CHAPTER THREE THE END OF THE EGYPTIAN DOMINATION AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE KINGDOM OF KUSH (C. 1188-760 BC) "According to what he desires, Amun makes a pharaoh. You caused me to discover this." 1 1. THE SOURCES 1.1. Textual evidence The centuries between the end of Egyptian domination in the Middle Nile Region around 1069 BC, the death of the last ruler of the Egyptian Twentieth Dynasty,2 and the reign of Kashta, the second Kushite ruler whose name came down to us, represent the poorest-doc­ umented period of Kushite history. The preceding c. 115 years of the viceregal administration under the Twentieth Dynasty are not much better documented, either. Glimpses of life in Nubia under the Twen­ tieth Dynasty can be gained from a handful of royal, viceregal, and private documents connected to the cult temples constituting the cen­ tres of administration. All these documents belong, however, to the cat­ egory of monumental texts: archival texts, similarly to literary works, are entirely lacking. The published texts were listed in PM VII and in I. Rein's study on the Ramesside building activity in Nubia.3 A part of it was included in K.A. Kitchen's corpus.4 Private monuments were 1 Karnak, Amiln temple, peristyle court north of Pylon VI, inscription of Taharqo, line 4 (c. 674 BC), FHN I No. 26, trans!. R.H. Pierce. 2 Regnal dates of the Twentieth to Twenty-Fifth Dynasties are given according to Kitchen 1986 which is accepted here, as also in Egyptological literature, as a conve­ nient working hypothesis. Alternative suggestions will be noted only for the Twenty­ Fifth Dynasty. 3 Rein 1991 5-67. 4 KRIIfi. For the viceroys of the Twentieth Dynasty see Reisner 1919a; H. Gauthier: Les 'fils royaux de Kouch' et le personnel administratif de l'Ethiopie. RecTrav 39 (1921) THE END OF THE EGYPTIAN DOMINATION 83 also reviewed in I. Muller's unpublished thesis.5 The political develop­ ments in the terminal decades of Egyptian rule are only indirectly indi­ cated in the documents relating to the tomb robberies in Upper Egypt in the late Ramesside period6 and to the revolt of Panehesy, Viceroy of Kush in the reign of Ramesses XI. 7 In the subsequent centuries Egyptian presence in Lower Nubia north of the Second Cataract is indicated by the indirect and frequently dubious evidence from royal titularies8 and the documents of dignitaries bearing the title Sl nsw n Ks, "King's Son of Kush", suggesting that the viceroyalty of Kush contin­ ued to exist in some form. Campaigns against, and/ or trade contacts with, more southern areas are hinted at by mentions of special tributes and wares in Egyptian and Assyrian texts (for references see Ch. III.3.2). The evidence is entirely silent on the region south of the Egyptian border until the 8th century BC; the sources concerning the period before the reign of Piye (c. 747-716 BC) are exhausted by the undated Kadimalo inscription from Semna9 (Ch. III.4.2) and the small fragment of a stela of Kashta (before 747 BC) from Elephantine (Ch. IV.2.l ). 10 The reign of Kashta's predecessor Alara is recorded posthu­ mously in inscriptions of his grandson Taharqo 11 ( cf. Ch. II.l.l.l, III.4.l ). 179-238; Save-Soderbergh 1941 177; J. Czerny: Two King's Sons of Kush of the Twentieth Dynasty. Kush 7 (1959) 71-75, Habachi 1979. 5 I. Muller: Die Verwaltung Nubiens im Neuen Reich. Diss. Berlin 1979. 6 T.E. Peet: The Mayer Papyri A & B, Nos M.11162 and M.ll186 if the Free Public Museum, Liverpool. London 1920; id.: The Great Tomb-Robberies if the Twentieth Egyptian Dynasty. Hildesheim-New York 1977; cf. Vernus 1993 17ff. 7 E. F. Wente: Late Ramesside Letters. Chicago 196 7; J J. Janssen: Late Ramesside Letters and Communications (Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum VI). London 1991; Jansen-Winkeln 1992. 8 For the titularies of Smendes I, Pinodjem I HPA, Psusennes I (Twenty-First Dynasty), Shoshenq I, Osorkon I, Osorkon II (Twenty-Second Dynasty) see Bonheme 1987 and cf. Zibelius-Chen 1989 355ff.; Torok 1995a 20ff. 9 Dunham-Janssen 1960 10; FHNI No. 1. 1°CairoJE 41013, Leclant 1963 fig. 1; FHNI No.4. For a bronze(?) aegis with counterweight of unknown (Egyptian?) provenance with his name see Leclant 1963. A fragment of his faience mortuary offering table with his Son of Re-name was discov­ ered in a secondary context at el Kurru, Dunham 1950 fig. 7 I c. Kashta is posthumously mentioned as father of the God's Wife of Amlin Amenirdis I in the latter's Theban monuments, collected by Leclant 1965 356ff. and of Pekereslo/Peksater, see H. Schafer: Athiopische Fiirstinnen. ,(AS 43 (1906) 48-50. 11 Kawa IV (FHN I No. 21) line 17; Kawa VI (FHN I No. 24) line 22. .