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THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
ITS HISTORY AND MONUMENTS
5,3^15^.
THE
EGYPTIAN SUDAN
ITS HISTORY AND MONUMENTS
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, M.A., Litt.D., D.Litt., Lit.D.
FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES IN THE
BRITISH MUSEUM
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. IT.
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. Limited
Dryden House, 43, Gerrard Street, London, \Y. 1907
LONDON : ■ HV (ilLP.KRT AND RIVINGTON LTD. •UN'S HOUSE, CLEKKKN'WKI.L, K.C.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOL. II.
PART 11.— (Continued). CHAPTER IV.
PAGE
The Rise of the Nubian or Sudan! Kingdom of
P IAN Kill
CHAPTER V.
The Successors of Piankhi 27
CHAPTER VI.
The Successors of Tanuath-Amen . 56
CHAPTER VII.
The Successors of Piankhi 83
CHAPTER VIII.
The Sudan in the Ptolemaic Period .... 104
CHAPTER IX.
The Nubian Kingdom on the Island of Meroe . .114
CHAPTER X.
The Sudan in the First Century before, and the
First Century after, Christ 153
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI.
I 'ACE
The SudAn in the Roman Period . . [66
CHAPTER XII.
The Muhammadan Invasion and Occupation of the
Sudan . . . [84
CHAPTER XIII. The Rule of Muhammad \\u and his Descendants
IN THE SUDAN ........ 209
CHAPTER XIV.
The Mahdj in the Sudan 240
( HAPTER XV. Christianity in the Northern Sudan .... 288 Appendix to chapter xv. — the inscription of silko,
KING OF I Hi: NOBADAE
CHAPTER XVI.
Christianity in the SudAn. Modern Missionary Enterprise •
CHAPTER XVII. The Gold Mines of the SudAn 324
CHAPTER XVIII. Tin Modes n ....
CHAPTER XIX. Tiir. British en the SUdAn ..... 448
Bibliography of the SudAn ... 515
vi
57 J
LIST OF PLATES
VOLUME II.
Harua, an official of Queen Amenartas, holding statues of Hathor and
Tefnut
Ornamentation of the Egypto-Roman Temple at Nagaa Scene from north wall of Temple A at Nagaa Scene from west wall of Temple A at Nagaa .
Doorway of a Temple at Nagaa
Cailliaud's plan of Temples, &c, at Masawwarat As-Sufra Lepsius' plan of Temples, &c, at Masawvvarat As-Sufra . "Anak" in Eastern Desert drawing water "Anak" dwellings at Gebel Maraan ....
" Anak " house at Gebel Maman
Scenery in Kordofan .......
Major Marchand in Steam-launch Faidherbe at Fashoda Fashoda — Major Marchand's house and guns .
Agar Dinka woman at Shambi
Shilluks at the American Mission on the Sobat River
Conquest of Nubia by Rameses II
Payment of tribute by Nubians to the King of Egypt's representative Plan of gold mines in the Eastern Sudan worked in the reign of Seti I View of Gondokoro in 1905 Kagera River .....
Native hut on the White Nile . Tawfikiya ......
Floating sudd on the White Nile Woman grinding dhiirra at Kiro Women washing clothes at Lado
Gondokoro
Natives in an ambatch canoe .
Woman drawing water at Omdurman
Cotton spinners at Omdurman
Shilluks on the White Nile resting .
Khor Arab in flood ....
Modern Sudani silver work
Woman of Omdurman
Shilluks at Fashoda.
Altar with Meroi'tic inscription
Sirdar inspecting the construction of the
Nile-Red Sea Railway
Nile-Red Sea Railway near Gebet .
vii
Nile-Red
Sea Railway
406,
138 142 144 ■46 148 150
174 176 178 231
279 280 284 320
325 326
335 349 352 375 378 379 38i 382 384 386 394 396 398 400 408 428 434 444 476 478 480
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
VOLUME II.
PAGE
Portrait of Shabaka
Portrait of Shabataka
Shrine with seated figure of Amen- Rfi
Relief on altar of Tirhakah .... .36
Rowol roped together
Tirhakah offering to Amen '' .43
Stele with account of the Dream of Tanuath- Amen 47
Stele with account of the coronation of K:
Stele with account of dedication of gifts to Amen-Ra at Napata by
King Aspelta and his Queen
Stele with Edict against Eaters of Raw Meat at Gebel Barkal 71
Reliefs and text from Stele of Heru-Sa-Atef ... jj
Reliefs and opening lines of stele of Nastasenen, or s-
5 on Nile near Ad-Damar 103
Sudan Elephant
Portrait of Ra-Mer-Ka Amen-Tarit . ...
Remains of Temple on east bank of Nile near 'Amara 122
Plan of Temple of 'Amara
olumns of Temple at V 124
Portrait of ! len 125
Metek-Amen : fi Queen Amen-Tarit :,from altar at \V. 127
of Temple at Outline of remains of Temples a .... 129
who built Ten and hei Consort slaughfc
their
>uis pillar in shrine of Amen-h.etep II.'s lime God worshipped at Na aa Lion-hi from a lotu s i
Lion banner of Queen Amen-Tarit . 1
; .! IV.
140
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
Bi
ildi
Amen-Tarit
Netek-Amen
God worshipped at Nagaa (Jupiter Sarapis ?) .
Ark-Teten
Egypto-Roman Temple at Nagaa . Plans of Temple E, F, and G at Nagaa . Sculptures on columns of Great Temple at Nagaa
River Atbara
KhorArab
Papyrus on Bahr Al-Gebel .... View of village of Kassam, near Fazogli, in 1837 View of the Blue Nile, near Fazogli, in 1837 . Gebel Kasala, as seen from the New Government
View of Al-Obed in 1837
Ripon Falls, Victoria Nyanza ....
Victoria Nyanza at the Ripon Falls .
Five-piastre note of Gordon ....
Twenty-piastre pieces of the Khalifa
Transport of gunboats by railway .
Mahdi's Tomb, Omdurman, before the bombardment
Bahr Al-Gebel at Kiro and Mongalla
Pyramids of Meroe .....
Plan of church in the Christian monastery in the Wadi Al-G
Christian monastery in the Wadi Al-Ghazal
Ruined church at Siedever .... Plan of gold mines of the reign of Rameses II.
Southern Sudan and district of the Great Lakes
Ankoli district mountains ....
Lake Albert Edward
View on the Semliki River ....
Upper Fall on Wakki River ....
Junction of the Asua River with the Bahr Al-Gebel
Sobat River
River Abai, from bridge of Agam Ueldi .
Abai near Lake Sana ....
Lake Sana ......
Abai Rapids
Portuguese bridge at Agam Deldi .
Fola Rapids on Bahr Al-Gebel
Cataract at Semna and Kumma
Fashoda
River Bank at Bor
Lado
Earthquake Hill
azal
44. 1
1
PACK I40 I40 141 143 M3
45, 146
49, 151 161 162 171 215 215 216 217 219 219 251 267 269 277 283 287 300 301 305 337 344 352 353 354 355 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 367 369 377 381 382 383
IX
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
Murchison Falls on Victoria Nile
Khartum and Onidurman
Palace at Khartum .
Mosque at Khartum .
Sudani silver-work cigarette case
Sawakin
Gordon Gate, Sawakin
Sawakin Bazaar
Main street, Sawakin
Dongolawi merchant
Sudani woman ....
Sudani young man .
Sudani man ....
Sudani woman ....
Sudani maiden ....
Sudani youth of Negro origin .
Sudani woman wearing the rahat
Meroitic inscriptions
Altar with Meroitic inscription .
IIalfa-Abu-1 lamed Railway
Sudan Railways
The Driver of the "Gedaref" .
American engine on the JJalfa-Abu-I lamed Railway
A shady resting-place
Atbara-Sawakin Railway .
Railway shops, Sawakin .
Material train Leaving Sawakin
Laying the Atbara-Red Sea Railway
Sir W. Garstin's proposed Canal in the Sudan
PAGE
385
392
393
395
405 408 409 410
4'i 418
419
421
423 425 426 427 4«9 444 445 464 465 4'>7 468 469 474 475 476 477 4«5
PART II.
[continued]
A HISTORY
OF THE
EGYPTIAN SUDAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN,
CHAPTER IV.
THE RISE OE THE NUBIAN OR SUDANI KINGDOM OF
PIANKHl.
After the departure of the priests of Amen from Thebes to seek a refuge for their god and themselves at Napata, the condition of affairs in Egypt passed from bad to worse, and no man was able to make himself truly the king of Egypt. In Upper Egypt disturbances broke out everywhere, .and such influence as the priests who remained at Thebes possessed was used by them to thwart every attempt of the kings of the North to increase their power in the South. In the Delta itself the authority of the Rubastite kings was lightly regarded, and little by little each governor of a large city arrogated to himself the authority of a king. Taking advantage of these circumstances, the native princes of Napata soon made themselves independent rulers of Nubia, and by degrees their authority was recognized over a tract of country which extended from the First Cataract in the north to the Blue Nile in the south. Under the influence of the priests of Amen who had settled in their capital and had established on a firm base the worship of the Nubian Amen, they began to regard Thebes in Egypt and the country between that city and the First Cataract as parts of their kingdom, and they spared no pains in trying to turn the fertile Dongola province into a copy of Upper Egypt, which, indeed, in many particulars it closely resembled.
VOL. II. i b
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
The time was ripe for the making of this attempt, and the
population of this portion of the Nile Valley, containing as it did
a large Egyptian element, was ready and willing to be ruled
rding to the laws of Egypt, with the civilization and religion
and manners and customs of which they had been familiar for
ab »ut fifteen centuries. Since the time of Aniemhrtep II.
Napata had been regarded as a second Thebes by the Nubians, and we may be sure that when l.ler-lleru usurped the title of "' Prince of Kash," the act had a profound political as weli as religious signification. Whilst the petty kings in the Delta were fighting among themselves, and the chiefs in Upper Egypt were striving for sovereignty, the princes ^\ Nubia were consolidating their power, and apparently waiting for a favourable opportunity of making a descent upon Egypt. The kings of the North were far too much occupied with their own affair- to have either time or attention to give to the Sudan, and. as they had not stiff] power to take over the gold mines and work them as a govern- ment monopoly, that country interested them butlittle, and it was from the interference of Egypt ial generation?.
About the year B.C 750 there reigned at Napata a Nubian king called Piankhi.1 Of his origin and of the circumstances which brought him to tin.1 throne we know nothing, though his name sts that ther< Egyptian blood in him, ami he
may well have been a descendant of the great Theban royal line of which Amen was the ancestor. We may note in passing that on a pillar in the temple which he built at Gebel Barkal he styles himself the " son of Bast,'" i.e., the greal goddess of the city of Bubastis in the Delta, but it is difficult to see how he could be ci>w- 1 with that city, lie this as it may, he enclosed his name in a uche, he adopted the prenomen Usr-Maat Ra,8 which he also
rtouche, and placed in front of it the title ^\{fa
Suten Bat, which Mena., the first king of Egypt, used to express
1 Probablj the irapfiovs <>l Manetho.
•jre of Bast which appears to hav ■ ted to the goddi ikhi and his wi e Kenensat ; >ee Pierret,
44-
.( -.. *^lf° fM_4
PIANKHI
his sovereignty over the South and the North, and he styled himself "Meri Amen " (beloved of Amen), son of Bast." These facts are interesting, for they prove that a Nubian prince of Napata in the eighth century before Christ endeavoured to connect himself with the ancient monarchy of the Pharaohs, and used their titles, apparently not realizing their exact signification, and, it may be added, his absurdity in doing so, and described himself as the son of an alien goddess, and the ".beloved " of a foreign god. He also called himself " son of Ra." In Northern Nubia we see on the reliefs in the temples built by the kings of Egypt figures of Tetun, certainly one of the oldest gods of Nubia, if not the oldest, but nowhere in Piankhi's inscription, or on his buildings, is there any mention of this god, and it is clear from this fact that Amen had been made to absorb the attributes of the indigenous gods of the country, and had become the " king of the gods " in Nubia as in Egypt. In the Sudan, as in Egypt, Amen appears in the form of a man, wearing a pair of high feathers on his head, or as a man with a ram's head, or as a ram, and the Nubians never confounded him with the ram-headed god Khnemu, who was especially worshipped in the Cataracts. The horns of the species of ram sacred to Khnemu project horizontally from the sides of his head, whilst those of the ram sacred to Amen curl down on each side of the animal's face. As Piankhi assumed the titles of the ancient kings of Egypt, so his Queen Kenensat also adopted the titles of the ancient queens, and her name was enclosed within a cartouche;1 of her origin likewise nothing is known, but her name does not appear to be Egyptian.2
The greatest event in the life of Piankhi was his expedition to Egypt, of which he caused a lengthy account to be cut upon a massive block of black basalt and set up in a temple built by him at Gebel Barkal ; this object was found by an Egyptian officer in the Sudan in 1862, and was subsequently brought with great difficulty to Cairo, where it is now preserved in the Museum of
Thus, D ^
^
mMim
- The title of the goddess Bast worshipped by herself and her husband is it at cli taut
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
Egyptian Antiquities.1 The text is the longest and fullest of any Nubian king known to us, and is of the greatest interest and value for the history of the period. It should, of course, be remembered that it is only a one-sided statement of facts, but, on tlie other hand, it is the sole authority on Piankhi's conquest of Egypt, and as such must be highly prized. The Stele of Piankhi is about 5 feet 10 inches high, 6 feet wide, and I foot 4 inches thick, and the text tills one hundred and fifty-nine lines. On the face of the rounded part of the stele v Lmen seated, and
behind him the goddess Mut ; before him stands the king receiving the address which is made to him by Nemareth, who is bringing a horse as a gift. At the feet of Piankhi kneel three kings, and behind the goddess are five more; the name of each is above him. The narrative set^ forth that Piankhi, the sou of Ra, the Counterpart of Tern, and the offspring of a god, was a suten, i.e.. king from his mother's womb, and that a certain man came to him and reported that the whole of the North of Egypt was in revolt, that Tafnekhth, a local chief of the town of Neter in the Delta. had first seized the whole country as far as Memphis, and had then sailed up the Nile with a large number of soldiers, and th.it tlu- governors of the great cities of Medum, Oxyrhynchus, Crocodilopolis, and other cities on the west bank of the Nile, had thrown open their gates and received him. This done, Tafnekhth
.I the river, and several cities on the east bank submitted to him in a similar manner. The only one that stood out against Tafnekhth was I lerakleopolis, the governor of which was
haa-Bast ; this he besieged vigorously, and in a very short time no one could either come out of it or go into it. When Piankhi received this intelligence it must have been clear to him that Tafnekhth was tlu kind of man to succeed, and to force his
southwards until he had Thebes at his mercy, but Piankhi
appears t<> have taken no steps to arrest his pr< >■ Later
moreover, we find from the narrative that the heads of the civil
and military powers in all the cities of Egypt sent frequent mes-
to Piankhi. begging him not " to keep silent," for otherwise
i the text, see Mariette, Man. Divers^ plates i.-vi. It was first translated ee Ckrestomathie K^yptie?uh\ Fasc. iw. Pan's, 1876). htc. 1877, pp. 676-707, and its English translation, hte, p. 564 ff.
4
PIANKHI INVADES EGYPT
all the nomes of Middle Egypt and the Land of the South would fall into the hands of Tafnekhth. They reported also that king Nemareth, after resisting for some time, had at length thrown in his lot with Tafnekhth.
Matters now appeared to be serious, so Piankhi sent a message to his generals Puarma and Lamersekni, who were stationed in Egypt, and commanded his forces there, to go and seize all the men and cattle, and all the boats on the river, to stop all work in the fields and to draw up a force before the nome of Hermopolis in order to check the advance of Tafnekhth. From this state- ment it is clear that there must have been a force of Nubian troops stationed somewhere on the southern border of Egypt, which was always ready to defend Piankhi's interest in Upper Egypt. Piankhi sent his soldiers some excellent advice, and bade them fight in the way in which they were accustomed to fight, and with boldness, because they were fighting for Amen. He also bade them perform religious ceremonies when they arrived at Thebes, so that Amen, who was able to make one man to capture a thousand, may give them his potent help. His advice is so paternal that he even provides them with a formula of prayer to Amen, which runs : —
" O open thou the way before us, and
" Let us fight under the shadow of thy sword ; for
" A child, if he be sent forth by thee,
" Shall overcome him that hath overcome multitudes." Piankhi's soldiers returned him a suitable answer, and vowed that in his name they would do great things. When they arrived at Thebes they worshipped Amen according to their instructions, and then they embarked in their boats and sailed down the river. On their way they met a force of Tafnekhth's sailing up, and a fight took place in which the Nubians were victorious, capturing many boats and prisoners, and so destroying Tafnekhth's chance of reducing Herakleopolis. Piankhi's troops then marched on to the relief of Herakleopolis, and when they arrived there they found that the siege was being directed by Tafnekhth him- self, assisted by Nemareth, Auapeth, Shashanq, and several other chiefs, including the governors of Busiris, Mendes, Hermopolis Parva, and Bubastis. The Nubians attacked the confederates without delay, and defeated them and captured several of their
5
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
boats, but a remnant managed to escape, and succeeded in finding refuge at Pa-pek, which, as Prof. Maspero has pointed out, may well be near the modem Al-Ffika'i. At dawn the next morning the Nubians left their boats and marched agains.t the foe, and, according to Piankhi, his soldiers slew such a large number of men and horses that it was impossible to count them. The remainder fled, having suffered the "worst and most disastrous "defeat which they had ever known."
Meanwhik: Xemareth escaped and went to HermOpolis, and having gathered together the people and the cattle, he went with them into the city and entrenched himself behind its earthworks, and here Piankhi's soldiers found him when they arrived. They surrounded Hermopolis, and then sent to report to their master what they had done. When Piankhi received the news he me like a panther in a rage, and swore by Amen that as soon as he had performed the festival ceremonies of that god at Thebes, he would come in person, and make "the Land of '• the North to taste the taste of his claws." Leaving a force to Hermopolis, the remainder of the Nubians set out to attack Oxyrhynchus, and having captured the city with all the fury of a water-flood, they sent a report to this effect to Piankhi, but the king's wrath was not appeased. They next attacked Tatehen and captured it, beating down its walls with a battering ram: they killed many of its inhabitants, include son ofTafnekhth, but when they sent the report of their success to the king his wrath was not appeased. They next attacked Hipponon, and captured it. but still the king was not satisfied.
On tlie ninth day of the month Thoth (August- September) Piankhi set out from Napata, and came down quickly on the the inundation to Tii bes. Having performed all the ceremonies, and made all the- offerings proper for the New festivals, In- re-embarked and went on to Hermopolis. Me left his boat, and mounted his chariot, and attacked the city at the of his troops, and the enemy trembled lie had his tent pitched to the south-west of the city, and made his soldiers build earthworks, stiffened with poles, up to the level of the tops of the walls, and. having caused wooden shelt on these
he filled them with archers and slingers, who poured their missiles among the people and slew many of them. After three days
6
PIANKH1 INVADES EGYPT
Hermopolis capitulated, and Nemareth sent messengers, laden with rich gifts, to offer his submission to Pifmkhi ; he also sent his queen and her women to entreat for mercy from the Nubian queen and princesses and ladies, who had accompanied the Nubian king to Egypt. In due course Nemareth himself appeared, leading a horse with one hand and holding a sistrum in the other, and, having made a suitable speech, he offered to Piankhi rich tribute. Having made an offering to Thoth, the great god of the city, Piankhi went through the palace and the storehouses of Nemareth, and had all their contents brought out before him, including the ladies of the royal harim, but on these last he did not look at all. Then he passed on to the royal stud farm, and when he found that the brood mares and foals had been allowed to go hungry, he swore by the Sun-god that he considered this neglect of the horses to be the very worst of all the offences which Nemareth had committed. Piankhi divided the spoil of Hermopolis into two lots , one he gave to Amen, and the other he kept for himself. At this time Pef-tchaa- Bast, governor of Herakleopolis, also brought tribute, including a number of very fine horses. He tendered his submission in picturesque words, saying that he had fallen deep down into hell, and was buried in the blackness of night, when the light of Piankhi fell upon him, and his darkness was rolled away, &c.
