In the final years of the Libyan Period it seems the Twenty-second Dynasty was succeeded directly, at Tanis and Bubastis, by the kings of Manetho’s Twenty-third Dynasty, of whom a Petubastis and Osorkon (IV) can be identified in the Egyptian record. At this time Egypt, and particularly the Delta, had undergone considerable fragmentation, and Sais, in the western Delta, had become an important center, populated by Libu/Libyans. Its ruler, Tefnakht, had established himself in charge of a series ofprincipalities in the western Delta, and, having also taken charge ofMemphis, he began to expand his territory into Upper Egypt, besieging the town of Herakleo-polis and subduing those further south towards Hermopolis. Hermopolis itself had been brought under Kushite control to this point, and it was the submission of this town to Tefnakht’s forces that prompted the Nubian king Piyi/Piankhi to respond. He first sent troops, but they were only able to halt Tefnakhte’s progress, not defeat him, and so the king himself journeyed north to join the battle. Hermopolis was reclaimed, and the Kushites then continued north conquering a series of towns in the Nile Valley, and ultimately, after a bloody battle, Memphis itself. From here Piyi proceeded to the Delta where he received the submission of various rulers and finally Tefnakht himself.
The centuries after the withdrawal ofEgypt from Nubia - the lands south ofAswan - at the end of the New Kingdom represent something of a dark age in our understanding of the cultures to the south of Egypt. The old kingdom of Kush, with its capital at Kerma, had been defeated during the early part of the Eighteenth Dynasty by Tuthmose I, inaugurating a period of almost five centuries of Egyptian rule in Nubia. The southern frontier of Egyptian territory was established upstream of the Fourth Cataract at Hagar el-Merwa during the same campaign (Valbelle 2004: 94). Egypt’s control of the region was secured by the construction (or rebuilding) of a series of fortified settlements at sites such as Sai and Dokki Gel (Valbelle 2004: 96). From the beginning of the New Kingdom the administration of Nubia had been placed in the hands of a viceroy (called ‘‘king’s son’’ in Egyptian), and the territory was divided between two deputies, the first with responsibility for the area between the First and Second Cataracts which the Egyptians called Wawat, while the second had charge of the territory further south, the land of Kush.
Evidence for activity in Nubia after Egypt’s control of the region had waned by the end the Twentieth Dynasty is scarce, but its influence persisted, and the society that gave rise to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty kings was highly ‘‘Egyptianized,’’ its people having adopted their conquerors’ language and script, the royal insignia, and the worship of their traditional gods. The state seems already to have been established at Napata, downstream from the Fourth Cataract, by the eighth century bc (Edwards 2004: 112): the cemetery site of el-Kurru, close to Napata, contains not only the burials of named rulers of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty but a series of‘‘tumulus’’ burials, thought to contain the remains of their ancestors, stretching back to the ninth century or even further, although some doubt has now been cast on this (Edwards 2004: 118). The earliest known ruler in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty sequence is Alara, whose name is mentioned in texts of later periods, once as the father of Tabiry, a wife of Piyi (Eide et al. 1994: 41). His name was written in a cartouche, and he was given the epithet ‘‘the son of (the sun-god) Re,’’ indicating that his successors regarded him as having had the status of an Egyptian king, although there is no evidence that his influence was felt in Egypt itself. The presence of his successor Kashta at Elephantine is, however, confirmed by a fragmentary dedication stela naming him as the ‘‘King of Upper and Lower Egypt’’ and ‘‘Lord of the Two Lands.’’ Furthermore, circumstantial evidence suggests that Thebes may have been brought under Kushite control during his reign. In continuation of the tradition of establishing family members in prominent positions, Osorkon III had established his daughter Shepen-wepet (I) as ‘‘God’s Wife of Amun’’ a position which took on new significance at this point. The subsequent establishment of Kashta’s daughter Amenirdis (I) as the heiress to Shepenwepet can only have occurred after the Kushites had taken control of Thebes and may even have marked the moment of the transfer of authority, as it certainly did almost a century later when Nitocris, the daughter of Psammetichus I, was adopted as heiress to the God’s Wife, signalling the transfer of Theban allegiance to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty kings. On the basis that in every other recorded instance the heiress to the God’s Wife was installed by her father (Morkot 1999: 195-6) it seems most likely that this occurred during Kashta’s reign.
Very little is known of the situation in Upper Egypt in the first two decades of Piyi’s reign prior to his military campaign. It seems likely that the remnants of Osorkon III’s line were moved north to Herakleopolis: Peftjauwaybast, king of that city at the time of Piyi’s conquest, was the son-in-law of Amenrud, another Upper Egyptian king and brother of Takelot III (Jansen-Winkeln 2006: 255). Piya returned to his homeland after his victory and may not have returned again to Egypt. The stela which records his triumph was set up at the temple of Amun at Napata, which Piyi now set about enlarging. After perhaps a further decade of rule he was succeeded by Shabaqa.
World History
