Ramesses XI

Menmaatre Ramesses XI reigned from 1106 BC to somewhere between 1078 BC and 1068 BC and is generally considered the tenth and final pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt and as such, the last king of the New Kingdom period. He ruled Egypt for at least 29 years although some Egyptologists think he could have ruled for as long as slightly more than 30 years. The latter figure would be up to 2 years beyond this king's highest known date of Year 10 of the wḥm-mswt era or Year 28 of his reign. One scholar, Ad Thijs, has suggested that Ramesses XI could even have reigned as long as 33 years.
It is believed that Ramesses ruled into his Year 29 since a graffito records that the general and High Priest of Amun Piankh returned to Thebes from Nubia on III Shemu day 23—or just 3 days into what would have been the start of Ramesses XI's 29th regnal year. Piankh is known to have campaigned in Nubia during Year 28 of Ramesses XI's reign and would have returned home to Egypt in the following year.

Background

Ramesses XI was once thought to be the son of Ramesses X by Queen Tyti who was a King's Mother, King's Wife and King's Daughter in her titles. However, recent scholarly research into certain copies of parts of the Harris papyrus —collected by Anthony Harris—which discusses a harem conspiracy against Ramesses III—reveals that Tyti was a queen of Ramesses III instead. Hence, Ramesses XI's mother was not Tyti and although he could have been a son of his predecessor, this is not established either. Ramesses XI is believed to have married Tentamun, the daughter of Nebseny, with whom he is assumed to have fathered Duathathor-Henuttawy—the future wife of the high priest Pinedjem I. Ramesses XI may have had another daughter named Tentamun who became king Smendes' future wife in the next dynasty. These connections, however, remain tentative.
Sometime during his reign, the High Priest of Amun, Amenhotep, was ousted from office by Pinehesy, the Viceroy of Kush who for some time took control of the Thebais. Although this “suppression of the High Priest of Amun” used to be dated quite early in the reign, recently the communis opinio has changed to the view that it took place only shortly before the start of the wḥm-mswt or "Renaissance," an era which was inaugurated in regnal Year 19, probably to stress the return of normal conditions following the coup of Pinehesy.

Accession date

Ramesses XI is usually assigned an accession date of III shemu 20 However, a later Twentieth Dynasty papyrus fragment from Deir el-Medina published in 2023 by the Egyptologist Robert J. Demarée refers to a partial date of Year 4, III month of Akhet together with a change to Year 1, IV month of Akhet. Although both kings are unnamed, the papyrus is strongly suggested by Demarée to refer to the reigns of Ramesses X and his successor Ramesses XI. If confirmed, this would mean that Ramesses XI actually had his accession date between the III and IV month of Akhet rather than III Shemu 20 as has been assumed.
Demarée stresses in his 2023 study that the sources which support an accession date of III Shemu day 20 for Ramesses XI are hardly conclusive:

The ''wḥm-mswt'' ("Renaissance") era

Ramesses XI's reign is notable for a large number of important papyri that have been discovered, including the Adoption Papyrus, which mentions regnal years 1 and 18 of his reign; Pap. B.M. 10052, Pap. Mayer A, Pap. B.M. 10403 and Pap. B.M. 10383 ; Pap. Ambras ; the Turin Taxation Papyrus, of an unspecified year 12; Pap. B.M. 10068, which includes on its verso two lists, called the House-list and the Srmt-list ; Pap. B.M. 9997, of an unspecified year 14 and 15; and an entire series of Late Ramesside Letters written by -among others- the scribes of the Necropolis Dhutmose, Butehamun, and the High Priest Piankh. Late Ramesside Letter no. 9 establishes that the wḥm-mswt period lasted into a 10th year.
Pinehesy was subsequently designated as an enemy in several papyri from year 1 and 2 of the wḥm-mswt where his name was consistently associated "by the nḏs bird as its determinative" in these papyri.
How exactly the anarchic period of the Suppression was ended and who ultimately forced Pinehesy out of Thebes is unknown, due to a lack of explicit sources. However, it seems that Pinehesy retreated to Nubia and succeeded in maintaining some sort of powerbase there for over a decade.
In year 10 of the wḥm-mswt the then general and High Priest Piankh goes on an expedition to Nubia to "meet Pinehesy".
Although it is often postulated that it was the aim of this campaign to fight the former Viceroy, this is by no means certain.
The sources are actually ambiguous on this point and the political climate may well have changed over the years. There is some evidence that at this time Piankh may no longer have been a loyal servant of Ramesses XI, which allows for the possibility that he was secretly negotiating with Pinehesy, possibly even plotting against the reigning king.
Edward Wente wrote: "One has the impression that the viceroy and his Nubian troops were loyalists, for the remarks made by his opponent Piankh in letter No. 301 are quite disparaging of the pharaoh, Ramesses XI." In this letter, better known as LRL no. 21, Piankh remarks:
In the same letter and two others Piankh gives the order to the Scribe of the Necropolis Tjaroy, the lady Nodjmet and a certain Payshuuben to secretly arrest and question two Medjay policemen about certain things they had apparently said:
Whereas Piankh would probably have had the authority to have people executed, it is noteworthy that his correspondents are explicitly urged to keep the matter secret. It has been argued that, given Piankh's supreme position at the time, the secrecy can only have concerned the king. If this is correct, it follows that the political situation of the time must have been very complex, with Piankh possibly acting on some hidden agenda. Unfortunately, due to the very limited nature of the sources, the exact relationships between the three main protagonists, Piankh, Pinehesy and Ramesses XI remain far from clear. Some scholars believe that the Nubian campaign was part of an ongoing power struggle between the High Priest of Amun and the Viceroy of Kush However, it is equally possible that Piankh came to the rescue of Pinehesy against some common enemy. The verb often translated as "to attack " only means "to meet/ to go to". In fact, neither the aim of the expedition nor its outcome are beyond doubt.
The issue is further complicated by the ongoing debate about the order of High Priests and the correct ascription of several documents from the reign of Ramesses XI.
At present, Ad Thijs' suggestion that Pinehesy was apparently rehabilitated by Ramesses XI in year 11 or 12 of the wḥm-mswt has only been explicitly accepted by the Egyptologist Aidan Dodson.