Piankhi then passed on to Al-Lahim, which submitted to him, and he thus became master of the Fayyum ; the son of Tafnekhth was allowed to march out with his followers unmolested. Medum and Thet-taui also opened their gates to Piankhi, and then he was able to go straight on to Memphis. Here, however, the gates were shut against him. He found some means of address- ing the people of the city, and told them that if they let. him in he would offer sacrifice to Ptah and Seker, and then sail down the river, and that not even a child should cry out in alarm. 1 hese words the people did not believe, and they kept their gates fast shut, and, when they found a few Nubian artificers who were examining the quay, or the harbour, separated from the main body of the Nubian army, they fell upon them and killed them. One night Tafnekhth appeared and addressed the garrison of Memphis, which numbered 8,000 men, and pointed out to them how well the place was provisioned, and how strongly it was
7
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
fortified, and he advised them to offer resistance to Piankhi, at all events until he (Tafnekhth) returned. He then mounted his horse and rode away. Tin- next morning Piankhi went to the
side of the city and examined the fortifications, and he found them very strong. When his soldiers saw them they made up their minds that the city could only be taken by casting up mounds against it, and attacking it under cover of wooden towers; but Piankhi thought otherwise, and ordering his boats to advance, they dashed in among the vessels which lined the quay sides, and as the water was up to the walls, their bows projected over them into the city. From the bows of the boats the soldiers leaped into the city, and captured it with all the force of a water-flood. At dawn next day the king sent men to protect the temples, and then he went and made an offering to the gods, and he purified the city, and made sacrifices to Ptah and Seker. At this time Auapeth, and Merkanshu, and Peta- Ast tendered their submission and brought him gifts. The following day Piankhi crossed the river to Kher-Aha and sacrificed to Temu, and then he went on to Heliopolis to perform ceremonies in honour of the gods there. He first purified himself by bathing his face in the Sun Well, and then he offered up white oxen. &C, to Ra. He entered the temple of Ra, ami prayed many prayers there, and the high-priest also prayed on his behalf. This done, he asperged and censed himself, and then, taking with him flowers and perfume, he mounted the steps of the shrine, and opened the doors of the ark, and saw Ra face t<> face. He then adored the Boats of Ra and Tern, and, having shut the doors of the ark and sealed them, he ordered the priests
t no other king enter the sanctuary. Piankhi was thus acknowledged king of Egypt by the god Amen-Ka. and all the people knew that they must tender to him their submission as the god's vice-gerent upon earth. The following day the Erpa Peta-Ast submitted and paid him large tribute, and fifteen other kings, and dukes, and governors followed his example.
Meanwhile Tafnekhth, the leader of the rebellion, dismantled
Unifications, set tire to his treasure-houses, and, taking his soldiers with him, fled to the city of M,st. Thither Piankhi sent soldiers under the Erpa P< fca-Ast, and they slew every man they
PIANKHI LORD OF EGYPT
found there. Tafnekhth seems to have escaped to some place among the salt lagoons near the sea-coast, and from this place he sent an envoy bearing his submission. He acknowledged his faults in picturesque language, and bagged Piankhi not to punish him according to his deserts ; in weighing his offences he begs the king to hold the scales of his judgment in such a way that such merit as he possesses by reason of his submission, and his suffer- ings and misery, may tell in his favour as much as possible. Finally, he said he was ready to pay tribute to Piankhi and to swear an oath of allegiance, and he asked the king to send an envoy to receive the tribute, and to hear him swear the oath. This Piankhi did, and Tafnekhth went into the house of his god, and in the presence of the Nubian commander-in-chief and a high-priest, he swore never to offend again ; this satis- fied Piankhi, who accepted the tribute, and granted peace to Tafnekhth. Soon after this the cities of Cynopolis and Aphrodito- polis submitted to Piankhi, and thus the whole of Egypt was in his power. Finally, two Governors of the North and two of the South, and all the other chiefs of the country, came and tendered their submission in person, but as all save one, Nemareth, were uncircumcised, and were fish-eaters, they were not admitted to the royal tent, and they stood outside in awe, " their legs (trembling) like those of women."
There was nothing further for Piankhi to do. so his boats were loaded with the masses of tribute which had been given to him, and he sailed up the river with a glad heart, the people every- where receiving him with joy. He had added the kingdom of the North, which at its conquest by him extended from the Mediterranean to Asyiit, to his own kingdom of the South, and the Nile Valley so far south as Napata was once more subject to one king, just .as it had been under the XVIIIth Dynasty, only that king was a Sudani instead of an Egyptian. Piankhi did not rule from Thebes as might have been expected, but he returned to Napata with his spoil, a large portion of which fell, no doubt, to the share of the priests of Amen and their god. Probably with the view of commemorating his conquest of Egypt, Piankhi built a large temple on the plain at the foot of Gebel Barkal, which was dedicated to Amen-Ra and the other deities of his triad. It was at least 500 feet long and 135 feet wide, and
9
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
contained two courts, a hypostyle hall, a vestibule, and a sanctuary, which held probably three shrines. The pylon which divided
the first court from the second was decorated with battle-scenes, ssions, &c, copied, no doubt, from the temples of Egypt. 'l"he temple is now a mass of ruins, but thanks to the plans and riptions made by Cailliaud, Hoskins, and Lepsius, when they in a less confused state than now, its general arrangement can be satisfactorily made <>ut. As this has been discussed where in the present work, nothing need be said about it here. It is a moot point whether Piankhi repaired and enlarged a temple erected by one of the great kings of the Wlllth or XlXth Dynasty, or built an entirely new edifice; it seems. however, most probable that he adopted the former course. It is impossible to think that the Thothmes and Amcndietep kings did not build temples in the capital of their Sudan kingdom, especially as under their reigns Napata must have been the great trading centre to which the slaves of the countries <>n the White and Blue Niles, and the gold, red stones, ivory, ebony, ostrich feathers, skins. &c., were brought. Hoskins tells1 us that he found in the burial ground at Merawi a stone bearing one half of the name of Rameses II.: and Lepsius, probably referring to the same that the oldest remains which existed at G
Barkal were confined to '"one temple which Rameses the G
d to Amen-Ra." The occurrence of the name of this king on an isolated block of stone proves nothing beyond th< that some admirer of this king cut his name on it. As a matter of fact. Rameses II. had little interest in Napata, for in the Wadi 'Ulaki, near Dakka, he found a rich gold-producing country which was far nearer Egypt than the mines of the region further south. And we know that his name appears prominently in places \\ here he built nothing.
Piankhi to have neither restored nor built any temples
\ pt : if he did, no traces of them remain. The black basalt
stele on which he caused to be cut the history of his campaign
\ pt tells us nothing concerning his subsequent acts, and
nothing is known about his dealings with the duels further to the south in tin- Sudan, or the system on which he ruled
-' Letters^ \>. 222.
INSCRIPTION OF PIANKHI
his kingdom. The one document which he has left us is, how- ever, most valuable, and its contents are of more than ordinary interest ; moreover, the information which it gives us is not to be obtained elsewhere. No other Nubian king has supplied us with such a full account of the chief events of his reign, and that the reader may be able to judge of his narrative in a consecutive form, an English rendering of it is here appended. A few passages are obscure to modern investigators of it, and the mean- ings of some of the words in it are not yet known accurately, but the general sense of the document is quite clear, and it proves that the Nubian Piankhi was no mere savage conqueror, but a man endowed with a full belief in his divine origin, a capable and energetic soldier, and a ruler who, in the hour of his triumph, exhibited moderation in his dealings with the vanquished, and who knew how to respect the temples and gods of Egypt, and the civil and religious institutions of the country whence his own civilization, and religion, and laws were drawn.
Translation of the Inscription of Piankhi Meri Amen, King of the Egyptian Sudan, about b.c. 730.
On the first day of the month Thoth, in the twenty-first year of
the reign of the king of the South and North C Piankhi-meri-Amen 1 ,
the ever-living, His Majesty pronounced the~[following] words : Hearken ye to the things which I have done more than [my] ancestors. I am a suten (king), the emanation of God, and the living counterpart of Tern ; [when I] came forth from the womb I was decreed (literally, written down) to be a ruler (heg) who should strike fear into his chiefs. I was recognized as a ruler by my mother when I was in the egg (i.e., in embryonic state), and as a well-doing god, and the beloved of the gods, the son of Ra, the
work of his hands ( Piankhi-meri-Amen J.
One came and said unto His Majesty : " The governor of the " country of the West (Amentet), the great duke (ha) in the city of " Neter (Sais), Tafnekhth, [hath made himself master] in the nome " of . . ■ . , in the nome Ka-heseb, in Hap, in An, in Pa-nub, and " in White Wall (Memphis) ; he hath taken possession of the whole " of the West Country, from the region of the swamps (on the "north) to Thet-taui [a district of Memphis]; he hath sailed up "the river with a large number of soldiers, and all the lands on "both sides of the Nile have joined themselves unto him, and the
n
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
"dukes and the governors of the towns and cities which have " temples in them guard his feet like so many dogs. None of the
" cities which are fortified hath shut its gates against him in
" the nomes of the south. The city of Nfer-Tem, the city of Pa-Ra- " sekhem-kheper, the city of Xeter-het-Sebek (Crocodilopolis), the "city of Pa-Matchet (Oxyrhynchus), the city of Thekansh, and i \- town in the West Country, have unbolted their gates, by "reason of their fear of him. Then he betook himself to the " nomes of the East Country, and they also opened theirgates before "him, namely, IJet-Bennu Ilipponon), Taiutchait, Suten-^et and •• Pa-n< -b-ti-p-iihet (Aphroditopolis) ; verily [thus have they "done]. He hath also beleaguered Suten-henen (Herakleopolis), "and he hath completely surrounded it.1 Of those who want to "come out none cometh out, and of those who would go into it " none goeth in by reason of the fighting which goeth on each day "(or, all day long) He hath invested the city closely at e "point, and every duke (ha) knoweth the portion of the wall " [which he is to attack]. He hath allowed every man among "the dukes and the governors of cities, which have temples in "them, to dwell in his own district. [These things hath he done] " by reason of the arrogance of his rebellious heart, and his heart is " swollen with pride and joy."
And moreover, the chiefs, and the dukes, and the generals of the army which were in every town were sending mes- to His Majesty every day, saying: "If thou keepest silence "in this matter then all the Land of the South, and the "nomes of Middle Egypt, will be lost; Tafnekhth carrieth all "before him, and findeth none to resist him. Nemareth . . . . "the duke of I.Iet-urt hath thrown down the fortifications of "'the city of Neferus, and hath himself laid waste his own town. " being afraid that Tafnekhth will capture it; but when he was "besieged by him in another city, verily he departed and "became a watcher of his feet. Nemareth hath now forsaken His "Majesty ami hath become an adherent of Tafnekhth, whom he /eth, and Tafnekhth hath handed over to him the nome of "Oxyrhynchus, and hath given to him everything that his heart sireth."
Then His Majesty sent messages to the dukes and to the Commanders-in-chief who were in Egypt, namely to the general Puarma, and the general Lamersekni, and t<> every general of His Majesty in Egypt, telling them to go quickly with boldness, and set in array the battle .... and to seize the men, and the cattle, and the barges which were on the river, and to prevent the labourers from going out to the fields, and to stop every ploughman from ploughing the land, and t<> beleaguer closely the country in front of the nome of Un (Hermopolis), and to fight against it each day. And thus did they.
1 Literally, " he hath made himself like a serpenf with [its] tail in [itsj mouth."
IJ
INSCRIPTION OF PIANKHI
Then His Majesty made soldiers march into Egypt, and gave them strict commands, saying: "Ye shall not [pass] the night in "pleasure,1 but as soon as ye see that he hath set his troops in " marching order, do battle with him. If any man shall say, He " hath marched his infantry and cavalry to another city, then abide "ye where ye are until his soldiers arrive. Attack ye when one " shall tell you that he is with his forces in another town, and let ' ' the dukes whom he hath brought to help him be gathered together, " [and] let the Thehennu (Libyans), [and] as many soldiers as he " pleaseth muster [where they will], and let the battle be set in " array according to ancient custom. And say, We do not know " how to command him, and to give orders to his soldiers, and to "harness the finest horses of the stable. Then fight in battle "boldly, for we know that it is the god Amen who hath sent us "forth. And when ye arrive at the sanctuary of Uast (Thebes), " opposite the Apts (i.e., Karnak and Luxor), go ye into the water, " and cleanse ye yourselves in the waters of the stream. Undress "yourselves at the head of the lake, unstring your bows, lay aside "your arrows, and let not any chief imagine himself to be the "equal of the lord of two-fold strength, for the strength of no " mighty man shall prevail without his help. Him who is feeble "of arm he maketh strong of arm ; if the enemy be many, he " maketh them to flee before the hand of the impotent man, and " he maketh one man to lead captive a thousand. Wet ye "yourselves in the water of his altars, and smell ye the earth " before him, and say ye unto him ; ' O make thou a way for us, " and let us fight under the shadow of thy sword, for a child, if he " be sent by thee, shall overcome him that hath overcome " multitudes. '"
Then the soldiers cast themselves on their bellies before His Majesty, saying: "Through thy name Amen will work mighty "deeds by us. Thy counsel leadeth thy soldiers, thy bread is in " our bodies on every road, and thy beer quencheth our thirst, "thy might giveth to us the sword of battle, and victory shall " come to us by the mention of thy name. The soldiers who are " led by a captain having unnatural passions shall not stand firm. " Who is like unto thee ? Verily thou art a strong king, thou " workest with thy hands, and thou art the overseer of the opera- " tions of war."
Then the soldiers made their passage down the river, and they arrived at the city of Thebes, and they did everything which His Majesty had commanded them to do. And they continued their journey down the river, and they met several large boats sailing up the river containing soldiers, and sailors, and mighty captains of every kind of the Land of the North, and every man of them was equipped with the weapons of war and ready to do battle with the troops of His Majesty. Then the soldiers of His Majesty
1 De Roug<5 translates: N' (attaquez pas) pendant la nuit,comme pour un jeu.
13
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
inflicted a mighty defeat on them, and slew a countless number, and made pri ; their soldiers, and captured their boats.
and they brought the captives alive to the place where His Majesty was. Then they marched on to the territory before the city of Suten-hem Lkleopolis) in order to set in array the
battle against the dukes and the kings of the Land of the North. that is to ittack king Nemareth, and king Auapeth, and
Shashanq, the chief of the Mashuasha, of the city of Pa-Asar neb- T< t. i.e., Busiris) : and Tchet-Amen-af-ankh, the erreat chief of the Mashuasha, of the city oi Pa-ba-neb-fet (i.e., Mendes) ; and his eldest son who was commander of the Hoops of the city of Pa- Tehuti-ap-rehehui i.e., Hermopolis Parva) , and the soldiers of the Erpa Bakennifi; and his el Nesnaqeti, the chief of the
Mashuasha in the nome of ka-heseb : and every prince who carrieth a fan in the Land of the North ; and king Uasarken, who is in Pa- ■ Bubastis) and the city of Uu-en-Ra-nefert ; and every duke, and every governor of a city wherein there is a temple on the west of the river, and on ti of the river, and in the lands
which art- between them. All these had joined themselves ther, and had become guardians of the feet of Tafnekhth, the chief <-f the Land of the West, the governor of all the temple cities of the Land of the- North, the prophet of Neith, the lady of SaYs, and the settl priest of the god Ptah.
The soldiers of \\\< Majesty marched against them, and they inflicted defeal upon them, the greatest defeat there everwas, and they captured their boats on the river. A remnant of them made their escape and succeeded in reaching a place in the country on the western bank called Pa-pek. As soon as the dawn came on the following morning the soldiers of His Majesty set out to attack them, and they rushed in among them and slew such a large number of men and horses that it was impossible to say how many had died. I hen panic seized the rest of them, and they fled to the Land of the North, having suffered a defeat which was greater and more disastrous than they had ever known.'
And king Nemareth sailed up the river, having been told that
the city of Khemennu I Hermopolis) was [open] before the enemy.
that is, the soldiers of Mis Majesty [Piankhi]. He captured its
ttle, and he himself went into the city of I'm
f His Majesty [Piankhi) were [in boats] on the
on the territory of the nome of In. and
when they heard this, they surrounded the nome of (."n on all its
four sides, and they allowed no man either t<> come in orto go out ;
and they sent mess to announce to His Majesty, the King
of the South and North f Piankhi-meri-Amen J, the life-giver,
each defeat which had been inflicted on the enemy by the forces
1 When complete, the text at this j the number of the people who
nn in tin I) it the figures have either been ei
wittingly, or broken dentally.
14
INSCRIPTION OF PIANKHI
of His Majesty. And His Majesty raged like a panther, and said : " If it should happen that they leave alive a remnant of the soldiers "of the Land of the North, and if any one of them escape to " relate the story thereof, and if they do not slay utterly every one " of them, I swear by my own life, nnd by the love which I bear to " Ra, and by the grace which Father Amen hath shown to me, " that I myself will go down the river and will overthrow every- " thing which he (i.e., Tafnekhth) hath made, and will make him " to retreat from the fight for evermore. When I have performed ''the ceremonies which belong to the Festival of the New Year, "and I have made my offering to Father Amen during his beauti- " ful festival, wherein he maketh his beautiful appearance at " the Festival of the New Year, he shall send me away in peace " to see Amen during the beautiful festival of the Festival of Apt, " and I shall make him to appear in his divine form in the Apt of the " South ' in his beautiful festival of the Festival of the Apt, on the " night of the Festival which is stablished in Thebes, the Festival " which Ra ordained 2 when time began, and I shall make him to " appear in his temple, and he shall take his position on his throne " on the day whereon the god entereth, which is the second day of " the third month of the summer, on that day, I say, will I make " the Land of the North to taste the taste of my fingers."'
Now when the soldiers [of His Majesty Piankhi] who were in Egypt heard of the wrath which His Majesty nursed against them they waged war against the nome of Uaseb at Pa-Matchet (Oxyrhynchus), and they captured it like a water-flood. They sent messengers to His Majesty [to announce this], but his heart was not satisfied thereat. Then they attacked Tatehen,3 which was very strongly fortified, and they found it to be full of mighty men of war of all kinds of the Land of the North. And they constructed a tower 4 to send against it to beat down its walls, and they made so great a slaughter among its people that the dead could not be counted ; among these was the son of Tafnekhth, the prince of the Mashuasha. They sent messengers to His Majesty [to announce this], but his heart was not satisfied thereat. Then they attacked Het Bennu, and it opened its fortress, and the soldiers of His Majesty entered therein. They sent messengers to His Majesty [to announce this], but his heart was not satisfied thereat.
On the ninth day of the first month of the summer, His Majesty set out on his journey and went down the river to Thebes, and he took part in the celebration of the Festival of Amen, the Festival of Apt. Then His Majesty continued his journey down the river to the city of Un. And His Majesty came forth from the cabin of his barge, and he harnessed his horses, and mounted his chariot, and the terror of His Majesty
1 I.e., the temple of Luxor. s Literally, made.
3 A fortress near Memphis. A I.e., a battering ram.
15
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
penetrated even to the remotest parts of the country of the Sati Asia ?), and every heart quaked with the fear of him. And His Majesty rushed forth and threw himself upon those whom his soldier- hated, and he raged at them like a panther, and said : " W ye still continue to fight, and if ye still gainsay my com- "mands, and if ye, moreover, persist in your rebellion I must in " truth put the fear of me in the Land of the North." And he inflicted upon them a terrible defeat, disastrous and crushing.
Then a tent was pitched for him to the south-west of the city of Hermopolis, and he besieged the city every day. lie made heaps of earth to cover the walls, and he set up wooden stagings ale them. And the archers [who were in them] shot forth arrows, and the leathern slings hurled forth stones to kill people [in the city] every day. And it came to pass on the third day that the city of On was in a stinking state, and the people thereof could not breathe by reason of the stench [of the corpses]. Then the city ^l~ I'n cast it>elf upon its belly, and it offered up supplications for mercy before the king (/W, i.e., His Majesty Piankhi . And envoys came forth with things of every kind which were beautiful to look upon, that is to say, gold, precious stones of every kind, and apparel made of the finest linen, [and they said]; "He hath risen! The uraeus is on his brow, he hath 11 placed his terror [in our hearts], and it is unnecessary for us to " allow many days to pass before making supplication to his "crown." '1 hen he [i.e., Nemareth] made his wife to come, tin- wife of a king and the daughter of a king. Nesthentmeh, to make supplication before the queen and loyal concubines, and princesses, and sisters of the king (i.e., of Piankhi), and she cast herself upon her belly in the house of the women, before the queens, saying. " O come with me, queens, and princesses, and . and make ye to be at peace Horus, the lord of the " palace, whose souls are mighty, and whose- word cometh to pass
" with great effect indeed, O come ye "
[Fifteen lines of the text are here broken away]
*' the way of life.1 If I were to ascend into the sky like an
"arrow, I should be [caught by thee. Have submitted to thee] " the countries of the South, and the land of the North bows in "homage before thee. We beseech thee to let us live under "thy shadow .... Not a grown man is seen with his father, thy Domes are tilled with children.'" And he cast himself upon his belly before Hi- Majesty .... saying: "O Horns, "lord of the palace, behold, it is thy souls who have done this " thing unto me. I am one of thy royal vassals, who are bound "to pay tribute into thy treasury, whose tribute thou dost ,pute, but I will pay unto thee more than they all." Then he brought the tribute which had been laid upon him, silver,
Lapis-lazuli, turquoises, copper (?), and [precious] stones of
: This is a part of the speech of the conquered rebel to Piankhi.
INSCRIPTION OF PIANKHI
every kind in large quantities, and he filled the treasure-house with these offerings. He led a horse in his right hand, and in his left he held a sistrum, a sistrum of gold and lapis-lazuli,
Then [Piankhi] rose in his palace, and he came forth and went to the Temple of Thoth, the Lord of the Eight Gods, and he slaughtered oxen, and calves, and geese, to Father Thoth, the Lord of the Eight Gods in the House of the Eight Gods, and the fighting men of the nome of Un [Hermopolis] shouted for joy, and the priests said : " Right well hath Horus, the son of
" Ra, ( Piankhi 1L taken up his place in his town. Thou hast
" made for us a festival inasmuch as thou hast protected the nome "ofUn." •
Then His Majesty set out to go to the palace of king Nemareth, and he went through every chamber of the royal house, and his treasury, and his store-houses. Then he made them bring to him the queens and the princesses, and they were loud in their praises of His Majesty after the manner of women, but His Majesty did not permit his face to turn towards them. And His Majesty went on to the place where the horses were kept, and into the stalls of the foals, and he perceived that they had been suffering from hunger, and he said : " I swear by my " own life, and by the love which I have for Ra, who reneweth *' the [breath of] life which is in my nostrils, that, to my mind, " to have allowed my horses to suffer hunger, is the worst of all " the evil things which thou hast done in the violence of thy " heart. I can testify to the terror of a lord in thy people. 1 " Knowest thou not that the shadow of God is upon me, and that " my luck never faileth me ? I swear that if any man whom I " had not known had done this thing to me I would never have " remitted to him his offence. I was brought forth from [my " mother's] womb having been brought into being from a divine " egg, and the god begot me and set his person [in me]. I have " never done anything without him, and he himself hath decreed " that which I have done."
