Iuput II

Iuput II (also spelled Yuput II) was a ruler of Leontopolis in the Egyptian Delta region of Lower Egypt who existed during the late Third Intermediate Period. He was an ally of Tefnakht of Sais who resisted the invasion of Lower Egypt by the Kushite king Piye. [Nicholas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Books, 1992. p.331] Iuput II ruled during a chaotic time of the Late Intermediate Period when several kings controlled Lower Egypt including Osorkon IV at Bubastis and prince Tefnakht at Sais. Year 21 of Iuput II is attested on a stela from Mendes. [Jürgen von Beckerath, Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten, Mainz, (1997), p.96] The respected English Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen states that this dated stela which features Smendes, the son of Harnakht and ruler of Mendes, bears Iuput's name but lacks his royal name or prenomen. [K.A. Kitchen, "The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (c.1100-650 BC)," 3rd edition, 1996. Aris & Phillips Ltd. p.542] However, the clear Lower Egyptian provenance of the stela can be associated with several monuments that name "a king Usimare Setepenamun (var. Setepenre] , Iuput Si-Bast, from the Delta" which means Iuput II's throne name was Usimare. [Kitchen, op. cit., p.542] The Year 21 stela of Iuput II was fully published in 1982. [J. Chappaz, Geneva 30 (1982), pp.71-81]

After Piye defeated Tefnakht's coalition and conquered Lower Egypt around Year 20 of his reign, the Nubian king permitted Iuput II to remain in power as a local governor of Leontopolis according to his Victory Stela from Gebel Barkal. [Grimal, op. cit., p.339]

Monuments

*A stela of Iuput II is dated to his 21st year. Other monuments or objects from his reign include "a statue-base of Usimare Setepenamun, Iuput Meryamun Si-Bast from Tell el Yahudieh, a glazed plague (see picture) now in the Brooklyn Museum, and a bronze door-hinge...from Tell Moqdam (Leontopolis) bearing identical titles of the king along with [a] mention of the Chief Queen, Tent-kat [...] and some obscure epithets." [ Kitchen, op. cit., pp.124-125 Note: Kitchen states on page 542 that in the first 1972 edition of his TIPE book, he had opted to attribute these objects and the stela "to Iuput I, as being potentially the more important ruler of the two Iuputs, through his association with the founder of the Dynasty (ie. Pedubast I). However, later studies have shown that the opposite solution is preferable, i.e. that [the] monuments...with the Usimare prenomen probably belong to Iuput II, not I. In 1975, I also changed over to that option (CdE 52(1977), 42-44, and cf. foreword to Bierbrier, LNKE, 1975, p.x)"]

References