Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great's Food Riots: Hunger and Unrest in Pi-Ramesses
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about Ramses the Great's grand projects — the temples, the chariots, the diplomacy. But today I want to look at something that doesn't often make the highlight reels: the food riots in his capital, Per-Ramesses. Luna: Food riots? I thought Egypt was the breadbasket of the ancient world. Lucas: It was, but even the breadbasket had bad years. The Nile flood was the heartbeat of Egyptian agriculture, and when it was low — or when it came too late — the whole system faltered. And Ramses's reign, for all its glory, had some serious lean years. Lucas: We have records from the reign of his son Merenptah — but also from Ramses's own time — of grain shortages so severe that workers building the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina went on strike. They literally stopped working and marched to the mortuary temples demanding their rations. Luna: Wait, they just walked off the job? In ancient Egypt? Lucas: They did. And it wasn't the only time. There's a famous document called the Papyrus Salt 124 — that's a modern label — which records a complaint from a workman named Paneb, but also other texts that describe how the state grain stores ran low. The workers were owed grain, beer, and oil, and when it didn't come, they refused to work. Lucas: Now, Per-Ramesses was a brand new city, built by Ramses as his capital. It was huge — sprawling, with palaces, temples, barracks, and a massive population of craftsmen, soldiers, and administrators. All those mouths needed feeding, and the grain had to come from somewhere. Luna: So the city itself was a burden on the food supply? Lucas: Exactly. And beyond the city, Ramses was funding military campaigns and building projects across Kemet. The grain that could have cushioned a bad harvest was being consumed by the state's ambitions. When the floods failed, the system tipped. Lucas: We know from inscriptions that during the reign of Ramses III — a later pharaoh — grain prices skyrocketed and people sold their children into slavery to buy food. But even under Ramses II, there were signs of stress. A letter from the reign mentions that the granaries at Per-Ramesses were nearly empty, and officials were scrambling to requisition grain from the provinces. Luna: So how did Ramses handle it? Did he open the royal stores, or did he let people starve? Lucas: He had a delicate balance to keep. As pharaoh, he was the guarantor of ma'at — cosmic order — and part of that was ensuring his people weren't hungry. But he also had to maintain his divine image, which demanded massive temple construction and lavish festivals. So he did both — but not always successfully. Lucas: There's evidence that he tried to boost agricultural output by digging canals and improving irrigation — we've talked about that before. But when the Nile itself was stingy, there was only so much he could do. And the workers at Deir el-Medina, who were among the most privileged laborers in Egypt, were the ones who could make their voices heard because their work was essential to the pharaoh's afterlife. Luna: So they used that leverage. Lucas: They did. And the state responded — sometimes by paying them, sometimes by punishing them. But the fact that the strikes happened at all tells us that even Ramses's grip on power had limits. People could push back. Lucas: Now, I want to talk about a specific incident that's recorded in a papyrus from Deir el-Medina, dating to around Year 29 of Ramses's reign. The text describes how the workmen on the royal tomb — the team known as 'the crew' — stopped work and marched to the Ramesseum, the pharaoh's mortuary temple, and demanded their grain rations. Luna: They marched right to his temple. That's bold. Lucas: It was. And the temple administrators had to scramble to find grain. They ended up requisitioning from other storehouses, but it wasn't enough. The workers went on strike again a month later. This cycle repeated for years. Lucas: What's fascinating is that the state didn't just crush them. They negotiated. They made promises. They sometimes paid in other goods — fish, vegetables — when grain was scarce. It shows a kind of worker agency that we don't always associate with ancient despotism. Luna: So Ramses wasn't all-powerful after all. Lucas: No, and that's the real takeaway. The image of the god-king who commands the Nile itself is propaganda. The reality was a constant struggle to keep the system running, especially when nature didn't cooperate. And Ramses, for all his monuments, couldn't make the Nile flood. Lucas: You know, this actually ties into something I've been thinking about. We put a lot of effort into researching these stories — digging through translations, comparing sources. And we're able to do that because this show is listener-supported. A handful of people chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many episodes. Luna: It's true. No ads, no sponsors — just people who love history helping us keep it going. Lucas: And we're grateful for every single one of them. It means we can spend time on stories like this one, the ones that don't make the textbooks. So, back to the grain shortages: one of the most telling details comes from a letter written by a scribe named Hori, who complains that the grain is being eaten by rats and weevils because the storehouses are poorly maintained. Luna: So even when they had grain, they couldn't always keep it safe. Lucas: Exactly. And that's another layer of the crisis. The state bureaucracy could be inefficient, corrupt, or just unlucky. When the harvest was good, they had to store the surplus for the lean years. But if the storage was bad, or if officials skimmed off the top, then when the lean year came, there was nothing. Lucas: We also have records from the reign of Ramses's successor, Merenptah, that show even worse conditions. A text called the 'Great Harris Papyrus' — actually from Ramses III's time, but it looks back — describes how the land was in distress, people were dying of hunger, and the state had to intervene with emergency grain distributions. Luna: So the pattern continued after Ramses died. Lucas: It did. But under Ramses, there was still enough infrastructure and prestige to keep the empire together. The food riots were warning signs, not a collapse. They show that even the greatest pharaohs had to answer to hungry stomachs. Lucas: And that's a reminder that history isn't just about kings and battles — it's about how people ate, or didn't eat. The next time you see a picture of the Great Hypostyle Hall, think about the workers who built it, and what they had for dinner. Luna: Or didn't have. Lucas: Right. Or didn't have.