Then His Majesty took count of the spoil for the treasury, and of his storehouses [which he dedicated] as an offering for Amen in the Apts. And the governor of Suten-henen (Herakleopolis >, Pef-tch-aa-Bast, came with his gifts to Pharaoh, gold, silver, [precious] stones of all kinds, and the finest horses from his stables, and he cast himself upon his belly in the presence of His Majesty, and he said : " Homage to thee, O Horus, thou mighty "king, thou bull who subduest bulls! I dug out a place for " myself in the Tuat,2 I was sunk deep down in the darkness,
1 A difficult pa-sage. De Rouge reads : " Ne rebelle pas ton cceur ! j'attes- terai la terreur du maitre a tes gens : " and Brugsch renders : " That thou hast laid thy heart bare through this, evidence is furnished me of thy habitual views " (?).
2 I.e., the Other World. He means to say, " I was in the blackest hell." VOL. II. iy C
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
11 when light was cast in on me. I found no friend in the day of '• evil, or any one who supported me in the day of battle excepl " thyself, O king. Thou hast rolled away the darkness which "was over me. Henceforward I will be thy servant, and all my '• possessions are thine. Suten-luiien shall pay tribute into thy "palace, tor 'heboid, thou art the image of Ra-Harmachis and " thou art above the stars which never fail (akkemu seku). His " existence is thine in thy capacity of king j he never diminisheth " and thou shalt never diminish, O king of the South and North,
"f Piankhi J, who livest forever ! "
Then His Majesty sailed down the river to A.p-she (i.e., the Payyum), near to Rehent (Al-Lahun), and he found the city of Pa
f Ra-sekhem-kheper J, with its fortifications manned, and its
fortress shut against him, and it was filled with mighty m< war of all kinds from the Land of the North. And His Majesty sent a message unto them, saying: "0 ye who live in the death
" of the Tuat, deprived of ye wretched ones ! 0 ye who
"live in death, if another moment pass without your having "opened your gates to me, verily ye shall suffer the doom of " vanquished folk, and it shall be disastrous to the king. Do not
close the doors of your lives at the block of slaughter this "day; do not love death and hate life " Then they sent
engers unto His Majesty, saying: "Indeed the shadow of " god is on thy head, O son of Nut,1 and he hath given unto thee " his two hands. The thing which is imagined in thy heart " cometh to pass straightway, even as that which cometh forth " from the mouth of God, for verily, thou art born of God ; this " wesee by the work- of thy two hands. Verily [this is] thy city,
" and its enclosed fortifications [are thine] let every man
" enter and let every mango forth, and let His Majesty 'swill be done." Then they came forth with the son of the Prince of Mashuasha, Tafnekhth. And the soldiers of His Majesty entered into the city, and he did not slay any man whom he found therein. [Then His Majesty sent men] with those who had the seals to seal up his doc u and he had a list made of the things in his treasury for the
■wy. and the contents of the store-houses were counted as offering for his father Anien-ka, the lord of the thrones of the Two Lands.
And His M; ntinued his journey down the river, and he
found the city ofMer-Tem, the Temple of Seker-neb-sehetch, with
ates] shut, but before he came th( I onflict broke out
within it and fear [seized | them, and terror closed then
mouths Then His Majesty sent messengers unto them, saying: " Verily tl two ways before you: cho< according
your -ates and ye shall In
I.e.. the goddess of the sky.
Mom the mouth of thy two han<
ATTACK ON MEMPHIS
" them closed and ye shall die • for My Majesty passeth by no "city that keepeth its gates shut." Thereupon His Majesty entered straightway into the innermost part of this city, and he
dedicated [and offered sacrifices] to the goddess Menhi-
khent-Sehetch. And he made a list of the contents of his treasury and store houses which he set apart as offerings to Amen of the Apt?.
Then His Majesty continued his journey down the river to Thet-taui,1 and he found its fortifications closed and manned by mighty men of war of all kinds of the Land of the South. And they opened the gates of their strong places, and they cast them- selves upon their bellies, [and they sent messengers to] His Majesty, [saying] : " Thy father hath decreed that thou shalt "possess his heritage of the lordship of the Two Lands: thou "hast taken possession of them, and thou art the lord over [all] "the earth." Then His Majesty went forth [from the cabin of his boat] , and he offered up a great sacrifice to the gods who dwelt in this city, oxen, calves, geese, and good and pure things of eveiy kind. And he had a list of the contents of the treasury made for his treasury, and of the contents of the store-houses he made offerings [to Amen of the Apts].
[Then His Majesty advanced to] White Wall (i.e.. Memphis), and he sent messengers unto the inhabitants thereof, saying : " Shut ye not your gates, and there shall be no fighting inside " your city. My entry therein shall belike unto the entry of the "god Shu, who is from primeval time, and my going forth shall "be as his going forth, and my passage shall not be obstructed. " I will make an offering unto Ptah and the gods who are within "White Wall, I will perform all the ceremonies appertaining to " Seker in the secret sanctuary, I will look upon the god who is 'on his southern wall (i.e., Ptah), and then I will sail on down " the river in peace .... White Wall shall remain unharmed " and safe, and not a child shall raise a cry of distress. Consider " ye now the nomes to the south. Not a man in them, except " such as hath uttered blasphemies against god and hath revolted, " hath been slain, for the block of slaughter hath only been " prepared for those who have rebelled."
[Nevertheless the inhabitants of White Wall] shut fast their gates, and they caused a company of soldiers to go forth against a few of the soldiers of His Majesty who were artificers, and master- masons, and boatmen [and they slew them on] the river bank of White Wall. And behold that Prince of Sais (Tafnekhth) came to White Wall by night, and he gave orders to his soldiers, and to his transport men, and to every officer of his soldiers ;who were in all] eight thousand men, and he admonished them very strictly indeed [saying] : — " Verily
1 This strong-; fortress was built by Amenemhat I., and marked the division between Lower and Upper Egypt. It lay a little to the south of Memphis.
19
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
•• Men-Nefer is filled with the bravest, mightiest men of war of
"all kinds of the Land of the North, and its granaries arc over- 11 flowing with wheat, and barley, and grain of all kinds, and '• weapons Of all kinds are [stored therein], and [the city is " surrounded by] a wall, and the great bastions are built as " strongly as the craft of the mason can build them, and [as] the 11 river floweth round its eastern side no place for attacking it can " be found there. The byres remain full of cattle, and the " treasury is stored with silver, gold, bronze, clothing, ino " honey, and unguents. I am going away, and I commit " [this] property to the chiefs of the North, I will open their " nomes for them, and I will become . . . [defend ye these " for a few] days until I conn-." Then he mounted his h for he could not depend upon his chariot, and he went down the river through fear of His Majesty.
And as soon as it was dawn on the following day. His Majesty set out for White- Wall : he landed on the northern side of the city, finding that the waters reached up to the walls, and the boats came up close to the [quay] of Men-Nefer (Memphis). And His Majesty saw that it was Strongly fortified, and that the walls thereof had been made higher by means of new buildings, and that the bastions thereof were provided with fort i tic; it ions, and that there was no place available whereat it might be attacked. Now every man among the soldiers of His Majesty .-pake his opinion as to the method which ought to be followed in attacking [the city], and every one said: — "Come, let us surround it on all " sides .... verily its soldiers are very many. And the master "of affairs [or. works] said:— Make a pas-age to it. We will " throw up earth against the walls thereof, and on this we will lay " planks of olive wood firmly fastened together, and we' will ■ " wooden towers, and will make wooden .... round about " its whole circuit, and with these we will make breaches every- " where in it from the mounds of earth and the .... to raise ••the' ground by its walls, and we shall [thus] find a path for our t."
Then was His Majesty filled with rage like a panther, and he: said : — " I swear by my own life, and by the love of Ra, and by "the grace of my father Amen, that I believe1 this hath " happened in respect of it by the' decree of Amen. This ii.e\. the ch given above) is the speech of a man ... and the " nomes of the south : they opened their gates to him [whilst he " was] on the road. They have not set Amen in their hearts, "and they know not his decree; this hath he done so that he " might make' his souls cause his terror to be seen. I shall nire the city like- a water-flood, and this hath [my father " Amen] ordered me to do." Then he made his boat advance, and his soldiers to attack the quay of Men-Nefer ; and
1 Literally, " I find " (?).
CAPTURE OF MEMPHIS
they passed in among the barges, and transports, and all boats with decks, and all the boats without, and these, in very large numbers, they tied up their own boats to the quay of Men-Nefer, with their bows close in to the houses of the city .... and none of the soldiers of His Majesty caused one child to cry out in distress. Then His Majesty himself had the vessels, and they were very many, drawn close to [the quay]. And His Majesty said unto his soldiers: — " It resteth now upon you " to act ; surround the walls, and enter the houses on the " waters of the river. If any man among you entereth by the " wall, let him not stay upon the place where he is ... . Offer " no resistance to the captains [who wish to submit], for that " would be an abominable thing [to do]. We have closed the " country of the South, and we have arrived at the country of the " North, and we sit upon Makhi-taui." l
And His Majesty captured the town of Men-Nefer like a water- flood, and he slew a large number of the people who were therein, and the prisoners were brought alive to the place where His Majesty was. And when it was dawn on the following day, His Majesty caused men to go there to protect the temples of God, and he performed acts of worship in the sanctuary of the gods, and he poured out libations to the divine chiefs of Het- ka-Ptah, and he purified Men-Nefer with natron and incense, and he set the priests in their appointed places. Then His Majesty went to the temple [of Ptah] and he poured out a libation at the entrance thereof, and he performed all the ceremonies which are prescribed for performance by the king, he entered into the divine house, and he offered up a great sacrifice to Ptah upon his Southern Wall, consisting of oxen, calves, geese, and every kind of good thing.
Then His Majesty went into his house, and he heard that all the towns which were in the district of Men-Nefer, that is to say, the town of Heripetmai, and Peni- .... naunaa, and Pebekhen- nebiu, and Tauhibit, had opened their gates, and that all the inhabitants thereof had betaken themselves to flight, and that no man knew where they had gone. And Auapeth and Merkanshu, the chief of the Mashuasha, and the erpct Peta-Asteta, and all the dukes of the Land of the North came bearing their offerings to look upon the beauties 2 of His Majesty. And he adjudged the contents of the treasuries and store-houses of Memphis as offerings for Amen, and Ptah, and the company of the gods who were in Het-ka-Ptah (Memphis).
And at dawn on the following day His Majesty made a journey to the east side of the river, and he made an offering to Tern in
1 A name meaning, " The Balance of the Two Lands." This place was near Memphis.
3 I.e., to experience the noble qualities of forgiveness and magnanimity of Piankhi.
21
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
Kher-Aha,1 and to the company of the gods in the temple, and to the company of the gods of the Amhet, and to the gods who arc therein, consisting of oxen, calves, and geese, so that they might give Life, strength, and health to the king of the Smith and .\orth, Piankhi, living for ever.
Then His Majesty set out for Annu ( Heliopolis), oxer the mountain of Kher-Aha, by the road of the god Sep to Kher-Aha, and Mis Majesty went on to the camp to the west of the town n( the two wells (or lakes) Merti (i.e., the modern Matariva>, and he made an offering there, and he purihed himself in tin of water, and he bathed his face in the milk (i.e.. water) of Nut. wherein Ka bathed his face. And he passed on to Shai-qa-em Annu, and he offered up a great offering there before Ka as he i consisting of white oxen, milk, ami, incense, and sweet-smelling wood of all kinds. And as he was going along he went into the House of Ra, and he entered the temple, and prayed many pri therein. And the chief kher heb priest offered up prayers that the attacks of Bends on the king might be repulsed. And he performed the ceremonies of the per sba (?) chamber, and he girded about him the sefeb garment, and he purified himself with incense, and he sprinkled himself with water, and la- brought the ankhiu flowers of the shrine (het-benbent, i.e.. the house of the obelisk), and he took perfume, and he ascended the steps to the great ark in order that he might look upon Ra himself in the shrine (het-benbent) . And His Majesty stood up there by himself, he drew back the bolts, and opened the doors of the ark. and he i upon Ra in the shrine, and he made adorations before the • Boat of Ra, and the Sektet Boat of Tern. Then he drew together '.he doors [of the sanctuary] and set clay upon th whereon he impressed the seal 01 the king himself. And he admonished the priests, saying : "1 h [my] seal : ^(,t no
'•other king whatsoever who may stand [here] enter." And the ast themselves upon their bellies before His Majesty, saying: " Horns, who loveth Annu (Heliopolis) shall endure, " and flourish, and shall never diminish!"
And His Majesty went on and entered into the house of Tem, and he performed the ceremonies connected with the offering of figures made of anti of Tem-Khepera, the prince of Annu.
Then the king Uasarken came to see the beauties of His
ty. And His Majesty set out on the following morning at dawn, at the head of his boats from the river bank, and journeyed t<> Ka qem. And his Majesty's tent was pitched to the south of Kaheni. and to the east of Ka-qem, and the kings and the dukes Oi the Land of the North, and all the chiefs, and all the fan- id all the umbrella-bearers, and all the nobles, and all the royal kinsfolk from ti and from the West Countries,
1 A city which occupied the site of Old Cairo.
SUBMISSION OF REBELS
and from the regions of Middle Egypt, came to look upon the beauties of His Majesty. And the Erpii Pata-Astet threw him- self upon his belly before His Majesty, saying: "Come thou " to Ka-qem, and may the god Khent-Khatthi look upon thee, " and the goddess Khuit protect thee. Offer thou sacrifices to " Horus in his temple, oxen, calves, and geese. Enter thou into " my house, open the doors of my treasury, and make thyself '• lord of the property of my father. I will give unto thee as " much gold as thine heart can desire, and a mass of copper (or " turquoise) as large as thyself, and the finest horses which are " in my stud-farm, and the best and strongest which are in " my stables." Then His Majesty went to the temple of Heru- khent-Khatthi and made an offering of oxen, and calves, and geese to his father Heru-khent-Khatthi, the lord of Qem-ur. And His Majesty went into the palace of the Erpa Peta-Ast, who presented to him gold, silver, lapis-lazuli, copper (or turquoise), and a great mass of property of all kinds, that is to say, suits of apparel made of byssus of every quality, and couches, and cover- lets of fine linen, and dnti perfume, and vases full of unguents, and all the best horses and mares in his stables. Then Peta-Ast purified himself and swore an oath by [his] god before the kings and governors of the Land of the North, saying : " Whosoever shall conceal his horses, or hide any property "which he hath [from His Majesty] shall most assuredly die the " death of his father. These things I declare so that ye may " cease to offer opposition to him. And if ye know of anything "that belongeth to me which I have hidden from His Majesty of "the things of my father's house ye shall certainly declare it, " whether it be gold, or silver (?), or [precious] stones, or metal " vessels, or bracelets, or gold ornaments for the neck, or metal " collars inlaid with [precious] stones, or amulets for any " member of the body, or crowns for the head, or rings for the " ears, or ornaments worn by the king, or gold vases wherein " the king performeth the ceremonies of purification, or [precious] " stones of any sort or kind whatsoever. I have given to the " king thousands of suits of apparel made of the finest linen, " every kind being of the best which I have in my house, and I " know [O king] that thou wilt be satisfied therewith. Pass "thou now into my stud-farm and choose thereout as many of the " horses which please thee as thou desirest." And His Majesty did so.
Then the kings and dukes spake unto His Majesty, saying : " Permit us to depart unto our towns, and we will open our " treasure-houses, and we will choose thereout the things which " thy heart loveth, and we will bring unto thee the best horses " from our stud-farms, and the finest of our chargers." And His Majesty did so. [Here followeth] the list of the names of the kings ; —
King Osorkon in Bubastis and Ra-nefer.
23
THE EGYFriAN SI DAN
King A.uapeth in Thenteremu and Ta-an.
Duke Tchet-Amen-auf-ankh in Mendes and Ta- . . . -Ra.
His eldest son, Anikh-IJeru, commander-in-chief in Pa-
Telmti-ap-reheh. Duke Merkanesh in Sebennytus, and Pa-Hebi, and Sma-
lVhut.-t. Duke and Prince of the Mashuasha, Pathenfin Pa Sept, and
. . . pen-aneb fretchet Duke and Prince of the Mashuasha, Pemau in Busiris. Duke and Prince of the Mashuasha, Nesnaketi in Pharbae-
Duke and Prince of the Mashuasha, Nekht-Heru-na-
shennu, in Pakerer. Prince of the Mashuasha [in] Pentaurt. Prince of the Mashuasha [in] Penth-bekhent.
The Proplu-t of l.lonis, lord of Sekhem, Peta-rleru-sma-taui. Duke Murhasa in Pa-Sekhet-nebt-Saut and in Pa-Sekhel neb-
Refresaui Duke Tcbet-khiau in Khent-Nef<
Duke Pa-Bas in Kher-aha and in Pa-Hap. [These came with their offerings of fine objects of all kinds, that is to say, gold, silver, [lapis-lazuli,] copper (or turquoise), [and a great I property of all kinds, that is to say, suits of
apparel made ofbyssus of every quality], and couches, and cover- f fine linen, and ami perfume in \ ... and all the
best horses and mares [in his stable- ....
[•And it came to pass after] these things that one came and told His Majesty, saying: " [ Tafnekhth] hath [gathered together! " his , and he hath I torn down] his walls through fear 01
•• thee, he hath set fire to his treasure-nouses, [he hath fled in a •' boat on the river, and lie hath entrenched himself strongly in " the city of M es$ [with his] soldiers.'" And His Majesty caused fighting men to go and see what had happened, and they did so
under the command of the Erpa P And they came back
and reported to His Majesty, saying ; " We have killed every man whom we found there; "and His Majesty gave a reward to the Erpa Then Tafnekhth, the Prince of Mashuasha,
heard of this, and he sent an envoy to the place where His
to make supplication, saying: "Be thou at > " [with me]. I have not seen thy face during the days of shame.
ind against thy tire, and the terror of thine onset •• hath vanquished me. Behold, thou art the god Nubt, the .ein. »r of the South, and the god Menthu, the mighty bull! '• In every matter whereto thou hast set thy fece thou hast *• found none who could resist thee. I have reached the utter- ■• nu-st swamps on the coast of th< Greal Green Water (i.e., the ■• Mediterranean), but I am afraid of thy souls because thy word fire hath become an enemy to me. Is not the heart of Thy
•• M .d by reason of the things which thou hast
SUBMISSION OF REBELS
" done unto me? Behold, I am in very truth a most miserable " man ; punish thou me not in proportion to [my] abominable " deeds. The measure of the scales taketh count of qclet weights, "and do thou double them on my behalf in forgetting [my " misdeeds]. If thou sowest seed thou wilt meet it [again] in " [its] season, and dig thou not up the trees when they are in " blossom. Thou hast sown the terror of thee in my body, and " the fear of thee is in my bones. I do not any longer sit in the " beer-hall, and no man bringeth to me the harp. Behold, I only " eat the bread [required] by hunger, and I only drink the water " [demanded] by thirst. Since the day when thou didst hear my kl name wretchedness hath been in my bones. My head hath "lost its hair, and my apparel is rags. I have lied and taken " refuge with the goddess Nit (Neith), O come to me and turn thou " thy face to me ! Seeing that I have separated myself from my " sin, hold then thy servant guiltless, and lift his [sin] from him. " I beseech thee to receive my goods into [thy] treasury, the gold, "and the [precious] stones, together with the best of my horses, " and an abundant supply of every thing. I beseech thee to send "to me an envoy to take them, and to remove the fear which " is in my heart. Verily I will go in his presence into the " temple, and I will purge myself of my sin by swearing an oath " [of allegiance to thee] by God."
Then His Majesty sent the hh-r heb priest Peta-Amen-[neb]- nest-taui and the commander-in-chief Puarma, and Tafnekhth loaded them with silver, and gold, and raiment, and [precious] stones, and he went into the house of [his] god, and prayed unto him, and purged himself of his sin, and swore an oath of allegiance by God, saying : " 1 will never again transgress the " decree of the king, and I will never oppose the words of His " Majesty. I will never again injure (?) any duke without thy " knowledge, and I will perform the king's behests, and I will " never transgress any decree which he hath uttered." And with these words the heart of His Majesty was satisfied.
Then one came and reported to His Majesty, saying ; "The " city of Cynopolis hath opened its gates, and the city of " Aphroditopolis hath cast itself on its belly. There is now no " nome shut against His Majesty of the nomes of the South, or of " the North, or of the West, or of the East. The districts of " the Interior are on their bellies through fear of thee, and they " have brought their property, as they were bound to do, to the " place where His Majesty is, even like servants of the palace."
And at dawn on the following day the two governors of the South, and the two governors of the North, with their uraei on their foreheads, came to smell the ground of (i.e., do homage to) the souls of His Majesty, and behold the kings and dukes of the Land of the North came also to look upon the beauties of His Majesty. Now their legs were like the legs of women. And they did not enter into the house of the king, because they were
25
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
uncircumcised, and they were eaters of fish, [a habit] which is held m abomination in the royal house. And behold, king Nemareth did enter the royal house, because he was i monially pure, and was not an cater of fish; [but the other el >od on their feet, and not one of them
entered the royal house. Then [His Majesty] Loaded the barges with silver, and gold, and copper, and raiment, and kind of product of the Land of the North, and with products of all kinds from Syria, and with spices of Ta-netcr. and he 1 up the river, and his heart was glad, and both sides of the river, the Wesl and the East, rejoiced And the people welcomed him with rejoicings, and they shouted and cried out with gladness, saying :" Hail, divine Governor and Conge,
■•Hail, divine Governor and Conqueror! f Piankhi J, the
\ ernor and Conqueror ! Thou hast come and hast made thy- self governor of the Land of the North. Thou hast made men *'to | »men. Let the heart of the mother rejoice who
"hath given birth to a man. He who dwelleth in Am (i.e., Amen) "hath poured out the seed which produced thee. Let praise
tscribed to the Cow which gave birth to the Bull. Mayest •"thou live for ever, and may thy strength en. lure eternally. (> ■■ ( rovernor, who Invest I I
CHAPTER V.
THE SUCCESSORS OF PIANKHI.
The great inscription of Piankhi, of which a translation has been given in the preceding pages, gives us, unfortunately, no particulars of his ancestry, and tells us nothing of his descendants. The: list of kings compiled by Lepsius, and adopted by Brugsch and Bouriant in their work,1 gives as the immediate ancestor of Piankhi another king of Napata of the same name, whose Horus name was " Heru sehetep taui-f," "2 whose prenomen was " Senefer-Ra," 3 and who called himself "son of Ra," and " King of the South and North." Why this king was made to head the list of the kings of Napata is not clear, but from the form of his prenomen, which resembles those of Senka-Amen-seken4 and Atlanersa,5 it is probable that he reigned after Piankhi Meri- Amen. Be that as it may, on the death of Piankhi Meri-Amen the sovereignty appears to have passed into the hands of a Nubian called Kashta,6 who was then ruling in some capacity at Thebes. His claim to the throne is not clear, but he may have been a son of Piankhi Meri-Amen, or his mother may have been a descendant of one of the priest-kings at Thebes. It is a remarkable fact that his name is not found on any monument at Gebel Barkal, and we may therefore conclude that he usurped the kingdom whilst Napata was still in the hands of one of Piankhi's offspring. By some Kashta has been identified with the Zet, Zyjt, or Xet, H>;t, whom Manetho makes to be one of the two last kings of the
1 Le Livre des Rois : Cairo, 1887.
(SIS-
T /wwv\ \
■2
D Ileru-seh-taui v\ I <=&*=*. 5 Heru-ker-taui C\ \
r^n
His prenomen is unknown.
27
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
XXIIIrd Dynasty. Kashta married Shep-en-Apt,1 a daughter of Osorkon III., the great high-priestess of Amen, whose official title •• XrUr-Tuat," i.e., "divine adorer," or "morning star/' By her he had issue Shabaka, who became king of Egypt and Nubia, and Amen&rtas, who attained to the rank of high-priestess of Amen. Kashta's influence in Egypt and the Sudan was not great, and he made no attempt to slay Bakenrenf, who had succeeded his father Tafnekhth at Sais, and who was regarded as the king of Lower Egypt. Bakenrenf, who is called Bocchoris by the Greek writers, was one of the six great law-giversol Egypt, and he is described as a wise and prudent man.
Kashta's son and su< SHABAKA,' who was the first of the
Nubian or Sudani Dynasty, ascended the throne between B.C. 710 and 710, and reigned at least twelve years. His home appears to have been at Napata, and it is probable that he began to reign their, but he found that the kingdom of the North was ling stronger and stronger, and he set out to reduce to submission the country which Piankhi had made: a province oi his dominions. He left Napata and passed triumphantly into and through Egypt, and he defeated all who took up arms against him. Bakenrenf, the son of Tafnekhth, king of SaTs and Memphis, and a vassal of Piankhi, was either burned or flayed alive by Shabaka, who took up his abode at Thebes and ruled Egypt and the Sudan from that city. The rule of Shabaka was beneficial to pecially in matters connected with the agriculture of the country. He made a law that criminals, who would in the ordinary way be put to death.'' should be made to labour at raising the foundations of the cities and towns above the level of the waters of the inundation, and he had the canals cleared out by the sam< We must not assume that Shabaka was the first
king to have such works undertaken, but. with th< which
1 n the country under his reign, it became possible to carry
1 I A/WNAA _y< I .
137 ; Diodoru?, i. 65.
SEJABAKA
out works of public utility. The city in the Delta which most benefited by the system of forced labour inaugurated by Shabaka
imcoTuveGmn
PORTRAIT OF SHABAKA.
[Drawn from Lepsius, Denkmdler, Abth. III. Bl. 301.
was Bubastis, the temple of which evoked such great admiration in Herodotus. In Shabaka some writers have identified " So, the king of Egypt," who is mentioned in 2 Kings xvii. 4, but there
29
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
can be no doubt now l that So is no other than the Sib', or Sib'e, of the cuneiform inscriptions, who was the turdannu or comman- der-in-chief of Egypt. That Shabaka was in communication with on, king of Assyria, is clear from the fact that clay seals inscribed with his name and titles were found among the tablets of the Royal Library of Nineveh at Kuyunjik,2 and the two kings certain ly exchanged gifts.
Shabaka repaired and added to several of the older tempi- Egypt, but he appears to have done little or nothing of the kind in Nubia. He carried out building operations at Bubastis, in which city he took special interest, at Memphis, and at Th where his name is found at Karnak, Luxor, and Madinat Habu. His sister Amenartas,8 the high-pri< Amen, lived with her
husband Piankhi l at Thebes, and the monuments there prove that he carried out on them a series of important repairs. hi conjunction with her brother she built a sanctuary near the great north door of the temple of Karnak, and it is probable that from this place came her fine alabaster statue, which is now in the Museum in Cairo. Her position in Thebes must have been of considerable importance, for her name occurs side by side with that of her brother Shabaka, and even in remote places like the Wadi l.lammamat her cartouche appears "' between those of her father and brother. On a scarab in the British Museum1'' her cartouche is cut by the side of that of her father, and her name is
ded a prominent position between the figures of two goddi which are held on the knees of the figure of the high official Hani a in the British Museun
( )f Shabaka Diodorus, after speaking of his piety and his kind-
1 See my IfisA '/, vol. vi., pp. 124 ft".
1 British Museum registration numbers are 51-9-2, 43, and 81-2-4, 332: 1 options, see my Afummy, p. 249, and Bezold, Catalogue, p. 1784. I >ne of the objects is exhibited in Table-case I., No. 32, in the Nineveh Gallerj .
; Her prenomen was Mut-kha-neferu f "_^ Q JJJ J.
Lepsius, Denkmaler, Abth. v., Bl. 1. Fourth Egyptian Room, Table-case D., No. 130S. Third Egyptian Room, No. 32.555.
30
~^^iM(^lO^( ~
w
'.BAKA,
HARUA, A HIGH OFFICIAL OF QUEEN AMENARTAS, SISTER OF KING SHABAKA, HOLDING SEATED STATUES OF HATHOR AND TEFNUT.
[British Museum, No. 32555.
^\
SHABATAKA
ness to men, says : " A man may likewise judge of his extraordinary "piety, from his dream, and his abdication of the government; " for the tutelar god of Thebes seemed to speak to him in his sleep,
WS(oTUUU<3g(EiaagUl
PORTRAIT OF SHABATAKA, BELOVED OF AMEN.
[Drawn from Lepsius, Denkm'dler, Abth. III. Bl. 301.
' and told him, that he could not long reign happily and ' prosperously in Egypt unless he cut all the priests to pieces ' when he passed through the midst of them with his guards and
3i
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
rants; which advice being often r . he at length sent
"' for the priests from all parts, and told them that if he stayed in " Egypt any longer he found that he should displease God, who •• never at any time before, by dreams or visions, commanded any
VT
UNING \ -I '. Kl "1 AMEN-RA. II WAS DEDICATED
II. GOD BY 5HABATAKA, KI\<. 0 . 65O.
British Museum, No. 11,013.
•• such thing. And that he would rather be gone and lose his " life, being pure and innocent, than displease God, or enjoy ''the crown of Egypt, by staining his life with the horrid " murder of the innocent. And so at length, giving up the " kingdom into 'the hands of the people, he returned into •• Ethiopia."
32
SHABATAKA
Shabaka was succeeded by his son Shabataka ' in the first or second year of the reign of Sennacherib, who ascended the Assyrian throne B.C. 705. It seems that Shabataka was associated with his father and aunt Amenartas in the rule of the kingdom a few years before Shabaka's death, for on a painted stele at Turin, which is described by the late Dr. Pleyte,2 we find the cartouches of Shabataka, Shabaka, Shep-en-Apt, the high-priestess of Amen, Piankhi, and Shep-en-Apt's mother, Amenartas, the high-priestess of Amen. On this stele is a figure of the double god Horus- Set, with outstretched arms, which seems to indicate that one arm specially protects the two royal personages who were connected with the South, and the other the two who were connected with the North. It may be noted in connection with this, that the text, which was copied in the reign of Shabaka from a worm-eaten [wooden] :5 tablet on to the black slab preserved in the British Museum (No. 32,555), deals with the combat which went on perpetually between Horus and Set through the disap- pearance of Osiris into the sea. Of the reign of Shabataka, we learn very little from the hieroglyphic inscriptions, but he built a chamber at Karnak,* and seems to have repaired some portion of the temple of Ptah at Memphis. His name is found nowhere in the Sudan, but one of the small temples now in ruins at Gebel Barkal may have been built by him. That he was a devotee of Amen Ra goes without saying, and if proof of this be needed we have it from the small bronze shrine in the British Museum, 6 which contains a figure of this god, and is inscribed with the king's name.
The greatest event in his reign was the agreement which he made with Hezekiah, king of Judah, wherein he promised to help
1 His Horus name was }i '•, his %\j/ name was I fl ^S^7 c^'l /
11 fl S& I r-~-i A % 1 1
=?=?= . m n <a, ^'
• his Horus-of-gold name was 4 ^"^ ^ ./!• and his cartourhes
2 Aeg. Zeit., 1876, p. 51.
See Lepsius, Denkmaler, Abth. v., Bl. 3 and 4. ~° Third Egyptian Room, No. 11,013. VOL. II. 33
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
him to resist the threatened attack of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, king of Assyria. In his second campaign Sennacherib set out to reduce Hezekiah oi Jerusalem and Sidkai of Ascalon to submission, ami before the troops which Shabatakahad sent from Egypt could i them, Sidkai had been taken prisoner and deported to Assyria, and Sharruludari had been made king of Ascalon in his stead. The Egyptians, with their bowmen, and chariots, and horses, and large numbeis of men from the Eastern Desert, came to Altaku (the Eltekeh of Joshua xix. 44), and there they deter- mined to do battle against the Assyrians. In the fight which took place immediately afterwards. Sennacherib captured alive the sons of the king of Egypt, and the generals of the chariots of the Egyptians and of the king of Milukhkhi. and defeated the allies witn great slaughter. He then marched against Ekron, which he captured, and slew the chiefs of the city and hung their holies upon poles round about the city. He next attacked Jerusalem, which fell into his hands after a siege, and Hezekiah had to pay 30 talents of -old, 800 tal« nts of silver, &c, and to deliver up his wives, and concubines, and daughters, and 200,150 people were made prisoi nnacherib. exasperated with
the Egyptians because of the help which they had sent to the of Jerusalem and Ascalon. set out from Jerusalem to invade Egypt, but when he reached the region near Pelusium, alamity overtook him whereby he lost probably more than one half of his army. The cuneiform inscriptions tell us nothing about the disaster, but we may be sure that something fraught with dire consequences happened to his army, otherwise he would have marched into Egypt and punished her people. The Bible narrative states,1 "that the angel of the Lord went
" out. and .-mote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred four- thousand : and when th< ly in the
"morning, behold, they were all dead corpses;" accordin
legion of laid mice came by night, no one knowing whence, and quietly gnawed the quivers, bowstrings, buckler
strap-. &c., and when the soldiers woke up in the morning, they found themselves practically disarmed, and. alter making a feeble tance, they lied.
- ii., cxJi.
TIRHAKAH
After the battle of Altakii the Egyptians did not during the reign of Shabataka attempt to assist the kings of Palestine against the Assyrians. From the statement made in Sennacherib's Annals it is clear that Shabataka did not lead his troops at the battle of Altaku, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that he was awaiting in the Delta the result of their efforts. It is thought by some that when planning to help Hezekiah he appealed for help to the king of Napata, who was called Taharq, but is more commonly known from the Bible narrative as Tirhakah, and that the Nubian king set out with an army to join him in the re-conquest for the Egyptians of a portion of Syria. Others, admitting that Taharq set out with an army from Napata, think that he did so because he wished to overthrow Shabataka, and thought that a time favourable for his purpose had arrived. Be this as it may, he marched into Egypt, and sailed down to the Delta, where he found Shabataka, and, finding that his army had been routed by the Assyrians, made him prisoner, and after a time put him to death. Such is the tradition preserved by Greek writers.
Taherqa, Taharq,1 or Tirhakah, appears to have seized the supreme power in Egypt about B.C. 693. From a short inscrip- tion found at Tanis about thirty years ago 2 it seems that he was only twenty years of age when he ascended the throne of Egypt, and that he came to the North not expecting to be made king. A little before his coronation at Tanis he sent to Napata for his mother Aqreq or Aqleq, and when she arrived she found that her son, who had spent the earlier years of his life in working with his father on their farm, had become the " king of the South and North." Taharqa's father was not a man of high rank, but he must have been a landed proprietor of some importance at Napata; he superintended the management of the live stock, and
1 His Horus name was Y\ • his J^jZ name was ^c\ his Horus-of-
Q -21 ^^ S _JT
gold name was ^~j ^ ^ , and his cartouches are ^.aR ( ° J Z\Tu ® \ 1
ra a
- See Birch, Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., vol. vii., p. 193; E. de Rouge, Me- langes, torn, i., p. 21 f. ; and Griffith, Tanis, vol. ii., p. 29, p'ate 9, No. 163.
35
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
n looked after the crops. The first coronation of Taharqa 'took place at ranis,- and was performed with great pomp and ceremony, and with all the details which were so much appreciated in Egypt On this occasion a number of exalted titles were bestowed by Taharqa upon his mother, and upon his wife Takehet-Amen,1 who was the widow of Shabaka.
During the first few years of his reign Taharqa was fully
■MlT^ktt&S'JW=5j£tfk.9£Sa^
RELIEF o\ \\ ALTAR OF rAHARQ.
[From Lepsius, DenkmtiUr, Abth. V.
Bl. 13.
occupied in restoring the administration of Egypt on the lines followed by the great kings «>f the XVIIIth Dynasty, and he eded admirably. The people felt that peace was assured as long as he lived, and under his protection the trade of the country increased, and means were forthcoming for the repair of ancient temples and the building of new ones. That he should one day win back some of the former possessions of Egypt in Syria must have been an idea always present in his mind, and
^%^
i^m^i-h^q
T1RHAKAH
that the manner of his dealings with the kings and governors of Syria was dictated with it always in view is evident from many considerations. His friendship with the kings of that country was dis- approved of by Sennacherib, who appears to have made a second expedition into Palestine with the view of invading Egypt, but nothing came of it so far as Egypt was concerned, and Taharqa continued his friendly relations with the kings on the Palestinian sea-coast until the middle of the reign of Esarhaddon, who succeeded to the throne of Assyria after the murder of his father Senna- cherib, B.C. 681.
About B.C. 676 Esarhaddon sent an expedition against Milukhkha, i.e., against the tribes of the desert on the east and north-east of the Delta, for he felt that the combination of these tribes, if backed by help from Egypt, might result in the loss to Assyria of Jerusalem, and all the neighbouring towns. The success of this expedition was not decisive, for Esarhaddon was not able to reduce the tribes at once to submission. Some three years later he made a second attempt to break up the combination of people which he now knew to be in league against him, but this also failed, at any rate, the Assyrian king did not advance against Egypt, and invade her territories. On this Taharqa rejoiced greatly, for he foolishly assumed that it was the fear of his arms which kept Esarhaddon out of Egypt. And in com- memoration of a campaign, which he did
37
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
not fight, in a country which he never entered, he caused a list of the gnat peoples of Syria and Palestine to be cut on the base of his statue ' as nations which he had conquered ! In this list we rind the names of Kadesh, Assur, Kheta, Nehernu, and of many other Western Asiatic places, together with the names of several districts of the Sudan.
Among those who hastened to profit by the retreat of Esarhaddon was Baal, king of Tyre, who made a treat}- quickly with Taharqa, and. following his example, the neighbouring princes did the same. For nearly three wars Taharqa was permitted to indulge without hindrance his wish to intrigue in Syria and in Palestine, tor it was not until the spring of tin B.C. 670 that Esarhaddon was ready to strike. In the month of Nisan he left Nineveh and set out for Syria, and having visited the mainland opposite Tyre, and cut off the water supply oi Baal, its king, he went on to Aphek. He did not go straight on to Egypt from this place, but turned off to the 'south-east, and marched for a considerable distance in the desert. This journey was a terrible one for his troops, on account of the . and the serpents and scorpions which infested the country, but, thanks to the arrangements which he had made for the supply of water with the local shekhs, his army marched triumphantly through the desert. At length he reached Raphia, and, after another march into the desert, made in order to avoid the ordinary caravan route into Egypt from Syria, arrived at some point on the eastern frontier of the Delta about three months after he set out from Nineveh. On the third day of the month 'fammuz. Esarhaddon appears to have engaged the Egyptian frontier troops, and on the sixteenth and eighteenth days of tin- same month two battles were fought by him, no doubt against Taharqa's regular army which he had sent to the tern Dell
( )ii each <>f these occasions the Assyrians were the conquerors, and Taharqa's soldiers were driven back from town to town towards Memphis. Four days after the second battle, Esar- haddon appeared before Memphis with his army, and captured the
1 This object was found in the temple <>f Mut at Karnak. '-' Mariette, Karnak % plate 45, a 2.
TIRHAKAH
city by assault,'and the Assyrian soldiers pillaged it so thoroughly that even the Nubian warriors must have been surprised. Taharqa himself managed to escape, but he was obliged to leave behind him the queen and the other women of the royal karim and all their children, and they became the conqueror's property. Esarhaddon did not attempt to pursue Taharqa, who had probably fled to Napata, but he appointed some twenty governors or more, over twenty large cities, which they were to rule in his interest, and having fixed the amount of tribute which they were to pay to him annually, and gathered together a vast amount of spoil, he set out to return to Nineveh. On his way northwards he stopped at the mouth of the Nahr al-Kalb River near Beirut , and set up a monument to commemorate his victory over Egypt and Tyre. Henceforward he styled him- self in his Annals, " King of Lower Egypt, of Upper Egypt, and of Kash " (Nubia, or the Sudan). At many places he set up stelae to record his triumph, and on the large monumental tablet found at Sinjirli ' is sculptured a figure of Esarhaddon, who holds in his hand cords to which are tied figures of Taharqa and Baal of Tyre. The former is kneeling and the latter is standing before the king, and each has his hands raised in an attitude of supplication. As Taharqa pretended in his inscriptions that he had conquered all Syria and Assur, so we find Esarhaddon pretending that he had captured Taharqa and Baal, and had them fettered at his feet. Both text and sculptures are to be understood symbolically, but such examples show that the evidence of the monuments of some of these old warriors cannot be relied on implicitly.
Soon after Esarhaddon returned to Nineveh the chiefs of the Delta principalities split up into two parties, one being led by Pakrer,'- or Paqrer, the governor of the nome of Pa-Sept in the Eastern Delta, and the other by Nekau, prince of Sais. Taharqa, hearing of this, and knowing that Esarhaddon was in Nineveh, gathered together an army and marched to Memphis. It is probable that the native chiefs of the Delta would have flocked 1 See Luscban, Ansgrabungcn in Sendschirli, vol. i., p. 30.
39
& _^=£
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
to his standard gladly, for they had no love for the rule of the king of Assyria, but they were afraid to do so, because the Assyrians in the Delta had sent news of what had happened to Nineveh, and it was pretty certain that an Assyrian army would be sent to restore order. When Esarhaddon received the report he made haste to make one of his sons, Shamash-shum-ukin, king of Babylon, and another, Ashur-bani-pal, king of Nineveh, and then, even though his health was failing, he set out on his third campaign against Egypt. This was in the year B C. 668. On the way his illness increased, and he died in the month of May. having reigned about twelve years. The death of rhaddon did not, however, retard the advance of the Assyrian army, which pursued its way to Egypt under the leadership of the " Turdannu " (Tartan), or commander-in chief. Wh< n it arrived in Syria the twenty-two kings who had been appointed tendered their fealty to the Tartan, and the Assyrians approached Egypt by the old caravan route from Syria. At a place called Karbanit tiny found Taharqa's troops, but in the battle- which took place they were utterly defeated, and such large numbers "I them wire slain that any attempt to rally at Memphis and defend that city was hopeless. Meanwhile Taharqa had once more escaped, and had found his way to Thebes, which he fortified to the best of his ability.
