UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
corruption and struggles for power were the characteristic features of the
time in Egypt. The competing parties in those struggles, fully appreciating
the importance of Nubia in their dealings, endeavoured to win the support
of the administration there. King Ramses-Siptah of the nineteenth dynasty
went himself to Nubia in the firstyear of his reign in order to appoint
Seti as the viceroy of Nubia. 93 His delegate brought gifts and rewards
from the king to the higher officials of Nubia. Merneptah-Siptah, the last
king of the nineteenth dynasty, was even forced to send one of his officials
to fetch the tribute of Nubia, 94 although dispatching the tribute was the
duty of the viceroy of Nubia when the Pharaoh exercised real power and
actual control of his empire.
During the twentieth dynasty the situation in Egypt deteriorated
enormously. There was a harem conspiracy in the time of Ramses III
( — 1198 to —1166) which aimed at deposing the reigning sovereign. One
of the conspirators, the sister of the commander of the bowmen in Nubia,
persuaded her brother to assist in the execution of the plot. But it is evident
that the viceroy of Nubia remained loyal to the Pharaoh. Under Ramses XI,
the last king of the twentieth dynasty, a rebellion broke out in the region
of Asyut. The king with the help of Pa-nehesi, the viceroy of Kush,
and his troops succeeded in quelling the revolt and in restoring order in
Upper Egypt. Following this rising a certain Heri-Hor became the Chief
Priest of Amar in Thebes. It seems that he was made the Chief Priest
by Pa-nehesi and his Nubian soldiers and one supposes that he was one
of his followers. In the nineteenth year of Ramses XI, after the death
of Pa-nehesi, Heri-Hor was appointed viceroy of Nubia and vizier of
Thebes. Thus he became the actual master of Upper Egypt and Nubia.
Following the death of Ramses XI, he became king ( — 1085) and with
him started a new line of rulers in Egypt. Then chaos reigned in Egypt
and with it a dark age commenced in Nubia, to continue until the eighth
century before our era when Kush suddenly emerged as a great power.
93. J. H. Breasted, 1906, Vol. HI.
94. D. R. Maclver and C. L. Woolley, p. 26, Plate 12.
274