Question:
How did pharaoh Ramses The Great die? And how old was he when he died?
alex
2006-08-17 02:01:14 UTC
And is it real that during his reign, the Exodus from the Bible took place?
Eight answers:
F
2006-08-17 18:41:03 UTC
The answers above are essentially correct in their information. The reason for the age discrepancy has to do with problems with precise dating during the 19th Dynasty - the dates float within a margin of error of about 20 years, and the exact year Ramses was born is not clear, so it's not entirely clear how old Ramses II was when he died, though the length of his reign (67 years) is fairly well established.



I believe the cause of death is usually cited as old age. Examination of his mummy would not necessarily indicate a cause of death, especially if it was from essentially natural causes. Soft tissues, such as the heart (which was left in place anyway) don't preserve terribly well or in a manner which makes it easy to analyze them to determine if, for example, he died of a heart attack. Nor would the mummified remains necessarily reveal a death by contagious disease, depending on the nature of the disease and/or the duration of the infection.



The historicty of the Exodus as related in Biblical accounts is not firmly established and what evidence there is is quite ambiguous. Traditionally, those people who accept the Biblical account as fully accurate tend to place the Exodus during the reign of Ramses II. Much of this association with Ramses II is based on the names of Egyptian cities given in the Biblical account, cities that were associated with Ramses II, though they were not necessarily founded by him in all cases, nor were they abandoned immediately after his reign. Most of these cities had very long histories, long enough for later Biblical authors to be aware of them as place-names and use those names in their account of the Exodus.

As a historical document, the Biblical texts do have their uses, but like all ancient documents, regardless of their original intent, they must be read with a critical eye if they are to be used for historical reconstruction, keeping in mind the tools scholars use to determine date of composition of texts, possible reasons behind the composition of texts, and information about the culture who composed the text and their notions of recording of information.

There is no evidence in Egypt of the sort of events related in the Exodus account, nor are their records from neighboring contemporary cultures of the events related in Exodus - a matter that would have been of much interest to some of Egypt's neighbors and rivals on the world stage at the time. Nor is their clear archaeological evidence for the Exodus or the passage into Canaan. In fact, the vast majority of cities said to have been captured in Canaan do not have evidence of destruction and capture during the broad time period during which the Exodus is likely to have taken place. There is evidence for an influx of new population groups into Canaan during this broad time period, but, again, the evidence is somewhat ambiguous and open to interpretation. Many scholars tend to regard the Exodus account as a much later creation by Israelites as a way of establishing a united history of their people and a claim to the land of Canaan. Others do not accept this conclusion, usually based on their religious faith, rather than a balanced review of the evidence, though there are exceptions. This is one of the major problems with using the Biblical texts in historical study - the Bible is still a major document in several major, living world religions and as such tends to have controversy attached to it that other ancient documents do not.
jimminycricket
2006-08-17 02:48:25 UTC
Every site about Ramses the Great has a different answer as to his age at death, so there seems to be some confusion surrounding his actual age at death. In researching the answer I found different ages including 86, 92 and 96. The hyperhistory site states that Ramses the Great was born in 1304 BC and died in 1298 BCE. According to them Ramses the Great was 96 years old when he died. In any case he far outlived the normal lifespan of approximently 30 years.

http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b1ramses.htm

After a sixty-seven year reign, Rameses II died, by then suffering from severe arthritis in his hips and hardening of the arteries in his lower legs, as well as afflicted by badly decayed teeth and gums. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=60091097850454 When examining his mummy they found that his brain had not been removed which was the standard proceedure and thus had an effect on the mummification process.

Ramses is believed to be the Pharoah mentioned in the Biblical story of the Exodus. There is no corroborating evidence for this but the Egyptians rarely recorded anything less than a perceived victory. http://ehistory.osu.edu/middleeast/PeopleView.cfm?PID=329

The story that they think Ramses might be in, is the one where Moses told the pharaoh to let his people go. Other people also think that when Ramses died, he became a god. http://www.planetpapers.com/Assets/958.php
Mergz
2006-08-17 07:27:05 UTC
Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, was the second longest reigning Pharaoh of ancient Egypt. He took the throne of Egypt sometime in his early 20’s, and ruled for sixty some years. It is said more statutes exist of Ramesses II than any other Pharaoh - not surprising considering his lifespan, which is estimated by most historians to be at about 90 years. The length of his reign is made all the more remarkable relative to the short life spans of people of the era, which were often no more than 30 years. When several generations of Egyptians had the same Pharaoh, they must truly have thought him to be godlike.



The actual cause of his death is not recorded to history – but it was very likely old age.



Many scholars have identified Ramesses II with the biblical Pharaoh of Moses time. However, the dates now ascribed to Ramesses' reign by most modern scholars do not match the dates when Moses was believed to be in Egypt. Suffice to say, the matter is still unresolved.
?
2016-10-04 07:45:09 UTC
Ramses The Great
Serena
2015-08-10 19:34:42 UTC
This Site Might Help You.



RE:

How did pharaoh Ramses The Great die? And how old was he when he died?

And is it real that during his reign, the Exodus from the Bible took place?
amyk479
2006-08-17 05:16:56 UTC
Few reigns are as well-documented as Ramses' 67-year stint on the throne. This tall, red-headed scion of a military family became pharaoh when he was 20 and died at about 86, a respected king and statesman who oversaw one of the most prosperous eras in ancient Egypt and was deified in his own lifetime.
anonymous
2016-03-19 07:00:36 UTC
Rameses ll was 92 years old when he died. When he was mummified the process of mummification took about 70 days and then he was buried in the temple on the royal necropolis of the valley of the kings. An examination of the mummy that were conducted show that there were some medical problems Rameses ll had been suffering from which could be a reasonable suspicion on the cause of his death. Old age and the amounts of infection that was discovered in his heart, teeth and his hip could also be the reason for his death.
anonymous
2016-04-02 12:27:15 UTC
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Ramses II ruled during the 19th Dynasty (1279-1212 BC), he was born to Queen Tuy and his father Sety I. He is also known as Ramesses the Great. He was once said to have lived to be 99 years old, but Egyptologists think that it is more likely that he died in his 90th or 91st year. He was given the throne at the age of about 20 and ruled for 67 years. Thus he was the second longest-ruling Pharaoh. Although Ramses II had a harem of wives, his special wife was Nefertari and it was presumed that he had over one hundred children with all his wives. His final resting place was his tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings. It is located in the main valley, opposite the tomb of his sons, KV5, and near to the tomb of his son and successor, Merenptah, KV8. The tomb's location has meant that it has been very badly damaged in the flash floods that periodically sweep through the valley. Hope that helps :)


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