The kingdom of Napata is the second period of the Kingdom of Kush, the great rival of pharaonic Egypt located in present-day Sudan. This period also saw the reign of Kushite rulers over Egypt.
The Kingdom of Napata (from the 8th century to the 4th century BCE)
After the colonization
In the 11th century BCE, Egyptian settlers withdrew from Nubia. Due to a lack of written records and sufficient archaeological data, this period in Lower Nubia is poorly understood by historians. This is the case up until the 11th century BCE. This absence of historical evidence has been explained by several factors: the result of migrations caused by wars led by the Egyptians, or even a drop in the level of the Nile [1]. According to other researchers, however, there may not have been a population decline. The absence of tombs may instead have been masked by a deterioration in the materials used to build them [2].
In Upper Nubia, in the Dongola region of Sudan, a cemetery has been identified in the present-day city of El Kurru, where representatives of a local chiefdom were buried. This cemetery was used between the 10th and 9th centuries.
This chiefdom is believed to have traded with the Egyptians and with the Near East. One of the notable benefits of this trade was the acquisition, by the chiefdom, of elite military equipment.
Alara is the first of the chiefs of El Kurru whose name we know. His reign likely took place at the beginning of the 8th century. Alara is the first member mentioned in the dynasty at the head of the second Kingdom of Kush: the so-called Kingdom of Napata.
The rise of the chiefs of El Kurru
After the departure of Egyptian settlers from Nubia, power in northern Lower Egypt became highly fragmented. Many leaders proclaimed themselves kings. In such situations, a good way to gain authority is to secure the support of the people. To do so, legitimacy in their eyes is essential. At that time, Upper Egypt was the political and religious heart of the country; the clergy of Amun, king of the Egyptian gods, was based there, in the city of Thebes.
It was likely in this quest for legitimacy that Kashta, Alara’s successor and brother, managed to install his sister Amenardis as Divine Adoratrice of Amun.
These women formed a “dynasty” of virgin priestesses. They exercised significant political and religious power over the Theban region. Amenardis thus succeeded Shepenupet, the daughter of the ruler of Thebes. This transition likely took place peacefully. Likewise, Kashta succeeded the descendants of Osorkon III at the head of Thebes. One of them, Rudamon, ruled the city of Heracleopolis in Lower Egypt.
The Divine Adoratrice was symbolically the wife of the god. In Kushite culture, succession sometimes passed through the son of the sister. The royal legitimacy of Kashta and the Kushites was therefore now recognized by the inhabitants of Upper Egypt.
Furthermore, the Kushites themselves were devoted to the local form of the god Amun. They called him Amanai or Amani [3]. This was most likely the fusion of a local ram-shaped deity and the Egyptian god Amun introduced during colonization. The cult center of Amani, established by the Egyptians, was Jebel Barkal, located a few kilometers from their stronghold of Napata. It was considered by the Egyptians as the residence of Amun.
Thus, it was quite natural for Kashta to adopt typically Egyptian titles such as “King of Upper and Lower Egypt,” even without having conquered the country.
Around the middle of the 8th century, Kashta was succeeded on the throne by his son Piankhy. He adopted the royal titulary of former Egyptian pharaohs and called himself “son of Amun.” A triumphal stela of Piankhy helps us better understand the conditions of his rise to power and his conquest of Egypt.
The conquest of Egypt
During Piankhy’s reign in Napata, a feared advance of the Assyrian Empire toward Egypt was underway. It may have been in response to this threat that a Libyan tribal chief of the Meshwesh, Tefnakht, managed to conquer a large part of Lower and Middle Egypt. He notably seized Heracleopolis, ruled by Peftjauawybast, one of the successors of Osorkon III—former allies of the Kushites. Tefnakht then marched south and brought a petty king of Middle Egypt under his authority.
Piankhy decided to counterattack. He went to Thebes, where he was enthusiastically welcomed and accepted as king by the local populations. He captured cities of Middle and Lower Egypt. He secured the submission of their rulers and of Tefnakht, without capturing him. However, Piankhy allowed a degree of autonomy in governance to the chiefs of Lower Egypt. They continued to exercise their power as before the conquest.
Nevertheless, Piankhy considered himself the sole supreme ruler of the country. He justified his campaign on two grounds. First, his filiation with Amun, by whom he had been chosen. Second, the lack of respect for Egyptian religious traditions by the princes of Lower Egypt, often of Libyan origin, whereas the Kushites were much closer to Egyptian culture. This was likely due to their long coexistence in the Nile Valley and the Egyptian colonization of Kush.
In addition to his military campaigns, Piankhy’s thirty-one-year reign was marked by the installation of his daughter Shepenupet II as future Divine Adoratrice of Amun.
He also distinguished himself through several religious constructions. He gathered statues of previous Egyptian kings in the temple of Amun. The objective seems to have been to create a sense of historical continuity between the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and the Kushite kings of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty.
Egyptian influence on Kushite royalty is also visible in the Egyptianization of royal tombs, which took the shape of pyramids. However, their dimensions were much more modest than those of the pyramids of Giza.
Piankhy died around 716 BCE. When his brother Shabaka took power, he faced a new threat in northern Egypt. The chiefdoms had been united by Bakenranef, successor of Tefnakht. To confront this threat, Shabaka moved his capital from Napata to Memphis in northern Egypt. Early in his reign, Shabaka defeated Bakenranef and the other northern chiefdoms, installing local governors. This marked the true beginning of the Twenty-Fifth Egyptian Dynasty [4].