Unlike Esarhaddon, the new Assyrian king. Ashur-bani-pal, was not content with suppressing the rebellion in the Delta and occupying Memphis, but he ordered the commander-in-chief of the army which he sent to the aid of the Tartan to ascend the Nile and sack Thebes. On his arrival near Egypt, this commander-in-chief, whose official title was Rab-saki ( Rabshakeh i. collected a fleet of boats and sailed up the Nile to Memphis. where In- joined his forces to those of the Tartan, and a- soon as tble they set out for Thebes. During the six weeks which were occupied by the Assyrians in sailing up to Thebes. Taharqa began to intrigue with the chief riders in the Delta, i.e.. Nekau oi . l'akier of Pa-Sept, and Sharru-ludari of Tanis, against the Assyrians, but his messengers bearing their despatches were caught by the Assyrians, who proceeded to punish the con- tors according to their usual methods. Their troops in the
40
TIRHAKAH
Delta destroyed the cities of Sa'is, Tanis, and Pa-Sept, the ring- leaders of the revolt among the people were either flayed alive or impaled, and Nekau and Sharru-ludari were sent in fetters to Nineveh. Pakrer managed to escape. Taharqa, divining from these events what his fate was likely to be if caught, fled from Thebes to the south, leaving that city to the mercy of Ashur- bani-pal's soldiers. Menthu em-hat,1 its governor, promptly surrendered, and thus Upper and Lower Egypt, and the Sudan. became a province of the Assyrian Empire. The fate of Taharqa is unknown, but the Assyrian annalist says that Taharqa fled to Kush and that the terror of the soldiers of Ashur overwhelmed him in the place whither he had gone, and he went to his destiny of night.2
Taharqa was a capable and energetic king, and under his able rule the country, notwithstanding his wars with the Assyrians, enjoyed a period of prosperity for about twenty-five years. That he should have been able to offer such steadfast resistance to Esarhaddon and Ashur-bani-pal says much for his capacity as a soldier and leader of men. There must have been something attractive in his personality, and his deeds appealed so strongly to the popular imagination, at all events in Greek times, that they were regarded as the exploits of a hero, and he had the reputa- tion of being a great traveller as well as a great conqueror."' As a builder he displayed great activity, and remains of several of his edifices have come down to us. Near the temple of Karnak he built a small temple in commemoration of his coronation at Thebes. On the walls here we see Taharqa's mother, Aqleq,4 and a priest performing ceremonies connected with the enthronement of her son, who appears under the forms of Tetun, Sept, Amen, and Heru, thereby signifying that he is lord of the four quarters of the world. Next, a high priestly official called Heru-em-heb,
2 Cuneiform Inscriptions, vol. v. pi. 2, 1. 20 f. £^£j^T| T r~"T *-T<t'i^ ►^ ^T*- 7 Ulik s hi mat musJii-shu.
8 See Strabo, i. 3, 21, and xv. 1, 6, where he quotes Megasthenes.
S»
41
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
makes an address to the people in words which express their acceptance of Taharqa as king before Amen-Ra. Elsewhere, standing on one side of a sacred tree which grows out of the funeral coffer of Osiris, is Queen A.qleq, holding a bow in her hands, and shooting arrows into symbols of the four quarters of the world ; on the other side of the tree is Taharqa dancing, and hurling -tone- with his left hand into the four quarters of the world. In his right hand he holds the Sudani club i. It will be
remembered that Piankhi tells us in his stele that his
slingers hurled stones into a city which he besieged, and from the scene described above it seems as if Taharqa was proud to be regarded as a " slinger of The text which refers to the
shooting of arrows by the queen reads: "the divine wife hath ••-rasped the bow. she hath shot arrows into the South, the •' North, the West, and the East, against the enemies whom •• [Amen] hath givenTunto him."
The greater number of Taharqa'si building operations were
carried out after his conquest of Lower Egypt, when he was,
comparatively, a young man. and in these works he was ably
ted by Menthu-em-hat. the governor of Thebes. At Karnak
gan to build a large temple, but abandoned the work after
he had set up a few pillars; he built a little sanctuary in honour of
l'tah. and to the south of the great temple of Amen is another,
on the walls ot which he is represented with his wife's son Tanut-
A nen. On the other side of the river, at Madinat Habu, he
portions of the temple of Thothmes III., and his name
irs al a few place s in the Delta. At Semna, just above the
ite"of the Cataract, and immediately to the south of
the temple oi Thothmes III., he built a temple of mud brick, with
irways and pillars, in honour of Qsertsen III., the
conqueror of the Sudan. This temple was. when in a complete
. about 1 \ metres lou-. and I- metres 50 centimetres wide.
It consisted of a fore-court containing -i.\ columns, and a chamber, within which is a rectangular sanctuary, 5 metres 48 centimetres
. and 3 metres No centimetres wide, inside measures. 'Hie outer walls are 1 metre 45 centimetres thick, and the space
Monuments, plates 31-33. 4-'
TEMPLE OF TIRHAKAH
between them and the sanctuary is i metre 95 centimetres. The sanctuary walls are 1 metre 19 centimetres thick. In the sanctuary stands an altar with the cartouches of Taharqa and Usertsen III. arranged side by side, within four lines forming a square.' This temple is oriented due south
At Gebel Barkal he built a fine temple in honour of Amen-Ra,
the " dweller in the Holy Mountain," Tut-ab ^ f\ , i.e., Mount
Barkal, and of Mut, the lady of Kenset. On the walls the king is seen offering vases of wine, &c, to the ram-headed Amen, who wears a disk and plumes on his head. Behind Amen stands Mut, and behind the king is his wife Takhet-Amen, holding a sistrum in her hand. Among the gods worshipped by the king here we find Amen-Ra-khu-Aten, Tetun, Ra-Heru-khuti, Thoth and his company, Tern, Nefer-Tem, An-Her, Shu, Menu, Khensu-em- Uast-Nefer-hetep, Hathor, &c, in fact, all the great gods at Thebes, among whom is included the old Sudani god Tetun. This is now a mass of ruins. On the western side of the mountain he built a temple, with a sanctuary hewn in the living rock ; here the pillars were ornamented with sculptured reliefs of Bes, whose worship flourished at Napata in Taharqa's time. Time, and apparently the hand of man, have wrought irreparable damage to Taharqa's buildings at Gebel Barkal, but enough of them remains to show that they were as well built, and as well decorated, as any in Egypt. The inscriptions are cut in bold hieroglyphics,2 and those who made them were either expert masons and sculptors from Thebes, or men who had been trained to their work under their guidance. The work generally is far better than that found at Sulb, of the time of Amen-hetep III., and it proves that the people of Napata had absorbed the arts and crafts, and civilization, and religion of Egypt most success- fully, and that the city was rightly regarded by its inhabitants as a second Thebes. We unfortunately know nothing about the home affairs of Napata in the reign of Piankhi, but it is quite certain that the trade between Nubia and Egypt was considerable, and intercourse frequent. Nubia and Egypt, in fact, formed one
1 The discovery of this temple has been described in Vol. I., p. 487 ff.
2 See the texts and drawings in Lepsius, Denkma/er, Abth. v., bl. 5-12.
45
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
country, as they must ever do, but Taharqa was the rirst to prove that a Nubian king could reign both at Thebes and Xapata with the greatest benefit to both countries.
During the last few years of his reign Taharqa appears to have associated his step-son, Tanuath-Amen, with himself in the rule of the kingdom, and it seems that this man was in Thebes when his stepfather went to his " destiny of night," probably two or three years after the accession of Ashur-bani-pal, B.C. 668. Winn the news of Taharqa's death reached Tanuath-Amen, he declared himself king, and made preparations to go to Xapata to be crowned. Whilst these were in progress one night he had a dream, which had such far-reaching results that subsequently he caused an account of it to be inscribed on a stele of gray granite, which he had placed near the famous stele of Piankhi, in the temple at Gebel Barkal. This stele was discovered by an Egyptian officer in the Sudan, and was brought to the Bulafe Museum at Cairo in the time of Mariette's administration. On the upper, rounded portion of it are two scenes.1 In that to the right Tanuath-Amen is offering a necklace and a pectoral to Amen, and behind him stands the princess, his sister Qelhetat,1 holding a sistrum in her right hand, and pouring out a libation with her left. Here Amen is ram- headed. In the scene to the
left the king is making an offering of Mafit. $ , to Amen.
who appears in the form of a man, with the disk and plumes oil his head. Behind him stands the' queen Kumar-/// :; (?), holding a sistrum and pouring out a libation, like the prince> form of Amen is said to reside in the " Holy Mountain," i.e. Gebel Barkal; the ram-headed form gives the king a seat on the throne of Horus, and the man-form makes him to rule over all
►r the text, see Mariette, Monuments Divers, plates 7 and 8. For
translations, sec Maspero, Revue Arch., 1868, torn, xvii., p. 329 ff". ; Maspero,
is of the I'ast, vol. iv., p. 81 ft*. ; Brugsch, Geschichte Aegyptens, pp. 707-
713 : English translation, vol. h\, p. 24S ti". See also Maspero. Melanges, torn.
in., p. 5 ft"., p. 217 ff. ; Schaefer, Zur Erklarung der Traumstele, in Aeg.Zeit.,
teindorff, Beitrdge su '°g**% V()'- '•• !'• 35^ : Mariette,
/,//., N.8., torn, xii., p. 1O2 ; de Roug6, M&langes, torn, i., p. 89 ff.
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^o
STELE OF TANUATH-AMEN
countries, and all deserts and mountains, and places all the Nine Tribes of the Bow under his sandals.
The text opens with a string of titles, and the king is described as a" fierce lion," and like unto "the dweller in Hesert." The document is dated in the first year of the king's reign, and in that same year he dreamed a dream wherein he saw two serpents, one on his right hand and the other on his left, and when His Majesty awoke he saw them no longer. Such is the dream. When the king asked his wise men what it portended, they told him that he already held the South, and that he must seize the North, so that he might wear the crowns of both countries, for the whole world would be his, and that none should vie with him in power. Then the king went to Napata. and was acknowledged by Amen, to whom he offered thirty-six oxen, forty large vessels of beer, and one hundred ostrich feathers ; a gift of ankham flowers of the god was given to the king, and he was crowned forthwith. The remainder of the text describes the next acts of the king. He set out for the North, and when he arrived at Elephantine he made offerings to Khnemu-Ra, the lord of the P'irst Cataract, and to Hapi, the Nile-god, the source of whose stream was supposed to be in the neighbourhood. He then went on to Thebes, where he offered gifts to Amen-Ra, and amid the acclamations of the people on both sides of the river he sailed down to Memphis to "repair the temples, to set the statues and "emblems of the god on their pedestals, to provide offerings for " the gods and goddesses, and the dead, to re-establish the "priests in their grades, and to cause all proper ceremonies " connected with the worship of the gods to be performed."
At Memphis his progress was barred by the Assyrian garrison, but in the fight which took place Tanuath-Amen was victorious, and he took possession of the city, and made offerings to Ptah, its great god. He then sailed on to reduce the garrison towns to the north, but the troops in these would not come forth to do battle with him, and he therefore returned to Memphis. From this city he made some arrangement with the governors of the chief cities in the Delta, for after a time they came to Memphis, with Pakrer, the governor of Pa-Sept, as their leader, and they begged for their lives, and promised to be his faithful vassals.
vol. ii. 49 E
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
At this Tanuath-Amen was very pleased, and made a feast, and he and the Delta chiefs partook of cakes, and ale, and "all good things.*' After some days they said to him, " Why tarry we here, O king our Lord ? " And the king replied " Why ? " Thereupon they departed, each to his city, and sent back gifts to the king. Here the text comes to an end, and the Egyptian inscriptions tell us nothing about subsequent events. The Assyrian Annals. however, help us, and from these we find that whilst Tanuath- Amen was at Memphis, the report of his arrival and proceedings was carried to Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh. The king of Assyria, hearing that his troops in Memphis had been slain by the Nubian king, whom he regarded as a rebel, set forth without delay for Egypt. On his arrival, Tanuath-Amen fled to Th and the governors of the cities who had given gifts to him promptly tendered their submission to the king of Assyria. Ashur-bani-pal and his soldiers advanced to Memphis, and then followed the fugitive up the Nile. On hearing of their advance, Tanuath-Amen fled to Kipkip,' without attempting to defend Thebes, and thus the city fell into the hands of the Assyrians, who plundered it in their usual fashion.
On their return to the North they carried off gold, silver, precious stones, rich apparel, costly furniture, fine horses, men. women and children, and two objects of which the Assyrian king seems to have been especially proud, 'flit ts, which were
called dimmi in the Assyrian text-, weighed two thousand five hundred talents, and they were made of won,], which was over- laid with some precious metal. Ashur-bani-pa] was now master of the kingdoms of the South and the North : he took no steps to assert his authority over Nubia, and so far as we know he made no attempt to capture Tanuath-Amen. On his return to Memphis he ordered the affairs of the Delta to his own satisfaction, and then, laden with spoil, returned to Nineveh, and Egypt saw him no more. Of the fate of Tanuath-Amen the inscriptions of Egypl tell us nothing, but with his downfall the XXVth Dynasty came to an vnd, and the power (A~ Nubia in Egypt was broken, and
1 In Assyrian ^^J] <J^J J^JJ <JE f ^T- Ki-ip-M-pi, in Egyptian l^rwj.Qepqepa.
50
STELE OF TAN UATH- AMEN
none of her kings or queens again obtained dominion over that country. The Nubian rule in Egypt came to an end B.C. 663 or 662.
When the late Mr G. Smith first translated the Annals of Ashur-bani-pal, and thus made the valuable information which they contain available to students of Oriental History, he read the name of the successor of Taharqa who defied the Assyrian king as " Urdamanie," l and this king was supposed by many to be the Egyptian king Amen-rut Meri Amen, whose prenomen was " Usr-Maat-Ra-setep-en-Amen." ' This was soon found to be impossible, and scholars were driven to the conclusion that the king who set up the Stele of the Dream at Gebel Barkal and Urdamanie were one and the same person. Now the cartouche containing the king's name Amen was at first not clear ; but subsequent examination showed 3 that the unclear sign was ta ===, and that the name must be read Tanuath-Amen. Again, however, a difficulty arose, for it was impossible to get the Assyrian name Urdamanie from the Egyptian name, and then it was thought that Tanuath-Amen was a successor of the Urda- manie of the Assyrian text, and not Urdamanie himself. Later, doubt was thrown upon the correctness of the reading ur for the first sign in Urdamanie's name, which is polyphonous and has several values,4 and finally Dr. Steindorff substituted the very unusual value of tan for ur, and thus obtained the reading of " Tandamanie " instead of Urdamanie. There is now no doubt that the Tandamanie of the Assyrian texts is the Tanuath-Amen, king of the Sudan and of Egypt, who set up the Stele of the Dream at Gebel Barkal.5
The evidence available on the subject, unfortunately, does not
I 0 V ' -cg^ Q I A/VWVN AAAAAA J\ ' ... » V I WW\A 1 AAAAAA \ /
3 See Steindorff, in Beitrage zur Assyriologie, Bd. i., p, 356.
4 Lik, lik, tas, tash, das, dash, tish, tiz, tis, and tan.
• His fu,. tides are ^ g ( 0 ^ |J, \ ^ ^ ((°^ ft]]
51
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
enable us to decide how long Tanuath-Amen reigned. From the fact that figures of him appear side by side with those of Taharqa in one of the little sanctuaries which this king built at Thebes, it has been assumed that he reigned conjointly with him during the last few years of his rule over Egypt. But then, as Professor Maspero has pointed out, it is equally possible to assume that he appears on the walls of the temple because he finished the building of it, which his predecessor began. Most probably he held some position of importance at Thebes during Taharqa's life, and there is no doubt that he was actually in Egypt and not at Napata when he had the dream which he recorded on his stele. At Thebes, at one time at least, he was regarded as the lawful king of the country, and this fact is proved by a monument at Berlin,1 the text on which refers to the entrance of Peta-Khcnsu, a priest, into the brotherhood of the priests of Amen-Ra at Thebes. This man was a priest of Amen, Mut. and Khensu, and belonged to a very old Theban family, and his ancestors had been priests at Theb venteen generations. This monument is dated in
the third year of Tanuath-Amen, and the fact that Pefca- Khensu acknowledges his sovereignty in this way makes it quite clear that for three years at least Tanuath-Amen was king of U] Egypt as well as of Nubia.
As for Lower Egypt, or the kingdom of the North, that had
• 1 into the hands of Psammctichus, the son of Nekau, king
of Sals. It will be remembered that Nekau. king of Sais and
Memphis, was the leader of the revolt which broke out in Egypt
in thi f Ashur-bani-pal, and that he. with Sharru-ludari,
. rted by the Assyrian king to Nineveh. Soon after he
arrived tl \ssyrian king forgave him, and gave him rich
apparel t and rings for his lingers, and a dagger inlaid
with gold and inscribed with the king's name. After a time he
rein-: kau in his sovereignty at Sais, whither he sent him
with horses and chariots, and an escort suitable to the position
of the viceroy of Ashur-bani-pal in Egypt. He also appointed
nmetichus,3 Nekau's son, king of Athribis, and gave him the
1 No. 2," the official Verzeichnis^ p. 253.*
• In Assyrian J *T- T V tV^ Q1
52
PSAMMETICHUS I.
Assyrian name of " Nabu-shezib-anni " ; to Sais also and Athribis he gave Assyrian names, that of the former being " Kar Bel- matati," and that of the latter " Limir patesi Ashur." After the flight of Tanuath-Amen the power of Psammetichus I. extended by degrees from the Delta to Thebes, and it is quite certain that he, the founder of the XXVIth Dynasty, was the next ruler of the kingdoms of the South and North. Thus the period of the rule of the Nubian kings over Egypt, which began with Piankhi and ended with Tanuath-Amen, was about ninety years, i.e., from about B.C. 750 to b.c. 660.
Soon after Psammetichus I. became king of all Egypt he adopted a policy different from that followed by his predecessors, and so far as Egypt is concerned it succeeded admirably. Having, by the help of the Mediterranean mercenaries, succeeded in expelling the Assyrian garrisons, he determined to make use of these allies in keeping his country intact ; in other words, he dispensed with the services of the Nubians, of whom a strong force had usually been massed at Thebes and in the neighbouring district, and established a garrison of mercenaries at Elephan- tine, which he regarded as the southern boundary of Egypt. He placed another garrison at Pelusium Daphnae against the Arabians and Syrians, and another at Marea against the Libyans. Daring the reign of Psammetichus I., which lasted for fifty-four years, there was no war between Egypt and Nubia, and no record of any Egyptian expedition for trading purposes into the Sudan has come down to us. Having established a garrison at Elephantine to prevent any energetic prince or king of Napata from troubling Egypt by raid or invasion, Psammetichus I. took no further thought about the Sudan.
During the reign of Psammetichus I. an event happened which must have been fraught with important results in the Sudan. Psammetichus, as we know from Herodotus (ii. 152), conferred many benefits on his Carian and Ionian mercenaries, and he formed them into a body-guard, and gave to them the place of honour on his right hand when reviewing his army, thus dis- possessing a large number of native soldiers who had formerly enjoyed the privileges which were now given to foreigners. The Egyptians became discontented, and did not approve of the new
53
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
scheme of defence of the country which had been adopted by Psammetichus, for it relegated them to the three great garrisons which had recently been formed at Daphne, Marea, and Elephan- tine. Service in these places was regarded practically as exile, and the discontent of the Egyptians increased. On one occasion these garrisons were not relieved for three years ; " the soldiers, therefore, at the end of that time, consulted " together, and having determined by common consent to " revolt, marched away to Ethiopia (Nubia)." '
Psammetichus set out in pursuit of them, and overtook them, and begged them not to forsake the Gods of their country and their wives and children.2 The deserters refused to listen to him, and, saying that they were certain to rind wives and children wherever they went, pressed on into Nubia. When they arrived there they offered their services to the king [of Napata ?], who gave them a tract of land which was at that time in the possession of his foes, telling the soldiers to turn out his enemies, and occupy it. This the new-comers promptly d id, and they settled down in the Sudan, and in a few generations became a powerful nation. The number of these deserters from the Egyptian garrisons is given by Herodotus (ii. 30) as two hundred and forty thousand, but there must be some mistake in the figures ; the desertions probably went on for a space of several years, and the number given above may represent the total number of the men who emigrated from Egypt during the reign of Psammetichus.
Herodotus says that these Automoloi,:i or " Deserters," called themselves " Asmakh," 'Aaixax, a word which he says means, " the men who stand on the left hand of the king," the allusion being to the fact that Psammetichus had given to his foreign mercenaries the place on his right hand which had been formerly held by the Egyptians. Diodorus (i. 67) says plainly that the Egyptian troops deserted because they had been placed in the left wing, whilst the right was given to strangers. The meaning
1 Herodotus, ii. 30.
- Tcov 8( Tiva Xf'yfTai bfigavra to aidoiov flnai, %v6a av tovto ?}, to~tcr$ai auTatm (vOavTa teal Teicva Kcii yvviuKa*.
