Pharaoh Ramesses III: An Ancestral Black Story

According to my 23andMe DNA Test results, my yDNA (Paternal) Haplogroup E-Z6018 is relatively rare, with only 1 in 5600 23andMe customers having the same haplogroup among all those tested. E-Z6018 is a subclade of E1b1a1-M2. I share a common paternal ancestor with Ramesses III, the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt and an extremely distant ancient cousin.

Ramesses III’s reign took place from 26 March 1186 to 15 April 1155 BC, and he is considered the last great monarch of the New Kingdom to have significant authority over Egypt. His long reign saw a decline in Egyptian political and economic power, partly due to invasions and internal economic problems that also affected his predecessors. Nevertheless, his strong military strategies and successful defense efforts slowed down the decline, particularly demonstrated by his defeat of the “Sea Peoples,” invaders who had caused destruction in other civilizations and empires. Despite his efforts, the invasions took a toll on Egypt, leading to a weakened military for his successors.

Ramesses III constructed the large mortuary temple of Medinet Habu in western Thebes. He was the son of Setnakhte and Tiy-Merenese and was assassinated in a conspiracy led by his secondary wife Tiye and her eldest son Pentawere, causing a succession crisis that further accelerated the decline of Ancient Egypt. Ramesses III was succeeded by his son Ramesses IV, but many of his other sons also ruled later.

The genetic relationship between Ramesses III and an unknown man buried with him was studied by the Zink unit. They determined that the unknown man, due to a proven genetic relationship and a mummification process suggesting punishment, was a good candidate for the pharaoh’s son, Pentaweret, who had revolted against his father. Both mummies were predicted to share the Y chromosomal haplogroup E1b1a1-M2 and 50% of their genetic material, confirming a father-son relationship.

The King Tutankhamun Family Project, undertaken in 2010 by Hawass et al, aimed to determine familial relationships among 11 royal mummies of the New Kingdom, including Ramesses III, and to research potential inherited disorders and infectious diseases. In 2012, further anthropological, forensic, radiological, and genetic studies were conducted on the mummies of Ramesses III and the unknown man found with him. In 2022, S.O.Y. Keita analyzed the data published from these studies and concluded that a majority of the mummies showed an affinity with “sub-Saharan” Africans in one affinity analysis, but he also cautioned that this doesn’t exclude other affiliations, and different data and algorithms might produce different results due to the complexity of biological heritage and its interpretation.