The Theban-Libyan Period in Egypt (Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties, 1069-747 BCE)
[1]
represents another time of decentralization in Egypt and, together with the subsequent Kushite period, makes up the Third Intermediate Period.
[2]
Population and political organization
The governments at Memphis and Thebes followed the traditional ’intermediate period’ pattern of rulers (pharaoh at Memphis, high priest at Thebes) who ran a bureaucratic system managed by a vizier and overseers of departments.
[3]
However, the vizier and overseers of the treasury and granaries were unable to project their influence over the regions
[3]
and Egypt in this period is best characterised as ’a federation of semi-autonomous rulers, nominally subject (and often related) to an overlord-king’.
[4]
The Egyptian pharaohs of the Twenty-first Dynasty (1077-943 BCE), based at Memphis near the Nile Delta,
[5]
served only as nominal heads of state for the whole of Egypt;
[6]
a formal agreement ceded control of Middle and Upper Egypt to priest-rulers at Thebes.
[7]
[6]
The priests, who doubled as military commanders, derived their right to rule from the oracles of the ’Theban triad’ of gods, Amun, Mut and Khons.
[8]
The Twenty-first Dynasty pharaohs, perhaps in an effort to provide greater legitimacy for their rule over Upper Egypt, turned Tanis in the delta into a ’holy city’, building royal tombs within temples built for the Theban triad.
[5]
The most powerful pharaoh of this period, however, was the first Libyan ruler and founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty, Shoshenq I (r. 945-924 BCE). He embarked on an ’ambitious royal building programme’ and attempted to regain control of the entirety of Egypt, curtail Thebes’ independence, and expand into the Levant.
[9]
The high point did not last long. The perennial problem of Upper Egyptian independence eventually led to the formal division of the state, an imaginative if drastic solution that created a parallel Twenty-third Dynasty based in Leontopolis, or perhaps Herakleopolis.
[10]
The new dynasty was enjoined to reassert control of the south, allowing the Twenty-second Dynasty rulers to concentrate on Lower Egypt.
[10]
This did not work: by the time of Shoshenq III (r. 827-773 CE), the Twenty-second Dynasty pharaohs could barely even control the north: ’numerous local rulers - particularly in the Delta - became virtually autonomous and several declared themselves kings’.
[11]
Unfortunately, due to scant evidence, there are no reliable population estimates for this time.
[1]: (Baines 2017) John Baines. January 2017. Seshat workshop. Oxford.
[2]: (Pagliari 2012, 183) Giulia Pagliari. 2012. ’Function and Significance of Ancient Egyptian Royal Palaces from the Middle Kingdom to the Saite Period: A Lexicographical Study and Its Possible Connection with the Archaeological Evidence’. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham.
[3]: (Taylor 2000, 337) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[4]: (Taylor 2000, 338) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[5]: (Taylor 2000, 327) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[6]: (Van De Mieroop 2011, 270) Marc Van De Mieroop. 2011. A History of Ancient Egypt. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
[7]: (O’Connor 1983, 232) David O’Connor. 1983. ’Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period c. 2686-1552 BC’, in Ancient Egypt: A Social History, edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor and Alan B. Lloyd, 183-278. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8]: (Taylor 2000, 327-28) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[9]: (Taylor 2000, 329) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[10]: (O’Connor 1983, 233) David O’Connor. 1983. ’Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period c. 2686-1552 BC’, in Ancient Egypt: A Social History, edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor and Alan B. Lloyd, 183-278. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11]: (Taylor 2000, 330) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
| 36 R |
| Egypt - Thebes-Libyan Period |
| Memphis |
| Third Intermediate Period | |
| Bubastite dynasty | |
| Libyan dynasty |
| none |
| Libyan tribes |
| Egypt - Kushite Period |
| 350,000 km2 |
| elite migration |
| Succeeding: Egypt - Kushite Period (eg_kushite) [continuity] | |
| Preceding: Egypt - New Kingdom Ramesside Period (eg_new_k_2) [elite migration] |
| quasi-polity | |
| nominal |
| 120,000 people | 1069 BCE 951 BCE |
| 100,000 people | 950 BCE 761 BCE |
| [190,000 to 230,000] km2 |
| [3 to 5] |
| [3 to 5] |
| [4 to 6] |
| [5 to 7] |
| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| present |
| inferred absent |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| absent |
| present |
| present |
| absent |
| present |
| present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| present | |
| absent |
| present |
| absent |
| unknown |
| present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| present |
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| absent |
| unknown |
| present |
| inferred present |
| absent |
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| absent |
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| absent |
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| Year Range | Egypt - Thebes-Libyan Period (eg_thebes_libyan) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1070 BCE 761 BCE) | Upper Egypt |
Reign of Seshong I was the "high point in the Third Intermediate Period."