Length of reign

Neither the length of the Renaissance nor the ascription of certain documents from the reign of Ramesses XI are beyond dispute.
At present, Thijs' proposal that Papyrus BM 10054 dates to the wḥm-mswt has been confirmed by other scholars such as Jürgen von Beckerath and Annie Gasse, who studied several newly discovered fragments belonging to this document. Consequently, it would appear that Ramesses XI's highest undisputed date is presently Year 11 of the wḥm-mswt of his reign, when Piankh's Nubian campaign terminated which means that the pharaoh had a minimum reign of 29 years when he died—-which can perhaps be extended to 30 years due to the "gap between the beginning of Dynasty 21 and the reign of Ramesses XI," with 33 years being hypothetical. Krauss and Warburton specifically write that due to the existence of this time gap,
Aidan Dodson, however, allows for a 'year 15' of the wḥm-mswt on the basis of P. BM 9997.
Either during the reign of Ramesses XI or shortly afterwards, the workmen village of Deir El Medina was abandoned, apparently because the Royal Necropolis was shifted northward to Tanis and there was no further need for their services at Thebes.

Late New Kingdom chronology of Ramesses XI

The conventional Egyptian chronology view is that Ramesses XI had an independent reign of between 29 and 30 or 33 full years between Ramesses X and Smendes. Thijs' separate proposal that the first 17 years of Ramesses XI's reign were entirely contemporary with the reigns of Ramesses IX and Ramesses X is not currently accepted by most Egyptologists except Aidan Dodson in his 2012 book Afterglow of Empire.

Tomb

Ramesses XI died under unknown circumstances. While he had a tomb prepared for himself in the Valley of the Kings, it was left unfinished and only partly decorated since Ramesses XI instead arranged to have himself buried away from Thebes, possibly near Memphis. This pharaoh's tomb, however, includes some unusual features, including four rectangular, rather than square, pillars in its burial chamber and an extremely deep central burial shaft– at over 30 feet or 10 metres long– which was perhaps designed as an additional security device to prevent tomb robbery. During the 21st dynasty, under the reign of the High Priest of Thebes, Pinedjem I, Ramesses XI's tomb was used as a workshop for processing funerary materials from the burials of Hatshepsut, Thutmose III and perhaps Thutmose I. Ramesses XI's tomb has stood open since antiquity and was used as a dwelling by the Copts.

Succession

Most Egyptologists assume that Ramesses XI was succeeded on the throne by Smendes, as the first Lower Egyptian king of the Twenty-first Dynasty. However, the now widely accepted reversal of the previous order of the High Priests of [Amun at Thebes|High Priests of Amun] Herihor–Piankh by Karl Jansen-Winkeln has created the problem of a likely unidentified king reigning between Ramesses XI and Smendes, neither of whom can be unproblematically identified as the monarch in whose regnal Years 5 and 6 are attested activities of the High Priest Herihor. Ad Thijs attempted to address the problem by splitting the High Priest and subsequently King Pinedjem I into two persons and identifying King Pinedjem with the unnamed monarch, Rolf Krauss proposed that the reign intervening between those of Ramesses XI and Smendes belonged to Herihor himself, while Ian Mladjov proposed identifying the unnamed monarch with an unplaced king, Usermaatre-heqawast Rameses-mereramun, as Ramesses XII. The splitting up of the High Priest and later King Pinedjem into two distinct individuals is considered implausible, Krauss' solution, otherwise plausible, allows the paradox of Herihor using his own regnal years without claiming a royal title, while Mladjov's solution probably requires assuming a temporary interruption of work under the High Priest Herihor at the Temple of Khonsu, resuming only after he became king following the postulated Ramesses XII. Whatever the precise circumstances, Herihor and Smendes eventually assumed the kingship, founding the Twenty-first Dynasty, with its new royal capital at Tanis, while Middle and Upper Egypt, effectively passed into the hands of the High Priests of Amun at Thebes.