Career
This local Pharaoh is recorded as being of Libyan ancestry and ruled Egypt for 25 years according to the redaction of Manetho done by Eusebius. He first became king at Thebes in Year 8 of Shoshenq III and his highest dated Year is his 23rd Year according to Nile Level Text Number. 29. This year is equivalent to Year 31 of Shoshenq III of the Tanis based 22nd Dynasty of Egypt.
However, since Shoshenq II only controlled Lower Egypt in Memphis and the Delta region, Pedubast and Shoshenq III were not political rivals and may even have established a relationship.
Indeed, Shoshenq III"s son, the general and army leader Pashedbast B "built a vestibule door to Pylon X at Karnak, and in one and the same commemorative text thereon named his father as Sheshonq (III)" but dated his actions here to Pedubast I. This may show some tacit support for the Pedubast faction by the Tanite based 22nd dynasty king Shoshenq III. His accession to power plunged Thebes into a protracted civil war which lasted for nearly three decades between these two competing factions. This conflict is obliquely mentioned in the famous Chronicle of Prince Osorkon at Karnak.
Recent excavations by the University of Columbia in 2005 reveal that Pedubast I"s authority was recognised both at Thebes and in the western desert oases of Egypt—at the Great Temple of Dakhla where his cartouche has been foundation He was succeeded in power by Shoshenq VI.
The richly inlaid torso from a bronze statue that originally depicted Pedubast I is today on permanent display in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal and is considered to be one of the great masterpieces of Egyptian Third Intermediate Period Artist
This object was purchased by Calouste Gulbenkian on December 13–16, 1921 from Frederik Muller & Cie through the well-known art dealer Joseph Duveen.
The Pedubast statue is extremely rare since it is one of the very few large sized bronze statues of Egyptian kings in existence and the only large surviving bronze one known for the Third Intermediate Period.
