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When news of this reached Piankhi, king of Nubia, he forthwith invaded Egypt and conquered it. After his return to Nubia, a Nubian dynasty was established at Thebes, and a local chief of Saïs became King of the North, about B.C. 733. He represents the XXIVth dynasty. The kings of the XXVth dynasty (about B.C. 700) were Nubians, and the kings of the XXVIth dynasty were descendants of the chiefs of Saïs who were conquered by the Nubian king. Piankhi, about B.C. 740.

Twenty-Second Dynasty. From Bubastis.

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About B.C. 950.

The first king of this dynasty was Shashanq I, the Shishak of Kings xiv, 25; 2 Chronicles xii, 5, 7, 9. He was of Libyan extraction, being descended from Buiu-uaua , a Libyan prince, who flourished about B.C. 1150, and one of whose descendants married. Meḥt-en-usekht, high-priestess of Amen, and became the father of Nemareth, who in his turn became the father of Shashanq. A daughter of Nemareth owned the inlaid gold bracelets exhibited in Table-case J in the Fourth Egyptian Room (Nos. 134, 135). The principal event in the reign of Shashanq was the invasion of Palestine and capture of Jerusalem. He spoiled the Temple, and carried off much gold and silver, and took away the bucklers and shields of Solomon, and also the golden quivers which David had taken from the king of Zobah. He gave Jeroboam, king of Judah, one of his daughters to wife. On his return to Egypt he caused a record of this campaign to be cut upon the second pylon of the Temple of Karnak, and added a list of all the towns and villages which he had conquered in Palestine. Among them are the names of many places familiar from the Bible narrative, but the statement that "the king of Judah" is mentioned is incorrect. Shashanq repaired the Temple of Mut at Thebes, and set up in it a number of scated granite statues of the goddess Sekhet, two fine examples of which, inscribed with the king's names and titles, are exhibited in the Southern Egyptian Gallery, Nos. 763, 764. A son of Shashanq named Auputh was viceroy of the South, to whom is due the removal of the royal mummies from their tombs to the tomb of Ast-em-khebit

at Dêr al-Bahari, where, together with the coffins and funerary furniture, they were secreted, the pit being filled up with sand, stones, etc., and the entrance carefully walled up. This hiding place remained intact until 1872, when it was discovered accidentally by the Arabs. (For the inscribed base of a statue of Auputh, see Bay 19, No. 765.)

Seated figure of Ankh-renp-nefer, the
"Good Recorder" of the town of
Pithom, who flourished in the reign
of Osorkon II, about B.C. 900.

[Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 21, No. 776.]

Another son of Shashanq I, named Uasarken, or Osorkon I, became king of Egypt, and married TashetKhensu, and Maat-kaRa, the daughter of Pasebkhānut II, the last of the Tanite kings of the XXIst dynasty. The son of Osorkon I and Maat-ka-Ra was called Shashanq, and was made high priest of Amen; he dedicated to the god the fine quartzite statue of Ḥāpi, the Nile-god, exhibited in the Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 22, No. 766. Osorkon I was succeeded by Thekeleth I, who was succeeded by Osorkon II, famous for the works which he carried out in the Temple of Bast, the great goddess of Bubastis, the Pibeseth of the Bible. From this site came many important monuments, among which may be mentioned: The massive granite Hathor-headed capital of a pillar (see

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Plate XLII; Bay 16, No. 768); and the slabs sculptured with figures of Osorkon II and Bast, and figures of Osorkon II and his Queen Karāmā (Bay 23, No. 769). Osorkon II perpetuated the names of the great kings his predecessors, and

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Hathor-headed capital from the temple of Osorkon II at Bubastis. [Central Saloon, No. 768.]

XXIInd dynasty, B.C. 866.

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