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The Third Intermediate Period
Division of the Country
After the end of Dynasty 20, Egypt began a slow but inevitable decline. The Third Intermediate Period, like the First and Second Intermediate Periods, was characterized by internal dissolution. It includes Dynasties 21 to 25, covering a period when the country was sometimes subject to foreign rule. When Ramesses XI died Nesbenebded took the name Smendes and founded Dynasty 21. His line chose the Delta site of Tanis as the capital and main residence. Pierre Montet discovered several royal tombs here in AD 1940. Although the environmental conditions in this area were less ideal for preserving artifacts than those at Thebes, Montet’s excavations revealed a magnificent royal treasure that included gold and silver coffins and sets of jewelry. There was also a solid gold face mask, and the treasure rivaled the contents of Tutankhamun’s earlier tomb. The rulers of Dynasty 21 are recorded as the legitimate kings, but in fact they only exercised their power in the north. A line of high priests of Amun, established by a priest named Herihor in Dynasty 20, dominated the south from Thebes. The arrangement appears to have been amicable. One of the priests, Pinudjem I, had recognized Smendes as king and founder of Dynasty 21, and in return Smendes acknowledged him as the effective ruler in the south. These two lines had mutually recognized rights of succession in the north and south, and the families were joined by marriages arranged between Tanite princesses and Theban high priests. Through their mothers the Theban high priests thus became the legitimate descendants of the Tanite kings. Despite these arrangements, however, the country suffered from the lack of a strong, unified government. .
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The Royal Mummies
During Dynasty 21 the Theban high priests rescued and reburied some of the royal mummies of the New Kingdom. Their tombs and mummies had been desecrated by robbers. To give them another chance at eternity, Pinudjem I and Pinudjem II ordered the reburial of the bodies and the surviving tomb goods. Some were placed in a tomb belonging to Queen Inha’pi, south of Deir el-Bahri, and in later years mummies of other members of the royal family and priests were added. The inhabitants of the nearby village of Qurna discovered this cache, and in AD 1881 investigations carried out by the director of the Antiquities Service led to the removal of the mummies and tomb goods to the Cairo Museum. Another cache of royal mummies was buried in the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings. This was discovered by the archaeologist Victor Loret in 1898, and the bodies were again transported to Cairo. The villagers of Qurna identified another important tomb in 1891 near Deir el-Bahri, where G. Daressy (excavating for the Antiquities Service) found many funerary objects belonging to the family of the high priest Menkheperre and to the priests of Amun. These caches provide invaluable information about New Kingdom religious and funerary practices. .
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Libyan Rulers (Dynasties 22 and 23)
On the death of Psusennes II, last ruler of the Tanite dynasty, there was no male heir, so his son-in-law, Shoshenk, a powerful chief and army commander, founded Dynasty 22 (sometimes called the Bubastite Dynasty because Shoshenk was from the Delta city of Bubastis). His family, who originally called themselves Chiefs of the Meshwesh, were of foreign origin. They were descended from the Libyans who had attacked Merenptah and Ramesses III and subsequently made their homes in the Delta, where they became successful and prosperous. During this dynasty the capital was situated either at Tanis or Bubastis, and Thebes continued as the great religious center in the south. Despite Shoshenk I’s action in appointing his second son as high priest of Amun and thus gaining control of Thebes, the country still suffered internal conflict. Inscriptions on the entrance (the Bubastite Portal) into the main temple at Karnak that Shoshenk I erected describe the troubled events of this period; however, the rulers were still powerful enough to build their monuments at Bubastis and Tanis and to be buried with magnificent treasure which Montet uncovered in their tombs at Tanis. Shoshenk I was also sufficiently confident to take action abroad again, trading with Nubia and intervening in internal politics in Palestine. Identified in the Bible as King Shishak, he removed a large amount of tribute from the temple and palace in Jerusalem. The succeeding dynasties are poorly documented. According to Manetho, Dynasty 23 consisted of four kings who ruled from Tanis. This line may have ruled at the same time as some of the kings of Dynasty 22, reflecting a breakdown of centralized government. Manetho’s Dynasty 24 is certainly limited to one area, and its one recorded king ruled from Sais in the Delta. This line was descended from a prince of Sais, Tefnakhte, who had attempted to extend his power southward. His plans were curtailed by Piankhy, the ruler of a kingdom that was situated far south of Egypt. Its capital, Napata, lay near the Fourth Cataract on the Nile, where the people worshipped Amen-Re and continued many traditions of Egypt’s Dynasty 18. Piankhy campaigned in Egypt, subdued the south, and gained submission from the north before returning to Napata. .
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Nubian Rule
Egypt continued to be segmented and ruled by various princes, but Piankhy’s brother and successor, Shabako, returned there to defeat Tefnakhte’s successor at Sais. He then founded Dynasty 25 (the Ethiopian or Kushite Dynasty) and, as Egypt’s first Nubian ruler, chose Thebes as his capital. He eventually returned to Napata and, like his predecessor Piankhy, was buried in a pyramid at Kurru. The custom of pyramid building was revived by these rulers although it had ceased in Egypt hundreds of years before. Shabako’s successors, Shebitku and Taharka, inherited the kingship and Taharka was crowned at Memphis. He was an effective ruler, but he soon came into conflict with the new power in the area, the Assyrians. When the king of Judah, Hezekiah, asked Egypt for help against the Assyrians, the Egyptian forces were defeated at el-Tekeh. Assyrian expansion to gain control of the small states in Syria/Palestine met with opposition from Egypt, to whom these states appealed for help. Resentful at Egypt’s intervention the Assyrians attempted to invade Egypt (674 BC), but they were defeated. However, in 671 BC the Assyrian ruler Esarhaddon drove Taharka out of Memphis. He destroyed Memphis and removed booty and people from Egypt while Taharka fled to the south. Esarhaddon now appointed rulers for Egypt who were selected from local governors and officials loyal to the Assyrians. One of these, Necho of Sais, would become the founder of Dynasty 26. Esarhaddon’s death allowed Taharka to reinstall himself at Memphis, but the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal attacked Egypt and regained Memphis in 662 BC, driving Taharka first to Thebes and then to Napata. Further intrigues followed, and eventually Taharka’s nephew and successor, Tanuatamun, reestablished the dynasty’s power at Memphis. However, Ashurbanipal returned again, and Tanuatamun fled to Thebes and then to Napata, while the Assyrians ransacked Amun’s temple at Thebes and transported booty back to Nineveh. The Nubian kingdom soon ceased to exert any claim over Egypt, continuing to exist within its own boundaries. Its northern boundary was probably fixed south of the Third Cataract. The Nubians established a new capital at Meroë and continued to trade with Egypt. Aeizanes, ruler of Axum, finally destroyed Meroë in AD 350, but throughout this period a form of Egyptian culture continued to exist there. Egyptian-style temples flourished, and royalty were buried in pyramids; their language was written in hieroglyphs, and they produced two distinctive scripts known today as Meroitic. .
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The Third Intermediate Period
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