This period covers Dynasties 21 through 25, spanning 419 years from 1075 B. C.E. to 664 B. C.E.. Smendes moved his capital from Piramesse to Tanis, in the eastern Delta. The Tanite kings (who ruled only the Delta) and the Theban kings recognized each other’s separate rights of succession, respected one another’s power, and cemented ties between their families with royal marriages. Both ruling families had strong Libyan roots, and both kings were considered legitimate. But Egypt, with a population approaching 3 million, suffered from the lack of strong central government.
For most of the Twenty-first Dynasty, the Tanite kings in the Delta and the Theban soldier-priest-kings in the rest of Egypt were closely related. Sometimes they were brothers. The Theban king Pinedjem married one of the daughters of Ramesses XI. One of Pinedjem’s sons, Psusennes I, became the third king of the Tanis Dynasty. Two other sons became priest-kings, ruling from Thebes. The daughter of Psusennes I married the high priest of Amun-Re, further linking the ruling families. A great temple at Tanis was dedicated to the Theban gods Amun-Re, Mut, and Khonsu.
During his 25-year reign at Tanis (coinciding with the Biblical era of David and Goliath), King Siamun built extensively at both Tanis and Piramesse. Also during that time, Egyptian princesses started marrying foreign princes and kings, reversing a long-held pattern.
The Theban priest-kings, well aware of tomb robberies in the Valley of the Kings, worried that the great pharaohs buried there were losing out on eternal life. They removed many royal mummies from their original tombs (many had already been looted) and stashed them in large groups in well-hidden, better-secured tombs. They also removed just about all the gold, valuables, and grave goods they found, “recycling” the loot into their temple treasuries, or saving it for their own tombs.
Two of these caches of royal mummies were discovered in the late 1800s by European explorers. One cache was discovered in 1881 in a tomb at Deir el-Bahari near Thebes, another in 1898 in the tomb of Amen-hotep II in the Valley of the Kings. Dozens of royal mummies-including most of Egypt’s great imperial pharaohs-had been packed into small chambers, side by side, with only the linen on their backs.
Some of their recycled funeral goods showed up in the tomb of Psusennes I-the only completely intact royal tomb ever found in Egypt. Psusennes had a solid silver coffin trimmed with gold, and a solid gold face mask. His sarcophagus, coffins, and other burial equipment had clearly belonged to other kings. The borrowed finery did his mummy little good; poor conditions in his tomb destroyed it.
Little is known about Psusennes II, last king of the Twenty-first Dynasty. His son, Shoshenq I, founded the Twenty-second Dynasty, also known as the Libyan or Bubastite Dynasty because the kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty were descended from Libyan raiders who had invaded Egypt during the reigns of Meneptah and Harnesses III and settled in the eastern Delta at Bubastis. They ruled Egypt for 233 years.
Shoshenq I took the title great chief of the Meshwesh Libyans. He led a campaign against Palestine (he is the ruler Shishak mentioned in the Bible), plundering Solomon’s temple and looting everything but the Ark of the Covenant. This bold raid restored some of Egypt’s old prestige. A strong leader, Shoshenq I reunited Upper and Lower Egypt, and kept them together for nearly 100 years.
Despite this, there was plenty of internal conflict. The power of the Tanis faction weakened, and the north splintered in many hereditary fief-doms that paid little attention to the king. In the south, a patchwork of small kingdoms arose. By the time Shoshenq III took the throne, Egypt had entered the most confusing period in her long history.
During the Twenty-third Dynasty, Upper and Lower Egypt split apart. Factions fought over control of the Delta. During this so-called “Libyan anarchy,” nine major kingdoms (collectively called the Twenty-
Third Dynasty) coexisted. This fragmentation seriously weakened Egypt, leaving it unable to defend itself from the Nubians, who swept north. By the end of the dynasty, at least three or four rulers claimed to be king of Egypt. Too late, they saw the threat from Nubia.
One self-proclaimed king, Tefnakhte, ruling from Sais in the Delta (the Twenty-fourth Dynasty), tried to organize a coalition of Upper and Lower Egyptian rulers to fight the Nubian invasion. The forces of the north met the Nubian forces at Herakleopolis. The northerners were forced to surrender, but Nubian king Piankhy allowed them to remain as governors of their cities. A second Sais king, Bakenrenef (Bocchoris) rebelled. The Nubians killed him.
The Twenty-fifth Dynasty was the Nubian Dynasty. Nubia was a stable, prosperous, completely Egyptianized state. Long a colony of Egypt, the Nubians treasured ancient Egyptian culture. Believing that Egypt had lost her way, they did not see themselves as invaders, but as restorers of the old order. They took the titles of great New Kingdom pharaohs, and maintained traditional Egyptian religion and culture. For 104 years, they ruled Egypt from Memphis and Thebes. They worshiped Amun-Re, rebuilt and refurbished neglected temples and monuments, and built many new temples. Imitating the ancient pharaohs, the Nubian kings built pyramid tombs
World History