3 These are the Sembritai of Strabo, and the Semberritae of Pliny (vi. 30).
54
THE ASMAKH
of " Asmakh " has been debated by many scholars, but as there are variant readings of the name it is not easy to arrive at a final conclusion about it. M. de Horrack believed ' that it represented the Egyptian word, suggested by Brugsch, " semehi," 2 i.e., "to be left," " the left," and, as Professor Maspero says, "it is certain " that, the Egyptians, whatever may have been the real significa- "tion of the name, had in their minds the word indicated by " M. de Horrack, and the very expression used by Herodotus, ol " e£ api(JT€pf}<; ^ftpo?, proves it."3
Prof. Wiedemann rejects this derivation,4 and prefers to think that Asmakh, or Askam represents some " Ethiopian word, the " meaning of which is not connected with the Egyptian word " semehi" He further points out that " fan-bearer on the left hand of the king " was a position of the highest honour, and that when the god separated the good from the bad, the latter were placed on the right hand, and the former on the left. According to Professor Maspero, the deserters from the Egyptian garrisons belonged to the Mashuasha, or Libyan tribes, who henceforward disappear from Egyptian history. They were a warlike and turbu- lent people, as we know from the inscriptions of the XXIst and following dynasties, but they felt that they could not withstand successfully the Greek mercenaries, and so retreated to the South, where they must have modified profoundly the civilization of the inhabitants.
1 Revue Arch.) torn, ii., 1862, p. 268. 2 I
' Passing of the Empires, p. 500
4 Herodots zweites Buck, Leipzig, 1890, p. 128.
\\
55
CHAPTER VI.
THE SUCCESSORS OF TANUATH-AMEN,
TURNING now to Napata, it is impossible to say what happened there after the flight, and presumably death, of Tanuath-Amen. It is probable that one of the immediate descendants of Taharqa seized the throne, but the inscriptions are silent on the matter. To the second half of the seventh century before Christ the following kings may be attributed : —
1. PlANKHI, with prenomen of SENEFER-RA, and the Horns
name of Sehetep - taiu - f. His names occur on an altar which was found in the village ofMerawi,' near Gebel Barkal, whence it had no doubt, been taken. It will be seen from the text here given that the altar was dedicated to " Mut.
4> the great lady, the dweller in Ta- kenset." From this it appears that there was a temple at Geb 1 Barkal specially dedicated to the goddess and consort of Amen. The style
of the hieroglyphics suggests that they were cut not very long
after the inscriptions on Taharqa's temple.
2. Netch - KA- Mi£N fes^ ( "t" 5fcji ]• His name is found on a door-curve in a room of the temple at Gebel Barkal, where
the name of a PlANKHI MERI-AMEN-SA-BAST occurs.'
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Ra, and the Horus name of Seh [er] taui. His name and titles occur on an altar which Lepsius took from the ruins of a temple at Gebel Barkal to Berlin 1 (No. 1481). In the in- scription here given he calls him- self " beloved of Amen-Ra, lord of " the throne of the Two Lands, the " dweller in the Holy Mountain " : three copies of this inscription appear on the altar. The surface of the altar shows marks of long usage, the prenomen Khu-ka-Ra, and the
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5. Athlenersa, with
Horus name of Hetep(?)-taui,2 i.e., " the peace of the Two Lands," and the Nekhebet-Uatchet title of Meri Maat,8 and the Golden Horus title of Smen-en-hepu.4 On an altar, which Lepsius found among the ruins of a temple at Gebel Barkal,5 in addition to his other titles this king calls himself " beloved of Amen-Ra, lord of the throne of the Two Lands, at the head of the and " stablished by his soldiers/* " 6. Amathel. with the prenomen Uatch-ka-Ra ; the other i^^i names are broken away from the headless /WWVA granite statue of this king, on which his O prenomen and nomen are given. The statue was found at Gebel Barkal by Lepsius, who took it to Berlin, where it is now preserved in the Royal Museum (No. 2240, Verzeichnis, p. 401). The inscription upon it reads: — "All life, all permanence, all joy, all health, all 1 Lepsius, Denkmaler, Abth. v., Bl. 15 a ; see the official Verzeichnis, p. 401.
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57
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
,v happiness are at the feet of this good god, whom all men " adore."
A.SPELTA, with the prenomen Mek-ka-Ra, and the Horus name of Nefer-KHA, and the Nekhebet-Uatchet name of Nefeiv kha, and the Golden Horus name of Usr-ab.1 Of the reign of this king we know nothing. He seems to have flourished during the reign of Psammetichus I., and Dr. Schaefer has come to the conclusion ' that his date may be fixed at B.C. 625. The principal monument of his reign is a large gray granite stele which was found at Gebel Barkal, and brought to Cairo during Mariette's Directorship of Antiquities. On its upper portion the ram- headed Amen is seen seated on a throne, with a king kneeling in front of him ; behind the god stands the goddess Mut, and in front of the king stands the royal sister, royal mother, "the mistress of Kash," holding a sistrum in each hand. The name of this " royal mother," as well as that of Aspelta, has been obliterated on the monument, but we may restore it from the stele in the Louvre, which was first published by Pierret.'' From this we learn that Aspelta's mother was called Enenselsa, and his wife- Mat . . henen, and his daughter Khebit.' The god before whom the king kneels is Amen of Nept (Napata), and he tells Aspelta that he has established the uraei of sovereignty on his brow as the heavens upon their four pillars. Below this scene are inscribed thirty lines of hieroglyphics, in which Aspelta
ibes the ceremonies that were performed at his coronation or inthionement, and for this reason the monument is generally known as the "Stele of the Coronation," or the " Stele of the Knthronement." It will be remembered that Diodorus tells us that when a king was to be crowned in Nubia the priests first of all selected a number of suitable candidates, that these were led
;. Ze/t., xxxiii., 1 895, p. 10 1 ft.
' to/o^n/ucs, torn, i., pp. 96-ico; Records of the Past, vol. iv. p. 87; see also Schaefer, Aeg. Zeit '.. 1895, p. 101 fif
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STELE INSCRIBED WITH AN ACCOUNT OF TJIE CORONATION OF KING ASPELTA. FOUND AT GEBEL BARKAI..
STELE OF ASPELTA
in by them before the statue of the god during the performance of certain festival rites, and that the candidate whom the statue of the god touched or embraced was regarded as chosen by him to be king. This done, all present fell on their faces and adored the king-elect as a god, believing that the divine power had been transferred to him by the touch or embrace of the image.1 Now Diodorus was, as we shall see, well-informed on this matter, and the Stele of the Coronation supplies a number of details which supplement his statement in a striking manner.
The document is dated in the first year of the king's reign, and sets forth that all the soldiers of His Majesty were in the town of Tu-ab (the Holy Mountain, i.e., Gebel Barkal), the seat of Tetun Khenti-Nefert, i.e., the god of the country of the Second and Third Cataracts. With these were assembled twenty-four great officers of the kingdom, six being chosen captains of the army, and six of the seal-bearing caste of priests,2 and six of the caste of learned scribes, and six of the chief chancellors of the palace, and they agreed to elect a king. And they said, " There is a lord among us, but we know him not," and they earnestly desired that he might be made manifest to them. And the twenty-four officials said one to the other, that none knew who he was save Ra, and prayed that he would be defended from all evil. Next, allusion was made to the death of the late king, and the vacant throne, and then they all decided to gc to Amen- Ra, and to lay the matter before him, and to make offerings and pray for his guidance. When the twenty-four officials arrived at the temple of Amen-Ra, they found the prophets and priests already assembled, and they told them the object of their com- ing. Then the priests proceeded to asperge and cense the temple, and to pour out libations of water and wine, and when they had done this, they prayed to Amen-Ra, and asked him to
1 Ot pev yap lepels e£ avra>v tovs dpiaTovs irpoKpivovcriv, ex 8e tojv K.aTa\e)(8evTa>v,
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alpelrai daaiKea' evBi'S 8e koi rrpoaKvvd <a\ Ttfiq Kaddirtp deov, a)? vixb ri]s TQV
8aip.oviov irpovoias ey<€)(fipio-fievT]s avrca rrjs dpxrjs. Book hi. 5- 1 (Didot's ed.
'P 129).
6l
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
give them a king who would carry out his good works among them.
After their prayer they placed the candidates for the throne, who were styled " royal brethren." ' before the god, but the would have none of them: among these, presumably, was Aspelta. Then they brought Aspelta before the god a second time, whereupon Amen-Ra declared that he was to be their lord When complete the text stated that Aspelta was the son of Enenselsa, queen of Rash, and grandson of a high-priesti Amen-Ra, and gave the name of Enenselsa's mother, grand- mother, great grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and great- great-great-grandmother, but the cartouches of all these royal ladies been obliterated. It is important to note that Aspelta's maternal ancestress in the sixth generation was a queen of Kash. When Amen-Ra had spoken, all present fell on their bellies' and " smelt the earth.'" i.e.. adored Aspelta as the son of Amen-Ra, and acknowledged him as their kin--. Then Aspelta went into the presence of the god, and prayed lor strength and
guidance to do his will, and Amen-Ra promised togivehim these
The king then rose up. and put on the crown, and, taking the sceptre in his hand, prostrated himself before the god, and prayed for " life, stability, power, health, gladness, and long life.*' When Amen-Ra had further promised to give him dominion over all lands, the king came forth and was greeted with cries of joy and shouts of acclamation by his assembled subjects. As ;i thank-offering to Amen-F Ita founded several festivals
which were to be celebrated yearly, and he mad gifts,
including one hundred and forty barrels of beer, to the god and his i
The Last lines of the text are, unfortunately, much mutilated, but the general sense of the remaining portions is clear. From the above summary it is evident that Aspelta was no adventurer or usurper, and that on his mother's side, at Least, he was the legitimate occupant <>f the throne of Napata. His ancestress in
sixth generation was probably a contemporary of the ■.. Piankhi, and may have belonged to the same branch of the royal
STELE OF ASPELTA
house of Napata as he. The inscription which records Aspelta's coronation : is very important as illustrating Nubian customs in the seventh century before Christ, and a translation of all the portions of it now remaining is therefore given here.
The Coronation of Aspelta — Translation.
(i) On the fifteenth day of the second month of spring of the first year of the Majesty of Horus Nefer-kha, the king of the shrines of Nekhebet and Uatchet, Nefer-kha, the Horus of gold Usr-ab, the king of the South and North, the lord of the Two
Lands, ( Mer-ka-Ra 1L the son of the Sun, the lord of crowns,
(Aspelta), the beloved of Amen-Ra, the lord of the throne of
tne Two Lands, who dwelleth in Tu-ab — now behold (2) all the soldiers of His Majesty were in the temple-hall of the city of Tu-ab — now the name of the god who dwelleth therein is Tetun Khenti- Nefert, the god of Kash, — after the god (i.e., the late king) had departed to his place of rest. (3) And there were there six captains who tilled the heart [of the king] of the army of his Majesty, and six of the chiefs who filled the heart [of the king] who were overseers of the seal, and (4) six overseers of the archives who filled the heart [of the king], and six nobles who were overseers of the chancery of the palace. And they said unto all his soldiers, " Come, let us " (5) make a king for ourselves, who shall be like unto a bull whom " none can resist." And the soldiers pondered anxiously and said, " Our lord abideth among us, but we know him not. (6) We " wish indeed that we did know him so that we might enter into ''his service, even as the Two Lands served Horus the son of " Isis after he had taken his seat upon the throne of his father " Osiris, and ascribed adoration to the two uraei [on his brow]."
(7) And one spake unto his neighbour, saying, " No man knoweth "him, save only Ra himself: may the god drive away from him 11 evil in every place wheresoever he may be ! " And [again] one
(8) spake unto his neighbour, saying, " Ra (i.e., the late king) " hath taken up his place in the Land of Life (Ankhtet), and his "crown is [empty] among us." And [again] one spake unto his neighbour, saying, " It hath been a fixed and unalterable decree of " Ra since the time when heaven came into being, and (9) since " the crown of royalty existed, that he should give [the crown] to " his beloved son, for the king is his image among the living, and " hath not Ra placed himself in this land because of his love for it,
1 For the text, see Mariette, Monuments, plate 9 ; and for translations, see Maspero, Rev. Arch., 1873, torn. xxv\, p. 300 ff. ; Maspero, Records of the Past, vol. vi., p. 71 ; Maspero, Annates &thiopie?i7ies, § ii ; M tiller, Aethiopien, p. 27.
63
THE EGYPTIAN ST DAN
md that this land may have peace?" And [again] one said (10) unto his neighbour, " Hath not Ra ' entered into heaven, and •' is not his throne empty without a king ? And do not his rank
ind his beneficence remain in his hands to give unto his son who "loveth him ? For Ra knoweth that by means of them he (i.e., "the king) will make good laws on his throne."
(n) Then all the soldiers pondered anxiously, saying, "Our " lord abideth among us. but we know him not.'* And each and all the soldiers of His Majesty said with one voice, " Now, moreover, ••this god Amen Ra, lord of the throne of the Two Lands, the
Iweller in Tu-ab is the god of Kash. Come, (12) let us ^ro to "him, and let us do nothing without him, for not good is the thing "which is done without him. Aral let us place the matter with "the god, for he hath bun the god of the kingdom of Kash since " the time of Ra, and he will lead us. For (13) the kingdom of " Kash is in his hands, and he giveth it unto the son whom he "loveth. We will adore him. and we will smell the earth [as we " lie on] our bellies before him. and we will declare before him.
saying, * We have come unto thee. O Amen, do thou give unto •• us our lord to vivify us. to build the temples of all the gods and
goddesses of the South and North, and to provide (14) offerings " for them. We will do nothing without thee, thou art our guide, ••and nothing whatsoever shall be done without thee.' " Then each and every soldier said, " This is a saying which is good, and " we declare it to be so a hundred thousand times.
Then the captains of His Majesty went (15) with the chief officers of the palace of Amen, and they found the prophets and the chief libationers standing at the door of the temple, and they said unto them, "[We] come before this god Anien-Ka. the
:\\«ller in Tu-ab, so that he may give unto us our lord to vivify "us, to build the tempi. all the godsand all the g< ddr
nth and North, and to provide offerings for them, and "we will do nothing whatsoever without this god, for he is our Then the prophets and the chief libationers went into the temple, and they performed all the ceremonies of purification the pouring out of water therein. And the captains of His Majesty ty) and the nobles of the palace went into the temple, and they threw themselves on their bellies before this god, and they said, " We have come unto thee. () Amen-Ra, the lord of the " throne of the Two Lands, the dweller in Tu-.ab, give thou us a lord "to vivify us, to build the temples of the gods of the South and
rth, and to provide offerings [for them |. and [to receive] "the gracious 18) dignity from thy two hands which thou gh •• unto thy beloved son." / And they set the royal brethren in th< e of this god, but
• • • king.
Sep: this is an old phrase borrowed from the rubrics
STELE OF ASPELTA
he did not draw to himself one of them. Then they set a second time [before the God] the Royal Brother, the son of Amen, born
of Mut, the lady of heaven, the son of Ra, f Aspelta ], who liveth
for ever, and the god Amen-Ra, (19) the lord oflhe throne of the Two Lands, said, " He it is who is the king your lord, and he shall " vivify you, and he shall build all the temples of the Lords of the "South and North, and provide offerings therefor. His father
" was the divine son, the son of Ra f \ mad kheru} whose
" mother was the royal sister, the royal mother, the mistress of
" Kash, (20) the daughter of Ra f \ who liveth for ever;
" whose mother was the royal sister, the Meter Tuat (i.e., high-
" priestess) of Amen-Ra, the king of the gods of Thebes, f J,
" maat kheru; whose mother was the royal sister ( 1,
" maat kheru ; whose mother was the royal sister ( J, maat
"kheru; whose mother was the royal sister ( J, maat kheru :
"whose mother was the royal sister f J, (21) maat kheru ;
" whose mother was the royal sister, the mistress of Kash,
"( jL maat kheru. He shall be your lord."
Then the captains of His Majesty and the nobles of the palace cast themselves down on their bellies before this god, and smelt the earth in the deepest humility, and gave thanks unto this god for the mighty {22) deed which he had done for his beloved son,
the king of the South and North, f Aspelta J, who liveth for ever.
And His Majesty entered in to let himself be crowned before Father Amen-Ra, the Lord of the throne of the Two Lands, and he found every kind of crown, and the royal apparel of the kings of Kash, and their sceptres, laid before this god. Then His Majesty spake in the presence of this god, saying: (23) "Come thou to " me, O Amen-Ra the lord of the throne of the Two Lands, who " dwellest in Tu-ab, grant thou unto me thy beneficent dignity "which is not in my heart, and let me love thee (?). Give thou " to me the crown, according to the desire of thy heart, and the " sceptre." Then the god said, " Thine is the crown of the royal
"brother, the king of the South and North ( j, mad
" kheru (24); and his diadem is stablished on thy head, even as " is stablished .... on thy head ; and his sceptre is in thy
1 " He whose word is maat," i.e., he who has attained the power of making every order he gives to take effect. Thus we know that Aspelta's father was dead.
VOL. II. 65 F
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
" hand, and it shall overthrow all thine enemies." Then His Majesty rose up before Amen-Ra, [the lord of the throne of the Two Lands], .... and he took the sceptre in his hand, and His Majesty cast himself upon his belly before this god (25) to smell the earth in the deepest humility. And he said : " Come thou to " me, O Amen-Ra, the lord of the throne of the Two Lands, who " dwellest in Tu-ab . . . ." From this point onwards the text is much mutilated, but enough of it remains to prove that when the king came out from the temple he was received by his soldiers with shouts of joy (line 28), and that he established festivals in honour of the gods, and gave gifts to the priests.
In connection with the reign of Aspelta mention must be made of the Stele set up by his Queen Mat .... henen (?) at Gebel Barkal, to commemorate the gifts which she made to the temple of Amen-Ra there. This Stele, after it was removed from the Sudan, came into the possession of Linant Bey, and it passed into the hands of Prince Napoleon and E. de Rouge, and after the death of the latter was given to the Museum of the Louvre by J. de Rouge.1 On the upper portion of it is sculptured a scene
wherein Aspelta is making an offering of Maut, $ , to Amen-Ra,
Mut, and Khensu, and behind him stand his mother Enselsa, his wife Mat . . . henen (?), and his sister Khebit, each pouring out a libation with her right hand, and holding a sceptre in her left. Each of the three royal ladies is steatopygous, and their figures resemble those of the ladies who are seen represented on the chapel-walls of the pyramids of Meroe. Beneath the sculptured scene are twenty-three lines of text, which set forth that on the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month of the season Shat, in the third year of Aspelta's reign, the following officers of the kingdom of Napata came to the temple: six overseers of the seal called Rum-Amen, Amen-tarhaknen .... a-Amen-saknen,
the Anauasasu official Kuru-Amen-tanen samakhinen,
Nastaabusaknen,- and the chief scribe of Kash, Marubiua-
1 First published and translated by P. Pierrot, in 1£iude$ Hgypt.t torn, i., pp. 96-106, plate 2, Paris, 1873 ; also published and translated by Schaefer, in Zeit., 1895, P- IQI-
- I.
66
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STELE INSCRIBED !WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEDICATION OF GIFTS TO THE TEMPLE OF AMEN-RA AT NAPATA BY KING ASPELTA. FOUND AT GEBEL BARKAL.
STELE OF ASPELTA'S QUEEN
Amen,1 and the scribe of the granary, Kbensu-Artas,- the chief chancellor of the marches of Ta-Kenset, Arta,3 the royal scribe Takarta,1 the chancellor Pata-nub/' in all, eleven officials. In the presence of these stood the queen, with a silver bowl in her right hand, and a sistrum in her left, and she made an offering to Amen and agreed to give to the god fifteen loaves of bread, ten of one sort and five of another, each day, and e\cry month fifteen measures of beer, and every year three oxen, and on festival days she promised to give a measure of some kind of beer, and two measures of another, extra. These gifts were to be maintained by the queen during her life, and by her children and grandchildren after her death. Every descendant of hers who carried out her wishes would be favourably regarded by Amen-Ra, and would have a son to succeed him, but whosoever diminished these offerings would be smitten by the sword of Amen-Ra, and be burned by the fire of Sekhet, and have no son to succeed him. There were present also at the dedication of this endowment, the second, third, and fourth prophets of Amen, who were called Uahmani-Amen, Tanen-Amen, Tanenbuta, respectively; and the scribe of the divine words of Amen, whose name is erased ; the seven chief libationer-priests, Sapakhi, Sab, Peta-Amen, Nemkhi, Kurumut, Khent(?)-ruhi, Kuru-tanen-Amen ; the three presidents, Nes- Anher, Bes . . . ., and Un-nefer, and the temple scribe Nes- Mut.
Here for convenience' sake, and because the document probably belongs to the end of the seventh century before Christ, reference must be made to the edict against the eaters of raw meat, which was promulgated at Napata by a king whose name has been
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THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
obliterated.' The edict is inscribed upon a stone slab, with a rounded top, which was found by an Egyptian officer at Gebel Barkal, and which w quently brought to Cairo, under
Mariettas Directorship of Antiquities ; this monument is generally known as the " Stele of the Excommunication." On the rounded part is sculptured a scene wherein th< king, whose name has been
d from the cartouche, is making an offering of Maat $ , to Amen-Ra, who is represented with a ram's head surmounted
disk and plumes; behind the god stand Mut and Khensu.
