Napata Kingdom: The first beginnings of the establishment

Napata Kingdom: The first beginnings of the establishment

The origins of the actual process that formed the Napatan Kushite state remain obscure. This process appears to have been local in both its origins and the overall course of the state's subsequent development. The Greek and Roman writers who wrote after Herodotus were very clear in their assertion that the state of Napata was not the product of a cultural transmission that took root in Egypt. The truth is that members of the Nabatean dynasty began their project to transform Kush into a central state long before their contact with Egypt. After the establishment of the state, the relationship with Egypt provided them with tools and models, in addition to some resources that potentially helped in the process of building the state. As Hungarian researcher Laszlo Török pointed out, these rulers chose aspects of Egyptian religion to use as a tool to shape Kushite society into a complex, centralized state based to some extent on the Egyptian model Török, 1994. As Katsznelson pointed out, the world of perceptions, as seen in the funerary architecture of Kru, reflected in the burials of the Kushite kings, alludes to a Kushite culture that was essentially sophisticated in its own way but absorbed Egyptian influence wherever this was desirable for the Kushites Katsznelson, 1970. Likewise, the entire path of the state’s advancement followed was shaped primarily in internal circumstances. Even the Egyptian religion, as practiced by the Nabatean elite, relied on local Kushite rituals and beliefs. Török,1994Katsznelson,1970

The Kushite rulers, as a result of the contradiction in the options that follow the inheritance of the throne and due to the organization of the country on the basis of a system based on sheikhdoms or emirates, resorted to those aspects of the Egyptian doctrine of kingship that emphasize the correct selection of kings. In the early stages of the Nabataean era, the forms of Egyptian religion in the Kurru burials reflect local Kushite beliefs. Unlike the Egyptian pharaohs, who always declared that the legitimacy of their rule was derived from Amun Ra, the Kushite kings emphasized their descent from their great ancestor, Alara, which reflects a myth of rule that differs from the Egyptian myth. Thus, the Kushite rulers adopted a local mythological foundation different from the Egyptian mythological foundation.

The thirteen oldest burials in the Al-Kurru cemetery, which belong to the ancestors of King Kashta, indicate a great deal of similarity to the degree of identicalness with the distinctive burials of the Kerma kings in form and content. They are round hills, and it has not been possible to identify those buried in them, because these burials had been looted in ancient times. The tombs are oriented from north to south. The remains that were discovered in only one tomb were dated to about 800–780 BC. Birth. The body lay in a position resembling a sleeper on its right side, not in a coffin, but on a saddle. All of this is completely consistent with the funerary customs characteristic of Kerma and in the graves of the third group, with no evidence indicating mummification. Later, the upper mound was replaced with a shape resembling a mastaba, with the tomb (burial chamber) remaining as it was without any changes to it, noting that these terraces were mostly built as upper mounds. After the thirteen tumulus come three mastabas (Al-Kurru 7, 8, and 20) belonging to King Kashta and two of his wives. Masts 7 and 8 are similar in shape and map to the previous tumulus, but they differ in that the burial chamber took an east-west direction, not north-south. Then this distinctive trend of Egyptian burials is repeated in the burials of the Kushite kings. King Piya and many of his successors, in their efforts to legalize their legitimacy to inherit the Egyptian crown, resorted to restoring the traditions of the ancient Egyptian kingdom and built pyramids for themselves, first in Al-Kurru, then in Nuri, and finally in Al-Bajrawiya. However, this imported tradition was abandoned with the passage of time, as once relations with Egypt were cut off, the tendency to return again to the local Kushite burial traditions was strengthened... The tumuli are as evidence of Graves of kings, princes and leaders.

Although the appearance of Piya's tomb changed, as did his two successors, Shabaka and Shapataka, and their wives, they were buried according to the customs of their ancestors - on a pediment, not in a coffin. Unfortunately, we do not have information about Kashta and Tanot Amani. The first time the tradition of burial in a coffin appeared was during the era of Taharqa, but burial in Anqarib remained common. The tradition of burial in a coffin was completely abandoned once the kingdom of Meroe collapsed, and the custom of the so-called Chatti burials, in which slaves had to accompany their master to the afterlife, appeared again shortly before the collapse of Meroe.

Thus, local rituals for burying the dead have prevailed in Kush over thousands of years. These rituals changed only during the period of the first rulers of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, who imposed their sovereignty over Egypt. However, the influence of Egyptian customs did not last long, as they were excluded due to ancient traditions. To the same extent, the traditions regarding inheritance of the throne remained unchanged, as succession to the throne continued from brother to brother and from the latter to his sister’s son. Remnants of the matriarchal organization also continued, which was reflected in the influence exercised by the Queen Mother Kandake.

