Shoshenq VI is known to be

Pedubast I Pedubastis I or Pedubast I was an Upper Egyptian Pharaoh of ancient Egypt during the 9th century BC. Biography Based on lunar dates which are known to belong to the reign of his rival Takelot II in Upper Egypt and the fact that Pedubast I first ...

's immediate successor at Thebes based upon the career of the ''Letter Writer to

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

'' Hor IX, who served under

Osorkon II Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon II was the fifth king of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and the son of King Takelot I and Queen Kapes. He ruled Egypt from approximately 872 BC to 837 BC from Tanis, the capital of that dynasty. After ...

and Pedubast I (see Hor IX's statue—CGC 42226—which is explicitly dated to Pedubast's reign). Since Shoshenq VI's

prenomen The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the bi ...

is inscribed on Hor IX's

funerary cone Funerary cones were small cones made from clay that were used in ancient Egypt, almost exclusively in the Theban Necropolis. The items were placed over the entrance of the chapel of a tomb. Early examples have been found from the Eleventh Dynasty ...

s, this indicates that Hor IX outlived Pedubast I and made his funeral arrangements under Shoshenq VI instead. His prenomen or royal name was "Usermaatre Meryamun Shoshenq" which is unusual because it is the only known example where the epithet "Meryamun" (''Beloved of Amun'') appears within a king's

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...

.David Aston, "Takeloth II: A Theban King of the 23rd Dynasty?" JEA 75 (1989), pp.139-153 Shoshenq VI's

High Priest of Amun The High Priest of Amun or First Prophet of Amun ('' ḥm nṯr tpj n jmn'') was the highest-ranking priest in the priesthood of the ancient Egyptian god Amun. The first high priests of Amun appear in the New Kingdom of Egypt, at the beginning ...

was a certain Takelot who first appears in office in Year 23 of Pedubast I. Shoshenq VI's Year 4 and Year 6 are attested in an inscription carved on the roof of the Temple of Monthu at

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construct ...

by a certain Djedioh and in

Nile Quay Text The Nile Level Texts (or Nile Quay Texts) are inscribed on the cult terrace (the so-called "quay") at the temple of Karnak, in Thebes, Egypt. This cult terrace itself was constructed during the time of Ramesses II, but the kings of the 22nd to t ...

No.25 respectively. Shoshenq VI was presumably

Crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...

Osorkon B Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon III Si-Ese was Pharaoh of Egypt in the 8th Century BC. He is the same person as the Crown Prince and High Priest of Amun Osorkon B, son of Takelot II by his Great Royal Wife Karomama II. Prince Osorkon B is best at ...

's chief rival at Thebes after the death of Pedubast I. He was defeated and ousted from power at Thebes in Year 39 of

Shoshenq III King Usermaatre Setepenre Shoshenq III of the 22nd Dynasty ruled for 39 years according to contemporary historical records. Two Apis Bulls were buried in the fourth and 28th years of his reign and he celebrated his Heb Sed Jubilee in his regnal ...

by Prince Osorkon B. In this decisive Year, Osorkon B explicitly states in Nile Quay Text No.7 that he and his brother, General Bakenptah of

Herakleopolis Heracleopolis Magna ( grc-gre, Μεγάλη Ἡρακλέους πόλις, ''Megálē Herakléous pólis'') and Heracleopolis (, ''Herakleópolis'') and Herakleoupolis (), is the Roman name of the capital of the 20th nome of ancient Upper Eg ...

, conquered Thebes and "overthrew everyone who had fought against them."

Kenneth Kitchen Kenneth Anderson Kitchen (born 1932) is a British biblical scholar, Ancient Near Eastern historian, and Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and honorary research fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, Univ ...

, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, 1100-650 BC (2nd edition, 1986), p.340 Thereafter, Shoshenq VI is never heard from again. (NOTE: The old king Shoshenq IV in pre-1993 books and journal articles has been renamed Shoshenq VI by Egyptologists today because he was a Theban king who is only attested by

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

ian documents. This monarch was never a ruler of the Tanite based 22nd Dynasty of Egypt.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shoshenq Vi 9th-century BC Pharaohs 8th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt