Episode 39 The Saite Period

The History of Ancient Egypt

Professor Robert Brier

Film Review

The first two pharaohs of Dynasty XXVI (66t-564 BC) were puppet kings of the Assyrian empire ruling from Sais:

• Necho I (665-664 BC) – placed on Egyptian throne after the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who succeeded him, killed the entire Egyptian nobility except for him.
• Psamtik I (664-610 BC) – son of Necho I, appointed his daughter Nitocres the Divine Adoratrice of Amun in Thebes and recruited a substantial number of Greek mercenaries from Nekratis* into the Egyptian army. While the Assyrian army was distracted with their war with Babylonia, he marched north and drove all remaining Assyrian troops from Egypt.

Rebuilding Egypt following independence:

• Necho II (610-595 BC) – freed from Assyrian control, Psamtiki I’s son resumed international trading expeditions, started a navy and conquered Palestine.
• Psamtik II (595-589 BC) – Necho II’s son led military campaign into Nubia as far as the third cataract, leaving an inscription on Ramses the Great’s leg at the great temple at Abu Sindel. Allowing minor princes to run their own principalities in northern Egypt, he led troops* into Palestine to support Israel against the Babylonian king Nebbakanezzer II. Their defeat (described in the Bible’s second book of Kings), resulted in the Babylonian exile of the Jews. Taking captive the entire literate class of Jerusalem as slaves, they only left behind the poorest Jews.** A third of the population escaped to Egypt.

Massive identical statues of Ramses the Great at Abu Sindel

• Apries (589-570 BC) – son of Psamtik II, continued to battle the Assyrians to prevent their re-invasion of Egypt. Following the Greek invasion of Libya, he went to the assistance of the Libyans, and one of his generals (Amais) launched a coup, killing Apries and making himself king of Egypt.
• Amais (570-526 BC) – tried to reconcile with the Greeks by sending them money to rebuild the temple of Delphi after it burned down. Around 30,000 Greeks (seafaring people who like trading) settled in Naukratis* near Memphis. There they built an iron works and a massive scarab factory. Using molds they fill with quarzite paste and kiln dry, they manufactured scarabs by the hundreds of thousands

*There are so many foreigners in the Egyptian army that Greeks, Jews, Libyans and Nubians, each have their own divisions.

**Who Brier believes are likely ancestors of modern day Palestinian.

***Nekratis was a majority Greek city in northern Egypt. There was also a similar Jewish community on Elephantini Island near Aswan.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492877

Episode 38 Dynasty XXV: The Nubians Have Their Day

he History of Ancient Egypt

Professor Robert Brier

Film Review

Dynasty XXII (the Libyan dynasty) became fragmented after different princes claimed sovereignty over different regions of Egypt.

The Nubians (referred to as Kushites in the Bible) consisted of multiple warring tribes south of the Aswan. They experienced repeated Egyptian invasions for thousands of years before uniting under King Piye in 747 BC to defend themselves. Leading his troops and bowmen* north, he seized power from the four Egyptian kings representing the XXIII and XXIV Dynasties in the delta region.

Piye (747-716 BC) then unified Egypt by making his sister Amenirdis I the Divine Adoratrice of Amun at Karnak (in Upper Egypt) and allowing petty princes to rule on his behalf in delta. Taking one of the delta kings prisoner, he returned home to rule from Nubia.

His brother Shabak (716-697 BC) succeeded him (according to Nubian tradition) and erected a large stella summarizing the creation of the world by Ptah.**

Shabak’s nephew Shubilku (697-690 BC) succeeded Shabak. He appointed his daughter Shepenwept II the Divine Adoratrice of Amun at Karnak.Under his reign, Assyria which was annexing more and more of the Middle East invaded and occupied Palestine.

Taharqa (possibly the son of Piye) succeeded Shubiku and ruled from 690-664 BC. He allied with the kingdom of Judah to defeat Assyrians at Eltekeh in (in modern day Israel( in 701 BC.

The Assyrian king  Sennacherib was assassinated on his return to Assyria, and Taharqa was defeated by Sennarcherib’s successor Esarshaddon at Ahkelon (in southern Israel), resulting in the Assyrian invasion of Egypt. Taharqa fled to northern Nubia, and  Esarshaddon was assassinated in 668 BC during a rebellion in northern Egypt. In retaliation Ashurbanipal, who succeeded him, killed the entire Egyptian nobility except for Necho I, who he made vassal king of Egypt.

Assuming the throne of Nubia and Upper Egypt following Taharqa’s death, his cousin Tahuatamun launched an unsuccessful assault on the Assyrian in northern Egypt. Victorious, the Assyrians marched south seizing all the gold in Thebes and occupying all of Egypt.

Brier uses the last 10 minutes of the lecture to address the controversy around two questions: 1) whether Western civilization originated in Africa (ie Egypt) and 2) whether Egyptians were Back.

He cites Socrates and Plato as affirming Egypt was the origin of Greek civilization. Greek scholars often visited Egypt to learn math, and Greeks learned stone building from the Egyptians.

According to Brier, Egyptians came in all skin colors. In tomb frescoes, Nubians have black skin (Nubians also depicted themselves as black), Egyptian men red skin and Egyptian women yellow skin. Libyans (who lived in large numbers in the delta region) had fairer skin than Egyptians.

*The Egyptians had hired Nubians as mercenary bowmen for centuries.

**There were numerous temples to Amun and other gods in northern Nubia, and educated Nubians totally embraced Egyptian gods.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492875