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Psusennes I (; Greek language Ψουσέννης) was the third pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis in the Iron Age IB, between c. 1047 and 998 BC.
Psusennes's tomb, discovered in February 1940 by the French Egyptologist Pierre Montet,Bob Brier, Archaeology Archive, Volume 58 Number 3, May/June 2005 is notable for the condition in which it was found. All previously found pharaonic tombs had been graverobber, including the tomb of Tutankhamun, and Psusennes's tomb was the only ancient Egyptian royal tomb discovered in fully intact condition. However, the humid climate of Lower Egypt meant only the metal objects had survived. Pharaoh Amenemope and General Wendjebauendjed were also buried within Psusennes I's NRT III Tanis tomb while Pharaoh Shoshenq II and two anonymous royal individuals (possibly Siamun and Psusennes II) were reburied in Psusennes I's tomb after their original tombs became inundated with water.
Some Egyptologists have proposed raising the 41 year figure by a decade to 51 years to more closely match certain anonymous Year 48 and Year 49 dates in Upper Egypt. in 1992, the German Egyptologist Karl Jansen-Winkeln suggested that all these dates should be attributed to the serving High Priest of Amun, Menkheperre instead who is explicitly documented in a Year 48 record.Jansen-Winkeln, Karl, "Das Ende des Neuen Reiches", Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, 119 (1992), p. 26. Jansen-Winkeln notes that "in the first half of Dyn. 21, the HP Herihor, Pinedjem I and Menkheperre have royal attributes and royal titles to differing extents" whereas the first three Tanite kings (Smendes, Amenemnisu and Psusennes I) are almost never referred to by name in Upper Egypt with the exception of one graffito and rock stela for Smendes.Jansen-Winkeln, Karl. "Dynasty 21" in Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David Warburton (editors), Handbook of Ancient Egyptian Chronology (Handbook of Oriental Studies), Brill: 2006, pp. 226-227, 229. In contrast, the name of Psusennes I's Twenty-first Dynasty successors such as Amenemope, Osorkon the Elder, and Siamun appear frequently in various documents from Upper Egypt while the Theban High Priest Pinedjem II who was a contemporary of the latter three kings never adopted any royal attributes or titles in his career.Erik Hornung, Krauss & Warburton, p. 229.
Hence, two separate Year 49 dates from Thebes and Kom OmboKenneth Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 BC), third edition (Aris & Philips, 1996), pp. 421, 573. could be attributed to the ruling High Priest Menkheperre in Thebes instead of Psusennes I but this remains uncertain. Psusennes I's reign has been estimated at 46 years by the editors of the Handbook to Ancient Egyptian Chronology.Hornung, Krauss & Warburton, p. 493. Psusennes I must have enjoyed cordial relations with the serving High Priests of Amun in Thebes during his long reign since the High Priest Smendes II donated several grave goods to this king which were found in Psusennes I's tomb.
However, as the Egyptologist Aidan Dodson notes in his 2012 book "Afterglow of Empire: Egypt from the Fall of the New Kingdom to the Saite Renaissance":
Moreover, Menkheperre was the brother of king Psusennes I since both of them were sons of the High priest Pinedjem I.Ibid., p. 64. Therefore, the Year 49 anonymous dates in Upper Egypt almost certainly belong to Psusennes I who worked in close cooperation with his brother Menkheperre who never used a royal name or prenomen in his own monuments. The German Egyptologist Thomas Schneider also assigns Psusennes I a highest date of Year 49 in a 2010 paper on the Chronology of the Egyptian New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period.Thomas Schneider,
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Contributions to the Chronology of the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period, Ägypten und Levante/Egypt and the Levant 20, 2010, p. 374. While Menkheperre certainly ruled Upper Egypt, he granted defacto recognition of Psusennes I's reign from Thebes. The aged Psusennes I could even have reigned into an unattested 50th year.
In Papyrus Brooklyn 16.205, which is dated to Year 4 of an anonymous king and refers back to Year 49 of another king, the latter date must be dated to Psusennes I's reign since only Psusennes I reigned this long. Previously Egyptologists (including Kenneth Kitchen) once speculated in the 1970s that the Year 49 date belonged to the reign of Shoshenq III but this king's highest date was only his Year 39 and it cannot exceed 42 years since his successor, Shoshenq IV ruled Egypt for at least 10 years between the death of Shoshenq III and the accession of Pami...as even Kitchen accepted in the preface to his 1996 book on the Third Intermediate Period.Kenneth Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 BC), Aris & Phillips Limited, 1996, §83 & Preface to 1996 TIPE book § Y. If so, then Year 49 it the highest year attested for Psusennes I.
During the LBA/IA transition (3.2 ka event, Collapse of the LBA; early 20th dynasty) and Iron IA/IB transition (late 20th Dynasty), the city of Pi-Ramesses on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile suffered from climate change as the river had been subject to drought and silted up. This made river transport to the city difficult. At the height of Iron Age IB, Psusennes I thus moved Pi-Ramesses to his new capital at Zaon (Tanis), located on the Tanitic branch of the Nile.
Only two of Psusennes I's children remain identifiable.Dodson, Aidan (1995). 094869520X, Rubicon. 094869520X
In spite of the destruction of wooden artifacts within the tomb due to the moist Nile delta area, the king's magnificent funerary mask was recovered intact; it proved to be made of gold and lapis lazuli and held inlays of black and white glass for the eyes and eyebrows of the object.Oakes, Lorna. Pyramids, Temples and Tombs of Ancient Egypt, Hermes House, (2003). p. 216. Psusennes I's mask is considered to be "one of the masterpieces of the treasures of Tanis" and is currently housed in Room 2 of the Cairo Museum.Bongioanni, Alessandro; Croce, Maria (ed.), The Treasures of Ancient Egypt: From the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Universe Publishing, a division of Ruzzoli Publications Inc., (2003). p. 422. It has a maximum width and height of 38 cm and 48 cm respectively.Bongioanni & Croce, p. 422. The pharaoh's "fingers and toes had been encased in gold stalls, and he was buried with gold sandals on his feet. The finger stalls are the most elaborate ever found, with sculpted fingernails. Each finger wore an elaborate ring of gold and lapis lazuli or some other semiprecious stone."Brier, pp. 146-147.
Psusennes I's outer and middle sarcophagi had been recycled from previous burials in the Valley of the Kings through the state-sanctioned tomb robbing that was common practice in the Third Intermediate Period. A cartouche on the red outer sarcophagus shows that it had originally been made for Pharaoh Merenptah, the 19th Dynasty successor of Ramesses II. Psusennes I, himself, was interred in an "inner silver coffin" which was inlaid with gold.Christine Hobson, Exploring the World of the Pharaohs: A complete Guide to Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (1987). p. 123. Since "silver was considerably rarer in Egypt than gold," Psusennes I's silver "coffin represents a sumptuous burial of great wealth during Egypt's declining years."Hobson, p. 123.
Dr. Douglas Derry, who worked as the head of Cairo University's Anatomy Department, examined the king's remains in 1940 and determined that the king was an old man when he died.Douglass E. Derry, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte Vol. 40 (1940), pp.969-970. Derry noted that Psusennes I's teeth were badly worn and full of cavities, that he had an abscess that left a hole in his palate, and observed that the king suffered from extensive arthritis and was probably crippled by this condition in his final years.Brier, p. 147.
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