Can Sargon II’s Si’be be tied up with the biblical pharaoh ‘So’?

 

Part One: Tying up, all together, So, Si’be and Shabaka

by

Damien F. Mackey

  

Others, though, claim that Si’be equates to Shabaka of the 25^th Ethiopian dynasty ….

Boutflower had in fact looked to tie up, all together, ‘So’, Sibe and Shabaka ….

 

 

The 25^th so-called ‘Ethiopian’ dynasty (c. 745 - 655 BC, conventional dating) is part of the nightmare that is Egypt’s so-called Third Intermediate Period (TIP). And though certain Egyptologists have breathed a sigh of relief when they arrived at discussion of the 25^th dynasty, even that dynasty, as I attempted to explain in my article:
 
Piankhi same as Bible's Tirhakah? Part Two: 25th (Ethiopian) Dynasty not clear cut
 
https://www.academia.edu/37479175/Piankhi_same_as_Bibles_Tirhakah_Part_Two_25th_Ethiopian_Dynasty_not_clear_cut

is “not clear cut”.
The whole thing is, however (I suspect), a nightmare more of the making of the Egyptologists than of the actual reality. It is most unlikely, for instance, that Piankhi (Piye) was running about as early as c. 745 BC where convention has so early placed him.
If I am correct (following Sir Flinders Petrie), then:

Piankhi [is the] same as Bible's Tirhakah

https://www.academia.edu/37451966/Piankhi_same_as_Bibles_Tirhakah

It would certainly be nice if we could get some sort of co-ordinating perspective on such things.
Well perhaps, if we take notice of Charles Boutflower and Sir Alan Gardiner, we may be able to tie up, all at once (i) a 25^th dynasty pharaoh, (ii) an Egyptian encountered by neo-Assyria, and (iii) a biblical king.
This is what I wrote about such an intriguing possible situation (or era) in my university thesis:

A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
 
AMAIC_Final_Thesis_2009.pdf

(Volume One, pp. 377-378):

When next Assyria encounters Egypt, in c. 720 BC in the reign of Sargon II, no pharaoh is initially referred to, but Egypt’s Turtan, Si’be.[1] Gardiner had in fact identified the latter with ‘So’, claiming that scholars are in agreement with this[2] (see next page). Whilst chronologically I might be able to accept this conclusion, it would not explain why a ‘King So’ has all of a sudden become a mere Turtan (Si’be). Kitchen, however, had argued that Si’be should instead read Re-e (in the Akkadian) and Ria’a (in the Egyptian).[3] Clapham has seized upon this as being an opportunity to identify the Turtan of the Egyptian armies with a Ramesside (‘Ramses’ = Ria’a) - late 19^th dynasty as applicable to his own revision.[4]
Others, though, claim that Si’be equates to Shabaka of the 25^th Ethiopian dynasty.[5] Boutflower had in fact looked to tie up, all together, ‘So’, Sibe and Shabaka.[6]
According to Gardiner, however, a connection between Si’be and Shabaka is unlikely:[7]

Scholars are agreed to identify this So with Sib’e, turtan of Egypt, whom the annals of Sargon state to have set out from Rapihu (Raphia …) together with Hanno … of Gaza …. Sargon tells us that Sib’e, ‘like a shepherd whose flock has been stolen, fled alone and disappeared …’. For phonetic and probably also chronological [sic] reasons So and Sib’e cannot be … Shabako, so that these names are supposed to have been those of a general. This seems the more probable since the Assyrian text goes on to say “I received the tribute from Pir’u of Musru …” which can hardly mean anything but ‘from the Pharaoh of Egypt’.

Finally, Rohl has made the suggestion that would appear to have at least real phonetic value, that “we might find the true identity of Si’be in the 21^st Dynasty king Psibkhenno, more commonly known by the classical name of Psusennes”.[8]
 
[End of quotes]

For my revised view of Psusennes, see my article:

Smendes and Shoshenq I. Part Three: May Psusennes I and II be the actual same person?

https://www.academia.edu/39036650/Smendes_and_Shoshenq_I._Part_Three_May_Psusennes_I_and_II_be_the_actual_same_person

Now, what if we could tie up, all together, So and Si’be with pharaonic names from two supposed TIP dynasties: Psibkhenno/Psusennes and Shabaka?

That would give us even more chronological space in which to manoeuvre.



 
[1] D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. II, # 5. Luckenbill gives the name here as Sib’u.
[2] Op. cit, p. 342.
[3] Op. cit, p. 373.
[4] Op. cit, p. 3.
[5] E.g. K. LeFlem, ‘Amenophis, Osarsiph and Arzu’, p. 15.
[6] Op. cit, p. 126.
[7] Op. cit, ibid.
[8] ‘Comments by David Rohl’, p. 19.