[1]
"expansionist foreign policy"
[1]
"ambitious royal building programme"
[1]
"attempt to exert direct control over the whole of Egypt involved curtailling the virtually independent status of Thebes."
[1]
[1]: (Taylor 2000, 329)
[1]
Libyan Period: 21st - 24th Dynasties
[2]
note that the 24th Dynasty is after 747 BCE
First Libyan ruler in Egypt was Osorkon the Elder (984-978 BCE), son of the Chief of the Meshwesh.
[3]
A chief of the Meshwash was the first king of the 22nd Dynasty: Sheshong I (945-925 BCE).
[4]
Last king in this period to rule significant territory was Sheshong III (827-773 BCE) and after him "numerous local rulers - particularly in the Delta - became virtually autonomous and several declared themselves kings."
[5]
period ending with Shoshenq V in ~747 BCE
[1]: (John Baines, Oxford workshop January 2017)
[2]: (Taylor 2000, 332)
[3]: (Taylor 2000, 328)
[4]: (Taylor 2000, 329)
[5]: (Taylor 2000, 330)
km squared. Area including Cyrenacia to west of the Nile Delta?
This could in future be changed for the short Hermopolis period in Upper Egypt.
"In 21st-dynasty Egypt the northern royal house nominally ruled the entire country, but in reality allowed another branch of the family to run the south on the basis of its priestly office."
[1]
Control High Priest of Amun had "over all sectors of government made him like a king and most high priests of Amun used royal titles, but only as local kings and they did not date their records with regnal years."
[2]
Although technically second in authority, southern commanders had "supreme civil, military, and religious authority" in Upper Egypt.
[3]
After Seshong I (945-924 BCE) monarchy weakened, power of provincial rulers increased and there was "fragmentation of the country."
[4]
"The political picture that emerges as the Third Intermediate Period progresses is one of a federation of semi-autonomous rulers, nominally subject (and often related) to an overlord-king."
[5]
"Thebes and Tanis functioned as independent centers of power. They were the seats of parallel dynaties ... The official characterization of government in the two places was distinct - religious in Thebes and secular in Tanis - and the holders of power were related by blood and marriage and most often worked in unison in a system they both accepted. Scholars have likened the arrangement to a concordat, the division of power between popes and kings in European history."
[2]
Third Intermediate Period was "an era of political decentralization in the Nile Valley".
[6]
[1]: (Van De Mieroop 2011, 270) Van De Mieroop, Marc. 2011. A History of Ancient Egypt. Wiley-Backwell. Chichester.
[2]: (Van De Mieroop 2011, 265) Van De Mieroop, Marc. 2011. A History of Ancient Egypt. Wiley-Backwell. Chichester.
[3]: (Taylor 2000, 327)
[4]: (Taylor 2000, 330)
[5]: (Taylor 2000, 338)
[6]: (Pagliari 2012, 183) Pagliari, Giulia. 2012. Function and significance of ancient Egyptian royal palaces from the Middle Kingdom to the Saite period: a lexicographical study and its possible connection with the archaeological evidence. Ph.D. thesis. University of Birmingham.
"In 21st-dynasty Egypt the northern royal house nominally ruled the entire country, but in reality allowed another branch of the family to run the south on the basis of its priestly office."
[1]
Control High Priest of Amun had "over all sectors of government made him like a king and most high priests of Amun used royal titles, but only as local kings and they did not date their records with regnal years."
[2]
Although technically second in authority, southern commanders had "supreme civil, military, and religious authority" in Upper Egypt.
[3]
After Seshong I (945-924 BCE) monarchy weakened, power of provincial rulers increased and there was "fragmentation of the country."
[4]
"The political picture that emerges as the Third Intermediate Period progresses is one of a federation of semi-autonomous rulers, nominally subject (and often related) to an overlord-king."
[5]
"Thebes and Tanis functioned as independent centers of power. They were the seats of parallel dynaties ... The official characterization of government in the two places was distinct - religious in Thebes and secular in Tanis - and the holders of power were related by blood and marriage and most often worked in unison in a system they both accepted. Scholars have likened the arrangement to a concordat, the division of power between popes and kings in European history."
[2]
Third Intermediate Period was "an era of political decentralization in the Nile Valley".
