Shoshenq or Shoshenq-meryamun (Egyptian ššnq mrj-jmn), designated Shoshenq Q, was the son of the 22nd Dynasty pharaoh Sekhemkheperre Osorkon I and Maatkare B, and served as the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during his father's reign. He is often considered a candidate for identification with one of another of several obscure kings named Shoshenq who reigned in this general period.
Career Shoshenq Q's mother, the princess Maatkare B, represented a demonstrable link between the royal families of her father, Psusennes II of the 21st Dynasty, and of her husband's father, Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty, but she apparently died before her husband became king and does not appear with any queenly titles.Dodson 2012: 95-96. Based on his name (honoring his grandfather, King Shoshenq I) and the royal origins of his mother, Shoshenq Q has been considered the eldest and most prominent of the sons of King Osorkon I.Kitchen 1995: 306; Dodson & Hilton 2004: 210; Payraudeau 2020: 107, more cautiously. Yet he does not seem to bear the title of "Eldest King's Son" in any inscription.Edwards 1982: 550.
As the High Priest of Amun at Thebes, Shoshenq was the most important official in Upper Egypt after the king himself, although he does not seem to have matched the prominence his uncle Iuput A had enjoyed in the same position during the reign of Shoshenq's grandfather Shoshenq I.Ritner 2009: 229. Presumably following the death of Iuput early in the reign of his brother, King Osorkon I, the latter appointed his own son Shoshenq High Priest of Amun to perpetuate royal influence at Thebes and more generally Upper Egypt.Edwards 1982: 550; Kitchen 1995: 305-306; Payraudeau 2020: 107. Shoshenq presided over a priestly induction,Dodson 2012: 96. inscribed a graffito in the Luxor Temple,Jansen-Winkeln 2007: 56; Ritner 2009: 264. and dedicated four statues at Karnak, including the Nile-God (Inundation) Statue EA8 now in the British Museum.Kitchen 1995: 306-307; Jansen-Winkeln 2007: 57-58; Ritner 2009: 264-267; Dodson 2012: 96; Statue EA8 in the British Museum He also dedicated a statue to the god Bes (now in the Durham Museum) on behalf of his son, the Prophet of Amun Harsiese A.Jansen-Winkeln 2007: 56; Ritner 2009: 267-269. The High Priest Shoshenq is also named on ostraca from Abydos.Kitchen 1995: 307; Jansen-Winkeln 2007: 56. He was evidently succeeded in office by Iuwelot, who was another son of Osorkon I.Dodson 2012: 96-97. Shoshenq's son, Harsiese A, later ruled over Thebes and Middle Egypt as king.Dodson 2012: 97, unless King Harsiese was actually the son of the High Priest of Amun Smendes III, as argued by Jansen-Winkeln, in Hornung et al., 2006: 241, n. 264, followed by Dodson 2012: 106, but opposed by Payraudeau 2014: 121-122.
Numerous assumptions center on the notion that Shoshenq Q became king as co-regent of his father or as his short-lived successor. A primary advocate of such a scenario, with Shoshenq as his father's non-surviving co-regent, was the influential Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen, who identified the High Priest Shoshenq Q with the obscure King Heqakheperre Shoshenq, whose undisturbed burial was excavated by Pierre Montet at Tanis, who himself originated the idea for such an identification.Montet 1947: 92; Montet 1951: 62-63; Kitchen 1995: 309-310; followed by, e.g., Dodson & Hilton 2004: 214, 222, 292, and Ritner 2009: 269. Andrzej Niwiński, who interpreted all the unidentified throne names of a king named Shoshenq (Heqakheperre, Tutkheperre, and Maatkheperre as variant throne names of Shoshenq I, still considers that "the only candidate for the position 'Shoshenq II' remains the son of Osorkon, High Priest of Amun, whose name occasionally appears in a cartouche."Niwiński 2013: 499. Jürgen von Beckerath, Norbert Dautzenberg, Karl Jansen-Winkeln, and José Lull came to the conclusion that Shoshenq Q must have become king as Maatkheperre Shoshenq,Beckerath 1994: 86-87; Dautzenberg 1995: 21; Jansen-Winkeln 1995: 147-148; Jansen-Winkeln in Hornung et al. 2006: 222, 236-238; Lull 2006: 71. rather than as Heqakheperre Shoshenq.E.g., Jansen-Winkeln in Hornung et al. 2006: 237.
