Sethy I, King of Egypt

Aidan Dodson

Description

King Sethy I (also transcribed as Seti, Sethi and Sethos) ruled for around a decade in the early thirteenth century BC. His lifetime coincided with a crucial point in Egyptian history, following the ill-starred religious revolution of Akhenaten, and heralding the last phase of Egypt’s imperial splendor. As the second scion of a wholly new royal family, his reign did much to set the agenda for the coming decades, both at home and abroad. Sethy was also a great builder, apparently with exquisite artistic taste, to judge from the unique quality of the decoration of his celebrated monuments at Abydos and Thebes. This richly illustrated book tells the story of Sethy's career and monuments, not only in ancient times, but in modern history, and the impact of his legacy on today’s understanding and appreciation of ancient Egypt.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• África
• Egipto
• Archaeology
• Egypt
• General officer
• Egyptology
• Ancient history
• History of Africa
• Ancient Egypt
• General
• Ancient
• Africa

Informations

• Publié par: The American University in Cairo Press
• Date de parution: 07 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781649031662
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 209 Mo

Extrait

ISBN: 978-977-416-886-4

B Y T H E A U T H O R O FA M A R N A S U N S E T A I D A N D O D S O N

SETHY I KING OF EGYPT H I S L I F E A N D A F T E R L I F E

SETHY I KING EGYPT OF

SETHY I KING EGYPT OF H I SA N D A F T E R L I F EL I F E

A I D A N D O D S O N

The American University in Cairo Press Cairo New York

First published in 2019 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 200 Park Ave., Suite 1700, New York, NY 10166 www.aucpress.com

Copyright © 2019 by Aidan Mark Dodson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Dar el Kutub No. 27483/17 ISBN 978 977 416 886 4

Dar el Kutub CataloginginPublication Data

Dodson, Aidan  Sethy I, King of Egypt: His Life and Afterlife / Aidan Dodson.— Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2019.  p.cm.  ISBN 978 977 416 886 4  1. Egypt—Antiquities  932

1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19

Designed by Carolyn Gibson Printed in China

To the memory of my mother, Edna Dodson, née Clark, 1926–2017

C O N T E N T S

P REFACE I NTRODUCTION A BBREVIATIONSAND C ONVENTIONS

1 2 3

4 5

T C S I HE RADLE OF ETHY T HE R EIGNOF S ETHY I T M M Y HE ANSION OF ILLIONS OF EARS  H E AND THE OUSE OF TERNITY L IMBO R ESURRECTION

C HRONOLOGY N OTES B IBLIOGRAPHY S I OURCES OF MAGES I NDEX

ix 1 3

5 17 69

115 119

159 161 169 179 181

P R E F A C E

he origins of this book go back to a question posed to a leading Egyptian bookseller T as to whether there was any particular book he was regularly asked for—but that didn’t currently exist. The response was “Something on Sethy I and his tomb.” This is that book! A hint that I might be the person to write such a volume was willingly accepted since the topic represents a nexus between a number of my research interests: the political history of ancient Egypt, its funerary architecture, the history of archaeology in Egypt, and the ancient culture’s reception into modern consciousness. Apropos the first of these, I had already written books on the second half of the Eighteenth Dynasty as well as on the second half of the Nineteenth; accordingly, something involving part of the intervening eight decades seemed attractive, while the tomb of Sethy I represented a major milestone in the evolution of the Egyptian royal tomb. Finally, the discovery of that tomb and its subsequent presentation was a key event in the absorption of ancient Egypt into modern British (and wider) culture—not to mention the subsequent fate of the tomb as a case study (and warning) regarding the postdiscovery conservation of such a monument. Accordingly, this book aims to tell the story of Sethy I from the events that led to his family’s assumption of the throne of Egypt during the fourteenth century BC , through his reign, death, burial, and reburial, to his nineteenth century AD rediscovery and ongoing research into the twenty-first century. In doing so, I have attempted to tell the tale in an accessible way while also making the volume of use to scholars—hence the extensive endnotes and bibliography. I have been able to keep these latter to a manageable size, and have been greatly aided in the process of research and writing by the existence of three works: my old teacher Ken Kitchen’s seminalRamesside Inscriptions series, a superhuman piece of work that makes all the key texts of the period available in both transcription and translation (with ongoing commentary volumes); the lamented Bill Murnane’sRoad to Kadesh, which provides a magisterial analysis of Sethy I’s foreign policy; and his student Peter Brand’s fine doctoral dissertation,The Monuments of Seti I. Between them they have provided the vast majority of the underlying data and discussions of the period. Ken’s and Peter’s

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