Sarcophagus Lid of Prince Khaemwaset

Ramesses III, who ruled Egypt in the 12th century BC, modelled himself on Ramesses II, the great king of the century before, even in the names he gave his children. Several of his sons were named after sons of Ramesses II, and this prince is one of them. The first Khaemwaset is remembered as high priest of Ptah at Memphis. His namesake served the same god in the same city, though as a sem priest, one of the priests who performed funerary rites.

He outlived his father. The inscriptions on his sarcophagus name his brother, Ramesses IV, so he was probably buried in that reign, and the museum dates the lid between 1187 and 1149 BC. Its outline has the shape of a royal cartouche, the oval ring drawn around a king's name.

His tomb in the Valley of the Queens was found by Schiaparelli's mission in 1903, open and plundered. Centuries after his burial it had been reused as a hiding place for other coffins, and his own grave goods were lost. Of his burial, the museum notes, this fragment of the sarcophagus is all that remains.