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accordingly we find on granite slabs from his temple the names of Khufu, Khāfrā, etc., and figures of Amen-ḥetep II, Seti I, etc. (Bay 23, Nos. 771-773). Like Rameses II, Meren-Ptaḥ, and other kings, Osorkon II caused his name to be cut upon monuments of other kings, e.g., the statue of Usertsen III (Vestibule, No. 163) and the grey granite statue of Amenemhāt III (Bay 20, No. 775). In his reign flourished the good recorder of Pithom, whose statue (Bay 21, No. 776 was found at Pithom. The reigns of the other kings of this dynasty, Shashanq II, Thekeleth II, Shashanq III, Pamai, and Shashanq IV were unimportant.

Twenty-Third Dynasty. From Tanis.

B.C. 766.

The principal kings of this dynasty were Peṭā-Bast and Osorkon III, who reigned in the Delta.

It seems that a short time before the reign of Peṭā-Bast, the priests of Amen had found it impossible to maintain their position at Thebes, and therefore, having hidden the mummies and coffins of the members of their order in a secret place, which was not discovered until 1892, they retreated to the South and settled at Napata, a city at the foot of the Fourth Cataract. (For examples of the coffins of the priests of Amen of this period, see First Egyptian Room, Wall-cases 11-15.) A few years after their arrival, they appear to have persuaded Piankhi, the king of the Northern Sûdân, to invade Egypt and to seize the kingdom of the South at least, to which, in view of the close relationship of the governing powers at Napata with those at Thebes, he might be assumed to have a just claim. For some time Piankhi did nothing, but at length, in the twenty-first year of his reign, hearing that all the princes of the Northern Kingdom had united their forces, and were attempting to seize the country, he ordered his army to advance into Egypt. In a very short time great successes were reported. Thereupon he joined his troops, and his progress was victorious and rapid. City after city fell before his attack, and on the capture of Memphis, Egypt lay vanquished at his feet. The governors came in one after another, and at length Tafnekhth, their leader, sent in his submission accompanied by gifts. Piankhi filled his boats with spoil and returned to Napata, where he built a great temple to Amen, and set up a stele recording his victories.

(For a cast of the stele see Central Saloon, No. 793.) After Piankhi's return to Nubia, Osorkon III, perhaps with Thekeleth III as co-regent, reigned at Thebes. To the latter half of this dynasty probably belongs the stele of Prince Auuaruath, son of Osorkon and high-priest of Amen (Bay 22, No. 777), and the monument mentioning at king with the Horus name of Ka-nekht-kha-em-Uast

(Bay 21, No. 778).

Twenty-Fourth Dynasty. From Saïs.

The principal king of this dynasty was Bakenrenef, the Bocchoris of the Greeks, the son of Tafnekhth of Saïs. His reign was short, but tradition assert that he was one of the six great law-givers of Egypt. About this time a Nubian called Kashta ruled at Thebes, and married Shep-en-Åpt, the high-priestess of Amen; their son Shabaka became the first king of the XXVth dynasty. Among the monuments of this period may be mentioned: The altar, stand, and libation bowl, dedicated by Nes-Amsu to Kashta, Shep-enȧpt, and Amenarṭās (Bay 20, No. 794); the base of a statue inscribed with the names of Shep-en-Àpt I, Shep-en-Åpt II, etc. (Bay 20, No. 795); and the alabaster vessel of Kashta and Amenȧrṭās (Wall-case 139, Fourth Egyptian Room, No. 84).

Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. From Nubia.
B.C. 700.

Shabaka, or Sabaco, whom some identify with So of 2 Kings xvii, 4, was a contemporary of Sargon and Sennacherib, kings of Assyria. With one or other of these kings he must have had correspondence, for two seals bearing the name of Shabaka were found among the tablets of the Royal Library at Nineveh. (See Nineveh Gallery, Tablecase I, No. 32, etc.) Among the objects bearing his name are several scarabs, and an alabaster vase in the Fourth Egyptian Room (Table-case D and Wall-case 139), and a basalt slab (Bay 25, No 797) inscribed with a copy of a mythological text, copied by the king's order from an old, half obliterated document. The portion of the text surviving contains legends of Ra, Osiris, Set, Horus, Ptaḥ and other gods; and it seems to

imply that all their powers were absorbed by Ptah, in whose temple the slab was set up. Of Shabaka's sister, the great Princess Amenȧrtās, may be mentioned the following objects: A fine inscribed statue (Wall-case 107, Third Egyptian Room), her lapis-lazuli scarab (Table-case D, Fourth Egyptian Room), and a steatite cylinder inscribed with her names and titles (Wall-case 193, same room). This princess possessed great power in Thebes, and she repaired portions of some of the great temples of that city, and built a small chapel near the temple of Amen. She re-established the worship of the gods, and devoted a large proportion of her property to the restoration of their statues and the observance of their festivals.

