Piye (also interpreted as Pānkhi, Piankhy, Paiānkhi, Piānkhi, or Paānkhi)[F. Payraudeau, Retour sur la succession Shabaqo-Shabataqo, Nehet 1, 2014, p. 115-127 online here ] He ruled from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, modern-day Sudan.
Name
Piye adopted two
:
Usimare and
Sneferre.
[Jürgen von Beckerath, Handbuch der Ägyptischen Königsnamen, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, MÄS 49, 1999. pp. 206-207] He was passionate about the worship of the god
Amun, like many kings of Nubia. He revitalized the moribund Great Temple of Amun at
Jebel Barkal, which was first built under
Thutmose III of the New Kingdom, employing numerous sculptors and stonemasons from Egypt. He was once thought to have also used the throne name 'Menkheperre' ("the Manifestation of Ra abides")
but this praenomen has now been recognized as belonging to a local Theban king named Ini instead who was a contemporary of Piye.
[Jean Yoyotte, 'Pharaon Iny, un Roi mystèrieux du VIIIe siècle avant J.-C.', CRIPEL 11(1989), pp.113-131]
Family
Piye was the son of
Kashta and
Pebatjma. He is known to have had three or four wives. Abar was the mother of his successor
Taharqa. Further wives are
Tabiry, Peksater and probably
Khensa.
[Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004. ]
Piye is known to have had several children. He was the father of:
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King Shebitku. Said to be a son of Piye,
[Kitchen, Kenneth A. The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, 1100-650 B.C. (Book & Supplement) Aris & Phillips. 1986 ] or alternatively a brother of Piye.
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King Taharqa. Son of Queen Abar. He would take the throne after his uncle Shabaka and another male relative Shebitku.
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God's Wife of Amun Shepenwepet II. Installed in Thebes during the reign of her brother Taharqa.
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Qalhata, wife of King Shabaka, she was the mother of king Tanutamun and probably of King Shabataka as well.
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Tabekenamun married her brother Taharqa.
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Naparaye married her brother Taharqa.
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Takahatenamun married her brother Taharqa.
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Arty, married king Shebitku.
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Har. Known from an offering table of his daughter Wadjrenes from Thebes (TT34).
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Khaliut, Governor of Kanad according to a stela found at Barkal.
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Princess Mutirdis, Chief Prophet of Hathor and Mut in Thebes and daughter of Piye according to Robert Morkot.
[Morkot, Robert G., The Black Pharaohs: Egypt's Nubian Rulers, The Rubicon Press, 2000, ] Thought to be a daughter of a local ruler named Menkheperre Khmuny from Hermopolis by Kenneth Kitchen.
Conquest of Egypt
As ruler of
Nubia and Upper Egypt, Piye took advantage of the squabbling of
Ancient Egypt's rulers by expanding Nubia's power beyond Thebes into Lower Egypt. In reaction to this,
Tefnakht of Sais formed a coalition between the local kings of the Delta Region and enticed Piye's nominal ally—king Nimlot of Hermopolis—to defect to his side. Tefnakht then sent his coalition army south and besieged Herakleopolis where its king
Peftjauawybast and the local Nubian commanders appealed to Piye for help. Piye reacted quickly to this crisis in his
regnal year 20 by assembling an army to invade Middle and Lower Egypt and visited Thebes in time for the great
Opet Festival which proves he effectively controlled Upper Egypt by this time. His military feats are chronicled in the Victory stela at
Gebel Barkal:
Piye viewed his campaign as a religious war, commanding his soldiers to cleanse themselves ritually before beginning battle. He himself offered sacrifices to the great god Amun.[" The Black Pharaohs ", by Robert Draper, National Geographic, February 2008.]
Piye then marched north and achieved complete victory at Herakleopolis, conquering the cities of Hermopolis and Memphis among others, and received the submission of the kings of the Nile Delta including Iuput II of Leontopolis, Osorkon IV of Tanis and his former ally Nimlot at Hermopolis. Hermopolis fell to the Nubian king after a siege lasting five months. Tefnakht took refuge in an island in the Delta and formally conceded defeat in a letter to the Nubian king but refused to personally pay homage to the Kushite ruler. Satisfied with his triumph, Piye proceeded to sail south to Thebes and returned to his homeland in Nubia never to return to Egypt.
Despite Piye's successful campaign into the Delta, his authority only extended northward from Thebes up to the western desert oases and Herakleopolis where Peftjauawybast ruled as a Nubian vassal king. The local kings of Lower Egypt—especially Tefnakht—were essentially free to do what they wanted without Piye's oversight. It was Shebitku, Piye's successor, who later rectified this unsatisfactory situation by attacking Sais and defeating Tefnakht's successor Bakenranef there, in his second regnal year.
Length of reign
Piye's highest known date was long thought to be the "Year 24 III Akhet day 10" date mentioned in the "Smaller Dakhla Stela" (
Ashmolean Museum No.1894) from the Sutekh temple of
Mut el-Kharab in the
Dakhla Oasis.
However, reliefs from the Great Temple at Gebel Barkal depict Piye celebrating a
Heb Sed. Such festivals were traditionally celebrated in a king's 30th Year. It is debated whether the reliefs portrayed historical events, or were prepared in advance for the festival—in which case Piye might have died before his 30th regnal year. Piye is also attested by two papyri dated to Year 21 and 22 of his reign where he is named Pharaoh "Piye Si-Ese Meryamun" which is undoubtedly this king's name.
[Kenneth Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC). 3rd ed. (1996) Warminster: Aris & Phillips S123]
Kenneth Kitchen has suggested a reign of 31 years for Piye, based on the Year 8 donation stela of a king Shepsesre Tefnakht who is commonly viewed as Piye's opponent.[Kenneth Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC). 3rd ed. (1996) Warminster: Aris & Phillips] A dissenting opinion came from Olivier Perdu in 2002, who believes that this stela refers instead to the later king Tefnakht II because of stylistic similarities to another, dated to Year 2 of Necho I's reign.[Olivier Perdu, "De Stéphinatès à Néchao ou les débuts de la XXVIe dynastie", Compte-rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (CRAIBL) 2002, pp. 1215–1244][Olivier Perdu, "La Chefferie de Sébennytos de Piankhy à Psammétique Ier", RdE 55 (2004), pp. 95–111] Secondly, Kitchen observes that:
Burial
Piye's tomb was located next to the largest
Pyramid in the cemetery, designated Ku.1 (seen in the image on the right), at
el-Kurru near
Jebel Barkal in what is now Northern Sudan. Down a stairway of 19 steps opened to the east, the burial chamber is cut into the bedrock as an open trench and covered with a
Corbel masonry roof. His body had been placed on a bed which rested in the middle of the chamber on a stone bench with its four corners cut away to receive the legs of the bed so that the bed platform lay directly on the bench. Further out to the edge of the cemetery (the first pharaoh to receive such an entombment in more than 500 years)
his four favorite horses had been buried. This site would be also occupied by the tombs of several later members of the dynasty.
Footnotes
Bibliography
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Roberto B. Gozzoli: The Writing of History in Ancient Egypt during the First Millennium BC (ca. 1070-180 BC), Trends and Perspectives, London 2006, S. 54-67
External links