Alara and his successor Kashta are the first two Napata kings whose names were confirmed, but we know nothing more about them than that. As for their ancestors, we do not even know their names, as no texts or even short inscriptions were found in the tumulus and in the former terraces of King Piya in Al-Kurru. The name of Alara, as well as the name of his wife, his sister Kasaka, appears in the obelisk of their daughter, Piya's wife, Princess Tapiri. In this obelisk, Al-Ara was called the leader “Oro”, which is the same title given to him by Taharqa in two obelisks found in a niche. Taharqa was the nephew of the venerable Al-Ara. After that, Alara is mentioned in the texts of the two kings, Eriki Amanoti 431–405 BC. And Nestasen 335-310 BC. As a king. However, the name of Alara is surrounded in these texts by the royal cartouche. Here a question may arise about the difference in his title, especially since the Piya Obelisk clearly distinguished between the titles of leader, ruler, and king.

Of course, it is not possible to give a definite answer at the present time, but it seems that during the Ara period the process of unifying Kush had not been completed or had only just been completed, and therefore the Ara could not call himself king as Kashta and Piya after him did with all the legitimacy. Alara was satisfied with the title of his ancestors, as was the case during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Later, with the establishment of the family, the distant descendants of Alara bestowed upon him the honor of kingship, confirming at the same time that they bestowed the title on themselves, confirming it. It is difficult to determine the northern extension of the Kingdom of Napata during the Ara era, and there is a possibility that part of Lower Nubia, if not all of it, belonged to it. As for its southern borders, it may have extended to Meroe (Al-Bajrawiya), where burials were found that match those of the Kurru dating back to the Ara period. Certainly, the lining was absorbed into the Kingdom of Napata during the days of Kashta and Piya, and this is confirmed by the Meroe names, as it was the name of two commanders in Piya’s army, Limerescane and Irikatakana, and the governor of the Egyptian city of Thebes during the period of Piya’s rule was named Kalbaskin, and Meroic names are frequently mentioned during the reign of King Aspalta. In an inscription found in Samna, the name of an early Kushite queen, Kadimalu (Karimala in another reading), was mentioned, indicating that the lining had become united with Napata through intermarriage. The researcher Morkot pointed out that the emergence of the Napata Kingdom was the result of the civil war that broke out between the Kushite sheikhdoms competing for power, and the result of dynastic intermarriage between a number of leaders of the different sheikhdoms Morkot, 1994. We believe that the currently available data confirms that the city was contained under the authority of the Napata Kingdom in a period prior to Napata’s seizure of Egypt. To achieve such containment, it was necessary to have either a political alliance, prisoner intermarriage, or intense military activity. But what are the benefits of expanding south? Is it only the agricultural and pastoral wealth hidden in Butana? We believe that in addition to all of this, luxury goods such as ebony, ivory, leather, etc. have always been important in trade exchange operations with Egypt and the rest of the outside world. KadimaloMorkot,1994

Records of Assyrian expansion in West Asia indicate goods provided by coastal sea cities. Among these were monkeys and other exotic imports, but ebony, ivory and elephant skins were the most important among them. The period of the tenth - eighth centuries BC witnessed. The ivory industry flourished in West Asia in all the coastal Phoenician cities and the cities of northern Syria. It is now known that the local Syrian elephant had become extinct before that date, and therefore we have to ask about the source of that ivory. The material indicates that the ivory made there is from the African forest elephant. Trade between Egypt and the city of Byblos is witnessed in the era of the two Pharaohs Sheshenq I and Isarkon I, as well as in later times with Ashdod, Sidon, and Tir. Regardless of whether elephant skins and ivory were brought to West Asia via the Nile to Egypt initially or directly via the Red Sea route, the source had to be the savannah of central Sudan.

Assyrian antiquities, which do not receive attention in the specialized writings written by Egyptian studies scholars interested in the history of Kush, raise many questions. Many pieces of evidence point to the foreign contribution to cavalry and chariots in the Assyrian army. Among these pieces of evidence refer to the Kushite Kor-ku-Sasa horses used to pull large chariots, and later inscriptions described these horses as large in size. In addition to the Kushite horses, the inscriptions referred to several Kushite horses, and also indicated the presence of the Kushites in the Assyrian court as early as the era of Tiglath-pilesar as horse specialists Morkot, 1994. We believe that linking the Kushite evidence with the Assyrian evidence, which we will not elaborate on here, indicates that the Kushites were raising and exporting horses, and it seems that the Dongola region was the ideal place to practice such an activity. We must not forget that in early modern times Dongola was a center for horse breeding, and that Mak Dongola paid tribute in horses to the Funj Sultan in Sennar. Morkot,1994

