The Rehabilitation of Bocchoris: Notes and Queries from Italy *

Abstract

It has been suggested that the pharaoh Bocchoris was famous for his wisdom, and that accordingly, the production of items bearing his cartouche is unlikely to have been confined to his short reign (720/19–715/14 BC, corresponding to the Twenty-fourth Dynasty). The latter therefore cannot provide a valid terminus post quem for contexts in the Classical world in which such Bocchoris-related artefacts occur. This suggestion is reviewed, and found wanting. It is noted that the evidence against ‘Bocchoris the Obscure' comes from later Classical sources rather than from the Egypt of his own time. Elsewhere, his dates have never been required to provide more than general support for a long-established chronological scheme involving Corinthian pottery and the foundation-dates of Greek colonies in Sicily, via the Bocchoris scarab from Euboean Pithekoussai (Ischia). The immediate context of this piece is briefly re-assessed.