Pinudjem I

Pinudjem I was the third ruler and High Priest of Amun in the 21st Dynasty, who ruled as commander of the Egyptian army in 662 B.C. and as ruler of Egypt from 661 to 638 B.C. He succeeded his father Piankh as HPA and Herihor as king. Much more is known about this pharaoh in the revised history than in the traditional.

Pinudjem was the son of Piankh, who was the son of a king of Nubia and the son-in-law of Osorkon III. This connects him to the terminal 23rd Dynasty. He had multiple sons, but the only ones important to this revision are Masaharta and Piankhi.

In 662 B.C., Piankh died and gave his duties as High Priest of Amun and commander of the Egyptian army under Assyria to his son Pinudjem I. A year later, Herihor (self-styled ruler of Egypt) died and chose Pinudjem I as his successor. Pinudjem took upon himself the honorary name of the late pharaoh Thutmose I, and called himself Aakheperkare Thutmose. He wished for the Assyrian occupation to end, and expressed this desire by claiming all Assyrian territory (Nubia and Syria) as his own in the monuments.

In Pinudjem I’s sixteenth year (646 B.C.), he decided that he could not continue to be High Priest of Amun and pharaoh at the same time, appointing his son Masaharta to be HPA. Masaharta died before his father in 639 B.C., so Pinudjem was forced to make his younger son Piankhi priest and commander of the army. In his first year as commander, Piankhi expelled the Assyrians from Egypt, Nubia, and the Levant, thus fulfilling his father’s dream and expanding his territory. His life’s work fulfilled, Pinudjem died in his twenty-fifth year, and Menkheperre Piankhi became pharaoh of all Egypt.

The evidence for the revised history can be found at Displaced Dynasties. Evidence regarding this pharaoh specifically can be found here and here.