The Silver Pharaoh, DNA test

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When the Tanis tomb of the Silver Pharaoh was opened in 1940 by Pierre Montet, it was found to hold a magnificent silver coffin containing the mummy of a pharaoh identified as Psusennes I of the Egyptian 21st Dynasty. When opened the coffin contained the mummy of an elderly man who had clearly suffered from severe arthritis in his old age; Manetho gives Psusennes I a reign length of either 41 or 46 years. As his body clearly survived, it should be possible to establish this pharaoh’s DNA if it has not already been done.

In my unpublished C & C Workshop paper, Egypt in the 10th World Age, I identified the Silver Pharaoh as the probably posthumously born son of Siptah, the crippled child of Queen Tausret, who was still a teenager when he died. Tausret ruled as Siptah’s regent for possibly half his reign and probably as pharaoh herself for a year or 2 after his early death. Siptah was buried in KV47 in the Valley of the Kings, but was moved to KV 35 where his mummy was found in 1898. Consequently, Siptah’s DNA is also available if not already determined.

A comparison of the DNA of these 2 pharaohs should establish if my theory about their relationship is correct. If it is, it would not prove my catastrophe analysis and my catastrophe chronologies are correct, but it would require a major rethink of conventional ideas about both the chronology of the, so-called, Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, and its duration.

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Further Tanis burial DNA tests

In my chronology, 2 of the renowned 3 brothers pharaohs of Egyptian history were buried at Tanis. One, a half-brother of Siptah, sharing a father with him, was the elderly Amenemope; a linen mark dated to his 49th year has been found, despite Manetho giving him only a reign of 9 years. His mummy was found, re-buried in a high-status tomb next to the Silver Pharaoh, having first been buried in a quite modest tomb. The other, this time a half-brother of Siptah sharing a mother with him, Queen Tausret, was the Osorkon buried in the first of the royal tombs built at Tanis. The Takelot, who was buried near Osorkon, has probably been correctly identified as his son. DNA testing of their mummies could establish if these relationships are correct or not.

The other Tanis burial that could give an interesting DNA result, if my chronology is correct, is the Shoshenq whose silver hawk-headed coffin was found, not in a separate chamber, but in the entrance passage of the Silver Pharaoh’s chamber between or above 2 shattered quite modest coffins. This mummy could well be that of the pharaoh the Greeks called Apries, who was, according to Herodotus, The Histories, book 2, 169, buried in the sepulchre of his fathers after being strangled by his former subjects. Apries was the great grandson of the Silver Pharaoh’s son, Psamtek I / Psammetichus I.

The catastrophe based, historical scenario behind my chronology, has a probably older, but less well born, half-brother of Siptah rebelling at the time of the Mars catastrophe of 692 BC; this cosmic catastrophe saw the destruction of the Assyrian army of Sennacherib as it was poised to invade Egypt. Quite soon after Siptah’s death some 3 years later, his rebel half-brother was driven out of Thebes by Queen Tausret, possibly with Assyrian support, in the War of the High Priest and retreated up the Nile to Nubia; Sargon probably financed the building of his new capital with Egyptian gold earned from this campaign. After her victory, Tausret married the cousin, possibly a son of Merenptah, who commanded her army and she could have been around 36 when her son, Osorkon, was born; Osorkon being perhaps 3 years younger than his nephew, the Silver Pharaoh.

The inversion catastrophe of 674 BC occurred in the 19th year after the High Priest’s rebellion and in the 15th year of the reign of Tausret’s second husband. A civil war after the catastrophe saw the rebel High Priest recover rule of Thebes, but a treaty, signed in the 6th year of the Renaissance Age (the 10th World Age), saw Shabaqo, a son of the rebel High Priest, installed as the ruler of Upper Egypt when he married the mother of the Silver Pharaoh, the royal heiress, widow of Siptah. After Shabaqo’s armies, commanded by his father and his brother, Piye, defeated Esarhaddon in the 13th year of the Renaissance Age, the rebel High Priest ruled Lower Egypt for his son during the Manetho recorded 9 years between Esarhaddon’s 10th year defeat and Ashurbanipal’s conquest of Lower Egypt. Shabaqo died young and his brother, Piye, ruled Egypt as his nephew, Shabitqo’s, regent from the 21st to the 24th years of the Renaissance Age.

Soon after Piye’s son, Taharqo, serving as Tanutamani’s army commander not long after the Assyrians sacked Thebes, had thrown them out of Egypt, he re-buried his grandfather in the impressive Tanis tomb chamber next to the one holding the Silver Pharaoh. At the time, the Silver Pharaoh’s son, Psamtek I / Psammetichus I, having temporally abandoned his Assyrian allegiance, was ruling Lower Egypt as Tanutamani’s vassal. However, by the time of the 623 BC, Halloween inversion catastrophe, some 8 years later, Tanutamani had died, a defeated Taharqo had retired to Nubia and Psamtek I was ruling all of Egypt. Having resumed his allegiance to Ashurbanipal, Psamtek I sent an army to campaign in Syria in Assyria’s war against Babylon; a damaging Mars catastrophe in 628 BC having been the inspiration for the simultaneous rebellions against Assyrian rule of the Chaldean king, Nabopolassar’s father, and of Babylon.

