Twenty Second Egyptian Dynasty 943 - 720 B.C.E., Shoshenq I, Oskron I

The kings of the Twenty-Second Dynasty of Egypt were a series of Meshwesh Libyans who ruled from circa 943 BC until 720 BC. They had settled in Egypt since the Twentieth Dynasty. Manetho states that the dynasty originated at Bubastis, but the kings almost certainly ruled from Tanis, which was their capital and the city where their tombs have been excavated. Another king who belongs to this group is Tutkheperre Shoshenq, whose precise position within this dynasty is currently uncertain although he is now thought to have ruled Egypt early in the 9th century BC for a short time.

Shosheng I Bracelet

Shoshenq I/Hedjkheperre-Setepenre 943 - 922 B.C.E.
Oskron I/Sekhemkheperre-Setepenre 922 - 887 B.C.E.
Shoshenq II/Heqakheperre-Setepenre 887 - 885 B.C.E.
Takelot I/Hedjkheperre-Setepenre  885 - 872 B.C.E.
Oskron II/Usermaetre-Setepenamun 872 - 837 B.C.E.
Shoshenq III/Usermaetre-Setepenre 837 - 798 B.C.E.
Shoshenq IV/Hedjkheperre-Setepenre 798 - 785 B.C.E.
Pami/Usermaetre-Setepenamun 785 - 778 B.C.E.
Shoshenq V/Akheppere 778 - 740 B.C.E.
Pedubast II/Sehetepibenre 740 - 730 B.C.E.
Oskron IV/Akheppere-Setepenamun 730 - 716 B.C.E.

Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I also known as Sheshonk or Sheshonq I was a Meshwesh Berber king of Egypt - of Libyan ancestry - and the 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. He is perhaps mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as Shishaq. 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 campaign in Canaan, conventionally dated to 925 BC. There is "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 genealogies 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.

Shoshenq I was the son of Nimlot A and Tentsepeh A. His paternal grandparents were the Chief of the MA Shoshenk (A) and his wife Mehytenweskhet A. Prior to his reign, Shoshenq I had 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, which is an Egyptian word for Berbers of Libya. 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 was not wholly unexpected.

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 and the Negev. 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 the tomb of Shoshenq I; the sole funerary object linked to Shoshenq I is a canopic chest of unknown provenance that was donated to the Agyptisches Museum, Berlin by Julius Isaac in 1891.

The son of Shoshenq I and his chief consort, Karomat A, Osorkon I was the second king of Egypt's 22nd Dynasty and ruled around 922 BC - 887 BC. He succeeded his father Shoshenq I who probably died within a year of his successful 923 BC campaign against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
Osorkon I's reign is known for many temple building projects and was a long and prosperous period of Egypt's History. His highest known date is a "Year 33 Second Heb Sed" inscription found on the bandage of Nakhtefmut's Mummy which held a bracellet inscribed with Osorkon I's praenomen: Sekhemkheperre.

Oskron I/Sekhemkheperre-Setepenre

This date can only belong to Osorkon I since no other early Dynasty 22 king ruled for close to 30 years until the time of Osorkon II. Other mummy linens which belong to his reign include three separate bandages dating to his Regnal Years 11, 12, and 23 on the mummy of Khonsmaakheru in Berlin. The bandages are anonymously dated but definitely belong to his reign because Khonsmaakheru wore leather bands that contained a menat-tab naming Osorkon I. Secondly, no other king who ruled around Osorkon I's reign had a 23rd Regnal Year including Shoshenq I who died just before the beginning of his Year 22. While Manetho gives Osorkon I a reign of 15 Years in his Aegyptiaca, this is most likely an error for 35 Years based on the evidence of the second Heb Sed bandage, as Kenneth Kitchen notes. Osorkon I's throne name - Sekhemkheperre - means "Powerful are the Manifestations of Re."

However, Shoshenq II could also have been another son of Shoshenq I since the latter was the only other king to be mentioned in objects from Shoshenq II's intact royal tomb at Tanis aside from Shoshenq II himself. These objects are inscribed with either Shoshenq I's praenomen Hedjkheperre Shoshenq (though this is not certain as it requires reading the objects as a massive hierogylyphic text), or Shoshenq, Great Chief of the Meshwesh, which was Shoshenq I's title before he became king.

Since Derry's forensic examination of his Mummy reveals him to be a Man in his fifties upon his death, Shoshenq II could have lived beyond Osorkon's 35 year reign and Takelot I's 13 year reign to assumed the throne for a few short years. An argument against this hypothesis is the fact that most kings of the period were commonly named after their grandfathers, and not their fathers.
While the British scholar Kenneth A. Kitchen views Shoshenq II to be the High Priest of Amun at Thebes Shoshenq C, and a short-lived coregent of Osorkon I who predeceased his father, the well-respected German Egyptologist Jurgen von Beckerath in his seminal 1997 book, Chronologie des Pharaonischen Agypten, maintains that Shoshenq II was rather an independent king of Tanis who ruled the 22nd Dynasty in his own right for c.2 Years.

Osorkon I's reign in Egypt was peaceful and uneventful; however, both his son and grandson, Takelot I and Osorkon II respectively, later encountered difficulties controlling Thebes and Upper Egypt within their own reigns since they had to deal with a rival king: Harsiese A. Osorkon I's tomb has never been found.