The Twenty-fifth Kushite Dynasty in Egypt Family

We will now try to discuss the biography of the Kushite dynasty from the early millennium BC. The achievements of one or two members of that dynasty are generally mentioned in the literature on ancient history, and the reader interested in the history of the Nile Valley can find the same names in books on the history of ancient Egypt. The names of Piya, Shabaka, Shabataka, Taharqa, and Tanot-Amani seem ordinary because they ruled Egypt as kings of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty around 747-600 BC. As for the names of Anlamani, Aspalta, Eriki Amanoti, Harseutef, and Nesta-Sen, who were kings of Kush after the times of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, they are associated with Egyptian studies scholars with hieroglyphic inscriptions of an unusual style that considered them savage. The interpretation of the emergence of the Kushite dynasty and its political and cultural achievements is still varied in specialized studies. After a period characterized by cautious appreciation of what was believed to be Kushite creativity in Egyptian culture in the period of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, recent writings on the Egyptian late period tend to a specific reformulation of that appreciation, or as one of those writers says, “The revival of what was previously considered Sayite and then Kushite can now be viewed as having begun in divided Egypt in the eighth century BC.” Leahy,1992. While we agree with such a statement, a complete denial of the existence of Kushite traditions or aspects in the culture of Egypt in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty seems unjustified. It appears that the misunderstanding inherent in the research of specialists in ancient Egyptian studies regarding the archaeological and documentary evidence of the history of Kush comes from insufficient attention to what is not Egyptian. In his Encyclopedia of the History of Ancient Egypt, the Egyptian historian emphasized the error of this closed vision and wrote: “The reality is that the Kush kings, who established for themselves a great kingship in their country, carried out a comprehensive national renaissance in Egypt and Kush that had a far-reaching impact in reviving the Nile Valley again and restoring its ancient glory, after it had remained dormant for centuries in the wake of the fall of the modern state. This revival dealt with all religious, economic, social, and artistic aspects. The Twenty-fifth Dynasty consists of them, and they all led the Renaissance, which is truly the last attempt in ancient times to restore Egypt’s pride and dignity. Selim Hassan continues, saying that the art of sculpture during the reign of the Kushite King Shabaka “began to flourish clearly, as artists began carving statues of kings and great people in a way that mimics nature devoid of all adornment, and at varying ages. We have statues of some statesmen depicting them in youth, old age, and old age, with their faults and virtues.   Selim Hassan, 2000. Thus, Selim Hassan links the emergence of the realistic school in Egyptian art to the influences Kushite. We hint here that the emergence of realism in art must have been linked to the existence of a degree of intellectual freedom that allows artists to express freely and without restrictions imposed by political authority. Salim Hassan

Succession of Kush kings pursuit

The succession of the Kushite kings who founded the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty in the history of ancient Egypt is now agreed upon and there is no dispute about it, but there is still a lack of agreement regarding the dates. The only accurate reference is contained in a text in the Serapeum that proves the death of Taharqa in the same year in which Psamtik I ascended the throne, that is, the year 636 BC. Since Taharqa ruled for 26 years, the year of his accession to the throne becomes 689 BC. Currently, most researchers almost read the following historical table of the succession of rulers of this Kushite dynasty who ruled Egypt:

The background image shows the Gebel Barkal temples

The activities of the pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty were reflected in a series of diverse sources, and we know more about them than we do about the kings that followed them. By comparing the texts of Shabaka, Shaptaka, Taharqa, and Tanut-Amani with the annals of the Assyrian kings and various excerpts from the Bible, as well as what can be deduced from architectural and artistic monuments, we can in many cases uncover the historical reality. For a long time, the genealogy of the kings of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty remained unclear, and there is no doubt that such a chain is important for determining dates and the frequency of events, which has been determined, albeit indefinitely in some details.

L.Török, The Emergence of the Kingdom of Kush and her Myth of the State in the First Millennium B.C.,-In: F.Geus (assembled): ‘Nubia Thirty Years Later’. Pre-publication of main papers, Society for Nubian Studies eighth Internatinal Conference, Sept,1994. Lille.

И.С.Кацнельсон, Напата и Мероэ древние государства Судана. Москва

R.Morkot, The Foundations of the Kushite State: a response to the paper of Laszló Török. In: F.Geus (assembled): Nubia Thirty Years Later. Society for Nubian Studies Eighth International Conference 11-17 septembre 1994, pre-publication of main papers. Lille.

A.Leahy, Royal Iconography and Dynastic Change, 750-525 BC: The Blue and Cap Crowns.- Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 78.

Salim Hassan 2000, Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Part Eleven, Egyptian General Book Authority, Cairo.

Piya and the Kushite masters of Egypt