The Twentieth Dynasty

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How the Twentieth Dynasty gained power remains unclear . The only indication of the political events at this date is attested by a stela erected on the island of Elephantine by its first ruler , Sethnakht . On the stela , Sethnakht relates how he expelled rebels who on their flight left behind the gold , silver , and copper they had stolen from Egypt and with which they had wanted to hire reinforcements among the Asiatics . The Great Harris Papyrus from the beginning of the reign of Ramses IV is our second document from that time . It describes how a state of lawlessness and chaos struck Egypt . After several years in which there was no one ruling , a Syrian called Irsu seized power , and his supporters plundered the country treating the gods like ordinary human beings and no longer sacrificed in the temples (a description that resembles the one given of the Amarna Period in the years of the Restoration) . The gods then chose Sethnakht to be the next ruler , just as they had Horemheb at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty , and he re-established order .
From these texts we may conclude that , after the death of Tausret , Bay had tried to seize power and might even have succeeded for a brief span of time until he was expelled by Sethnakht . The date of the Elephantine Stela is not the first year of Sethnakht's regency , as one might expect on a victory stela , but the second year and this date is not given at the beginning of the text , as was customary on stelae , but towards the end . Be that as it may , he did not enjoy his newly gained kingship for long , for he died soon afterwards and was succeeded by his son Ramses III .