Dynasty 25 and Napatan History: 900-250 BCE
By the mid-ninth century BCE, if not earlier, the site of el-Kurru, 13 km downstream from Jebel
Barkal, had become a walled town and the seat of the most important Nubian chiefdom in the
environs of Napata (Kendall 1999a). Although the town site of el-Kurru is poorly known and
little explored, it was found to have a cemetery containing a series of 26 royal graves (Ibid;
Dunham 1950). Discounting the two latest tombs, which belonged to a king and queen of the
late Napatan Period (late fourth century BCE), the remainder apparently belonged to a
succession of eleven male rulers and their wives, probably dating from the early or mid-ninth
century 1 and ending in the mid-seventh century BCE. The last kings buried there (with eighteen
of their queens) were five of the six rulers of the Kushite 25th Dynasty of Egypt: Kashta (ca.
2 ) (ca. 750-712 BCE), Shabaqo (712-698
760-750 BCE), Piankhy (formerly read “Piye”
BCE), Shebitqo/Shabataka (698-690 BCE), and Tanwetamani (ca. 664-653 BCE). (The sixth
ruler, Taharqo [690-664 BCE] chose to build his tomb and pyramid at Nuri, 23 km upstream).
The earliest tombs at el-Kurru were round tumuli of purely Nubian type, in which the dead were
laid in pits, lying on wooden beds. Successive tombs, however, increasingly incorporated
Egyptian features. Why and how this rapid process of Egyptianization occurred within this
Nubian elite family remains unclear, but external influences – perhaps the appearance on the
scene of émigré Egyptian Amun priests or missionaries from Karnak, fleeing the civil unrest at
Thebes during the reign of Takelot II (ca. 860-835 BCE) - should be suspected (Kendall 1999a,
56-58). By the early eighth century BCE, the el-Kurru chiefs had clearly adopted Amun as their
dynastic god and commenced restoration of the old temples both at Jebel Barkal and at sites
further downstream in Upper Nubia (especially at Sanam, Tabo, Kawa [Gem-pa-aten] and
Kerma/ Doukki Gel [Pnubs]). 3 By mid-century, they had also begun to use Egyptian writing and
language for their formal inscriptions. Proclaiming themselves sons of Amun and heirs of the
New Kingdom pharaohs, they began to assume Egyptian royal titles, which they now claimed
were granted them by Amun “of Karnak” at Jebel Barkal (Reisner 1931, 89-100, pls; FHN 1994
[I], 55-62). From about 780 to 712 BCE, the nascent Kushite dynasty of Napata extended its political reach
northward, first uniting all of Kush (from the sixth to first cataracts), and next, incorporating
Upper Egypt, thereby reuniting Thebes and Theban Karnak with Napata and Napatan “Karnak,”
as had last been accomplished by the New Kingdom pharaohs. Initially the Kushites made their
northern border at el-Hiba, traditional northern boundary of the Thebaid. By 712, after carrying
their conquests northward and establishing firm military control now also over Memphis,
Heliopolis, and most of Lower Egypt, they again united the traditional “Two Lands” of Egypt,
which established their place in Egyptian history as Dynasty 25. 4 It was during this period that
the name of Jebel Barkal was commonly modified from
Nesut-Tawy
(“Thrones of the Two Lands”) to
Neset-Tawy
(“Throne of the Two Lands”), possibly to distinguish it from Theban Karnak.
1/6
Dynasty 25 and Napatan History: 900-250 BCE
Characteristically, the Kushite kings wore a unique type of skull-cap crown, fronted by two uraei
rather than the usual single uraeus worn by Egyptian kings. 5 As will be shown below (III, C), the
shape of this crown was inspired by the profile of Jebel Barkal. The kings also commonly wore
a cord necklace hung with ram-heads, which signified their allegiance to the Amun of Jebel
Barkal (
fig. 9).
Fig. 9: Bronze statuette of King Shabaqo (ca. 712-698 BCE), Twenty-fifth Dynasty. National Arc
Fig. 10: Faience statuette showing the god Amun holding on his lap, in loving embrace, his “wif
2/6
Dynasty 25 and Napatan History: 900-250 BCE
7
8
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ig.
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athe
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Fig. 13: Cache of large Kushite royal statues, deliberately broken, found by Reisner in 1916, bur
3/6
Dynasty 25 and Napatan History: 900-250 BCE
Fig. 14: Relief block from a dismantled 25th Dynasty temple of Horus at Edfu, showing the defa
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4/6
Dynasty 25 and Napatan History: 900-250 BCE
During
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Fig. 19: Pyramid Ku. I at el-Kurru (late fourth-early third century BCE), showing the staircase (whi
5/6
Dynasty 25 and Napatan History: 900-250 BCE
Fig. 20: Meroitic royal pyramids in the north cemetery (“Beg. N”) at Meroe (third to first centuries
Fig. 21: Meroitic royal pyramids at Jebel Barkal (first century BCE). (Photo: T. Kendall)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
The
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64
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6/6