You might think this would make the search for Pi-Ramesse easy. But you'd bewrong.
Well, the big problem of finding Pi-Ramesse was the problem of the easternbranch of the Nile which we know it lay on had gone.
Over time. the branches of the Nile in the Delta often change course. Soit's impossible to know where the easternmost branch was in Ramesses' time.
This ancient branch of the Nile had silted up and disappeared long ago.
Without this knowledge, finding the lost city would mean scouring the wholeeastern side of the Nile Delta. The absence of this single most importantclue was a crucial obstacle to finding Ramesses capital. Luckilyarchaeologists knew exactly what remains to look for because ancient textshave given a detailed description of Pi-Ramesse.
First thing we knew about Pi-Ramesse was that it was a military garrison. Itwas the place from which King Ramesses II launched his campaigns into Syria-Palestine. Therefore, the presence of soldiers, chariotry would clearlyhave to be something which any candidate for the site(s) of Pi-Ramesse wouldhave to have. Well, we certainly expect in Pi-Ramesse to have a lot ofstatues and other monuments of Ramesses II.
Ramesses had a production line of workers in quarries churning out statuesof himself carved out of the living rock. Pi-Ramesse was filled withhundreds of images of the pharaoh. Some as big as 28 meters high. Next,Ramesses II's personal mark, his cartouche would have been carved into thecity's great monuments. Each cartouche was like a brand, placed on objectsas a stamp of ownership.
Look here at the cartouche here of Ramesses. Here this seated figure with ahawk's head and a sun disc on its head is the sun god Ra. We then go down tothis sign here which reads Messe. And the following two signs read Shu. Sowe have Ra, Messe, Shu. This is married or beloved. And then the sign on thetop left-hand corner of the cartouche which is the great god Amon, the kingof the gods.
cartouche: an oval or oblong figure in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics thatencloses characters expressing the names or epithets of royal or divinepersonages |