However, it is not at all clear that Shoshenq Q ever became king as either co-ruler or successor of his father.E.g., Edwards 1982: 550-551. Some aspiration toward kingly status is suggested by Statue EA8 in the British Museum, where Shoshenq's name, paired with the royal epithet "beloved by Amun" (mrj-jmn), is enclosed in a royal cartouche and he is titled, in two instances, "Lord of the Two Lands" in the text.Ritner 2009: 266-267; Dodson 2012: 96; Payraudeau 2014: 48. Nevertheless, the same monument consistently titles Shoshenq Q the "First Prophet of Amun-Re, King of the Gods, Shoshenq-meryamun," also "leader" (ḥȝw.ty), once specifying that he is "at the head of all the great armies of Egypt," and names him as the "King's Son of the Lord of the Two Lands, Lord of Appearances, Osorkon-meryamun, whose mother is Maatkare, King's Daughter of the Lord of the Two Lands, Hor-Psusennes-meryamun."Jansen-Winklen 2007: 57-58; Ritner 2009: 266. The monument does not title Shoshenq king, nor provides him with a throne name (prenomen), and he is depicted as mere High Priest of Amun without kingly attributes by the leg of the Nile (Inundation) God.Dodson & Hilton 2004: 222. Although very rare, the use of a cartouche by a king's son is attested in other periods of Egyptian history, for example for Siamun A, the son of Nebpehtire Ahmose, and for Amenmose, the son of Thutmose I, in the Eighteenth Dynasty.Dodson 1990: 91-92; cf. Payraudeau 2014: 48, who provides additional examples, including that of Ramesses IV during the reign of his father Ramesses III.
The available evidence rather suggests that Shoshenq Q never became king. None of his three known wives is titled "King's Wife," and none of his children or more distant descendants ever title him king in their inscriptions, for example in the funerary accoutrements of Shoshenq's son Osorkon D (including a funerary papyrus at the St. Petersburg Museum of History) and grandson Iuput B.Jacquet-Gordon 1975: 359, although her main example seems to misinterpret the evidence, believing the Bes statue to be dedicated by Harsiese A on behalf of his father Shoshenq Q; Edwards 1982: 550-551, similarly; Dodson 2012: 96-97; Payraudeau 2014: 49; Payraudeau 2020: 107, 113; Payraudeau 2022: 29. Similarly, the God's Wife of Amun Karomama G, thought to be Shoshenq's daughter, is not titled "King's Daughter."Payraudeau 2014: 49.
Family Shoshenq Q married the following women and had the following children and grandchildren: (m.) Nesitanebetasheru B,Dodson 2012: 97; Payraudeau 2014: 121; Payraudeau 2014: 34. mother of Harsiese A, Prophet of Amun, never High Priest but later King Hedjkheperre Harsiese,Dodson 2012: 97; Payraudeau 2014: 52-54, 121-122. father of [Pe]du[bast], possibly the later King Pedubast IDodson 2012: 107, 121; Payraudeau 2014: 121-122. Isetweret i, who married the 2nd Prophet of Amun Harsiese CDodson & Hilton 2004: 212, 226; Dodson 2012: 106; Payraudeau 2014: 121-122. Tadittanebethen Dodson 2012: 106; Payraudeau 2014: 121-122. (m.) Nesitawedjatre,Dodson 2012: 97; Payraudeau 2014: 121; Payraudeau 2022: 29. mother of Osorkon D, Prophet of Amun,Dodson 2012: 97; Payraudeau 2014: 49, 120-121. father of Iuput B, Prophet of Amun Dodson 2012: 97; Payraudeau 2014: 49, 120-121. (m.) Tadenitenbastet, Daughter of the King's Son (the High Priest Iuput A?), who later married the High Priest Iuwelot,Payraudeau 2022: 27-31, 35-36. mother of Khaemwast, adoptive son of his stepfather Iuwelot Payraudeau 2022: 27-31. (m.) Isetemkhebyt, called Ikhy, who later married the High Priest Smendes IIIDodson 2012: 97; Payraudeau 2022: 29, 33-34, 36. (m.) unknown (possibly one of the above wives), mother of Karomama G, God's Wife of Amun Payraudeau 2014: 49, 121.
References
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