Everything about Shoshenq I totally explained
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Shoshenq I (
Egyptian ššnq), also known as
Shishak,
Sheshonk or
Sheshonq I (for discussion of the spelling, see
Shoshenq), was a
Meshwesh Libyan king of
Egypt and founder of the
Twenty-second Dynasty. Shoshenq I was the son of Nimlot A, Great Chief of the
Ma, and his wife Tentshepeh A, a daughter of a Great Chief of the
Ma herself. The majority of
Egyptologists, including
Kenneth Kitchen and Aidan Dodson, believe he's mentioned in the
Hebrew Bible as שׁישׁק
Šîšaq (
transliterated as
Shishaq and
Shishak) though this identification has been questioned by
David Rohl,
Peter James, and other adherents of the so-called
New Chronology.
Chronology
The conventional dates for his reign as established by
Kenneth Kitchen are
945 –
924 BC but his time-line has recently been revised downwards by a few years to
943–
922 BC since he may well have lived for up to 2 to 3 Years after his successful 925 BC campaign against Israel and Judah rather than Kitchen's estimate of only 1 Year. As Edward Wente of the University of Chicago noted on page 276 of his JNES 35(1976) Book Review of Kitchen's study of the
Third Intermediate Period, there's "no certainty" that Shoshenq's 925 BC campaign terminated just prior to this king's death a year later in 924 BC. The English Egyptologist, Morris Bierbrier also dated Shoshenq I's accession "between 945-940 BC" in his seminal 1975 book concerning the geneaologies of Egyptian officials who served during the late New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period. Bierbrier based his opinion on Biblical evidence collated by W. Albright in a BASOR 130 paper. This development would also account for the mostly unfinished state of decorations of Shoshenq's building projects at the Great Temple of Karnak where only scenes of the king's Palestinian military campaign are fully carved. Building materials would first have had to be extracted and architectural planning performed for his great monumental projects here. Such activities usually took up to a year to complete before work was even begun. This would imply that Shoshenq I likely lived for a period in excess of one year after his 925 BC campaign and that his 945 BC accession date could be slightly lowered to 943 BC. In addition, the Monthly fractions of the reigns of the previous seven Pharaohs of the 21st Dynasty may total up to a Year since
Manetho's Epitome merely records their individual reigns at a set number of 'X' Years and completely ignores the monthly figures. Such an adjustment would also have the effect of shifting Shoshenq I's accession date forward in time from 945 BC.
The most recent and comprehensive study of Ancient Egyptian chronology affirms the theory that Sheshonq I came to power in 943 BC rather than 945 BC as is conventionally assumed based on epigraphic evidence from the Great Dakhla stela which can be dated to Year 5 of his reign. The editors of the 2006 book 'Ancient Egyptian Chronology' write:
» "The chronology of early Dyn. 22 depends on dead reckoning. The sum of the highest attested regnal dates for Osorkon II, Takelot I, Osorkon I, and Shoshenq I, added to 841 BC as year 1 of Shoshenq III, yields 938 BC at the latest for year 1 of Shoshenq I...[However] The large Dakhla stela provides a lunar date in the form of a
wrš feast in year 5 of Shoshenq [I], yielding 943 BC as his year 1."
Origins and family
Prior to his reign, Shoshenq I'd been the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army, and chief advisor to his predecessor
Psusennes II, as well as the father-in-law of Psusennes' daughter
Maatkare. He also held his father's title of Great Chief of the Ma or
Meshwesh. His ancestors were
Libyans who had settled in Egypt during the late
New Kingdom, probably at
Herakleopolis Magna, though
Manetho claims Shoshenq himself came from
Bubastis, a claim for which no supporting physical evidence has yet been discovered. Significantly, his Libyan uncle
Osorkon the Elder had already served on the throne for at least six years in the preceding 21st Dynasty; hence, Shoshenq I's rise to power wasn't wholly unexpected. As king, Shoshenq chose his eldest son, Osorkon, to succeed him as
Osorkon I and consolidated his authority over Egypt through marriage alliances and appointments. He designated his second son, Iuput, as the High Priest of Amun at Thebes, Governor of Upper Egypt, and Commander of the Army. Another son, Nimlot, was given prominent positions in the military.
Foreign policy
He pursued an aggressive foreign policy in the adjacent territories of the
Middle East, towards the end of his reign. This is attested, in part, by the discovery of a statue base bearing his name from the
Lebanese city of
Byblos, part of a monumental
stela from
Megiddo bearing his name, and a list of cities in the region comprising
Syria,
Philistia,
Phoenicia, the Negev and the
Kingdom of Israel, among various topographical lists inscribed on the walls of temples of Amun at
al-Hibah and
Karnak. Unfortunately there's no mention of either an attack nor tribute from Jerusalem, which has led some to suggest that Sheshonk wasn't the Biblical Shishak. However, portions of the temple reliefs are damaged and the section mentioning Jerusalem may have been lost in a lacunae. The fragment of a stela bearing his
cartouche from
Megiddo has been interpreted as a monument which Shoshenq erected there to commemorate his victory. Some of these conquered cities include Ancient Israelite fortresses such as Megiddo, Taanach and Shehchem which speaks to the speed and power of the Pharaoh's forces as they fought and pillaged their way through Israel and perhaps threatened Jerusalem.
Burial
He was succeeded by his son
Osorkon I after a reign of 21 Years. According to the British
Egyptologist Aidan Dodson, no trace has yet been found of Shoshenq I tomb; the sole funerary object which can be linked to Shoshenq I is a canopic chest of unknown provenance which was donated to the Ägyptisches Museum Berlin (ÄMB 11000) by Julius Isaac in 1891. This may perhaps indicate that his tomb was looted in antiquity but this hypothesis can't be proven at present. Egyptologists differ over the location of Sheshonq I's burial and speculate that he may have been buried somewhere in Tanis--perhaps in one of the Anonymous royal tombs here--or in Bubastis. However, Troy Sagrillo in a GM 205 (2005) paper observes that "there are only a bare handful of inscribed blocks from Tanis which may possibly name the king (ie: Shoshenq I) and none of these come from an
in situ building complex contemporary with his reign." Hence, it's more probable that Shoshenq was buried in another city in the Egyptian Delta. Sagrillo offers a specific location for Shoshenq's burial--the
Ptah temple enclosure of Memphis--and notes that this king built:
» "fairly widely in the area, undoubtedly including a pylon and forecourt at the Ptah temple (Kitchen, TIPE 1996, pp.149-150)...It is, therefore, not completely improbable that he (ie: Shoshenq I) built his tomb in the region. The funerary cult surrounding his 'House of Millions of Years of Shoshenq, Beloved of Amun' was functioning several generations after its establishment at the temple (Ibrahem Aly Sayed 1996, p.14). The 'House of Millions of Years of Shoshenq, Beloved of Amun' was probably the forecourt and pylon of the Ptah temple which, if the royal necropoleis at Tanis, Saïs, and Mendes are taken as models, could very well have contained a royal burial within it or the
temenos."
Sagrillo concludes by observing that if Shoshenq I's burial place was located at Memphis, "it would go far in explaining why this king's funerary cult lasted for some time at the site after his death."
While Shoshenq's tomb is currently unknown, the burial of one of his prominent state officials at Thebes, the Third Prophet of Amun
Djedptahiufankh, was discovered intact in Tomb
DB320 in the 19th Century. Inscriptions on Djedptahiufankh's Mummy bandages show that he died in or after Year 11 of this king. His Mummy was discovered to contain various gold bracellets, amulets and precious carnelian objects and give a small hint of the vast treasures which would have adorned Shoshenq I's tomb.
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