The Screaming Mummy and the Fall of Ancient Egypt
The 30-year reign of Ramesses III would usher in turbulent times in ancient Egypt. The constant threat of foreign invaders and perpetual war had all but bankrupted the country and crop production had been nearly depleted after the unforeseen eruption of Hekla 3 filled the air with volcanic ash, preventing the sun from sufficiently reaching the ground below. Having lost their grip on several key Asian territories, war-torn men returned to find the great empire they once knew was no more.
With wheat becoming a scarce ration, Ramesses III found it increasingly difficult to continue providing the much-needed grain to most of the working class settlements in the region. Instead, what grain the country had was designated for the ruling class and those who worked directly under the royal family. Growing increasingly frustrated with the state the country was in, the disenfranchised workers steadily refused to continue on and for the first time in known recorded history the working class went on strike.
With the state of the empire at stake, even those who were within the pharaoh's entourage began to question their leader's judgment. Behind closed doors, court official Pebekkamen was able to recruit defectors including Ramesses III's secondary wife Tiye, her son Prince Pentawer, as well as other servants of the king to begin plotting to assassinate Ramesses III, as well as his designated heir to the throne, Ramesses IV, and instead see to it that Pentawer took the throne and restored Egypt to the world power it once was.
The Harem Conspiracy, as it would later be referred, was documented extensively in the Judicial Papyrus of Turin. According to the ancient document, the royal coup was set to take place in the city of Medinet Habu where Ramesses III as well as his successor, Ramesses IV, would be celebrating the monarch's 30-year reign over Egypt. While the royal harem was closely guarded, the dissenters employed the use of magical wax figures in hopes that their presence would go undetected, however, the invading party would find that their intended actions would be met with little resistance. Ramesses III would be on the receiving end a knife blade to the throat as a crowd chanted incantations to ensure the fallen ruler's untimely demise.
In spite of their best efforts, the plot did not unfold as planned. Ramesses IV, the chosen heir to the throne, would survive the attack and the coup would quickly be exposed. Over 30 people, including 27 men and six women would be charged with high treason, while an additional five men were found guilty on grounds of corruption. Most of the accused were sentenced to death, with the merciful option of taking their own life. To add further insult to the slain king, several justices overseeing the hearings were caught attending a party with the women on trial. Some were handed down the same sentence as the accused, while others were permanently disfigured. Ramesses III's son, Prince Pentawer, was among those who took his own life. It is believed he hanged himself, while others have suggested he may have instead been strangled.
In 1881, during an excavation of Ramesses III's burial tomb archeologists unearthed the unidentified remains of a man whose face was permanently contorted in agony. Nicknamed the screaming mummy, the man was buried in a sarcophagus bearing no identifying marks and wrapped in goatskin, suggesting that the individual had committed some atrocity in life and was thus preserved in such a fashion to ensure he would not go on into the afterlife. The man's identity would long remain a mystery until modern DNA was able to link the remains to the bloodline of Ramesses III, himself. This breakthrough in this long unsolved mystery suggests that the remains could be that of Prince Pentawer, crying out these thousands of years later for his betrayal of his own father and single-handedly killing off what would be considered Egypt's last great monarch.
Sources and further reading:
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-africa/life-and-death-ramesses-ii-001822
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2012/12/17/ramses-ramesses-murdered-bmj/1775159/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harem_conspiracy