The beginnings of the Ethiopian Dynasty

    From the 9th century onwards the politically independent kingdom of Kush developed around Napata. Alara was its first known ruler and his devotion to Amen is mentioned in a number of inscriptions. The kings were buried in the necropolis of El Kurru, in rectangular graves poorly furnished with arms, gold and ceramics and covered by tumuli. From the middle of the 8th century, Pyramids were being built at El Kurru and Nuri. The Theban-style tombs were provided with elegant furniture, statues of the royal family, stelas, arms and sumptuous jewellery. In contrast to Egyptian burials, the Kushites, great horse lovers, buried the richly decorated mounts they had ridden on, with their masters.

    Kashta who succeeded him, owed the throne to the support he received from the priests of Amen-Re. The king assumed the title of First Prophet of Amen and acted only after consulting the statue of the god. He expelled Osorkon IV from Upper Egypt and assumed the title of king. The Wife of the God at Thebes at the time was Shepenwepe I, a daughter of Osorkon IV. Kashta made her hereditary regent over Thebes. As the Wife of the God had to remain a virgin that meant that she had to adopt a daughter to succeed her. Shepenwepe appointed Amenirdis I, Kashta's daughter, as her heir. The position of First Prophet at Thebes was abolished.

Amenirdis, God's wife
Egyptian Museum, Cairo

    The Kushite priesthood of Amen not only decided in policy matters. They also chose new kings by making the statue point out one of the princes as they came before the god. The old pharaonic administration, the exploitation of the goldmines and the revenues from the Nubian trade contributed heavily to the priests' hegemony. The theocracy aspired to in the north was mostly achieved in Kush and brought to Thebes by its kings.

    Piye (Piankhi) (reigned as pharaoh ca.716-711) set out for Lower Egypt in the 21st year of his reign. A stela at Napata describes the discord between the chiefs of the Meshwesh wearing the feather in Lower Egypt at the time: Pefnefdubast at Herakleopolis, Nemrod at Hermopolis, Iuput in the delta, Osorkon IV at Tanis and the prince of the West Tefnakht were vying for power, with the latter in the ascendency after his conquest of Heliopolis, Memphis, Dashur and Hermopolis and about to take his native Herakleopolis. Piye lifted the siege of Herakleopolis, conquered Memphis and Heliopolis and the four kings and the chiefs of the Meshwesh submitted to him, with the exception of Tefnakht who took refuge in the marshes. In the end Tefnakht pretended to

respect the royal orders and not to attack any other chief without Piye's leave

    Then when the Ethiopian had gone away out of Egypt, the blind man came back from the fen-country and began to rule again, having lived there during fifty years upon an island which he had made by heaping up ashes and earth: for whenever any of the Egyptians visited him bringing food, according as it had been appointed to them severally to do without the knowledge of the Ethiopian, he bade them bring also some ashes for their gift. This island none was able to find before Amyrtaios; that is, for more than seven hundred years the kings who arose before Amyrtaios were not able to find it. Now the name of this island is Elbo, and its size is ten furlongs each way.

Herodotus 2.140, Translated by Macaulay
Gutenberg Project
(Herodotus is reporting what he was told by his sources.
He had no personal knowledge of these occurrences.)

Feedback: Please report broken links, mistakes - factual or otherwise, etc. to me. Thanks.