Amen promises to give him "all life and power'*: and Mut, "all
health," and Khensu, "the veritable scribe of the company of the
and Horns, the lord of joy of heart, all joy of heart."
ith the - ten lints of text, the first three of which
contain the king's names and titles. The rest of the inscription sets forth that, in the second year after His Majesty had ascended the throm . he went into the temple of Father Amen of
Napata, the dweller in Tu-al>, to drive away these men (or tribes).
who were haters of the god [Amen], and were called " Tern pesiu
■ t khaiu," saying : " They shall not enter into the temple of
I Napata. the dweller in Tu-ab, because of that thing,
"whereof to speak is an abomination, which, they did in the
" temple of Amen." Nowtheydid a thing, which the god had
not given the command to do, and they made a blasphemous
n in their hearts, in respect of slaying the man in whom
listed no abomination, the- which the god had given no
mand to perform. But the god made their words [empty
whilst yet] in their mouths, and their words wherein they had
things which rose up against them in an evil
! smote them, and he made the fire of the
3 through their midst. In order to put into all
prophets, and into all libationers, who enter into the place where
this holy god is. the fear of the greatness of his souls and of the
might of his living power, Hi \ saiththus: —
" All prophets and all libationers who shall commit an evil act "in the temple shall [the god Amen] slay. And their feet shall
tte, Mori. Divers, plate 10 ; and for translations, see 71, torn, xxi., p. 329 : Records of the Past, vol. iv., ; and see Mariette, Revue Arch., torn, ii., p.
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STELE INSCRIBED WITH AN EDICT PROHIBITING THE EATERS OF RAW MEAT TO ENTER THE TEMPLE OF AMEX-RA. AT GEBEL BARKAL. FOUND AT GEBEL BARKAL.
THE EATERS OF RAW MEAT
" not be permitted to [stand] upon the earth, and their posterity " shall not be firmly stablished after them ; therefore shall the " temple be free from their pollution, and their defilement shall " not be therein."
From this extract it is clear that the edict was directed against a class of people who tried to introduce into the town of Napata a custom which was abhorred by the priests and their nominee the king, and, though it is impossible to supply details of the custom, and to give the exact meaning of the formula which expressed the views of these people, it is not difficult to show what they were. The first two words of the phrase,1 tern pesi, seem to mean "do not cook," and therefore Professor Maspero, the first to translate the edict, believes that the people who incurred the wrath of Amen and the king endeavoured to introduce the custom of eating raw meat. That it found favour among certain of the priests and libationers is clear from the fact that the last para- graph of the edict is directed against them. Now, the eating of raw meat has been a practice among the Ethiopians from time immemorial, and the custom survives to this day among many of the tribes on the Abyssinian frontier and in Abyssinia itself. The Amharic language, in fact, contains a word for "meat which is eaten raw," i.e., brundo, or brendo,' and the Abyssinians, as has already been said (see Vol. I., pp. 18, 19), love raw meat. The priests of Amen and the men of Egyptian descent in Napata hated the innovation, or perhaps the continuation of an old custom, hence the edict ; but, seeing that the name of the king who promulgated it was obliterated in later days, it may be assumed that he was unpopular because of his edict, and that the custom of eating raw meat became common in Napata.
During the reign of Nekau (Necho), the second king of the XXVIth Dynasty, Egypt was too much occupied with Syria to trouble about Nubia, or the Sudan, and, so far as we know, the mercenaries who garrisoned Elephantine had no serious trouble with the people who lived to the south of the First Cataract. Nekau began to reign about B.C. 611 and died about 594. In a battle with him in the Valley of Megiddo Josiah, king of Judah,
1 Turn pest. Per tot khai, " Do not cook. Let violence kill " (Maspero).
73
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
lain,1 and Nekau made himself master of all Syria whilst the Babylonians and Medes were attacking Nineveh. After the fall of Nineveh Nebuchadnezzar II. marched against him. and in a pitched battle fought at Karkemish the Egyptians, Nubians, and Libyans were routed with great slaughter, and Nekau sought safety in flight ; he reached Egypt safely, and died two years after his defeat. During his reign he cleared out the old Red Sea Canal, in the course of which work 120,000 men perished; he also established a fleet of triremes.
mmetichus II., the son and successor of Nekau, ascended
the throne when very young, and in the early years of his reign
at to Klephantine to superintend an expedition into Nubia ;
on his return he died, about B.C. 589. Whilst he was at
Elephantine his officers caused his titles and cartouches to be cut
on rocks on the Islands . Abaton, Konosso, &c, and
about this time the rock-hewn chapel at Philae, made in honour
of Khnemu and other gods of the Cataract country, was probably
dedicated, The object of the expedition into Nubia is not clear,
and there is no evidence that it met with any opposition on the
How far south the officers of Psammetichus II. went is not
known, but they certainly reached Abu Simbel, for they left
inscriptions there which make this certain. These inscriptions -
are in Creek. Carian, and Phoenician, and are found on a leg of
one of the colossal >tatues of Rameses II. The most important
of those in Greek is that whim ^hues that it was cut by the
comrades of Psammetichus, the son of Theokles. when king
nmetichus came to Elephantine The expedition, it goes on
iled by was- of Ki rkis to the source of the river, Deche-
mmanding the foreigners, and Amasis the Egyptians.
who wrote were Damerarchon, the son of Amoibichos,
and Pelekos, the son of Udamos.3 The name Reikis * has been
•e 2 Kings xxiii. 29.
ee Lepsius. Denkmnler, Abth. vi.. Bl. 98 ff.; Corpus Insert p. Semit., torn, i., pi. 19, 20, text, torn, i., pp. 128-137 ; Sayce, Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., . p. 144 \\.
iXtos tXduvTos is 'EXtquii'Ttvai' VupnaTiKo •nura ty papain ot avv ¥afifiaTi\oi toi B/okXos (irXtov f)Wov 3« Ke'pnios Karwfp devtairn iruTapos dvir) d\6y\oaos A^frroToo-i/xro AtyvKTMK 8i "Apaais lypctfpt Aapfpap\ov ^Apoldi^ov kcu TlfXfKos 0l8dp.nv. 4 See A 1 demann, in Rheiflisches Museum, Bd. xxxv., p. 372.
74
HERU-SA-ATEF
the subject of much discussion, but the reading is well-established, and it seems better to look for this place to the south of Abu Simbel, than to identify it either with Kirsh, opposite to Garf Husen, or with Korti, a little above Dakka. Practically speaking, the expedition sailed nearly to Wadi Haifa, the Egyptians of the time considering that the Nile Valley from Elephantine to this point belonged to them. Wadi Haifa, or Behen as it was then called, had lost its importance, but this was certain to happen when it ceased to be a central market for the products of the Southern Sudan. This ancient frontier town was situated in a most unproductive portion of the Nile Valley, and it was to the interest neither of the kings of Napata nor of the kings of Egypt to maintain or defend it against each other at this period.
During the rule of the early kings of the XXVIth Dynasty of Egypt there flourished at Napata, probably between B.C. 610 and B.C. 580, a king called P-ankh-aluru, whose name occurs in this
form :-
las
I
J
fefe
r^
1"
Nothing whatever is known about his reign, but his name occurs twice in the Stele of Nastasenen, once in connection with a vine- yard, or garden, which he planted at Ta-hehet, and once in connection with Heru-sa-atef.
Following close on the period of his rule came the reign of Heru-sa-atef, whose prenomen was Sa-mer- Amen. His Horus name was Ka-nekht-kha-em- Nept,1 his Nekhebet-Uatchet name was Netch- neteru,2 and his Golden Horus name was Uaf- th-tat-semt-semt-nebt.3 The only known monument of this king is the famous gray granite stele from Gebel Barkal which is now in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo. On the upper portion of the obverse is sculptured a figure of the winged disk, with pendent uraei, between
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which is uche containing the name of Irjeru-sa-atef
Beneath are two scenes: in that to the right the king is standing, and is making an offering of a string of heads, a neck-
and a pectoral to the ram-headed Amen of Napata, and
behind him is the "royal mother, royal sister, mistress of Kash,
Thesma nefer-ru " ;' in tin- seem- to the left the king is making
mie kind of offerings t<> the man-headed Amen, and behind
him stands the " royal sister and wife Behth&iis (?). On the four
<>f the stele are e6i lines of hieroglyphics, wherein is
rded the history of the principal events of the reign oi Heru- sa-atef.a The following rendering of them will illustrate their contents: —
(i The thirteenth day of the second month (^ the season of Pert, in the thirty-fifth year under the majesty of the Horns, the Mighty Bull crowned in Nept (Napata), the lord of the shrines of Nekhebet and Uatchet, (2) the Advocate of the gods, the Golden Horus, tht conqueror i?> of all foreign lands, the king of the South
and North, fSa-mer-Amen], the son of Ra, the lord of the Two
Lands, the lord of crowns, <;■ the lord who hath made creation, ceeding] from his body, beloved by him,
M.Ierw-s.'.-ateM, who liveth for ever, beloved of Amen-ka, the
if the thrones of the Two Lands, who dwelleth in the Holy [Mountain]. We give him (4) life, stability, and all power, and all health, and all joy of heart, like Ra, for ever.
rn the beginning they decided that Amen of (5) Napata . . . .
my beneficent Father, should give unto me ra-Neheset (i.e., the
Land »f the Blacks, or Sudan): 111 the beginning it was they who
iound <»n the royal tiara, in the beginning it was they who
I upon me with their kind eyes, and who spake unto me,
sayin n< to the temple of Amen oi Napata,
" who dwelleth in the Hall of the (8) North." r hen was I afraid, and I made supplication unto a certain aged man. and
him], and he (9) spake unt<> me, saying: " Seek on
11 behalf of thy two hands: he who buildeth up my (10) holy
hall be protected." Then they caused me to come into
the presence of Amen of Napata, my (n) beneficent Father,
sa\ in- : " I beseech thee to give unto me the diadem of the Land
1 E221' '" Q^ii^Jii
. plates 11-13; and for translations, of ike Pdsty vol. vi«, pj ttudes de Mythologie,
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RELIEFS AND TEXT FROM THE FRONT OF THE STELE OF HERU-SA-ATEF. FOUND AT GEBEL BARKAL.
STELE OF HERU-SA-ATEF
"of the Blacks"; and (12) Amen of Napata said unto me, "I " have given unto thee the diadem of the Land of the Blacks ; "and [ have given (13) unto thee the Four Quarters of the whole "earth; and I have given unto thee the water which is good ; " and I have given unto thee (14) the water which is foul ; and I " have placed all thy foes so that they may be beneath thy " sandals." (15) If any country maketh a [hostile] advance on " thy two sides it shall not succeed ; but if thou (16) makest an " expedition against any country which is on either side of thee, " (17) the thigh and the legs thereof shall come to nought." And having seen him I poured out a great libation in return for that which Amen of Napata, (18) my beneficent Father, had given me, and I stood up in the hall of the Apts of Amen of Napata, (19) within the sanctuary.
And it came to pass after these things that [I] made a journey to Amen-Ra (20), the lord who dwelleth in the city of Qemten, and I spake, saying, " Amen of Napata." And I made a journey to Amen-Ra, the lord who dwelleth (21) within Pa-Nebes. and I spake, saying, "Amen of Napata." And I made a journey to Bast of (22) Taret, and I spake, saying, " Amen of Napata."
Then they spake to me, saying, " Get thee gone (23) to the temple " of Amen of Tarukhet(?)-reset, for men say that the building "thereof is not complete." (24) Then I turned back a second time, and I builded it, and I provided materials, and I adorned it completely in five months. And when I looked at the (25) temple of the Apts of Amen of Napata, and saw that it lacked
gold, I gave (26) unto the temple of the Apts forty
teben of gold, and of worked gold (?) five thousand one hundred and twenty pek. (27) Then one spake unto me saying, " The pa shennut lacketh gold/' And I (28) caused them to bring shent (acacia) wood, and wood of Arkaret, in abundance, (29) and I made them bring it to Napata, and I made them to lay plates of gold on both sides of it [in weight] forty teben. (30) And I gave to the treasury (?) of the temple twenty teben of gold, and of worked gold one hundred pieces.
(31) O Amen of Napata, I have given unto thee [a pectoral] and beads for thy neck .... and a statue of Amen-Ra .... inlaid with . . . and gold, and three .... of gold, which were inlaid with [precious stones], and a figure of Ra inlaid with gold, and three gold figures of the head of Amen, and two censers (?) of gold, and one hundred and thirty-four bands (?) of gold, and one hundred teben of silver, and one rncihen vessel of silver, and one haru vessel of silver, and five sekaru vessels of silver, and one liaru vessel of silver, and one mahen vessel of silver, and one dbrek vessel of silver, and nine mennu vessels of silver, and four karu vessels of copper, and .... mekatmi vessels of copper, and two hahrdmdu vessels of copper, and two fire-holders of copper, and one ukhakh vessel of copper, and fifteen sekaru bowls of copper, and five patennu vessels of copper, and two large lavers
79
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
r — total, thirty-two [vessels]. And two hundred teben
. and rive jars of honey (56).
And on another occasion, when the House of a Thousand Years
n to fall into ruin, I rebuilt it for thee. I made for it a
with pillars; 1 built for thee a stable for oxen, two hundred
and fifty-four cubits [long]. I restored for thee a temple, which
though small had gone to ruin, and I made supplication,
." And I spake, saying, -" Be- hold, as a king of Egypt have I built for thee, and I have "provided for its supply of offerings." And again, I gave unto thee five hundred oxen, and I gave unto thee two mQnen vessels of milk, and wry many .•. on many occasions. And I
unto thee ten ministrants. And I gave unto thee captives, tiftv men and fifty women, in all one hundred. O Amen of tta, I have not reckoned [what I gave] unto thee. I am the man who provided for thee that which I vowed. (72) And 011 the twenty-third day of the third month of the season Pert, in tin second year, they made him set out on an expedition against the rebels, and I slaughtered the Rehrehsa. and Amen hamstrung the thighs that were stretched out against me. I did acts of ry anion- them, and defeated them utterly.
And on the fourth day of the second month of the season in the third year, I did acts of bravery among the Met. t 5, and I defeated them utterly .... and it was thou who workedsl for me.
And on the twelfth day of tl nd month of the
n Shemu, in the fifth year of the son of Ra, the king of the
South and North ( Heru-sa-atef JL life, strength, health [to him] for
wmen and my horsemen to go against the rebels in tin- country of Metet. and they performed mighty deeds in the towns of Anerua . . . ru, and they defeated them, and
large numbers of them, and they took many prisoners, and
I the Prince Aruka .... th.
\!id on the fourth day of the second month ot season Shemu. in the sixth year of the son of Ra,
I, who liveth for ever, 1 called together a multi-
iinst the country of MeU-t, and I did
j among them and their towns, and I
ted and routed them utterly in the town of Hebsi (?).
Mills, and cows, and asses, and sheep, and
i men si I women slaves thereof, and the ....
tnd it was thy terror which worked graciously on my
behalf. Then the chief of the land of Metet sent unto me, saying,
•• I hou art my god, I am thy servant, 1 am a woman, O com*
And he caused the dfennut* to be brought unto m
1 The .: the money which he paid to Heru-sa-
j
STELE OF HERU-SA-ATEF
the hands of an envoy (?). And I came and [I] performed the ceremonies of Amen of Napata, my beneficent Father. And I gave unto thee oxen in very large numbers.
(92) And on the fourth day of the first month of the season Pert, in the eleventh year [of my reign], I made my bowmen to set out on an expedition against the country of Taqnat, under the leadership of Kasau, for the troops of the chiefs Baruka and Samensa had reached the city of Sunt. He did mighty deeds of valour there and defeated Baruka and Samensa, and slew all the people of the city. It was through the terror of thee which was beneficent [towards me] that I did [this].
(96) And on the fifteenth day of the first month of the season Sha, in the sixteenth year [of my reign], I caused my bowmen and my horsemen to set out on an expedition against the rebels of the land of Mekhetsa(?) and they performed mighty deeds of valour among them, and my bowmen defeated them with slaughter, and captured the finest of their cattle.
(99) And on the thirteenth day of the first month of the season Pert, in the eighteenth year of [the reign of] the son of Ra,
( Heru-sa-atef ], who liveth for ever, the rebels of the country
of Rehrehsa came under the leadership of with his men
into the city of Baruat (Meroe), and I repulsed him. Thy auspicious terror and thy two mighty thighs smote him bravely, and I defeated him and overthrew him with very great slaughter, and scattered his men. And thou thyself didst so work for me in the lands (?) that he rose up in the middle of the night and took to flight.
(105) And on the eighteenth day of the third month of Shemu, in
the twenty-third year of [the reign of] the son of Ra, ( Heru-sa-atef J ,
who liveth for ever, Arua, the chief of the countries of Rehrehsa, and all his men came against me in the city of Baruat (Meroe). And I did mighty deeds of valour among thern, and I defeated him and overthrew him with very great slaughter, and I repulsed him and put him to flight. And I defeated Shaikaru who came to his assistance under an agreement with him. It was thy auspicious
terror and thy two thighs [which smote] the chief and
my bowmen and my horsemen drove him off.
(in) And on the fifteenth day of the first month of the season Pert, in the thirty-fourth year of [the reign ofj the son of Ra,
fHeru-sa-atefl, who liveth for ever, 1 sent a messenger to
Amen of Napata, my beneficent Father, saying, " Shall I send " my bowmen against the countries of Mekhetsai ? " And Amen sent a message unto me, saying: "Certainly send them." Then I caused to set out fifty scouts and horsemen, and the people of the four lands of Mekhetsai who were gathered together did they defeat with slaughter, and none remained, and none of them vol. 11. 81 g
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
. and none of them was able to take the road, and none of them was able to put his feet [to ground], and none
of them was able and none of them was able to grasp a
bow (?), and they gave themselves up as prisoners (?).
(in)) And. moreover, so soon as they spake unto me, saying, " The temple fell into ruin in the third month of the season Pert "during the festival of Ptah," 1 built the temple for the. built for thee a temple of gold .... of wood, six chambers of
1. and four pillars of stone. And moreover, so soon as they spake unto me. saying: "Thehouse of the king (i.e.. palace) hath "become in such a state of ruin that no man can enter therein,"" I built thehouse of the king, and four houses in Napata, and sixty houses which I caused to be enclosed within a wall. And.
moreover, I built a place of each side of which was fifty
cubits [long], making in all two hundred cubits. And, moreover, I planted six gardens with a vine in each, making in all six vines in Napata And I gave unto thee most beautiful gardens in Barual (Meroe), making in all six. And I caused to be offered up unto thee offerings on the twelfth (or, twenty-second) night [of each month] one hundred and fifteen measures of grain, and thirty-eight measures of barley, making in all one hundred and fifty-three measures of wheat and barley. [The next four linesare mutilated, but the text seems to mean that the king carried out repairs of temples in every town which needed them]. I made Osiris to i . celebrated a festival to the god) in ... . tint ;
[ made to rise Osiris, the dweller in Baruat (Meroe) ; 1 made to rise Osiris and Isis in Merthet : I made to rise Osiris and [sis four times in Kaivrt ; I made to rise Osiris and Isis and Horns in Seh reset ; I made to rise Osiris and Amen-Abti ' in Sekarukat ; I made to rise Horus in Karuthet (Korti?); I made to rise K.i in Mehat(?); I made to rise An-her in Aruthnait ; I made to - in Napata ; I made to rise Osiris in N eh an at : I made
-<■ Osiris and Isis in Pa-Qemt ; and I made to rise Osiris three in Pa-Nebes, for ever.
OfitTd
CHAPTER VII.
THE SUCCESSORS OF PIANKHI.
The information to be gained from Heru-sa-atef 's inscription is of a most interesting nature, and it proves that in the sixth century before Christ there lived at Napata a king, who, by means of the nine expeditions which he made during his reign of at least thirty- five years, made himself master of the Nile Valley from Pa-nebes, the Tlvovyjr of Ptolemy, near Wadi Haifa, to Sennaar on the Blue Nile, and Dar Fur on the White Nile. How far to the west his rule extended cannot be said, but he was certainly conqueror of all the country on both banks of the Atbara. He made no attempt to wage war against the Egyptians, and he seems to have laid claim to no country north of Pa-nebes, a city which lay to the south of Wadi Haifa. He devoted all his energies to the conquest of the various savage, or half savage tribes, whether with black, or red, or white skins, and whether of pure Sudani or Semitic origin, that lived south of the Island of Meroe, and his success was great. With the spoil which he took from the vanquished chiefs he endowed the great temple of Amen at Napata, and he rebuilt the sanctuaries of the gods in many cities, and established one or more annual festivals in each of the twelve chief cities of his kingdom. It is clear that he was wholly in the hands of the priests of Amen, and that he took their advice about going to war. We see also that the bulk of the spoil went to them and to their god, and that Heru-sa-atef bestowed upon Amen of Napata a new endowment after each of his great expeditions.
The gods chosen by him for endowment besides Amen of Napata were Osiris, Isis, Horus, Ra, An-Her, and a local form of Amen called "Amen-Abti." Heru-sa-atef copied the great Egyptian kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty in causing a summary of his deeds
83
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
in the form of Annals to be drawn up, and. like them, he attributed to Amen the successful results which he achieved. The exact length of his reign is unknown, and nothing is known of the events which followed his death. I le may have been succeeded by a son, but tin- materials at present available do not permit any statement made on this point, and we do not reach a period concerning which historical facts exist until tin- reign of Xastasenen.
