A History of Egypt from the End of the Neolithic Period to the Death of Cleopatra VII B.C. 30 (Routledge Revivals)

Vol. VI: Egypt Under the Priest-Kings and Tanites and Nubians

E. A. Budge, E. A. Wallis Budge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780415812511
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135084431
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Egyptian Ancient History
• Index: History

Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was Keeper of the British Museum's department of oriental antiquities from 1894 until his retirement in 1924. Carrying out many missions to Egypt in search of ancient objects, Budge was hugely successful in collecting papyri, statues and other artefacts for the trustees of the British Museum: numbering into the thousands and of great cultural and historical significance. Budge published well over 100 monographs, which shaped the development of future scholarship and are still of great academic value today, dealing with subjects such as Egyptian religion, history and literature.

This volume, first published in 1902, is the sixth of eight volumes by Budge dealing with different periods in the history of Egypt. The narrative begins with the reign of Nes-ba-Tettet, the first king of the XXIst Dynasty, and ends with the third king of the XXVIth Dynasty, Psammetichus II. Covering the years 1100-600 B.C., Budge analyses how Egypt changed shape under the rule of different kings, and witnessed both decline in and consolidation of power at varying points. This rich and important period of Egyptian history is explored in a classic work of great value to those interested in Egyptology and archaeology.

EGYPT UNDER THE PRIEST-KINGS AND TANITES AND NUBIANS.

CHAPTER I.

THE TWENTY-FIEST DYNASTY

I. KINGS OF TANIS.

1.

Beautiful god, lord of the two lands, RĀ-ḤETCH-KHEPER-SETEP-EN-RĀ, son of the Sun, ȦMEN-MER-NES-BA ṬEṭṭEṭET.

NES-BA-ṬEṬET, or NES-BA-NEB-ṬEṬ, the first of the Tanite kings of the XXIst Dynasty, was possibly a descendant of Eameses II., who had, with the help of the nobles of the Delta, succeeded in establishing himself as king of Egypt at the time when Ḥer-Ḥeru, the high priest of Ȧmen, was struggling for royal power at Thebes; he is to be identified with the Smendes,

of the King List of Manetho and, according to this writer, reigned twenty-nine years.¹ The Smendes of Manetho was formerly identified with Ḥer-Ḥeru the high priest of Ȧmen, because it was thought that this name was the Greek equivalent of the Egyptian “Sa Ȧmen,” i.e., “son of Ȧmen,” which was one of Ḥer-Ḥeru's titles, but this view is now proved to be wrong. The only monument of the reign of this king is a stele which was discovered by M. G. Daressy in 1888 at Dahabîyeh, opposite to Gebelên, the

, Ȧnt, of the hieroglyphic inscriptions, in Upper Egypt, from which we obtain some very interesting information. From the text of the stele,² which is sadly mutilated, we learn that the lake which Thothmes III. excavated at Thebes, and the canal from the Nile which fed it, had by some means become emptied, and that the water, which ought to have remained in these places, had run out and spread itself about one of the main buildings at Thebes, and had soaked into the ground to such a degree that the edifice was in imminent danger of falling down. The building threatened in this manner was a portion of thetemple of Luxor, which was built by Ȧmen-ḥetep III. As soon as the king, who was living in Memphis at the time, in order to perform certain ceremonies in connexion with the worship of Ptaḥ, and Sekhet, and Menthu, and the other gods, heard of the accident, he sent an order to the south that masons should be gathered together, and that they should go with 3000 of his own men (“3000 of the chosen servants of his majesty”),

, to the great quarry opposite Gebelên, and quarry stone there to repair the damage which the water had done to the temple of Thebes. The text states that the quarry had not been worked for a very long time, and from the fact that the only other inscription there dates from the time of Seti I. it would seem that the quarry had remained unworked for a period of about three hundred and fifty years. The workmen repaired the chapel of the goddess Menth, the lady of Tcherti,

¹, and worked with great diligence in the quarry, for the king's command was urgent; apparently they were divided into gangs, each of which worked for a month, turn and turn about, a system which reminds us of the corvée of modern times. When the work was done it seems that the king himself, like the god Thoth, came and gave gifts to those who had been employed upon it, in return for their diligent labour. The inscription which supplies these details is, unfortunately, undated, and it does not tell us exactly what buildings were restored by Ba-neb-Ṭeṭ, or Smendes; but the work of restoration must have been one of considerable magnitude, for the whole country of the south seems to have supplied workmen, and it is said that even the infant at his mother's breast,

, helped his parents. We may note in passing that the power of Ba-neb-Ṭeṭ must have been widespread in Egypt, and it is clear that he was able to make his authority felt as far south as Gebelên; that it was he and not Ḥer-Ḥeru who gave the orders for the repair or rebuilding of the damaged temple proves that Ḥer-Ḥeru recognized and bowed before the might of the king at Tanis. The wife of Nes-ba-Ṭeṭ was called Thent-Ȧmen,

, a name that suggests that the queen was related to the old kings of Egypt, and that through her the king of Tanis had a just claim to the throne.

2.

RĀ-ĀA-KHEPER-SETEP-EN-MENTU, son of the Sun, ȦMEN-MERI-PA-SEB-KHĀ-NUT.

PASEBKHĀNUT, the second of the Tanite kings of the XXIst Dynasty, is to be identified with the

of Manetho, but there is no monumental evidence for the statement made by this writer that he reigned forty-one years; his Horus name was “Mighty Bull, gift (?) of Ȧmen,”

, but he does not appear to have enclosed this title in the ordinary serekh,

. As far as can be seen he was the contem-porary of the priest-kings Pai-ānkh,

; Pai-netche...

Table of contents

• Cover
• A History of Egypt from the End of the Neolithic Period to the Death of Cleopatra VII B.C. 30
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Half Title
• Publishers' Note
• Original Title Page
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Errata
• Chapter I.—The Twenty-First Dynasty
• Chapter II.—The Twenty-First Dynasty
• Chapter III.—Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-First Dynasties—Summary
• Chapter IV.—Twenty-Second Dynasty. From Bubastis
• Chapter V.—The Twenty-Third Dynasty. From Tanis
• Chapter VI.—The Twenty-Fourth Dynasty. From Sïs
• Chapter VII.—The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. From Nubia
• Chapter VIII.—The Twenty-Second to the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty—Summary
• Chapter IX.—The Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. From Saïs