Shoshenq IV

Shoshenq IV
Stela of the "Chief of the Libu" Niumateped, likely issued in regnal year 8 of Shoshenq IV[1]
Pharaoh
Reign	798–785 BC
Predecessor	Shoshenq III
Successor	Pami
Royal titulary Prenomen  (Praenomen) Hedjkheperre Setepenre ḥḏ-ḫpr-Rˁ stp.n-Rˁ Radiant is the manifestation of Ra, the chosen one of Ra Nomen Shoshenq, Meryamun Sabast Netjerheqaiunu Ššnq mrj-Jmn zȝ-Bȝstt nṯr hqȝ Iwnw[2] Shoshenq, beloved of Amun, son of Bast, divine ruler of Iunu
Burial	NRT V, Tanis
Dynasty	22nd Dynasty

Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq IV was an ancient Egyptian ruler of the 22nd Dynasty, between the reigns of Shoshenq III and Pami. In 1986, David Rohl proposed that there were two king Shoshenqs bearing the prenomen Hedjkheperre – (i) the well-known founder of the dynasty, Hedjkheperre Shoshenq I, and (ii) a later pharaoh from the second half of the dynasty, whom Rohl called Hedjkheperre Shoshenq (b) due to his exact position in the dynasty being unknown.^[3] Following a proposal (first suggested to him by Pieter Gert van der Veen in 1984), the British Egyptologist Aidan Dodson in 1993 supported the new king's existence by demonstrating that the earlier Hedjkheperre Shoshenq bore simple epithets in his titulary, whereas the later Hedjkheperre Shoshenq's epithets were more complex.^[4]

Dodson suggested that the ruler that Kenneth Kitchen, in his standard work on Third Intermediate Period chronology,^[5] had numbered Shoshenq IV – bearing the prenomen Usermaatre – should be removed from the 22nd Dynasty and replaced by Rohl's Hedjkheperre Shoshenq (b), renumbering the latter as Shoshenq IV. At the same time the old Usermaatre Shoshenq IV was renumbered as Shoshenq VI. Dodson's historical summary of the new King Shoshenq IV's discovery and his supportive evidence for that king's independent existence from Hedjkheperre Shoshenq I appeared in an article entitled ‘A New King Shoshenq Confirmed?’ in 1993.^[4]

Rohl and Dodson's combined arguments for the existence of a new 22nd Dynasty Tanite king called Hedjkheperre Shoshenq IV are accepted by Egyptologists today, including Jurgen von Beckerath and Kitchen – the latter in the preface to the third edition of his book on The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt.^[6]

As Dodson pointed out, while Shoshenq IV shared the same prenomen as his illustrious ancestor Shoshenq I, he is distinguished from Shoshenq I by his use of an especially long nomen – Shoshenq-meryamun-sibast-netjerheqaon which featured both the sibast ('son of Bast') and netjerheqaon ('god-ruler of Heliopolis') epithets.^[7] These two epithets were only gradually employed by the 22nd Dynasty pharaohs, starting from the reign of Osorkon II. By contrast, Shoshenq I's nomen simply reads ‘Shoshenq-meryamun’. Shoshenq I's immediate successors, Osorkon I and Takelot I also never used epithets beyond the standard ‘meryamun’ (beloved of Amun). In his 1994 book on the Canopic Equipment of the Kings of Egypt, Dodson observes that when the sibast epithet ‘appears during the dynasty of Osorkon II’, it is rather infrequent, while the netjerheqawaset ('god-ruler of Thebes') and netjerheqaon epithets are only exclusively attested ‘in the reigns of that monarch’s successors’ – that is Shoshenq III, Pami and Shoshenq V.^[8] This suggests that the newly identified Hedjkhperre Shoshenq IV was a late Tanite-era king who ruled in Egypt either during or after the reign of Shoshenq III.

Rohl had already pointed out in 1989 that the cartouches of a Hedjkheperre Shoshenq appear on a stela (St. Petersburg Hermitage 5630) dated to Year 10 of the king.^[9] This stela mentions a Great Chief of the Libu, Niumateped, who is also attested in a Year 8, usually attributed to Shoshenq V. Since the title ‘Chief of the Libu’ is only documented from Year 31 of Shoshenq III onwards, it seems this new king must have ruled contemporary with or after Shoshenq III. Dodson noted that the Hedjkheperre Shoshenq on the stela bore the long form titulary, now attributed to Hedjkhperre Shoshenq IV, thus confirming that the stela cannot be dated to Hedjkheperre Shoshenq I.^[10]

In his 1993 paper, Dodson proposed to place Shoshenq IV's reign after the last attested regnal date for Shoshenq III in Year 39, arguing that the discovery of Shoshenq IV's burial in the tomb of Shoshenq III at Tanis makes it likely that he was part of the 22nd Dynasty Tanite line. Dodson would therefore place Hedjkheperre Shoshenq IV between Shoshenq III and Pami.