[6]
[1]: (Van De Mieroop 2011, 270) Van De Mieroop, Marc. 2011. A History of Ancient Egypt. Wiley-Backwell. Chichester.
[2]: (Van De Mieroop 2011, 265) Van De Mieroop, Marc. 2011. A History of Ancient Egypt. Wiley-Backwell. Chichester.
[3]: (Taylor 2000, 327)
[4]: (Taylor 2000, 330)
[5]: (Taylor 2000, 338)
[6]: (Pagliari 2012, 183) Pagliari, Giulia. 2012. Function and significance of ancient Egyptian royal palaces from the Middle Kingdom to the Saite period: a lexicographical study and its possible connection with the archaeological evidence. Ph.D. thesis. University of Birmingham.
Inhabitants.
Modelski (2003)
Memphis: 100,000: 1000 BCE; 100,000: 900 BCE; 100,000: 800 BCE
[1]
Thebes: 120,000: 1000 BCE; 100,000: 900 BCE; 100,000: 800 BCE
[1]
Population estimates for the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1069 BCE)
[2]
Tanis 105 ha 31,000 persons 295 per ha
Luxor 280 ha 85,000 persons 305 per ha
Memphis 79 ha
Some of these cities might have had similar occupation patterns in the Libyan period.
[1]: (Modelski 2003, 49)
[2]: (Mumford 2010, 331)
Inhabitants.
Modelski (2003)
Memphis: 100,000: 1000 BCE; 100,000: 900 BCE; 100,000: 800 BCE
[1]
Thebes: 120,000: 1000 BCE; 100,000: 900 BCE; 100,000: 800 BCE
[1]
Population estimates for the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1069 BCE)
[2]
Tanis 105 ha 31,000 persons 295 per ha
Luxor 280 ha 85,000 persons 305 per ha
Memphis 79 ha
Some of these cities might have had similar occupation patterns in the Libyan period.
[1]: (Modelski 2003, 49)
[2]: (Mumford 2010, 331)
in squared kilometers
Estimated area around that Delta that has control of Thebes and has influence as far south as Aswan.
21st Dynasty
"control was divided between a line of kings in the north and a sequence of army commanders who held the post of high priest of Amun, at Thebes."
[1]
[1]: (Taylor 2000, 325)
levels. AD: uncoded, so replaced by a code.
1. Memphis, capital.
2. Town3. Village(4. Hamlet)
levels. AD: estimated as a range based on previous polities with a minimum of 3: ruler, priest of a major temple and local priest.
1. ruler of the theocracy
(2. priest of a major temple)(3. local priest)
Under Smendes (1069-1043 BCE) "the government of Egypt was in effect a theocracy, supreme political authority being vested in the god Amun himself." Decisions of the gods were "communicated via oracles. The workings of the theocratic government are explicitly documented at Thebes, where oracular consultations were formalized by the institution of a regular Festival of the Divine Audience, held at Karnak."
[1]
_ Cult of Amun _
1.
2.
3.
4.
_ Oracles _
Oracles of Amun, Mut, and Khons at times were very influential in government.
[2]
[1]: (Taylor 2000, 325-327)
[2]: (Taylor 2000, 327)
levels. AD: was left uncoded, coded as a range to allow for flexibility.
1. Ruler
2. Provincial governors/ army commanders(3. Captains)4. Individual soldiers
levels.
1. King
"The political picture that emerges as the Third Intermediate Period progresses is one of a federation of semi-autonomous rulers, nominally subject (and often related) to an overlord-king."
[1]
_ King’s own administration _
2. Vizier"Officials of traditional centralised government, such as the vizier and overseers of the treasury and granaries ... now wielded only local influence."
[2]
3. Treasury / granary head official4. Treasury / granary sub official (inferred)5. Scribe within treasury / granary (inferred)6. Other workers (inferred)
_ Provincial government _
2. Commander and governor at Thebesat Thebes, highest offices (chief general and high priest of Amun) held by Herihor then passed to the family of General Piankh. They "derived their executive powers from the oracles of Amun, Mut, Khons, by whom clerical appointments and major policy decisions of the rulers were sanctioned."
[3]
Upper Egypt "retained greater territorial cohesion than the north" with Thebes predominent
[2]
3. Vizier"Officials of traditional centralised government, such as the vizier and overseers of the treasury and granaries ... now wielded only local influence."
