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Volume 10 issue 6 June 2010

ANCIENT EGYPT explores the WORLD WIDE WEB ...

KING SHESHONQ I

This month’s NETFISHING continues its look at the history of Egypt by seeing what the World Wide Web has to say about reign of Sheshonq I, the first king of Egypt’s Libyan, Twenty-second, Dynasty.

It is during the latter stages of the Twenty-first Dynasty that Libyan settlers, the Meshwesh, become an important factor in Egyptian history. The Meshwesh were recognised for their military skills and usefulness to Egypt and so had been allowed to settle in the Western Delta since the end of the Twentieth Dynasty. Refer:

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Meshwesh

The tribe became so important that the son of their ‘Great Chief ’ was allowed to marry into the royal family itself, marrying a daughter of King Psusennes II. Such were the tribal values of the Meshwesh that when King Psusennes II (the last king of the Twenty-first Dynasty) died, the throne of Egypt did not directly pass to his Libyan son-in-law, Osorkon, but instead passed to the ‘Great Chief ’ of the Meshwesh, Sheshonq I, (Osorkon’s father) so founding the Twenty-second Dynasty of kings, who ruled from Bubastis in the Delta. Libyans, once one of the traditional enemies of Egypt, had triumphed and had finally become the rulers of Egypt. Refer:

http://www.search.com/reference/Twenty-second_dynasty_of_Egypt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-second_dynasty_of_Egypt

http://www.touregypt.net/hdyn22.htm

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/history/dynasties/dynasty22.html

http://looklex.com/e.o/egypt.ancient.dynasty.22.htm

http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/glossary.aspx?id=16

Sheshonq I

Prior to becoming king, Sheshonq I had been Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian army, and one of the chief advisors to Psusennes II. Now as ‘Great Chief ’, and leader of the tribe, he took precedence over his own son and was duly accepted as the rightful King of Egypt. In order to control his new territory, Sheshonq trusted his sons with its administration. His eldest son Osorkon was appointed heir to the throne, whilst his second son, Iuput A, was appointed ‘High Priest of Amun’ and given command of the army, as well as being made ‘Governor of Upper Egypt’. Sheshonq’s third son, Nimlot B, was made ‘Leader of the Army’ at Herakleopolis.

Thus, different areas of Egypt fell under different administrative control, a situation which did not bode well for the future once the unifying strength of a single king was lost. Around 925 BC, Sheshonq appears to have conducted at least one major campaign in Palestine, possibly to show that, under this new line of kings, Egypt was once again a major world player and a force to be reckoned with. At first allying himself with Jeroboam (the pretender to the throne of Reheboam, King of Judah), Sheshonq I laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. A majority of scholars identify Sheshonq I as being the same person as ‘Shishak’ of the Bible, in which this attack on Jerusalem is twice mentioned: in II Chronicles, XII, 2-9, and ...

“And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house;

he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.”

(I Kings, XIV, 26)

It appears that Shishak/Sheshonq did indeed receive a great amount of treasure to spare Jerusalem from attack and this sequence of events subsequently became the inspiration for the modern Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), although it is quite unrealistic to think that, in reality, such a sacred item would ever have been handed over to a foreign invader. Sheshonq was bought off with gold instead.

After his victory over Jerusalem, Sheshonq continued north to reach Megiddo, where he erected a victory stela just as his predecessors, Tuthmose I and Tuthmose III, had done. Returning to Egypt, he attributed his victories to Amun, and at Karnak erected the ‘Bubastite Gate’ to record his campaign(s). Inscriptions on this gateway list the all the towns he had conquered, although, surprisingly, Jerusalem itself does not appear to be mentioned. It may have been recorded in a now-damaged part of the inscription, although as the inscription appears to record a ‘progression’ through the northern towns of Judah, it is also possible that the inscription may actually refer to a different campaign altogether, or that the carvings were not fully completed by the time of his death. The matter is still open to debate. Refer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshenq_I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishaq

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/sheshonq1.htm

http://ib205.tripod.com/sheshonq1.html

Despite his successors’ being buried at Tanis, no tomb for Sheshonq I has yet been identified, and scholars speculate that he may have been buried at Bubastis (his capital) or indeed even at Memphis itself. The fact that his temple complex of the ‘House of Millions of Years of Sheshonq’ at Memphis was functioning for several generations after his death might indicate that this was actually the site of his final resting place.

Victor Blunden

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