Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, ruling 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II (commonly known as Ramesses the Great).

The name Seti means "of Set", which indicates that he was consecrated to the god Set (also termed "Seth" or "Sutekh"). As a result, other Egyptian transliterations of Seti's name can include Sethi or Sutekhi. As with most pharaohs, Seti had several names. Upon his ascension, he took the prenomen "mn-m3't-r' ", usually vocalised in Egyptian as Menmaatre (Established is the Justice of Re).

Reign

Background

After the enormous social upheavals generated by Akhenaten's religious reform, Horemheb, Ramesses I and Seti I's main priority was to re-establish order in the kingdom and to reaffirm Egypt's sovereignty over Canaan and Syria, which had been compromised by the increasing external pressures from the Hittite state. During the reign of his father Ramesses I, Seti was made both heir apparent and vizier.

Seti I's reign length was either 9 or 11 rather than 15 full years. Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen has estimated that it was 15 years, but there are no dates recorded for Seti I after his Year 11 Gebel Barkal stela. As this king is otherwise quite well documented in historical records, other scholars suggest that a continuous break in the record for his last four years is unlikely, although it is technically possible simply that no records have yet been discovered.

thumb|Image of Seti I from his temple in [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos.]]

Peter J. Brand noted that the king personally opened new rock quarries at Aswan to build obelisks and colossal statues in his Year 9. This event is commemorated on two rock stelas in Aswan. However, most of Seti's obelisks and statues such as the Flaminian and Luxor obelisks were only partly finished or decorated by the time of his death, since they were completed early under his son's reign based on epigraphic evidence (they bore the early form of Ramesses II's royal prenomen "Usermaatre"). Ramesses II used the prenomen Usermaatre to refer to himself in his first year and did not adopt the final form of his royal title "Usermaatre Setepenre" until late into his second year.

Brand aptly notes that this evidence calls into question the idea of a 15 Year reign for Seti I and suggests that "Seti died after a ten to eleven year reign" because only two years would have passed between the opening of the Rock Quarries and the partial completion and decoration of these monuments. This explanation conforms better with the evidence of the unfinished state of Seti I's monuments and the fact that Ramesses II had to complete the decorations on "many of his father's unfinished monuments, including the southern half of the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak and portions of his father's temples at Gurnah and Abydos" during the very first Year of his own reign. Critically, Brand notes that the larger of the two Aswan rock stelas states that Seti I "has ordered the commissioning of multitudinous works for the making of very great obelisks and great and wondrous statues (i.e. colossi) in the name of His Majesty, L.P.H. He made great barges for transporting them, and ships crews to match them for ferrying them from the quarry." (KRI 74:12-14) However, despite this promise, Brand stresses that

thumb|Temple of [[Temple of Seti I (Abydos)|Seti I at Abydos]]

<blockquote style=text-align:center>There are few obelisks and apparently no colossi inscribed for Seti. Ramesses II, however, was able to complete the two obelisks and four seated colossi from Luxor within the first years of his reign, the two obelisks in particular being partly inscribed before he adopted the final form of his prenomen sometime in [his] year two. This state of affairs strongly implies that Seti died after ten to eleven years. Had he [Seti I] ruled on until his fourteenth or fifteenth year, then surely more of the obelisks and colossi he commissioned in [his] year nine would have been completed, in particular those from Luxor. If he in fact died after little more than a decade on the throne, however, then at most two years would have elapsed since the Aswan quarries were opened in year nine, and only a fraction of the great monoliths would have been complete and inscribed at his death, with others just emerging from the quarries so that Ramesses would be able to decorate them shortly after his accession. ... It now seems clear that a long, fourteen-to fifteen-year reign for Seti I can be rejected for lack of evidence. Rather, a tenure of ten or more likely probably eleven, years appears the most likely scenario.

