Jurgen von Beckerath

Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920 – 26 June 2016) was a German Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who has published countless articles in journals such as Orientalia, Göttinger Miszellen (GM), Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt (JARCE), Archiv für Orientforschung (AfO), and Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur (SAK) among others. Together with Kenneth Kitchen, he is viewed as one of the foremost scholars on the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt.

His many popular German-language publications include Handbuch der Ägyptischen Königsnamen, 2nd edition (Mainz, 1999) and Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten or "Chronology of the Egyptian Pharaohs," MÄS 46 (Philip von Zabern, Mainz: 1997), which is regarded by academics as one of the best and most comprehensive books on the chronology of Ancient Egypt and its various Pharaohs. In 1953, he personally inspected and recorded the Nile Quay Texts at Karnak before they were permanently lost or damaged through erosion.

Throughout his academic career, Beckerath maintained a high scholarly standard in his publications and articles and dispelled many previously held assumptions or beliefs by meticulously analyzing the original evidence. For instance, in a GM 154 (1996) paper, he examined and published a privately owned and poorly known stela, which dated to Year 22 of Osorkon II's reign and has frequently been called a Jubilee stela by academics (GM 154, pp. 19). Beckerath revealed, however, that this document did not mention any Sed festival or Jubilee celebrations for Osorkon II in this year as one would have expected if he had indeed celebrated his massive Jubilee Feast at this time. Instead, Beckerath demonstrated that the stela's text simply read: Regnal Year 22 under the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usermaatre Setepenamun (i.e., Osorkon II), son of Re, the Appearance of the beloved Osorkon Meryamun in the presence of the deities Osiris, Horus and Isis. (GM 154, p. 20). Osorkon II is shown being blessed by these gods in the stela.

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