Editing Seti I (section)

===Reign Length===
[[File:Basalt fragment. Part of a necklace, in relief, is shown together with a cartouche of Seti I. 19th Dynasty. From Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Basalt fragment. Part of a necklace, in relief, is shown together with a cartouche of Seti I. 19th Dynasty. From Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London]]
Seti I's accession date is known to be III Shemu day 24.<ref>Peter J. Brand, [https://www.academia.edu/40610263/The_Monuments_of_Sety_I_Epigraphic_Historical_and_Art_Historical_Analysis_2000_Probleme_der_%C3%84gyptologie_16_Leiden_E_J_Brill The Monuments of Seti I and their Historical Significance: Epigraphic, Historical and Art Historical Analysis pp.301-302 PDF] Brill, 2000, pp.301-302</ref>
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 [[Stele|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 been yet discovered.

[[File:GD-EG-Abydos001.JPG|thumb|Temple of [[Temple of Seti I (Abydos)|Seti I at Abydos]].]]
[[Peter Brand (Egyptologist)|Peter J. Brand]] noted that the king personally opened new rock quarries at [[Aswan]] to build obelisks and colossal statues in his Year 9.<ref>Peter J. Brand, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000801 "The 'Lost' Obelisks and Colossi of Seti I"], ''[[JARCE]]'', '''34''' (1997), pp. 101-114</ref> This event is commemorated on two rock stelas in Aswan. However, most of Seti's obelisks and statues such as the [[Flaminio Obelisk|Flaminian]] and [[Luxor Obelisk|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.<ref>Brand, "The 'Lost' Obelisks", pp. 106-107</ref>

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.<ref>Brand, "The 'Lost' Obelisks", p. 114</ref> 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.<ref>Brand, "The 'Lost' Obelisks", p.107</ref> 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)<ref>Brand, "The 'Lost' Obelisks", p.104</ref> However, despite this promise, Brand stresses that

{{blockquote|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.<ref name=brand>{{cite book|author=Peter J. Brand (2000)|title=The Monuments of Seti I: Epigraphic, Historical and Art Historical Analysis|publisher=Brill|page=308}}</ref>}}

[[File:La tombe de Sethi 1er (KV.17) (Vallée des Rois, Thèbes ouest) -5.jpg|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.<ref>von Beckerath, Chronologie, p.190</ref> Seti's highest known date is Year 11, IV Shemu day 12 or 13 on a sandstone stela from [[Gebel Barkal]]<ref name=brand/> but he would have briefly survived for 2 to 3 days into his Year 12 before dying based on the date of Ramesses II's rise to power. Seti I's accession date has been determined by Wolfgang Helck to be III Shemu day 24, which is very close to Ramesses II's known accession date of III Shemu day 27.<ref>Brand, ''The Monuments of Seti I'', pp. 301-302</ref>

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.<ref>J. Van Dijk, [https://www.jacobusvandijk.nl/docs/Fs_Bourriau.pdf The Date of the Gebel Barkal Stela of Seti I PDF], in: in D. Aston, B. Bader, C. Gallorini, ''P. Nicholson & S. Buckingham (eds), ''Under the Potter's tree. Studies on Ancient Egypt presented to Janine Bourriau on the Occasion of her 70th Birthday'' (= ''Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta'' 204)'', Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies, Leuven - Paris - Walpole, MA 2011, pp.325–332.</ref> 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.<ref>J. van Dijk, "[https://www.jacobusvandijk.nl/docs/Fs_Bourriau.pdf The Date of the Gebel Barkal Stela of Seti I PDF], in D. Aston, B. Bader, C. Gallorini, ''P. Nicholson & S. Buckingham (eds), ''Under the Potter's tree. Studies on Ancient Egypt presented to Janine Bourriau on the Occasion of her 70th Birthday'' (= ''Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta'' 204)'', Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies, Leuven - Paris - Walpole, MA 2011, pp.325–332.</ref> In a 2012 paper, [[David Aston (Egyptologist)|David Aston]] analyzed 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.<ref>D. A. Aston, "[https://www.academia.edu/39997434/Radiocarbon_Wine_Jars_And_New_Kingdom_Chronology Radiocarbon, Wine Jars and New Kingdom Chronology PDF]", ''Ägypten und Levante'' 22-23 (2012-13), pp. 289–315.</ref>