</blockquote>

thumb|Astronomical ceiling of Seti I tomb showing the personified representations of stars and constellations

The German Egyptologist Jürgen von Beckerath also accepts that Seti I's reign lasted only 11 Years in a 1997 book. Seti's highest known date is Year 11, IV Shemu day 12 or 13 on a sandstone stela from Gebel Barkal

More recently, in 2011, the Dutch Egyptologist Jacobus Van Dijk questioned the "Year 11" date stated in the great temple of Amun on the Gebel Barkal stela—Seti I's previously known highest attested date. This monument is quite badly preserved but still depicts Seti I in erect posture, which is the only case occurring since his Year 4 when he started to be depicted in a stooping posture on his stelae. Furthermore, the glyphs "I ∩" representing the 11 are damaged in the upper part and may just as well be "I I I" instead. Subsequently, Van Dijk proposed that the Gebel Barkal stela should be dated to Year 3 of Seti I, and that Seti's highest date more likely is Year 9 as suggested by the wine jars found in his tomb. In a 2012 paper, David Aston analysed the wine jars and came to the same conclusion since no wine labels higher than Seti I's 8th regnal year were found in his KV17 tomb.

Military campaigns

thumb|[[Wepwawet wolf-god of war and death, giving sceptres to Seti I, bas-relief from the Temple of Seti I]]

Seti I fought a series of wars in western Asia, Libya and Nubia in the first decade of his reign. The main source for Seti's military activities are his battle scenes on the north exterior wall of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall, along with several royal stelas with inscriptions mentioning battles in Canaan and Nubia.

In his first regnal year, he led his armies along the "Horus Military road", the coastal road that led from the Egyptian city of Tjaru (Zarw/Sile) in the northeast corner of the Egyptian Nile Delta along the northern coast of the Sinai peninsula ending in the town of "Canaan" in the modern Gaza strip. The Ways of Horus consisted of a series of military forts, each with a well, that are depicted in detail in the king's war scenes on the north wall of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall. While crossing the Sinai, the king's army fought local Bedouins called the Shasu. In Canaan, he received the tribute of some of the city states he visited. Others, including Beth-Shan and Yenoam, had to be captured but were easily defeated. A stele in Beth-Shan testifies to that reconquest; according to Rowe, Albright, Seti defeated Asian nomads in war against the Apirus (Hebrews). Dussaud commented Albright's article: "The interest of Professor Albright's note is mainly due to the fact that he no longer objects to the identification of "Apiru" with "Ibri" (i.e. the Hebrews) provided that we grant him that the vocal change has been driven by a popular etymology that brought the term "eber" (formerly 'ibr), that is to say the man from beyond the river." It seems that Egypt extends beyond the river. The attack on Yenoam is illustrated in his war scenes, while other battles, such as the defeat of Beth-Shan, were not shown because the king himself did not participate, sending a division of his army instead. The year one campaign continued into Lebanon where the king received the submission of its chiefs who were compelled to cut down valuable cedar wood themselves as tribute.

thumb|right|Seti I being crowned by the gods [[Horus (left) and Set (right).]]

At some unknown point in his reign, Seti I defeated Libyan tribesmen who had invaded Egypt's western border. Although defeated, the Libyans would pose an ever-increasing threat to Egypt during the reigns of Merenptah and Ramesses III . The Egyptian army also put down a minor "rebellion" in Nubia in the 8th year of Seti I. Seti himself did not participate in it although his crown prince, the future Ramesses II, may have.

thumb|Stele of Seti I from Tell es Shihab in the Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul

Capture of Kadesh

thumb|Victory Stela of Seti I, New Kalabsha, Lake Nasser, Egypt

The greatest achievement of Seti I's foreign policy was the capture of the Syrian town of Kadesh and neighbouring territory of Amurru from the Hittite Empire. Egypt had not held Kadesh since the time of Akhenaten. Seti I was successful in defeating a Hittite army that tried to defend the town. He entered the city in triumph together with his son Ramesses II and erected a victory stela at the site which has been found by archaeologists. Kadesh, however, soon reverted to Hittite control because the Egyptians did not or could not maintain a permanent military occupation of Kadesh and Amurru so close to the Hittite homelands. It is unlikely that Seti I made a peace treaty with the Hittites or voluntarily returned Kadesh and Amurru, but he may have reached an informal understanding with the Hittite king Muwatalli on the precise boundaries of their empires. Five years after Seti I's death, however, his son Ramesses II resumed hostilities and made a failed attempt to recapture Kadesh. Kadesh was henceforth effectively held by the Hittites even though Ramesses temporarily occupied the city in his 8th year. The exhausted military resources of both sides led to the conclusion of a peace treaty, in the 21st year of the reign of Ramses II, which the Hittites respected until the end of Ramses II's life.

