Setnakhte
| Setnakhte | |
|---|---|
| Setnakht | |
Drawing of a relief of pharaoh Sethnakht.
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| Pharaoh | |
| Reign | 1189–1186 BC (Twentieth Dynasty) |
| Predecessor | Twosret |
| Successor | Ramesses III |
| Consort | Tiy-Merenese |
| Died | 1186 BC |
| Burial | KV14 |
Userkhaure-setepenre Setnakhte (or Setnakht, Sethnakht) was the first pharaoh (1189 BC–1186 BC) of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt and the father of Ramesses III.
Setnakhte was not the son, brother or a direct descendant of either Twosret or Merneptah Siptah--the immediately preceding two pharaohs--nor that of Siptah's predecessor Seti II, whom Setnakht formally considered the last legitimate ruler. It is possible that he was a usurper who seized the throne during a time of crisis and political unrest, or he could have been a member of a minor line of the Ramesside royal family who emerged as pharaoh. Senakhte married Tiy-Merenese, perhaps a daughter of Merneptah.
A connection between Setnakhte's successors and the preceding Nineteenth Dynasty is suggested by the fact that one of Ramesses II's children also bore this name and that similar names are shared by Setnakhte's descendants such as Ramesses, Amun-her-khepshef, Seth-her-khepshef and Monthu-her-khepshef.
Setnakhte was originally believed to have enjoyed a reign of only two years based upon his Year 2 Elephantine stela but his third regnal year is now attested in Inscription No.271 on Mount Sinai. If his theoretical accession date is assumed to be II Shemu 10, based on the date of his Elephantine stela, Setnakhte would have ruled Egypt for at least two years and 11 months before he died, or nearly three full years. This date is only three months removed from Twosret's highest known date of Year 8, III Peret 5, and is based upon a calculation of Ramesses III's known accession date of I Shemu 26. Peter Clayton also assigned Setnakhte a reign of three years in his 1994 book on the Egyptian Pharaohs.
In a mid-January 2007 issue of the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram, however, Egyptian antiquity officials announced that a recently discovered and well-preserved quartz stela belonging to the High Priest of Amun Bakenkhunsu was explicitly dated to Year 4 of Setnakhte's reign. The Al-Ahram article notes that this data:
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