| Meryatum | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Priest of Ra in Heliopolis | ||||||
 Meryatum next to his father Ramesses II at the small temple at Abu Simbel. | ||||||
| Egyptian name |
| |||||
| Dynasty | 19th Dynasty | |||||
| Pharaoh | Ramesses II | |||||
| Burial | KV5 | |||||
| Father | Ramesses II | |||||
| Mother | Nefertari | |||||
Meryatum (“Beloved of Atum”) was an ancient Egyptian prince and High Priest of Re, the son of Pharaoh Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari.
He is shown as 16th on the processions of princes, and is likely to have been the last child born to Ramesses and Nefertari (after Amun-her-khepeshef, Pareherwenemef, Meritamen, Henuttawy and Meryre). He is depicted in the Smaller Abu Simbel temple, dedicated to Nefertari. Inscriptions at Karnak and elsewhere show Nefertari was his mother.
He visited Sinai in the second decade of his father's reign. However, it is also possible that he was merely a newborn at the time, and the two officials included his name in their own monuments in celebration. In the later years, he was appointed as High Priest of Ra in Heliopolis, a position he held for the next twenty years.
The High Priest of Ra in Heliopolis was one of the three most prestigious priestly titles of the New Kingdom, ranked alongside the High Priest of Amun at Karnak and the High Priest of Ptah in Memphis. Its status was second only to the High Priest of Amun at Karnak and higher than that of the High Priest of Ptah in Memphis.
Two of his statues are now in Berlin and a stela belonging to him is in Hildesheim. An ostrakon mentions work on his tomb and that of Isetnofret, who is more likely a female descendant of Ramesses II than a queen, given the absence of a cartouche or royal titles; it implies he was buried in the area of the Valley of the Kings, though it is also possible he was buried in KV5, the tomb built for the sons of Ramesses, since a fragment of one of his canopic jars was found there.
Meryatum is referred to as the “King’s Eldest Son” in an inscription on a statue. This title is understood to denote the eldest living son born of the same mother, which indicates that all his full older brothers had died before him. He is believed to have died during the 46th to 52nd year of Ramesses II’s reign, and based on records of the succession of the High Priest of Ra, an earlier date of death is considered more likely.