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REviews JEA 96
Inschriften der Sptzeit, II: Die 22.24. Dynastie. By Karl Jansen-Winkeln. Pp. xxxviii + 536.
Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 2007. ISBN 978 3 447 05582 6. Price 98.

This weighty tome is the successor volume to the authors Inschriften der Sptzeit, I: Die 21. Dynastie
(Wiesbaden, 2007). The latter book, and the work under scrutiny here, are the first components of an
ambitious series of five or six volumes which will publish, hopefully in a single systematic project, the
most historically important texts from the so-called Third Intermediate and Late Periods (c.1070
343 bc).1 It goes without saying that the author has set himself a daunting task, and one faced in
previous years by scholars such as Sethe, Helck, and Kitchen. However, it is a task which needs to be
tackled urgently, whether by one person or by a team.
For too long the key inscriptions (historical and religious/funerary) from this substantial time period
have remained scattered in a mass of scholarly books and journals, some of which have remained
difficult to access to say the least.2 To have the bulk of these texts gathered together in half a dozen
well-produced handbooks is a major step forward in the right direction. We are fortunate, also, that
a leading scholar of this contentious era has taken on the burden himself. His specialist knowledge
bodes well for the future of the demanding task still ahead.
The era edited by Jansen-Winkeln in his second volume is the notoriously complex, and often hotly-
disputed, Libyan period of the Twenty-Second to Twenty-fourth Dynasties. As with his initial work,
he has adopted a basic principle of setting out the key royal historical inscriptions on a reign by reign,
and north to south geographical, basis. Then follow texts from the numerous private monuments
datable to this period. What is particularly striking is just how invaluable the surviving private statuary
from the Twenty-Second Dynasty are when it comes to reconstructing the genealogies of this period.
Nonetheless, bibliographical, historical, and grammatical notes are restricted throughout, although
this is inevitable given the sheer mass of texts under examination. The volume is completed by a set
of admirable indexes. Crucially for a book of this type, the many differing inscriptions, regardless of
their original location and the manner of their composition, have been set out in a highly attractive
computer-generated hieroglyphic font. As far as presentation is concerned, this format is a worthy role
model for future publications of its kind.
That the raw historical evidence for the Twenty-second to Twenty-fourth Dynasties remains
scanty compared to the earlier Ramesside dynasties is self-evident. However, signficiant data has
survived from the sequence of Apis-bull burials at Saqqara, the royal tombs at Tanis, and from major
temple sites such as El-Hibeh, Bubastis (the Jubilee Hall of Osorkon II) and, most significant of all,
Karnak, the temple which holds the priestly annals, the records of Nile flood levels, and numerous
graffiti inscriptions on the roof of the temple of Khonsu. In addition, important burials are attested at
Medinet Habu of the Gods Wives of Amun, and the one certain Theban king of the period, Harsiese.
All of the key inscriptions relating to these sites are published by the author in a meticulous fashion.
From his surviving inscriptions (pp. 137), it is clear that the most distinctive feature of the rule of
Shoshenq I, founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty, is not that it was the beginning of a Libyan
political power-base in Egypt (that process had already begun in the Twenty-first Dynasty with the
theocratic regime of Herihor and his successors), but that it constituted a renewal of the basic ambitions
of native Egyptian kings, namely a dual policy of internal political consolidation and military activity
abroad. In addition, the foreign cultural heritage of the rulers of the Twenty-second to Twenty-third
Dynasties may also help explain the banality of most of the known royal names of the period, as these
tend to be noticeably repetitive in nature with a limited number of basic elements. This in turn this
makes the identification of several of the Shoshenq-named rulers highly problematic.
Whilst the main chronological peg of this era remains the Palestinian campaign of Shoshenq I in 925/6
bc, there is still an ongoing and somewhat rumbustious scholarly debate as to the precise chronology
of the royal lines of the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties, and as to whether certain rulers
of Egypt should be regarded as merely local kings of Thebes. In certain quarters, TakelotII is now
regarded as a solely Theban king and the founder of a collateral Theban Twenty-third Dynasty, and
not as Osorkon IIs successor at Tanis. This in turn would make ShoshenqIII the direct successor of
1
A project first mooted over twenty years ago; cf. K. A. Kitchen, review of K. Jansen-Winkeln, Inschriften der
Sptzeit, I: Die 21. Dynastie (Wiesbaden, 2007), BiOr 65 (2008), 380.
2
Notably the paper by H. Kawanishi, Preliminary Report: Second Season of the Excavations at the Site of
Akoris, Egypt 1982 (Kyoto, 1983), 1314, 28 and 301, for a little-known but highly significant stela pertaining to
the reign of Osorkon III which is duly re-edited here by Jansen-Winkeln (p. 296).
2010 reviews 265
Osorkon II in the north. As such, the Theban Twenty-third Dyanasty is the term now used by some
scholars to describe a group of pharaohs who ruled in Upper Egypt alongside the seven northern kings
who reigned contemporaneously within the Twenty-second Dynasty at Leontopolis in the Delta. In
addition two new rulers have been inserted by some, namely ShoshenqIV between Shoshenq III and
Pimay and (more controversially) Pedubast II between Shoshenq V and Osorkon IV.
Equally problematic is whether we should equate Prince Osorkon (whose famous Chronicle at
Karnak is a major historical source of this time, and one fully edited by Jansen-Winkeln) with the
future King Osorkon III of the Theban Twenty-third Dynasty. This remains a matter of conjecture
which has yet to be proven definitively one way or the other, although the balance is now beginning
to tilt in favour of just such an equation.3 Even so, while this is hardly the time or place for a War and
Peace style discussion of such complex issues, it must be noted that Jansen-Winkelns positioning of
certain kings of the main and collateral lines of the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties, in
this second volume, is out of date (for now at least).4
Overall, this book represents a worthy attempt to set out in a proper and scholarly manner the most
significant texts and inscriptions from one of the most complex periods in Ancient Egyptian history.
Whilst one can certainly question the authors judgement with regard to his positioning of certain
kings and their power-bases, the core of his work remains a valuable tool for studies in this troubled
arena. The author is to be congratulated for making the shadowy data of the Third Intermediate
Period far more accessible. This is a notable achievement in itself.

