Osorkon I Libyan Amazigh (Berber) King, (Egyptian 22nd dynasty: 924-889 BC)

This statue was foundat Byblos – where a local ruler had also added a dedication text to the goddess of the city ‘the Lady of the Byblos’ (Phoenician alaphabetic script). There has been a question over if this Egyptian statue, (showing an Egyptian pharaoh wearing a style of wig popular at the time of the Amarna Period and yet haviing the name of Osorkon I on the chest (very unusual for a royal statue)), meant that Osorkon borrowed the style from the late 18th Dynasty or he re-used an earlier statue. The son of Shoshenq I and his chief consort, Karomat A, Osorkon I was the second king of Egypt’s 22nd Dynasty and ruled around 922 BC – 887 BC. He succeeded his father Shoshenq I who probably died within a year of his successful 923 BC campaign against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Osorkon I’s reign is known for many temple building projects and was a long and prosperous period of Egypt’s History. His highest known date is a “Year 33 Second Heb Sed” inscription found on the bandage of Nakhtefmut’s Mummy which held a bracellet inscribed with Osorkon I’s praenomen: Sekhemkheperre. This date can only belong to Osorkon I since no other early Dynasty 22 king ruled for close to 30 years until the time of Osorkon II. Other mummy linens which belong to his reign include three separate bandages dating to his Regnal Years 11, 12, and 23 on the mummy of Khonsmaakheru in Berlin. The bandages are anonymously dated but definitely belong to his reign because Khonsmaakheru wore leather bands that contained a menat-tab naming Osorkon I.[1] Secondly, no other king who ruled around Osorkon I’s reign had a 23rd Regnal Year including Shoshenq I who died just before the beginning of his Year 22. While Manetho gives Osorkon I a reign of 15 Years in his Ægyptiaca, this is most likely an error for 35 Years based on the evidence of the second Heb Sed bandage, as Kenneth Kitchen notes. Osorkon I’s throne name–Sekhemkheperre–means “Powerful are the Manifestations of Re.” [2] Pharaoh Reign 922–887 BC (22nd Dynasty) Predecessor Shoshenq I Successor Shoshenq II Royal titulary [show] Consort Maatkare B, Tashedkhonsu, Shepensopdet A Children Shoshenq C, Shoshenq II?, Iuwelot, Smendes III, Takelot I Father Shoshenq I Mother Karomat A Died 887 BC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osorkon_I Relief from the gateway of Shoshenq I at Karnak, it shows Osorkon I being suckled by the goddess Hathor. As she suckles Hathor she says; “My son of my body, my beloved, Osorkon, I have raised you as a great ruler of Egypt, as the lord of the circuit of the sun disk”. These scenes were added by Osorkon after the death of Sheshonq I. Soon after Osorkon I took the throne his brother Iuput, High Priest of Amun, died and was buried in a large tomb at Abydos. Osorkon I appointed his eldest son Sheshonq C to become the new High Priest at Thebes – who was later to become co-regent with his father for a short while. For the first 4 years of his reign, Osorkon I gave many gifts of silver and gold to the temples of the major deities of Egypt (Re-Harakhte, Hathor-Nebethetepet, Mut, Arsaphes, possibly all of the gods at Heliopolis, to Thoth at Hermopolis, Bast of Bubastis and others). – The record of this survives on a small temple of the sun-god Atum near Bubastis. In the main temple of the goddess Bast, Osorkon I built extensively (a whole series of reliefs, a hypostyle hall). Elsewhere in Lower Egypt Osorkon I is found to have little interest in building apart from Heliopolis and Memphis (in Memphis a shrine to Bast was built – remains found today suggest that it was of some considerable size). In Middle and Upper Egypt, Osorkon I added to the temple of Isis at Atfih, and added to his father’s temple at El Hibeh. A new military stronghold was founded near the entry to the Fayum: Pi-Sekhemkheperre, ‘Estate of Osorkon I’, probably to guard the passage between Middle Egypt and the Fayum. Statue of Osorkon I Quartzite statue of the god Hapy but given the features of Osorkon I, Sheshonq II is shown in relief on the left side of the statue. Height – 2.2m Near the end of his reign Osorkon I made his son Sheshonq C (the then High Priest of Amun at Thebes) his co-regent, however, this co-regency was to last very long – within a short time Shoshenq II was dead. Osorkon I gave his son a splendid burial at Tanis, burying him in a solid-silver falcon-headed coffin. Within a short while after the death of his co-regent, Osorkon I himself died , leaving his throne to his second son – Takelot I. http://ib205.tripod.com/osorkon1.html]]>