The traditional view of Seti I's wars was that he restored the Egyptian empire after it had been lost in the time of Akhenaten. This was based on the chaotic picture of Egyptian-controlled Syria and Canaan seen in the Amarna letters, a cache of diplomatic correspondence from the time of Akhenaten found at Akhenaten's capital at el-Amarna in Middle Egypt. Recent scholarship, however, indicates that the empire was not lost at this time, except for its northern border provinces of Kadesh and Amurru in Syria and Lebanon. While evidence for the military activities of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Horemheb is fragmentary or ambiguous, Seti I left a war monument that glorifies his achievements, along with a number of texts, all of which tend to magnify his prowess on the battlefield.

Burial

Tomb

thumb|Detail of a painted relief of Seti I from his tomb; now in the Neues Museum

thumb|right|Fragment of hieroglyphs from his tomb, now in British Museum

Seti's well-preserved tomb (KV17) was found in 1817 by Giovanni Belzoni, in the Valley of the Kings; it proved to be the longest at and deepest of all the New Kingdom royal tombs. It was also the first tomb to feature decorations (including the Book of the Heavenly Cow) on every passageway and chamber with highly refined bas-reliefs and colourful paintings – fragments of which, including a large column depicting Seti I with the goddess Hathor, can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum, Florence. This decorative style set a precedent which was followed in full or in part in the tombs of later New Kingdom kings. Seti's mummy itself was discovered by Émile Brugsch on 6 June 1881, in the Royal Cache (tomb DB320) at Deir el-Bahari and has since been kept at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

His huge sarcophagus, carved in one piece and intricately decorated on every surface (including the goddess Nut on the interior base), is in Sir John Soane's Museum. Soane bought it for exhibition in his open collection in 1824, when the British Museum refused to pay the £2,000 demanded. On its arrival at the museum, the alabaster was pure white and inlaid with blue copper sulphate. Years of the London climate and pollution have darkened the alabaster to a buff colour and absorbed moisture has caused the hygroscopic inlay material to fall out and disappear completely. A small watercolour nearby records the appearance, as it was.

left|thumb|Coffin of Seti&nbsp;I

The tomb also had an entrance to a secret tunnel hidden behind the sarcophagus, which Belzoni's team estimated to be long. However, the tunnel was not truly excavated until 1961, when a team led by Sheikh Ali Abdel-Rasoul began digging in hopes of discovering a secret burial chamber containing hidden treasures. further issues with permits and finances eventually ended Sheikh Ali's dreams of treasure,

Between 2000 and 2010, the Egyptian Museum carried out a CT scanning program of royal mummies, including the preserved mummy of Seti I. Modern analysis revealed that:

In April 2021, his mummy was moved from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation along with those of 17 other kings and 4 queens in an event termed the Pharaohs' Golden Parade.

Alleged co-regency with Ramesses II

thumb|right|A posthumous relief from [[Karnak showing the deified Seti I (right) receiving offerings from his son Ramesses II (left), Great Hypostyle Hall ]]