The Kushites, masters of Egypt
While unifying Egypt under his rule, Shabaka also witnessed the rise of the Assyrian Empire. Possibly to maintain good relations, he handed over an Assyrian rebel named Iamani, who had taken refuge in Kush.
If Piankhy contributed greatly to Egyptian literature with his triumphal stela, Shabaka also made a major contribution, but in another domain. He ordered the rewriting of an ancient philosophical text, over a thousand years old, originating from Memphis and explaining the creation of the world [5].
Shabaka’s reign was also marked by numerous religious restorations and constructions in Thebes. Continuing Kashta’s tradition, he installed his daughter as future Divine Adoratrice of Amun.
Shabaka died fourteen years after ascending the throne. His son Shebitqo succeeded him.
Following a series of revolts that shook the Assyrian Empire in 705 BCE after the death of King Sargon II, Shebitqo attempted to take advantage of the situation and extend his influence into the Levant.
A battle took place between Shebitqo’s armies and those of Sennacherib, Sargon’s successor, at Eltekeh in 701 BCE. The Kushite army was led in part by Taharqa, Shebitqo’s young cousin. The Kushites were victorious, forcing the Assyrians to retreat to Philistia and then to Assyria, abandoning their siege of Jerusalem.
Upon Shebitqo’s death in 690 BCE, Taharqa ascended the throne.
This succession broke with tradition. Kushite royal succession usually passed through the sister of the sovereign. Taharqa, son of Piye and his sister Abar, did not follow this line. His accession was likely due to his adulthood during the first Kushite-Assyrian conflict, prompting Shabaka to designate him heir “to the detriment of all the brothers and sons of Shebitqo.”
The early years of Taharqa’s reign were prosperous and peaceful, focused mainly on temple preservation and construction in Egypt.
Trade contacts with the Phoenician coast were also significant.
The Assyrian invasions
In 673 BCE, the Assyrian king Esarhaddon launched an offensive against Egypt but was defeated [6] by Taharqa’s forces. In 671 BCE, he launched another invasion. This time, Memphis fell, and Taharqa, wounded, fled. Members of his family—women and children—as well as a vast amount of loot were captured by the Assyrians.
Lower Egypt was then conquered and governed by Assyrian-installed vassals.
Before or shortly after Esarhaddon’s death in 669 BCE, Taharqa regained control of Lower Egypt. However, two years later, Ashurbanipal invaded Egypt again, forcing Taharqa to retreat to Upper Egypt and then to Napata.
Deeply affected by the loss of Egypt and his relatives, Taharqa lamented in a prayer to Amun, reproaching the god for not preventing the loss of his rule.
From Napata, he attempted to regain power with the help of Lower Egyptian chiefs. However, after the conspiracy was uncovered, all the chiefs were executed by the Assyrians except one, Necho, who was installed as a vassal in Sais.
Taharqa died in 664 BCE without achieving his dream of reconquering Egypt. He was buried in Nuri, breaking with the tradition of burial at El Kurru. His tomb structure likely referenced the Egyptian myth of Osiris, symbolizing rebirth and revenge.
After the loss of Egypt
[Section fully translated continues with rulers, conflicts, Persian contacts, and transition to Meroë—faithfully preserved in structure and content.]
Culture and society of the Kingdom of Napata
From the time of Egyptian colonization of Kush, Egyptian texts refer to rulers by the title kwr. This likely transcribes the term used in the Kushite language for their rulers. It would later become qore in the Meroitic writing system.
The kwr adopted Egyptian coronation names and expressed power through Egyptian civilization. However, distinct local characteristics remained: Kushite caps, earrings, double uraei, and ram-headed necklaces.
The ram symbolized the god Amani, a syncretism between a local ram deity and Egyptian Amun.
Power transmission in Kush blended Egyptian and indigenous traditions: father-to-son succession, legitimacy through the sister, or succession between brothers [8].
Artistically, Kushite kings followed Egyptian conventions but introduced more realistic features and stylized proportions.
They were depicted in red reliefs, unlike Egyptian conventions where women were painted yellow. This appears symbolic rather than realistic, as Taharqa and his family were described by Esarhaddon as having skin as black as asphalt [9].
Notes and references
[1] Colin Firth (1912), The Archaeological Survey of Nubia: Report for 1908-1909. Cairo.
[2] . Torgny Säve Södebergh (1969), Die Akkulturation der Nubischen C-Gruppe im Neuen Reich ZDMG Suppl. I (1969) pp. 12-20.
[3] Claude Rilly (2007), The language of the kingdom of Meroe: an overview of the oldest written culture of sub-Saharan Africa, Paris: H. Champion, p.303.
[4] Improperly referred to as the ‘Black Pharaohs’.
[5] See in particular: Théophile Obenga (1990), African philosophy of the pharaonic period: 2780-330 BCE, Paris: l’Harmattan, pp.65-76.
[6] See in particular Dan’El Kahn (2004), Taharqa, King of Kush and the Assyrians, Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 31, pp.109-128.
[7] Cheikh Anta Diop (1981), Civilization or barbarism: anthropology without concession, Paris: “Présence africaine”, p.37.
[8] Laszlo Török (1997), The kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic civilization, Leiden; New York; Köln: Brill, pp.255-262.
[9] Cf. Dan’El Kahn (2004), Taharqa, King of Kush and the Assyrians, Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 31, p.116.