Shabaka was succeeded by Shabataka (see a bronze shrine dedicated by him to Amen-Ra in Wall-case 123 in the Fourth Egyptian Room), of whom little is known. He was followed by Taharqa, the Tirhâkâh of the Bible, (2 Kings xix, 9), the son of a farmer and the lady Aqleq, who began to reign between B.C. 693 and 691. He was an ally of Hezekiah, king of Judah. About 676, Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, crushed the revolt in Palestine, and six years later he invaded Egypt, defeated Taharqa, captured Memphis, and appointed twenty governors over the various provinces of the country. After the death of Esarhaddon, in 668, Taharqa returned and proclaimed himself king of Egypt at Memphis; but Ashur-bani-pal, the new king of Assyria, marched against him and defeated his forces, which were assembled at Karbaniti, a city probably situated near the north-east frontier of Egypt. Taharqa fled, and Ashur-bani-pal marched into Egypt, crushed the enemy, and re-appointed the governors who had been appointed by his

father.

Taharqa repaired several temples at Thebes, and built a large temple to Amen at Napata, and a small one in honour of Usertsen III at Semnah. For a bronze figure of the king, and two plaques and scarabs bearing his name, see Table-case K, Wall-case 193, and Table-case D in the Third and Fourth Egyptian Rooms.

The successor of Taharqa was Tanuath Amen, the Tandamanie of the cuneiform inscriptions, who had been co-regent with him. After the death of Taharqa, as the result of a dream Tanuath Amen invaded Egypt, and captured Heliopolis; he tried to turn the Assyrians out of Memphis, but failed. Hearing that the king of Assyria was coming with a large army, he fled to Thebes, whither he was followed

M

by the Assyrians, who sacked the city. Tanuath-Amen fled once more, and his subsequent history is unknown. A cast of the Stele of the Dream is exhibited in Bay 22, No. 799, and an account of the burning and pillage of Thebes is given on the great cylinder of Ashur-bani-pal (Tablecase H, Babylonian Room), and the calamities which came upon the city are described by the prophet Nahum (iii, 10).

Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. From Saïs.
About B.C. 666.

Psemthek I, or Psammetichus, was the son of Nekau, governor of Saïs, and married Shep-en-Apt, the daughter of Piankhi and Amenarṭās I. Thus, by marriage, he obtained a claim to the throne of Egypt. He appears to have fought against the Assyrians on every opportunity for many years, and at length by the help of Carian and lonian mercenaries he succeeded in expelling them, and in making himself master of all Egypt. He established garrisons at Elephantine, Pelusium, Daphnae, and Marea. He protected the Greeks, a colony of whom he settled in the city of Naukratis. He encouraged trade of every kind, and embarked in many commercial enterprises. He rebuilt, or enlarged, the temple of the goddess Neith of Saïs (see bronze figures of her in Wall-case 125, Fourth Egyptian Room), and built a gallery in the Serapeum at Sakkârah. Among the monuments of his reign are: An intercolumnar slab sculptured with a scene representing the king making an offering to the gods; from the temple of Temu at Rosetta (Bay 24, No. 800). A shaft of a column, and a portion of a statue, inscribed with his names and titles (Bay 24, Nos. 801, 802). For smaller objects inscribed with his name see the Foundation Deposits and the figure of Isis (Table-cases K and H, Third Egyptian Room), his ushabti figure (Wall-case 78, Second Egyptian Room), and his scarabs (Table-case D, Fourth Egyptian Room).

Nekau, or Necho, maintained an army of Greeks, and two fleets, one in the Mediterranean and one in the B.C. 612. Red Sea. He recut and enlarged the old canal which in the time of Seti I joined the Nile and the Red Sea, and is said to have employed 120,000 men in the work. He led an army into Syria, and fought with Josiah, king of Judah, who attempted to bar his progress in the valley of Megiddo; Josiah was struck by an Egyptian arrow which penetrated his disguise, and he died (2 Kings xxiii, 29 ff.; 2 Chron, xxxv, 22).

Necho advanced towards the Euphrates, but was met at Karkemish by Nebuchadnezzar II and his army, and in the battle which followed he was defeated. Among the small objects inscribed with his name are: A bronze shrine (Table-case H, Third Egyptian Room), a porcelain vase (Wall-case 157, Fourth Egyptian Room), an alabastron (Wall-case 139, Fourth Egyptian Room), and a limestone draughtsman (Standardcase C, Fourth Egyptian Room).

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The reign of Psammetichus II, the son of Necho, was short and

B.C. 596. unimportant; but he appears to have made a raid into Nubia. He repaired several of the large temples at Heliopolis, Memphis, Karnak, and Elephantine. Among the monuments of his reign is a head from a colossal statue of the king, found near the south end of the Suez Canal (Bay 23, No. 803). For small objects inscribed with his name sce the scarabs in Table-case D, and a portion of a sistrum in Wall-case 157, Fourth Egyptian Room. Under Haa-ȧb-Ra Uaḥ-ȧbRa, the Pharaoh Hophra of Jeremiah xliv, 30 and the Apries of the Greeks, Egypt prosperity, directly due to the encouragement he gave to commerce, and B.C. 592. to the business qualities of the Greeks who had settled in Naukratis and elsewhere in Egypt. He made an expedition into Syria. Zedekiah, king of Judah, counted upon his help to repulse Nebuchadnezzar II; but failing to do so, Hophra incurred the denunciations of the prophet Jeremiah: "And this shall be a sign to you, saith "the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may "know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil: "Thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra

Head of a colossal statue of
Psanımetichus II about B.C. 596.
[Southern Fgyptian Gallery,
Bay 23, No. 803.]

enjoyed a period of great

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