He began research on the sites of Gizeh, Saqqarah and Abousir, thus dealing with the pyramids of Djéser, Chepseskaf, Ounas, Sahourê and of the solar temple of Niouserrê.

Except its activities of large priest and Archeologist, Khâemouaset assumed high administrative offices with Memphis whereas his/her father was with pi-Ramsès. It was also charged with the festivals '' Sed '' of the Pharaon; for the first five jubilees, Khâemouaset traversed Egypt, announcing to the people the event.

In year 45 of the reign of Ramsès {{II}}, it was promoted large priest of Ptah of Memphis and thus succeeded Didia in this religious high position. It is for this reason that it organized the jubilees of his father and governed the worship of the god of the craftsmen.

About year 50, it was selected to be the crown prince to the crown, but it finally never reached the throne, because it died towards the 50 years age, that is to say in year 55 of the reign of his father. It had been made arrange a vault in Sérapéum as well as a richly decorated vault. Its body was buried in a Sarcophage out of wood, the face protected by a mask in hammered gold sheet. The tomb was discovered, completely by chance, Mariette in 1852.

The enigma of a princely burial

It is indeed during the excavation of the Sérapéum of Saqqarah lately discovered by the young person Egyptologist that the first galleries were discovered underground which distributed the tombs of the crowned bulls. The discovery created sensation and attracted soon the plunderers of antiquities to the pay of the collectors which worked on behalf of the large museums of Europe.

Two units were then released and if the " Large Galerie" appeared already plundered it is in the " Small Galerie" that Mariette in hillock with an obstacle will use explosives to release the passage what will be worth to him many criticisms in the scientific circle. By doing this, it put at the day three intact tombs Apis dating from, each one with the funerary furniture which had been designed to accompany the god momifié and buried in solid masses sarcophagi. In its precipitation and this race against of other applicants to the richnesses which these tombs could contain, Mariette thus did not hesitate to employ the great ways at the price of a more delicate and meticulous excavation which would then have taken more time than it really did not have which it to put at the shelter the invaluable relics.

The discovery was indeed new and one could note that the large priests of Ptah were particularly well represented there by the many offerings that they left there and the invaluable gifts of prophylactic jewels to their names which were to accompany their god in the voyage in beyond.

In fact Khâemouaset took part in the burials from at least two of the Apis discovered and a great number of objects to its name were discovered there of which a whole series of Oushebti S.

Contiguous to the tomb of the Apis buried in year 55 of Ramsès {{II}}, a room sheltered a wood sarcophagus containing a mummy of an old man, covered with princely jewels and the face protected by a gold mask to the realistic features seeming to deliver the death mask to us of the late one.

The room also contained steles and reliefs with the names of Khâemouaset, the son of Ramsès {{II}}, and Mariette allotted the burial to him consolidated by the amulets with the titles and name of the prince discovered in the vestiges of the tomb upset by the explosion.

The fact will be disputed thereafter by the Egyptologists who followed Mariette, which criticized the method of excavation, the absence of precise statement of discovered and doubted in addition that a prince of this scale, the preferred son of the king appointed to succeed to him, had accepted with final only the one secondary burial deprived of richer and more significant funerary furniture.

Then a discovery in 1883 called in question the identification made by Mariette. During its excavations of the Kafr el-Batran with the foot of the necropolis of Gizeh, Gaston Maspero put at the day of the tombs Nouvel Empire of which that of a Khâemouaset that one also quickly allotted to famous the prince archeologist . This is why consequently, the works treating of the subject do not evoke in an unquestionable way fall it from Saqqarah as being that of the large priest and generally refer to this discovery made near the Grande Pyramid.

However relative modesty you tomb of Gizeh, although part of its reliefs are of high-quality, and his dating indicating rather a burial of do not invite either to this conclusion. Moreover titles of this Khâemouaset a long time were badly interpreted and it is necessary to recognize a simple today there chief of the carpenters of the king, who accepted the privilege to be made arrange a true family vault with the foot of the delivering plate of the pyramids of invaluable genealogical information which dismisses the assumption thus definitively that it is about the tomb of the prince.

It is established today that the discovery of the Sérapéum de Saqqarah is well that of the tomb of the son of Ramsès {{II}}. The gold mask, amulets and pectoral of royal invoice, the Ouchebti S, steles and reliefs representing the prince-large priest , any harmony to make this tomb that of Khâemouaset. As a crown prince and a large pontiff to Memphis, it accepted the privilege to be buried closest to the god whom it had served during nearly forty years and for which it had innovated by creating the first catacombs which were devoted to him.

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