Osorkon III
Osorkon III | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pharaoh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reign | 28 years | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Shoshenq VI | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | Takelot III | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Consort | Karoadjet, Tentsai | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children | 23rd Dynasty |
Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon III Si-Ese was
Accession
Osorkon III's precise accession date is unknown. Various Egyptologists have suggested it may have been from around the mid-790s BC to as late as 787 BC.
Identity
Osorkon III is attested by numerous impressive donation
Secondly, according to Ōhshiro Michinori,[6] Anthony Leahy,[7] and Karl Jansen-Winkeln,[8] an important donation stela[9] discovered in 1982 at Ṭihnā al-Ǧabal (ancient Akoris) reveals that Osorkon III was once a High Priest of Amun in his own right. The document explicitly calls Osorkon III, the High Priest of Amun. Osorkon III, thus, was almost certainly the High Priest Osorkon B, who defeated his father's opponents at Thebes in Year 39 of Shoshenq III, as Leahy notes.
This theory has now been accepted by many
That Osorkon B is the same person as King Osorkon III is indicated by the fact that the former's last appearance as High Priest of Amun seems to directly precede Osorkon III's assumption of the throne, reinforcing a stela from Tehna which mentions the latter with the additional title of High Priest—an unusual occurrence.[14]
Osorkon probably lived into his eighties, which explains why he appointed his son Takelot III as the junior coregent to the throne in his final years. He would have been in failing health by this time. Osorkon III's coregency with Takelot III is the last attested royal coregency in ancient Egyptian history. Later dynasties from Nubia, Sais, and Persia all ruled Egypt with a single king on the throne.
Karnak Nile Level Texts No. 6 and 7,[15] dated to Year 5 and 6 of Osorkon III, calls his mother the "Chief Queen Kamama Merymut."[16] Similarly, Prince Osorkon B's mother was identified as Queen Ka<ra>mama Merymut II, wife of Takelot II.[17] The slightly different renderings of this Queen's name almost certainly refers to the same person here: Osorkon B/III.
Consorts
According to Kenneth Kitchen, Osorkon III's chief consort, Queen Karoadjet, was the mother of Shepenupet I, the God's Wife and Divine Adoratrice of Amun, while his lesser wife Tentsai was the mother of Osorkon III's two sons: Takelot III and Rudamun.[18] Shepenupet I outlived both her half-brothers as the serving God's Wife of Amun at Thebes and survived into the reign of the Nubian ruler, Shebitku, where she is depicted on the small temple Osiris-Heqa-djet in the Amun precinct of Karnak, which was partially decorated by this king.
References
- ^ Digital Egypt for Universities
- ^ Caminos 1958.
- ^ von Beckerath 1966:50.
- ^ von Beckerath 1999:194, 195.
- ^ Kitchen [1996]:§ 448.
- ^ Ōhshiro 1999.
- ^ Leahy 1990:192.
- ^ Jansen-Winkeln 1995:138
- ^ The Paleological Association of Japan inc. (Egyptian Committee) 1995:301–305, plate 116.
- ^ von Beckerath 1995.
- ^ Jansen-Winkeln 1995.
- ^ Broekman 2002:174.
- ^ Kitchen [1996], § BB.
- ^ Dodson & Hilton 2004:226.
- ^ von Beckerath 1966:49.
- ^ Kitchen [1996]:§ 74.
- ^ Kitchen [1996]:§ 290.
- ^ Kitchen [1996]:§ 309.
Bibliography
- Caminos, Ricardo Augusto (1958). The Chronicle of Prince Osorkon. Roma: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
- von Beckerath, Jürgen (1966). "The Nile Level Records at Karnak and Their Importance for the History of the Libyan Period (Dynasties XXII and XXIII)". Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 5: 43–55. JSTOR 40000171.
- Redford, Donald B. (1978). "Osorkho... called Herakles". JSSEA. 9: 33–36.
- Leahy, M. Anthony (1990). "Abydos in the Libyan Period". In M. Anthony Leahy (ed.). (ed.). Libya and Egypt c1300–750 BC. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, and The Society for Libyan Studies. pp. 155–200.
- Jansen-Winkeln, Karl (1995). "Historische Probleme der 3. Zwischenzeit" (PDF). JSTOR 3821812.
- 学協会エジプト委員会 [The Paleological Association of Japan inc. (Egyptian Committee)] (1995). Akoris: Report of the Excavations at Akoris in Middle Egypt 1981–1992. 京都 [Kyōto]: 晃洋書房 [Kōyō Shobō].
- von Beckerath, Jürgen (1995). "Beiträge zur Geschichte der Libyerzeit: II. Die Zeit der Osorkon-Chronik". Göttinger Miszellen. 144: 9–13.
- Kitchen, Kenneth A. (1996). The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC) (3rd ed.). Warminster: Aris & Phillips Limited.
- 大城 道則 [Ōhshiro Michinori] (1999). "The Identity of Osorkon III: The Revival of an Old Theory (Prince Osorkon = Osorkon III)". 古代オリエント博物館紀要 [Bulletin of the Ancient Orient Museum]. 20: 33–49. [article language is English]
- von Beckerath, Jürgen (1999). Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen (2nd ed.). Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
- Broekman, Gerardus P. F. (2002). "The Nile Level Records of the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties in Karnak: A Reconsideration of Their Chronological Order". JSTOR 3822342.
- Dodson, Aidan M.; Hilton, Dyan (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Cairo, London, and New York: The American University in Cairo Press and Thames and Hudson. ISBN 977-424-878-3.
- Porter, Robert M. (2011). "Osorkon III of Tanis: the Contemporary of Piye?". Göttinger Miszellen. 230: 111–112.