Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses II's Mummy: The Forensic Journey of a King
Transcript
- Lucas: For anyone coming with us through these conversations — about North Africa and the men who shaped it — I want to start with something tangible today. Not a treaty or a battle line, but a body. Specifically, the body of Ramses II, which has traveled further than any other pharaoh's relic in recorded history. Luna: You mean he was moved around after he died? Lucas: Drastically. He was buried in the Valley of Kings at KV7, but within a century, his tomb was looted. His mummy was stolen, sold on the black market, and ended up in the hands of a family who kept it for generations, eventually hiding it in a Coptic Christian church in Deir el-Bahari where it sat undisturbed until the late nineteenth century. Luna: That is a wild survival story. Lucas: It really is. And this brings me to a small note on how we keep this show running. We deliberately don't run ads on these. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — that's F. E. X. I. N. G. O. Luna: Thanks for keeping it ad-free, Lucas. Lucas: So, once the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette acquired the mummy in 1881, it went to Cairo. But it wasn't until 1900 that a young British archaeologist named Howard Carter actually examined it closely. He noted the condition of the body, but the real forensic breakthrough came later, when the famous anatomist Grafton Elliot Smith began a systematic study of Egyptian royal mummies in the 1920s. Luna: What did Elliot Smith find? Lucas: He found a man who had clearly lived a long, hard life. Ramses II reigned for sixty-six years, dying in his early eighties, and his body showed every bit of it. Elliot Smith documented severe osteoarthritis in his spine and hips, likely from decades of riding chariots and standing during ceremonies. The pain must have been debilitating. Luna: I always picture him as this vigorous young warrior. Lucas: That image comes from the reliefs at Karnak and Abu Simbel, which were commissioned early in his reign. By the time of his death, Usermaatre Setepenre was a geriatric king. His teeth were a disaster too. He suffered from severe periodontal disease and had large abscesses, meaning he likely ate soft foods and struggled with chewing for years. Luna: So the propaganda hid his pain completely. Lucas: Exactly. And there’s one more striking detail that historians often debate. On his head, right near the crown area, there is a distinct injury. It looks like a blow from a blunt object, possibly from a fall or an accident in his youth. Some earlier theories suggested it was a wound from battle, but most modern anthropologists think it happened long before Kadesh, perhaps even before he became pharaoh. Luna: Did that wound affect his rule? Lucas: Not visibly. The hair and wig styling in statues would have covered it, and Ramses was masterful at controlling his image. But it serves as a reminder that beneath the divine aura, he was just a man prone to accidents and illness. The mummy also shows signs of skin conditions, possibly eczema or psoriasis, which would have caused constant itching and discomfort. Luna: It makes him feel much more human. Lucas: It does. And then there’s the question of how he died. There’s no single cause recorded, but the combination of heart disease, vascular issues, and infection was probably the killer. In ancient Kemet, living past seventy was exceptional, so his longevity itself was seen as a sign of Ma'at and divine favor. Luna: But his tomb was empty when they found him. Lucas: Right. KV7 was ransacked in antiquity. That’s why we rely on the mummy found in the Deir el-Bahari cache, not the original burial site. The identification was confirmed because his name was written on his chest band, and the height of the body matched the descriptions given by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus about the giant stature of Ramses. Luna: Herodotus saw it himself? Lucas: He visited centuries later, but he didn’t see the mummy directly; he saw the monuments. However, later writers like Diodorus did describe the physical appearance of the king based on temple inscriptions. The match between the mummy’s size and those texts helped cement the identification. Luna: And the mummy stayed in Cairo for decades. Lucas: Yes, it remained in the Egyptian Museum until 1974. That’s when things got controversial. France wanted to loan the mummy for an exhibition called 'Treasures of the Pharaohs,' but Egypt demanded that the mummy be treated as a VIP traveler. They flew it on a dedicated plane, granted it diplomatic immunity, and let priests perform rituals for its journey. Luna: That sounds like a huge honor. Lucas: It was historic. But it sparked intense debate back home. Many Egyptians felt it was disrespectful to send their national hero abroad, especially when domestic museums were struggling. There were protests, religious objections, and legal challenges. It raised questions about ownership, heritage, and who gets to display the bodies of ancient rulers. Luna: Doesn't change the fact that people wanted to see it. Lucas: They absolutely did. Millions saw it in Paris. But upon its return, the mummy was deteriorating. The handling, the climate changes, and the stress of travel took a toll. It was moved to a more secure facility, and today it rests in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, under strict environmental controls. Luna: Is it still visible to the public now? Lucas: Not permanently on display due to fragility, but high-resolution scans and models are available. The scan data revealed even more about his anatomy, including the structure of his brain and the precise nature of his dental issues. It’s allowed scientists to create a virtual reconstruction of what he looked like in life. Luna: What did the face look like? Lucas: The reconstruction shows a long face, prominent nose, and strong jawline, matching the idealized statues but with more natural fleshing. It’s a sobering image. You see the intelligence in the eyes, but also the weariness. He wasn’t a god walking among men; he was a very tired old man who had ruled for over six decades. Luna: Do we know if he planned his own legacy? Lucas: He certainly tried. He built the Ramesseum, a massive mortuary temple, and carved his likeness into every rock in Nubia. But ironically, his greatest monument might be the sheer number of statues he left behind. So many copies exist that it’s hard to tell which ones are authentic portraits and which are generic replications made by workshops. Luna: Like a medieval scriptorium copying texts. Lucas: Exactly. And this leads to another mystery. For a long time, scholars thought Ramses II was buried in KV7, but the tomb is mostly ruined. Some have argued he might have been moved to another chamber, perhaps KV55 or even near his father Seti I. But the consensus holds that KV7 is his intended resting place, even if the body was removed shortly after burial. Luna: So the tomb is empty, but the mummy survived elsewhere. Lucas: Correct. And that survival is what allows us to talk about him today. Without that mummy, our understanding of his age, health, and final days would be purely speculative. The physical evidence grounds the myth in reality. Luna: It puts the 'Great' in perspective. Lucas: It does. He earned the title through sheer endurance and political skill, not just military victory. His ability to maintain power into his eighties, despite poor health, is a testament to his administrative genius. Luna: What about his family? Did they care for him? Lucas: His son Merneptah succeeded him, but the transition was rocky. There are hints of tension in the records. Merneptah had to suppress minor rebellions immediately upon taking the throne, suggesting that the stability Ramses maintained was fragile. The old king’s grip on the empire loosened only after his death. Luna: So the peace held because of him personally. Lucas: Precisely. Once he was gone, the balance shifted. But for sixty-six years, he kept Kemet stable. And now, thanks to that mummy, we can see the cost of that stability on the man himself. Luna: It’s a powerful way to end the conversation. Lucas: It is. We often focus on the temples and the treaties, but the body reminds us that history is made by people who get sick, get hurt, and grow old. Ramses II was mortal, despite the gold and the stone.