UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
lowering afforded an occasion for stressing the prosperity of the kingdom: ' 2
in recounting the coming of the queen-mother, Abale, 13 the king enlarges
on the situation at the time.
Taharqa had accepted the challenge of war with the Assyrians. His
name looms large in the Bible 14 where the terror caused by the black
warriors of the land of Kush is evident. Assarhaddon (—681 to —669) failed
in his attempt to invade Egypt and it was his successor Assurbanipal who,
at the head of an extremely strong army, captured and sacked Thebes in
-663.
King Tanoutamon:
the end of Sudanese domination in Egypt
By that time Taharqa had already been succeeded by his nephew
Tanoutamon, son of Shabataka. The so-called Stele of the Dream shows
successively the appearance of two serpents - an obvious allusion to the
double Uraeus of the Ethiopian sovereigns - the crowning of Tanoutamon
at Napata, his march to the north, the taking of Memphis, building
works at Napata, a campaign in the desert and the ensuing submission of the
local princes. But in actual fact, with the defeat inflicted by the Assyrians,
the Kushites withdrew southward and their dynasty in Egypt ended.
Thenceforward that country was to be Mediterranean-oriented, its
unification being the work of a Delta dynast, the Saite Psammetik I, who
freed it from the Assyrians. In the ninth year of the reign of Psammetik I
(—654), he procured the selection of his daughter Nitokris as divine
votaress at Thebes. ' 5
A twin monarchy
We shall do well to pause over this fifty-yearperiod during which Egypt
and the Sudan combined with a great African power. The Kushite kingdom
presents itself as a twin monarchy; its symbol is the double Uraeus, the
two snakes which rise above the forehead of the Pharaoh and protect him.
In their general style, their clothing and their attitudes the sovereigns of
the twenty-fifth dynasty copy the Pharaohs of Egypt who preceded them
and whose successors, if not descendants, they claim to be. The style of
their monuments is typically Pharaonic. The inscriptions are Egyptian,
recalling the pure classical tradition. But features are more akin to those of
12. Brought on by very heavy rainfall, this 'flood which carried away cattle' submerged
the whole country; but the providential will of Amon prevented other related catastrophes,
destroying rodents and serpents, warding off the ravages of locusts and preventing the
winds from the south blowing in fury.
13. M. F. L. Macadam, 1949, Inscr. IV, pp. 18-21.
14. 2 Kings, 19: 9; Isaiah, 37: 9.
15. R. A. Caminos, 1964b, pp. 71-101.
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