Sheshonq I

Shoshenq I
Sesonkhosis, Sesonkhis (Σέσωγχις) ⵛⴻⵛⵓⵏⴽ
Sphinx of king Shoshenq I, Brooklyn Museum, New York City
Pharaoh
Reign	943 – 922 BC(22nd Dynasty)
Predecessor	Psusennes II
Successor	Osorkon I
Royal titulary
Consort	Patareshnes, Karomama A
Children	Osorkon I, Iuput A, Nimlot B
Father	Nimlot A

Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I (Egyptian ššnq), (reigned c.943-922 BCE) — also known as Sheshonk or Sheshonq I (for discussion of the spelling, see Shoshenq) — was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty. Of ancient Libyan (Meshwesh-Berber) ancestry, 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 presumed to be the Shishaq mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and his exploits are carved on the Bubastite Portal at Karnak.

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. As Edward Wente of the University of Chicago noted on page 276 of his JNES 35(1976) Book Review of Kitchen's study of the Third Intermediate Period, 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. Such activities usually took up to a year to complete before work was even begun. This would imply that Shoshenq I likely lived for a period in excess of one year after his 925 BC campaign. On the other hand, if the Karnak inscription was concurrent with Shoshenq's campaign into Canaan, the fact that it was left unfinished would suggest this campaign occurred in the last year of Shoshenq's reign. This possibility would also permit his 945 BC accession date to be slightly lowered to 943 BC.