A. J. Peden

Mere Scraps of Rough Wood? 17th18th Dynasty Stick Shabtis in the Petrie Museum and Other Collections.
By Paul Whelan. Pp. viii + 151, pls 9, figs (in text) 27. London, Golden House Publications, 2007.
ISBN 978 1 906137 00 7. Price 25.

Louvrage de P. Whelan, dont le titre sinspire dune phrase de F. Petrie dans un article sur les
statues funraires,1 propose une tude nouvelle sur les serviteurs funraires dnomms bouts de bois
en franais et sticks en anglais. Cette tude consiste en un catalogue raisonn de la collection Petrie
conserve au Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology (University College de Londres) prcde de
la rflexion de lauteur sur ces statuettes aux formes improbables.
Le catalogue de la collection Petrie (pp. 53132) comprend 42 bouts de bois et modles de
cercueil incluant les spcimens qui navaient pas t retenus par Petrie dans sa publication. Chaque
statuette est publie avec une photographie des 4 faces, une chelle, un relev du texte hiratique et sa
correspondance en hiroglyphes, la translittration et la traduction, une fiche descriptive (dimensions,
nom, description), un commentaire, et une bibliographie. Les photographies en noir et blanc ralises
par lauteur sont dexcellente qualit; les bois nont pas t analyss scientifiquement.
En supplment (pp. 12532), lauteur tudie sommairement 4 spcimens conservs ailleurs en
Angleterre (Bournemouth, Cambridge, Durham, Londres) et donne une liste de tous les objets
consults mais qui nont pas t tous utiliss dans son tude (p. 1335). Cette liste nest pas exhaustive;
ainsi pour le muse du Louvre rajouter: N 2712 (cercueil/statuette), E 9943 (cercueil/statuette),
E27141 (cercueil/statuette), et AF 513 (statuette, coll. H. Salt). Suivent une bibliographie (pp. 136
42), 4 planches reproduites daprs Carnarvon et Carter, et 5 planches de relevs de textes publis dans
divers ouvrages.
Ltude qui prcde le catalogue part de la constatation que les recherches sur les bouts de bois
concernent plus les textes que les formes. Elle sappuie sur la collection Petrie et sur les nombreux
parallles trouves en fouilles dans la rgion thbaine.
La moiti de ltude (pp. 120), rsume par une carte schmatique (fig. 2), consiste dtailler
les diverses dcouvertes archologiques: Passalacqua (1822); Northampton/Newberry (18981899);
Carnarvon et Carter: TT15 et site 14 (1908); A. Lansing: TT37 (19151916); Naville: temple de

3
Kawanishi, Preliminary Report, 1314, 28 and 301.
4
See now O. E. Kaper, The Libyan Period in Egypt, EA 32 (2008), 389, and G. P. F. Broekman, R. J.
Demare, and O. E. Kaper, The Numbering of the Kings called Shoshenq, GM 216 (2008), 910.
1
W. M. F. Petrie, Funereal Figures in Egypt, Ancient Egypt 4 (1916), 154; reprise dans W. M. F. Petrie, Shabtis:
Illustrated by the Egyptian Collection in University College, London (BSAE/ERA 57; London, 1935), 14, p. 4.