demonstrates that the High Priest Harsiese who served is attested in statue CGC 42225 – which mentions this High Priest and is dated explicitly under Osorkon II – was, in fact, Harsiese B.

The High Priest Harsiese B served Osorkon II in his final 3 years.

This means that the High Priest Harsiese mentioned on statue CGC 42225 must be the second Harsiese: Harsiese B.

Harsiese B was a High Priest of Amun in 874 BC.

While the earlier Harsiese was certainly a king at Thebes, he is clearly a different person from the later Harsiese, Harsiese B, who is attested as a High Priest of Amun.

Harsiese B is first explicitly attested as High Priest of Amun late under Osorkon II's reign on Statue CGC 42225, which bears this king's cartouche.

Consequently, the High Priest of Amun Harsiese can only be Harsiese B since he was a close contemporary of Hor IX and served late in office under Osorkon II.

Harsiese B is also attested in office in the sixth regnal year of Shoshenq III in Nile Quay Text No. 6 and lived into the 18th and 19th regnal years of Pedubast I as Nile Quay Text No. 27 shows.

During the prolonged civil war which erupted between the forces of Osorkon B and Pedubast I for control of Thebes, Harsiese B sided with Pedubast's faction since the Karnak Quay Texts show he became the latter's High Priest.

Harsiese B must have been a fairly young man perhaps in his early 30s when he first assumed the Office of High Priest judging by his long career.

* Harsiese B, a high priest of Amun from the end of Osorkon II's reign to Year 19 of Pedubast I

Instead, while Harsiese A was certainly an independent king at Thebes during the first decade of Osorkon II's kingship, he was a different person from a second person who was also called Harsiese: Harsiese B. Harsiese B was the genuine High Priest of Amun who is attested in office late in Osorkon II's reign, in the regnal year 6 of Shoshenq III and in regnal years 18 and 19 of Pedubast I, according to Jansen-Winkeln.

However, Takelot II's brief 25th year is attested by a donation stela made by his son in his position as High Priest at Thebes shortly before Takelot died ; it granted 35 aurourae of land to Takelot II's daughter, Karomama E. Papyrus Berlin 3048 has also now been conclusively dated to Takelot II's ( and not Takelot III's ) reign due to the attestation of a certain Harsiese — designated the fourth prophet of Amun — in this document who is known to have served in office during king Takelot II's reign.

* Harsiese J, served as High Priest of Ptah during the reign of Psusennes I

Each faction had a rival line of High Priests of Amun with Pedubast's being Harsiese B who is attested in office as early as Year 6 of Shoshenq III and then Takelot E who appears in office from Year 23 of Pedubast I. Osorkon B was Pedubast I and Harsiese's chief rival.

The High Priest Shoshenq C was probably succeeded in office by Iuwelot, who was also another son of Osorkon I. Shoshenq C's son, Harsiese, later ruled over Thebes and Middle Egypt as king Harsiese A.

The inscription on the Koptos lid for, Harsiese A's son, never once gives him the title of High Priest.

In all, five kings: Shoshenq I, Shoshenq IV, Takelot I, Takelot II and Harsiese A adopted it for their own use.

If Harsiese was already ruling at Thebes earlier under Takelot I, it might help explain why Takelot I's own Year 5, Year 8, and Year 14 Nile Quay Texts, which mention the serving High Priests Iuwelot and Smendes III — who were all brothers of Takelot I -- consistently omit any mention of Takelot's name, as Gerard Broekman aptly notes in a JEA 88 ( 2002 ) article.

In contrast, he ignores the existence of Theban kings such as Osorkon III, Takelot III, Harsiese A and Pinedjem I and rulers from Middle Egypt like Peftjaubast of Herakleopolis.

Osorkon feared the serious challenge posed by Harsiese's kingship to his authority but, when Harsiese conveniently died in 860 BC, Osorkon II ensured that this problem would not recur by appointing his own son Nimlot C as the next High Priest of Amun at Thebes.

Osorkon I's reign in Egypt was peaceful and uneventful ; however, both his son and grandson, Takelot I and Osorkon II respectively, later encountered difficulties controlling Thebes and Upper Egypt within their own reigns since they had to deal with a rival king: Harsiese A. Osorkon I's tomb has never been found.

Harsiese A, as the son of the High Priest Shoshenq C and grandson of Osorkon I, or a hypothethical king named Maatkheperre Shoshenq must have appeared as a rival.

Another of these poorly known rulers must be the mysterious Tutkheperre Shoshenq who was an early Dynasty 22 ruler since he is now monumentally attested in both Lower and Upper Egypt at Bubastis and Abydos respectively Evidence that Shoshenq II was a predecessor of Osorkon II is indicated by the fact that his hawk-headed coffin is stylistically similar to " a hawk-headed lid " which enclosed the granite coffin of king Harsiese A, from Medinet Habu.

Harsiese A was an early contemporary of Osorkon II and likely Takelot I too since the latter did not control Upper Egypt in his reign.

This implies that Shoshenq II and Harsiese A were near contemporaries since Harsiese A was the son of the High Priest of Amun Shoshenq C at Thebes and, thus, the grandson of Osorkon I.

Secondly, none of the High Priest Shoshenq C's own children — the priest Osorkon whose funerary papyrus, P. Denon C, is located in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg or a second priest named Harsiese ( likely king Harsiese A ) who dedicated a Bes statue in memory of his father, now in Durham Museum — give royal titles to their father on their own funerary objects.

In contrast, Harsiese A died before the twelfth regnal year of Osorkon II.

* Harsiese H, Great-great-grandson of Osorkon II, High Priest of Ptah during the time of Pimay.

de: Harsiese II.

pl: Harsiese II

While Harsiese A may have become king at Thebes prior to Year 4 of Osorkon II, contra Kitchen, he certainly ruled Thebes during the first decade of Osorkon II's reign as Kitchen notes.

On Harsiese, Jacquet-Gordon notes that " there is no good evidence to suggest that the 1st prophet Shoshenq C ever claimed or was accorded royal rank.

" She observes that Harsiese designated his father as a High Priest of Amun on a Bes statue without any accompanying royal name or prenomen and stresses that if Shoshenq C " had the slightest pretensions to royal rank, his son would not have omitted to mention this fact.

Sarcophagus of king Harsiese AKing Hedjkheperre Setepenamun Harsiese or Harsiese A, is viewed by the Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen in his Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, to be both a " High Priest of Amun " and the son of the High Priest of Amun Shoshenq C. The archaeological evidence does suggest that he was indeed Shoshenq C's son.

However, recent research by Jansen-Winkeln shows that all the monuments of the first ( King ) Harsiese A demonstrate that he was never High Priest of Amun in his own right, merely a regular Priest of Amun.

However, recent published studies by the German Egyptologist Karl Jansen-Winkeln in JEA 81 ( 1995 ) have demonstrated that all the monuments of the first ( king ) Harsiese show that he was never a High Priest of Amun in his own right.

Osorkon II's control over this great city is only first documented by 2 separate Year 12 Quay Texts which means that Harsiese had died by this time.

This might indicate a possible rivalry between Takelot I and Harsiese A at Thebes.

de: Harsiese I.

pl: Harsiese I