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Some more suggested DNA tests

In my cosmic catastrophe scenario, various members of the family of the elderly Amenemope, who was found reburied at Tanis in the adjoining chamber to the Silver Pharaoh, were buried in the main chamber of the Deir el-Bahri tomb, DB320, where their mummies were found essentially intact and un-plundered. Some years after they were buried, the many other mummies that were found in this “royal cache” in 1881, were hidden in the tomb’s entrance passages as Ashurbanipal was approaching Thebes before his recapture and sack of the city in 633 BC. DNA testing could confirm that the Pinudjem I found in the small chamber off the passage way was a son of Amenemope and that his wife, Queen Henttawy, found near the entrance of the tomb, was the mother of the Silver Pharoah. It could also confirm that the owner of the tomb, Pinudjem II, was the grandson of Amenemope and that the muscular, middle aged High Priest, Masaharta, found in the main chamber with Pinudjem II, was Amenemope’s son.

Many 18th Dynasty tombs were subjected to government approved looting by the scribe, Butehamun under the orders of Pinudjem I in years 10, 11 and 12 of the new “Renaissance Age”. This looting was a response to the 10th year conquest and looting of Lower Egypt by the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, who was expected follow this easy victory with an assault on Upper Egypt. The bodies from the tombs were re-wrapped without any treasure to protected them from desecration by the Assyrians. Tutankhamun’s tomb was not looted, because, in 830 BC, some 3 years after his burial, a flash flood during a Venus driven, cosmic catastrophe, buried its entrance under 2 metres of debris that set like concrete. It had clearly been forgotten when, almost 170 years later, the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings were looted by Butehamun. Much of the looted gold was probably used to finance the Nubian army that came to the defence of Egypt.

Pinudjem I was, in my cosmic catastrophe based, chronology, the 25th Dynasty king, Shabaqo; Pinudjem II, was his son, Shabitqo, and Masaharta, was his brother, Piye. Pinudjem I / Shabaqo ruled all Egypt from year 12 to year 20 of the new World Age and was almost certainly buried in an impressive tomb near Memphis. Piye was ruling Egypt as his nephew’s regent in the 21st year of the World Age, but by the end of the 25th year, the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, had conquered Upper as well as Lower Egypt. Pinudjem I / Shabaqo’s body must have been moved to a cache in or near the Valley of the Kings before the conquest of Lower Egypt.

The Silver King, who was appointed Ashurbanipal’s senior client ruler of Egypt, arranged a reconciliation with his half-brother, Shabitqo, not long after Ashurbanipal’s departure and he and some of his immediate family, were in Thebes at the time of the Mars catastrophe of 643 BC. It would appear that they were all massacred by the Assyrian garrison when the Egyptians rebelled and were buried in tomb DB320 by Taharqo, the regent to Shabitqo’s, possibly 5 years old son, Tanutamani.

A couple of years after the sack of Thebes in 633 BC, the now crowned, Tanutamani, threw the Assyrians out of Egypt. His Dream Stele says that the rulers of Lower Egypt all submitted to him without a fight and became his subjects, which implies that he accepted his cousin, Psamtek I, Assyria’s senior client king in Egypt, as his subordinate ruler of Lower Egypt. Taharqo, now Tanutamani’s army commander, re-buried his grandfather in the superior Tanis tomb chamber next to the, quite recently deceased, Silver King. Tanutamani died soon after he recovered control of Lower Egypt and was, I believe, buried at Abusir, which offers another interesting DNA test.

As I reported in C & C Review, 2020:3, The Helical Rising of Sirius and Ancient History, papyri found in the Sun temples of Abusir show that the organisation of the temples’ labour force was based on a 10 month year, which implies that the Abusir Sun temple staff were serving their pyramid builders during the 10th World Age, that being the only time that the World had a year of 10 months. The unfinished pyramid of Neferefre at Abusir, that held the body of a man aged around 20, was, I think, the tomb of Tanutamani; this was the only body found in an Abusir tomb. A DNA test could establish if this is the body of a son of the Pinudjem II found in tomb DB320.

It may be that Manetho, and other 3rd century BC Egyptian scholars, knew that there were multiple king-lists for the !0th World Age period of Egyptian civil war and foreign conquest. However, this seems unlikely given the apparent 3rd century BC acceptance of the history revision dating of the Septuagint version of the Bible. Certainly, most later historians consider the Manetho king-lists to be linear. However, it seems clear to me that Manetho’s 20th Egyptian Dynasty with its 12 unnamed kings, was a list of the 10th World Age rulers of Upper Egypt; I can identify, explain the order of and the reign lengths of all 12 of these kings. I can also identify and explain the reign lengths of the 10th World Age rulers of Lower Egypt given in the 21st Dynasty king-list. I am not sure why Manetho listed the Silver King, Prince Osorkon, of the Karnak cosmic catastrophe and civil war inscription, and his son as a separate 22nd Dynasty. However, it is clear that Manetho’s 23rd Dynasty is a list of the senior Egyptian client kings appointed by the Assyrians; again, their identity and reign lengths can be explained. It is also clear that the single ruler of the 24th Dynasty was Ashurbanipal, who ruled all of Egypt for 6 years, and that the 25th Dynasty kings were the foreign, Nubian, rulers of all of Egypt during the 10th World Age.