Ni.STASENEN, with the prenomrn of Axkh-Ka-Ra, and the - 0 Morns name of Ka NEKHT Ml-K PAUT NETERU KHA 5j* Bid NepiTA,1 and the title of "son of Ra," ended the throne about B.C. 525, and he appears to have been the king of the Sudan against whom Cambyses directed his campaign, nly known monument of his reign is the ray granite slab about 5 feet, 6 inches high, inscribed on both sides in hieroglyphics, which is called by Lepsius the " Stele of Dongola." In a note printed at the end of Brugsch's translation of the text, Lepsius says that the stele was obtained through the agency of Graf Wilhelm von Schlieffen, through whom it was given by Muhammad All to the Berlin Museum in L854, but then- is some mistake here, for Muhammad AH died in [849. The difficulty is partially cleared up by a com- munication which Graf Wilhelm von Schlieffen has made to wherein he says that he first saw the stele in New ■la lying Hat on its side in 1N53 ; he cleared away the dust from it. and took a paper impression of the text on one side. When he returned to Cairo the following winter he was instructed by the Prussian Consul-Genera] t<> obtain the stele from 'Abbas hen the Ruler of Egypt, and 'Abbas PashA ; it to His Majesty Frederick William IV. The s1 ined at New Dongola, and it was not until 1 when the Crown Prince Frederick William took a personal
0
LI
f
Mighty Bull, beloved of the company of the gods, crowned in Napata."
1 <S 7 7 . pp. 2
rliner Museums ^ p. 2. Leipzig, 1901.
STELE OF NASTASENEN
interest in the matter, that the monument was brought to Cairo ; in 1871 it was taken to the Museum in Berlin (No. 2268).' By some means or other, Lepsius managed to obtain a paper impression of the text on the reverse soon after the discovery of the stele, for he published the complete text from both sides in 1856. 2 The stele, as has already been said, was found by Graf Wilhelm von SchliefTen at New Dongola, but it is pretty certain that it was not originally set up there by the king who had it made, and although it cannot be said when, or by whom, it was brought there, it is tolerably certain that its original home was Gebel Barkal, and that it stood there near the Stele of Piankhi, the Stele of Tanuath- Amen, the Stele of Aspelta, the Stele of Heru-sa-atef, and the Stele of the Excommunication. It is probable that it was brought away from there by the person who removed the Stele of Queen Mat . . . henen (?), and who gave it or sold it to Liuant Bey, and that on account of its weight, and the great difficulties which would be encountered in passing through the Third and Second Cataracts, it was dropped at New Dongola to await a more favourable opportunity for its removal.
On the upper part of the stele are sculptured two scenes: in that to the right Nastasenen is standing before the ram-headed Amen of Napata, to whom he offers a necklace of beads, and a necklace with a pectoral attached, and in that to the left he makes the same offering to the man-headed Amen-Ra. In the former scene he is accompanied by the Queen Sekhmakh,3 and in the latter by the Queen Mother Pelkha.4 Above these scenes is the winged disk, with pendent uraei, between which is the king's name enclosed within a cartouche ; the text referring to the winged disk reads, " the great god of Behutet (Edfu), the lord of heaven, giveth "life and power." Of the ram-headed Amen it is said; "Amen " of Napata, the dweller in the Holy Mountain, the great god, the "governor of Ta-Kenset, giveth life and all power for ever," and he says to the king, " I give thee all life and power, all stability, " all health, and joy of heart. I give thee the years of eternity,
1 See the official Verzeichnis. p. 402.
2 See Denkmaler, Abth. v., Bl. 16.
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
" wherein to rise upon the throne of Horus for ever." The king is said to be "giving a pectoral to his father." and he must say
four times, " I give thee .... tcben of gold in the first month of Shemut." The Oueen Sekhmakh is pouring out a libation with one hand, and holding a sistrum in the other. Of the man-headed Amen it is said; " Amen-Ra, the lord of "the thrones of the two lands, th nor of the Apts, the
'•giver of all life, stability and like Ra, forever," and he
to the king; " I give to thee all lands, and all mountains •'and . and the Nine Peoples who light with the how shall
11 be fett< : her beneath thy sandals, like Ra, for ever."
The text ' which runs beneath ti. ies and is continued
on tb of the stele gives a good account of the election
to the throne, the coronation, and the war-, or rather raids of
in. As a young man be lived in Beruat, where he
d from Amen of Napata a call which said, " Come " This
aent is interesting, for it shows that about B.C. 525 the
thood of Napata. on the death of l.leru-sa-atef. found no one
in their city who was suitable for the throne. At Merofi Nas-
• .ok counsel with the members of the royal house, and
as they acknowledged that Amen regarded him as his son, h
out early one morning for the city of Astersat, which was perhaps
his native town or village, and passed the night there. The
situation of this place is unknown, but it was probably on the
river, as it seems unlikely that Nastasenen would go to Napata
it desert route, One of which started opposite Meroe. and
1 her a little to the north of the junction of the Atbara with
the Nile. From he went to Ta-hehet (?), another place
! which is unknown. This town was connected in some
with ( P-ankhi-Aluru J, a former king of Napata, and Nas-
10 doubt wished to gain the support of its inhabitants.
net by a company of men from the temple of Amen and a number of local magnates, and, as they informed
U>tb. v., BL 16 ; for translations, see Maspero.
' /.'.. vol. iv., p. 2, 1K76 ; Records of the Past, vol. x., p. 55 ff. ;
. vol. in., p. 239 ffi ; Brugsch, Aeg. Zcit., 1877, p. 23 ; Erman,
Vet Hcknis of the Roy il Museum in Berlin, p. 402 ; Schaefer,
xschrift (Us Berliner Museums^ Leipzig, 1901.
STELE OF NASTASENEN
him that Amen had laid the sovereignty of the country at his feet, he continued his journey, and arrived, by the west bank of the river, at Napata.
He crossed the river and rode on a " large horse " to the temple at Gebel Barkal, and when he had performed all the appointed cere- monies, Amen gave him the kingdom of the Sudan, which extended from the neighbourhood of the modern village of Kosha, about one hundred and twenty miles south of Wadi Haifa, to the country of Alut, the Alwah of Muhammadan writers, the southern limits of which extended along the Blue and White Niles some two or three hundred miles south of the modern city of Khartum. The capital of this country was probably on the site of the ruins on the right bank of the Blue Nile, a little above Khartum, now known as Soba. All the country between the Nile and the Red Sea formed a part of Nastasenen's dominions, and all the Bayuda desert, and the regions to the north and south of it. After returning thanks to Amen, the new king danced before his god, and sacrificed two oxen or bulls, and then went up and took his seat on the Golden Throne, amid the acclamations of gentle and simple, who rejoiced in the appearance of a king who would renew the prosperity of their country.
It was now necessary for Nastasenen to show himself in the northern parts of his kingdom, and he therefore journeyed to the shrine of Amen of Pa-Qem, which was probably situated between the Third and Second Cataracts. Here he was received by the god, in whose honour he celebrated a festival, and when Amen had confirmed his rule the king went up and sat upon the Golden Throne. From Pa-Qem he went to Pa-Nebes, which was situated near Wadi Haifa, and the Amen who was worshipped in this place having confirmed his rule, the king went up and sat upon the Golden Throne. At Pa-Qem he received a bow from the god, and at Pa-Nebes he received a leather-laced club, and thus, having been acknowledged as king in the two chief religious centres in the northern parts of his kingdom, he returned to Napata. Here he offered up further sacrifices, and then he spent four nights in the tchaut chamber in the temple, and during the four days he performed some kind of acts or ceremonies, of the nature and import of which nothing is known. When these days
80
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
were accomplished he offered up as sacrifices two more oxen or hulls, and then he went and seated himself upon the throne which is in the house of the Golden Garden (?).
Up the river from Napata, at a place called Tert, was a famous sanctuary of the goddess Bast. Thither Nastasenen journeyed, and presented himself before the goddess, who embraced him, and him her Left breast [to suck], and presented him with a strong club (?). The site of Tert is unknown. The king occupied five in going there and coming bark, and we may assume there- iiat the sanctuary was situated some distance up the Fourth art, perhaps near the modern Berti. When Nastasenen had 1 Tert his religious pilgrimages, which were also somewhat of a political character, came to an end, and he was free to con- sider a course of anion which would fill the treasury of Amen vvith gold. From his private possessions he dedicated to Amen of Napata four gardens and thirty-six men to work them, a gold statue of Amen of Pa-(Jem-Aten, and two gold statues of Horus, il sets of silver and copper vessels for use in the sanctuary, and large quantities of incense, honey, and myrrh. To Amen in Apt he dedicated ten very fine bulls and cows, and several sets of copper
NOw whilst Nastasenen was consolidating his rule, and
carrying out the behests of the priests of Amen, events of
importance were happening in Egypt. Cambyses, king of Persia,
had quarrelled with Amasis II., king of Egypt, and was making
preparations to invade Egypt. The causes of the quarrel do not
rn as here, for once having made up his mind to invade
!, Cambyses would not have much difficulty in finding an
by Phanes, who had been formerly an officer in
Amasis LI., he obtained guides and water from the
who lived on the north-east frontier of Egypt, and in a
short time he appeared with his host at Pelusium, where,
however, he learned that Amasis II. had just died after a short
id that his son, Psammetichus III., had succeeded him.
imetichus III. marched out with the Egyptians and his
naries to fight Cambyses, but in the fierce battle which took
place at Pelusium his forces were beaten, and he retreated to
phis. A few days later, having captured Pelusium, Cam-
90
CAMBYSES
byses advanced on Memphis, which in due course fell into his hands, and thus Egypt and Nubia so far south as Wadi Haifa became a satrapy of the Persian Empire. According to one account, Psammetichus III. was compelled by Cambyses to commit suicide by drinking bulls' blood,1 according to another, he was exiled, with six thousand Egyptians, to Susa.
Cambyses next determined to conquer the country to the west of Egypt, and Carthage, and Nubia (the Sudan). Before, how- ever, he began to do this, he appears to have set to work to gain the affections of the Egyptians by adopting their manners and customs. He caused his name to be written within a cartouche, and he adopted a Horus name (Sma taui, i.e., the " uniter of the two lands,") and a prenomen, Mesuth-Ra ; 2 he also styled him- self " son of Ra," as if he had been a true Egyptian Pharaoh. With the view of further conciliating the Egyptians, he went to SaTs, restored at his own expense the temple of Neith, which had suffered greatly during the war, and under the tuition of the " ha prince and real royal kinsman," Utcha-Heru-Resenet, learned something of the mythology of the goddess who was the mother of Ra, the Sun-god. Cambyses purified the temple, reinstated the priests, restored their incomes, and performed an act of worship to Neith and poured out a libation to her. With the money which Cambyses restored to him, the priest of Sais did good to all, and it is expressly said of him that he provided coffins for those whose relatives were too poor to buy them, and that " he took care of the children." According to Herodotus (iii. 16), Cambyses had the body of his old enemy, Amasis II., brought out from its tomb, and then beaten and stabbed, and when he found that he could not destroy it, he ordered it to be burned. Herodotus says that he did not believe this story, and most people will share his scepticism in this respect.
When Cambyses thought that the fitting time had arrived, he determined to send his fleet to Carthage, and a portion of his army against the dwellers in the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, and
1 The ancients believed that bulls' blood was poisonous, and that Midas, king of Phrygia, Themistocles, and Smerdis, all died through drinking it.
91
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
another portion against the Nubians.' The expedition to Carthage broke down because the Phoenicians in the fleet of Cambyses refused to fight against their kinsmen, the Carthaginians, rind the king thereupon decided to send an army to Carthage by land. He sent to Elephantine f for a number of the Fish- eaters who were acquainted with the Nubian tongue, and when they had come he gave them their instructions, and sent them into the Sudan with the following gifts: a purple robe, a gold neck-chain, amulets, an alabaster box of myrrh, and a cask ■ 1 m wine. He als« > wanted to know whether the " table of Sun" really existed in Nubia. The " table of the Sun " was a meadow full of boiled flesh of all kinds of beasts, which the t rates stored with meat each night, and whosoever liked came and ate during the day.
The Nubians to whom the Fish-eaters went were the "tallest and handsomest of men," and their king was the tallest citizen, who- ih equalled his height. When the Fish-eaters
arrived, they told the king of Nubia that Cambyses wished to be his friend and ally, and that the gifts they bore to him from him those wherein he most delighted. The Nubian king told mvovs that their words were untrue, that they were spies, and that their king was not a just man because he coveted his country. He then gave them a bow ami told them that when ins could pull it easily they might come against the Nubians: thus saying he unstrung the bow. Of the gifts which Cam! Qt, the only one he approved was the wine, which he
better than anything they had of the kind in Nubia. In answer to the questions of the Fish-caters the Nubian king them that most of his people lived one hundred and twenty more: that they ate boiled flesh and drank nothing but milk; he showed them a fountain, the waters of which made their flesh glossy and sleek, and smell of per- fume like that of violets; he showed them the prisoners in the
»f gold, and the "table of the Sun " ; and t 1 coffins wherein the dead were placed for one year
burial.'1 When the Fish-eaters returned to Can nd gave him their
tus, iii. 17. - Ibid., 19. a Ibid., 23, 24.
CAMBYSES
report, he was furious, and immediately set out against the Nubians, without making arrangements for feeding his troops. When he arrived at Thebes he detached fifty thousand men from his main army, and sent them off to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, with orders to take all the people captives, and to burn the temple of Jupiter Ammon. These men by the help of guides reached the Oasis of Kharga in seven days, and then set out for the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, but when they were half-way across, they were overtaken whilst eating their mid-day meal by a " strong and deadly " south wind, which buried them all in the sand that it brought with it, and never a man returned to Egypt. Meanwhile Cambyses continued his journey up the Nile, but before he had advanced one-fifth of the distance to the Nubian capital his army had eaten all the provisions, and the soldiers began to eat the transport animals, and the grass and the herbs which grew on the skirts of the desert. When, however, the great sandy desert was reached, even these failed, and the troops began to kill and eat their comrades, every ten men selecting a victim.1 Then Cambyses became frightened and retreated to Thebes with the few soldiers that remained to him.
Such is the story, as told by Herodotus, of the mad attempt made by Cambyses to conquer the Sud&n. Details of the route chosen by Cambyses are wanting, and we do not know whether he intended to go to Napata or Meroe. If to the former place, he would have to go to Wadi Haifa, then traverse the awful " Belly of Stones," and the howling wilderness of the Third Cataract, and then march from Kerma to Napata along the river bank, a distance of at least two hundred miles. If to Meroe, he would leave the Nile at Korosko, and cross the desert to Abu Hamed, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles, and then proceed along the river bank for two hundred and twenty miles more. In either case it seems impossible for Cambyses to have reached his destination. Several historians, both ancient and modern, have, however, thought that Cambyses conquered the Sudan. Strabo says* that he conquered the capital of " Ethiopia," and gave it his sister's name " Meroe," and the
1 Herodotus, iii. 25. - Bk. xvii.
93
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
merit is repeated by Josephus ' and Diodorus.- The modern authorities who accept this statement adduce the fact of the existence of a city somewhere near the Third Cataract, called by Plin mbusis," and by Ptolemy4 Ka/xfiuaov ra/xiela, or
"the store places of Cambyses." The hieroglyphic texts also mention a city called " Qem-baiu-set,"5 which Brugsch was pre- pared to identify with the " Cambusis " of Pliny. Whether this identification be true or not, matters comparatively little, for the real question Is whether there exists in the hieroglyphic in- scriptions any evidence that Cambyses conquered the Sudan. On this point the Stele of Nastasenen, the contents of which have already been partial!) described, throws much light, and its evidence goes to show that Cambyses did invade the Sudan, and that his troops wen- defeated by Xastasenen with such slaughter that Cambyses was compelled to retreat to Egypt.
In lines thirty-nine and forty it is said : " The Chief Kambasu- • ten came, and I made my bowmen to advance against him from "the city Tchart. There was a great slaughter. [I captured] "all his I made myself master of all the boats of his
tains, I muted and overthrew him. I seized all his lands (or "territory), and all his oxen, hulls, cow j, and animals of
. v kind, and everything whereon men live, from the city of " Kartepl unto the city of Taruti-pe$it ...."' The name of the chief whom Nastasenen overthrew is written in the inscription
Ka-m- ba-sa-u-t-n-? Brugsch transcribed these signs by Kambi .... uten, the fourth character being to him illegible, hut Dr. Schaefer, after an
minat itself, identified it as ^ sa. and there is no
i
doubt about the correctness of his reading. The last sign may be ®, the determinative of "city," and H$, the last character of all, proves that the preceding characters are intended to form tin: name of the chief against whom Xastasenen fought. When .///</., ii. 102. - i. 33. •) vj, «
J1 Jm^©
CAMBYSES
we compare the group of characters with the variant spellings of the hieroglyphic forms of the name of Cambyses which are known from other monuments, there is no reasonable room for doubt that the foe of Nastasenen was Cambyses.
The position of the city of Tchart, from which the bowmen sallied, is unknown, and it is futile at present to hazard guesses as to its situation. The boats which Nastasenen seized probably belonged to the natives on the river whom Cambyses pressed into his service. The camp, or camps, where the Persian had stored such supplies as he had were captured by the Nubians and all his cattle, but it is instructive to note the absence of any mention of gold or women among the articles of spoil. From his campaigns in the south Nastasenen obtained large numbers of women and gold, the quantities of which are carefully noted. Cambyses coming from the north had, naturally, no stores of gold, and the number of women who followed his army was probably small. The attack on Cambyses' soldiers by the Nubian bow- men resembled a modern Dervish raid upon a town on the Nile under the rule of the Mahdi or Khalifa, and, as the Persians were unused to Sudani methods of warfare, they must have suffered severely under the attacks of the Nubian " bowmen." After the defeat of Cambyses Nastasenen gave twelve bulls to the city of Tarumen, and six bulls to the city of Saksaktit, a lamp to the city of Taqtetet, and to Amen of Napata he dedicated twelve pectorals, all the crops which were produced on the Nile between Kartept and Tarreqet, six hundred cattle, and two hundred men. Thus it seems that the priests of Amen were slave-owners on a considerable scale.
Nastasenen next undertook five expeditions against the various enemies of his country. The first was directed against Aikhentka (?), Chief of Mekhenteqnent, to the south of Meroe, in the Eastern Desert. The second was against Reb-khentent, Chief of Rebaru and Akarkarhent (?). The third was against Abskhent (?), Chief of Arersa. The fourth was against the land of Mekh- sherkherthet (?). The fifth was against Tamakhith, Chief of Mai-khentka (?). The positions of all these places are unknown, but there is no doubt that they were situated in the Eastern Desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, in places where gold
95
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
plentiful, and where the local shdkhs possessed large numbers
of cattle. The names of the chief shekhs of all the countries save
ire mentioned. The spoil taken in the third expedition was
dedi< Imen of Napata, and that taken during the fourth
lition the king kept for himself. The amount of spoil taken
on ti litions was enormous; it consisted of 673,471
1 and bulls; [,252,232 cows, calves* sheep and goats; 3,212
old, i.e., about 800 lbs. troy, besides a "large
quantity of gold/' and "aquantity of gold so large that it could
not be told:*' 2,236 women from Mekhenteqnent, besides "all
the women *' from the four other conquered countries: 322 figures
nd all stores of provisions from most of the districts
which Nastasenen Invaded.
The large quantil >ld mentioned prove that some of these
3 lay along the countries on the Blue Nile, and the great mimi Lttle suggest that the king raided so far south as Dar
Fur and perhaps Korddfan also. It is quite clear that when Nastasenen had raided a country he left it a wilderness, and in much the same state as the Sudan was in on the death of the Khalifa in November, r&jo. Cattle, women, and gold were the three this 1 by the Nubian king five hundred years before
Christ, and it is interesting to note how closely his views on this matter resembled those of Muhammad Ali, twenty-four centuries later ! The gifts which Nastasenen made to Amen were on a large- 1 faet which provesthat he was merely the instrument of the ind his frequent laudations of Amen suggest that he was a narrow-minded and fanatical adherent of this god, and remind us of the frequent references to the mercy and power of Allah with which the Mahdi and Khalifa interspersed their clamations. Fie was prudent in his benefactions, and ' Ltion, at his own expense, of the temple property
which had been stolen from Amen Pa-( Km-Aten and from the goddi iiert. in the Fourth Cataract, was clearly due to
motives which wer< ligious than political.
xiption of Nastasenen is a most interesting document,
dlustrat- of conquest which was followed by a
- probably an usurper, and of pure Sudani origin.
1 ally it i- ;rst importance, as may be seen from
STELE OF NASTASENEN
the excellent monograph which Dr. Schaefer has devoted to it. x\s a genuine Sudani historical composition its value is very high, and a rendering of it in full is therefore given here.
Inscription of Nastasenen.
The ninth day of the first month of the season Pert, in the eighth year under Horus, the Mighty Bull, beloved of the company of the gods, who hath risen in Nepita, lord of the shrine of Nekhebet, lord of the shrine of Uatchet,1 the son of Ra,
(Nastasenen), Horus, the Bull who trampleth those who
rebel against him beneath his sandals, the great and tearing Lion, who stablisheth all the two lands, the son of Amen, whose thighs are great, who maketh broad every part of the two lands, the son
of the gods, the most mighty one who is adored by all the
two lands and the gods, who comprehendeth all knowledge like Thoth, who marcheth with long steps, who buildeth the house (?) of all the two lands like unto the god Pet (Ptah?), who provideth the means of living for every one like unto Amen, the son of Isis, the most might}' one, whose birth the gods decided to bring
about, the