Khakaure Senusret III (also written as Senwosret III or the hellenised form, Sesostris III) was a pharaoh of Egypt. He ruled from 1878 BC to 1839 BC during a time of great power and prosperity and was the fifth king of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. He was a great pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty and is considered to be perhaps, the most powerful Egyptian ruler of the dynasty. Consequently, he is regarded as one of the sources of the legend about Sesostris. His military campaigns gave rise to an era of peace and economic prosperity that reduced the power of regional rulers and led to a revival in craftwork, trade, and urban development. Senusret III was among the few Egyptian kings who were deified and honoured with a cult during their lifetime.
Family
Senusret III was the son of Senusret II and Khenemetneferhedjet I, also called Khenemetneferhedjet I Weret (the elder). Three wives of Senusret III are known for sure. These are Itakayt, Khenemetneferhedjet II and Neferthenut, all three mainly known for their burials next to the pyramid of the king at Dahshur. Several daughters are known, although they are attested only by the burials around the king’s pyramid, and their exact relation to the king is disputable. These include Sithathor, Menet, Senetsenebtysy, and Meret. Amenemhat III was most likely a son of the king. Other sons are not known.
Initiatives
Senusret III cleared a navigable canal through the first cataract of the Nile River (this was different from the Canal of the Pharaohs, which apparently, Senusret III also tried to build). He also relentlessly pushed his kingdom’s expansion into Nubia (from 1866 to 1863 BC), where he erected massive river forts including Buhen, Semna, Shalfak and Toshka at Uronarti.
He carried out at least four major campaigns in Nubia in his Years 8, 10, 16, and 19. His Year 8 stela at Semna documents his victories against the Nubians, which he is thought to have made safe the southern frontier, preventing further incursions into Egypt. Another great stela from Semna dated to the third month of Year 16 of his reign mentions his military activities against Nubia and Canaan. In it, he admonished his future successors to maintain the new border that he had created:
Year 16, the third winter month: the king made his southern boundary at Heh. I have completed my boundary further south than my father’s. I have added to what was bequeathed me. (…) As for any son (i.e., successor) of mine who shall maintain this border my Majesty has made, he is my son born to my Majesty. The true son is he who champions his father, who guards the border of his begetter. But he [who] abandons it, who fails to fight for it, is not my son; he was not born to me. Now my Majesty has had an image made of my Majesty, at this border which my Majesty has made, so that you maintain it so that you fight for it.
The Sebek-khu Stele, dated to the reign of Senusret III (1878 – 1839 BC), records the earliest known Egyptian military campaign in the Levant. The text reads, “His Majesty proceeded northward to overthrow the Asiatics. His Majesty reached a foreign country of which the name was Sekmem (…) Then Sekmem fell, together with the wretched Retenu”, where Sekmem (s-k-m-m) is thought to be Shechem, and “Retenu” or “Retjenu” are associated with ancient Syria.
His final campaign, which was in his Year 19, was less successful because the king’s forces were caught with the Nile being lower than average, and they had to retreat and abandon their campaign to avoid being trapped in the hostile Nubian territory.
Such was his violent nature and immense influence that later generations worshipped Senusret III as a deity in Semna. Senusret III erected a temple and town in Abydos and another temple in Medamud. Jacques Morgan, in 1894, found rock inscriptions near Sehel Island documenting his digging of a canal.
His court included the viziers Nebit and Khnumhotep. Ikhernofret worked as treasurer for the king at Abydos. Sobekemhat was treasurer too and buried at Dahshur. Senankh cleared the canal at Sehel for the king. Horkherty was the king’s acquaintance.
Length of reign
A double-dated papyrus in the Berlin Museum shows Year 20 of his reign next to Year 1 of his son, Amenemhat III; generally, this is presumed to be proof of a coregency with his son, which should have been started in this year. According to Josef W. Wegner, a Year 39 hieratic control note was recovered on a white limestone block from:
…a securely defined deposit of construction debris produced from the building of the Senwosret III mortuary temple. The fragment itself is part of the remnants of the temple construction. This deposit provides evidence for the date of construction of the mortuary temple of Senwosret III at Abydos.
Wegner stresses that it is unlikely that Amenemhat III, Senusret’s son and successor, would still be working on his father’s temple nearly four decades into his reign. He notes that the only possible explanation for the block’s existence at the project is that Senusret III had a 39-year reign, with the final 20 years in coregency with his son Amenemhat III. Since the project was associated with a project of Senusret III, his Regnal Year was presumably used to date the block, rather than Year 20 of Amenemhat III. Wegner interprets this as implying that Senusret was still alive in the first two decades of his son’s reign.
Wegner’s hypothesis is rejected by some scholars, such as Pierre Tallet and Harco Willems; according to them, it is more likely that such a coregency never occurred and that the Year 39 control note still refers to Amenemhat III, who may have ordered some additions to Senusret’s monuments.
Pyramid and complex
Senusret’s pyramid complex was built north-east of the Red Pyramid of Dashur. It far surpassed those from the early twelfth dynasty in size, grandeur, and underlying religious conceptions.
There has been speculation that Senusret was not necessarily buried there but rather in his sophisticated funerary complex in Abydos, and his pyramid more likely being a cenotaph.
Senusret’s pyramid is 105 meters square and 78 meters high. The total volume was approximately 288,000 cubic meters. The pyramid was built of a core of mud bricks. They were not made of a consistent size, implying that standardized moulds were not used. The burial chamber was lined with granite. Above the vaulted burial chamber was a second relieving chamber with five pairs of limestone beams weighing 30 tons. Above this was a third mudbrick vault.
The pyramid complex included a small mortuary temple and seven smaller pyramids for his queens. There is also an underground gallery with further burials for royal women. Here were found the treasures of Sithathor and queen Mereret. There was also a southern temple; however, this has since been destroyed.
Royal statuary
Senusret III is well known for his distinctive statues, which are almost immediately recognizable. On them, the king is depicted at different ages and, in particular, on the aged ones, he sports a strikingly sombre expression: the eyes are protruding from hollow eye sockets with pouches and lines under them, and the mouth and lips have a grimace of bitterness, and the ears are enormous and protruding forward. In sharp contrast with the even-exaggerated realism of the head, regardless of age, the rest of the body is idealized as forever young and muscular, in the more classical pharaonic fashion.
Scholars could only make assumptions about why Senusret III chose to have himself portrayed in such a unique way and polarized on two diverging opinions. Some argue that Senusret wanted to be represented as a lonely and disenchanted ruler, human before the divine, consumed by worries and his responsibilities. On the other hand, other scholars suggested that the statues would initially convey the idea of a dreadful tyrant able to see and hear everything under his strict control.
More recently, it has been suggested that the purpose of such peculiar portraiture was not to represent realism but rather to reveal the perceived nature of royal power at the time of Senusret’s reign.