Around Year 9 of his reign, Seti appointed his son Ramesses II as the crown prince and his chosen successor, but the evidence for a coregency between the two kings is likely illusory. that relief decorations at various temple sites at Karnak, Qurna and Abydos, which associate Ramesses II with Seti I, were actually carved after Seti's death by Ramesses II himself and, hence, cannot be used as source material to support a co-regency between the two monarchs. In addition, the late William Murnane, who first endorsed the theory of a co-regency between Seti I and Ramesses II, later revised his view of the proposed co-regency and rejected the idea that Ramesses II had begun to count his own regnal years while Seti I was still alive. Finally, Kenneth Kitchen rejects the term co-regency to describe the relationship between Seti I and Ramesses II; he describes the earliest phase of Ramesses II's career as a "prince regency" where the young Ramesses enjoyed all the trappings of royalty including the use of a royal titulary and harem but did not count his regnal years until after his father's death. This is due to the fact that the evidence for a co-regency between the two kings is vague and highly ambiguous. Two important inscriptions from the first decade of Ramesses' reign, namely the Abydos Dedicatory Inscription and the Kuban Stela of Ramesses II, consistently give the latter titles associated with those of a crown prince only, namely the "king's eldest son and hereditary prince" or "child-heir" to the throne "along with some military titles."

Hence, no clear evidence supports the hypothesis that Ramesses II was a co-regent under his father. But the evidence of the Karnak reliefs is so conclusively against his ever having been so chosen by Seti that we must regard it as a fabrication.]]

Notes

<div class="center">

The tample of King Seti I at Abydos</div>

<gallery mode="packed" widths="160px" heights="160px">

File:Seti offers incense barks of Amen-Re Chonsu Mut.png|Seti offers incense to the sacred barge of Amun

File:Worship and Gazes Upon Osiris.jpg|Worship and view of Osiris; chapel of the temple at Abydos

File:Sethos2-Disrobing-Amen-Re.jpg|Seti I reveals the god Amun

File:Sethos1-incense-and-wassail.jpg|Seti offers incense and drink to the barge of Osiris

</gallery>

See also

  • Dorothy Eady
  • List of colossal sculpture in situ
  • Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt family tree

References

Bibliography

  • Aston, David, Radiocarbon, Wine Jars And New Kingdom Chronology, Ägypten und Levante/Egypt and the Levante 22 (2012), pp.&nbsp;292 & 295-296 (on Seti I) E. J. Brill, Leiden 2000, .
  • Dodson, Aidan M. Sethy I, King of Egypt: His Life and Afterlife, AUC Press, 2019
  • Epigraphic Survey, The Battle Reliefs of King Sety I. Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak vol. 4. (Chicago, 1985).
  • Caverley, Amice "The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos", (London, Chicago, 1933–58), 4 volumes.
  • Gaballa, Gaballa A. Narrative in Egyptian Art. (Mainz, 1976)
  • <!---->Hasel, Michael G.<!---->, Domination & Resistance: Egyptian Military Activity in the Southern Levant, 1300-1185 BC, (Leiden, 1998).
  • Wolfgang Helck, Discussing the Chronology of the New Kingdom, Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum (JACF) 7, 1995, pp.&nbsp;79–84
  • Kitchen, Kenneth, Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, (Warminster, 1982).
  • Liverani, Mario Three Amarna Essays, Monographs on the Ancient Near East 1/5 (Malibu, 1979).
  • Murnane, William J. (1985) The Road to Kadesh: A Historical Interpretation of the Battle Reliefs of King Sety I at Karnak, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 42, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1985
  • Schulman, Alan R. "Hittites, Helmets & Amarna: Akhenaten's First Hittite War," Akhenaten Temple Project volume II, (Toronto, 1988), 53–79.
  • Spalinger, Anthony J. "The Northern Wars of Seti I: An Integrative Study." Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 16 (1979). 29–46.
  • Spalinger, Anthony J. "Egyptian-Hittite Relations at the Close of the Amarna Age and Some Notes on Hittite Military Strategy in North Syria," Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 1 (1979):55-89.
  • Rice,Michael https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinancient0000rice/ Who's Who in Ancient Egypt, Routledge 1999
  • von Beckerath, Jürgen, Chronologie des Äegyptischen Pharaonischen, Phillip von Zabern 1997
  • Seti I - Archaeowiki.org
  • The Karnak Hypostyle Hall Project website
  • The complete titulary of Seti I
  • 360° full-screen photospheric visit of Seti I tomb