[2]
4. Treasury / granary head official5. Treasury / granary sub official (inferred)6. Scribe within treasury / granary (inferred)7. Other workers (inferred)
2. Commander and governor elsewhereMost provincial governors were also army commanders.
[4]
[1]: (Taylor 2000, 338)
[2]: (Taylor 2000, 337)
[3]: (Taylor 2000, 327-328)
[4]: (Taylor 2000, 339)
Nubian mercenaries would have been paid.
Inferred from previous periods.
A pipe network that connects the drinking water to individual settlements is not known to exist / not thought to be present.
"the residence-city of Piramesse cited in the Gebel elSilsilah stele no. 100 (C.I.2) should have been used by king Seshonq I for a certain period of time, being the passage in question a commemoration of local quarry work carried out or the king’s building project in Karnak." [1]
[1]: (Pagliari 2012, 200) Pagliari, Giulia. 2012. Function and significance of ancient Egyptian royal palaces from the Middle Kingdom to the Saite period: a lexicographical study and its possible connection with the archaeological evidence. Ph.D. thesis. University of Birmingham.
The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The repertoire of glyphs is based on the Greek alphabet augmented by letters borrowed from the Egyptian Demotic and is the first alphabetic script used for the Egyptian language. [1]
[1]: Ritner, Robert Kriech. 1996. "The Coptic Alphabet". In The World’s Writing Systems, edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 1994:287-290.
Libraries in temples. Literature Egyptian priests had libraries in temples.
Present in Ramesside Period Egypt and there were libraries in temples.
Present in the later New Kingdom. "The wealth of some farmers is also expressed in private documents, like a late 2nd millennium letter from Elephantine stating that several nemeh-cultivators paid their taxes to the treasury in gold." [1]
[1]: (Juan Carlos Moreno García, Recent Developments in the Social and Economic History of Ancient Egypt, 17)
Was enough timber available in Egypt to make wooden palisades a realistic option for a fortification system?
Enclosure walls non-mortared?
Enclosure walls non-mortared?
Enclosure walls non-mortared?
Despite textual descriptions and iconographic depictions of sieged warfare in the first millennium BCE, there is little evidence for walls surrounding entire settlements; indeed, the norm seems to have been for walls to surround temple complexes, and for the rest of the settlement to remain exposed, though it is possible that the settlement’s inhabitants could expect to find reguge within the temple enclosure in the event of an attack. [1] Fortresses on Nile south of Faiyum. [2]
[1]: (Kemp 2004: 271-276) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/HD39CU6I.
[2]: (Taylor 2000, 328)
"The sling is shown being used in assault on towns in the early Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan. Examples found in the tomb of Tutankhamun were made of linen. Despite its rare appearance in battle scenes, it was probably widely used. [...] A sling shot from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods could be made of lead, and carried inscribed messages for the unfortunate recipient." [1]
[1]: (Morkot 2010: 222) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/AHFJE5Z2.
"In western Asia, [the self bow] was replaced by the composite bow. In Egypt, the self-bow continued to be widely used, especially by Nubian troops." [1]
[1]: (Morkot 2010: 50) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/AHFJE5Z2.
Academic histories of warfare and weaponry in Egypt stop mentioning axes once they reach the New Kingdom, suggesting they fell out of fashion.
camels not considered native to Egypt, likely introduced by Persians in 525 BCE
"the Egyptians had been using bronze armor since the Eighteenth dynasty, "but it consisted of nothing more elaborate than metal scales sewn onto a leather base." [1] Present in the New Kingdom (Bronze scale armor on short-sleeved, knee length shirt made out of linen or leather. [2] )
[1]: (Fischer-Bovet 2014, 135-138) Fischer-Bovet (2014) Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. Cambridge University Press
[2]: (Gnirs 2001)
In the New Kingdom: "Body armour, in the form of small bronze plates riveted to linen or leather jerkins, with a a tapered lower half, began to be used." [1] Jerkins do not have sleeves.
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 42) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF.
In the New Kingdom mail coats were made out of bronze developed for charioteers. Evidence from a scene from the tomb of Kenamun. Colour of painting suggests bronze used for scales. [1] Is Hoffmeier referring to chainmail or coats with scales? Code assumes the latter. "the Egyptians had been using bronze armor since the Eighteenth dynasty, "but it consisted of nothing more elaborate than metal scales sewn onto a leather base." [2]
[1]: (Hoffmeier 2001)
[2]: (Fischer-Bovet 2014, 135-138) Fischer-Bovet (2014) Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. Cambridge University Press
In the New Kingdom: "Body armour, in the form of small bronze plates riveted to linen or leather jerkins, with a a tapered lower half, began to be used." [1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 42) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF.