Shoshenq V

Shoshenq V was the penultimate ruler of the Twenty-second Dynasty during the Third Intermediate Period, ruling for around thirty-eight years from about 778 BC to 740 BC, with dates uncertain by roughly five years. The son of Pami, he succeeded his father on the throne at Tanis.

Despite the remarkable length of his reign, Shoshenq V governed an increasingly fragmented realm. By the mid-eighth century BC, royal authority was largely confined to the eastern Delta, as various petty princes and Libyan military chiefs ruled autonomous city-states across northern Egypt. Shoshenq carried out modest building projects at Tanis, including carved temple reliefs. Historians know him chiefly from these Tanite temple remains and from several dated private and official stelae erected at the Saqqara Serapeum, notably those commemorating the burial of Apis bulls in his eleventh and thirty-seventh regnal years.

Shoshenq V was buried in Tanis, though his tomb has not been located and no mummy survives. He was succeeded by Osorkon IV, the final ruler of the dynasty.

Monuments

• Serapeum stelae of Year 11 and Year 37
• Tanis temple reliefs

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