Скачать или смотреть History of Ancient Egypt - Chapter 17: Third Int. Period—Libyan & Kushite Dynasties (1069–664 BCE)

🟨 Welcome back to History of Ancient Egypt — a century-spanning thriller where the crown splinters, temples hold the line, and new dynasties rise from desert and delta alike. In History of Ancient Egypt - Chapter 17: Third Intermediate Period—Libyan & Kushite Dynasties (1069–664 BCE) we travel from the marshy canals of the Delta to the sacred avenues of Thebes, and southward to Nubia’s royal mountains—watching Egypt reinvent kingship without losing its soul. ⚱️🌞
⏳ What you’ll experience in this episode
✨ The moment the New Kingdom ends and Egypt becomes a land of multiple power centers—Tanis in the north, Thebes in the south, and local rulers filling the spaces between.
🛶 A world captured in the Tale of Wenamun: an envoy bargaining for cedar abroad, revealing how foreign dominance fades into negotiation and risk.
🏛️ Tanis as a “new capital of old stones,” where kings like Smendes (Nesbanebdjed) and later Psusennes I build legitimacy from reused monuments—while royal splendor still glitters in treasure and tomb.
🕯️ The Theban priesthood’s quiet heroism: High Priests like Pinedjem protecting tradition, rescuing royal ancestors, and hiding rewrapped mummies in secure caches—turning memory into survival.
🦁 Libyan Dynasties (Dynasty 22–23): power by family & garrison
🛡️ How Libyan-descended elites (including Meshwesh lineages) become fully Egyptian rulers—using kin networks, appointments, and temple patronage to govern a fragmented state.
🏇 Shoshenq I steps onto the stage with ambition at home and abroad—his Karnak “campaign list” carving a map of power into stone (and echoing the biblical “Shishak” tradition, though details remain debated).
⚔️ Rival thrones multiply: Bubastis, Leontopolis, and other centers compete; Upper Egypt erupts in crises recorded in texts like the Chronicle of Prince Osorkon, where sieges and shifting alliances make instability painfully real.
🦂 In the western Delta, ambitious rulers such as Tefnakht and Bakenranef show how regional power can challenge the whole country—right before Nubia enters the contest.
🖤 Kushite Restoration (Dynasty 25): Nubia returns as Pharaoh
🌿 Kashta extends influence into Thebes through sacred politics—especially by linking royal women to the office of the God’s Wife of Amun via adoption.
👑 Piye marches north with a moral and ritual message, demanding purity and proper worship as much as surrender—then proclaims unity in a powerful victory inscription.
📜 Archaism becomes strategy: the past is “spoken” to calm the present—seen in monuments like the Shabaka Stone and in art that deliberately echoes earlier ages.
🏗️ Taharqa builds on a vast scale in Egypt and Nubia, while Nubian pyramids at Nuri and the silhouette of Jebel Barkal proclaim Kushite grandeur.
🦂 Assyria arrives: Egypt becomes a battlefield of empires
🔥 Esarhaddon captures Memphis (671 BCE) and tries to control Egypt through client rulers and garrisons.
⚡ Under Ashurbanipal, the war becomes a cycle of return and retaliation: Taharqa resists, Tantamani tries again, and the north trembles under imperial pressure.
💔 The shockwave: The sack of Thebes (663 BCE)—a wound to Egypt’s ritual heart, yet not the end of Thebes’ institutions or its sacred calendar.
🌊 Toward 664 BCE: the western Delta rises
🧩 As Kush withdraws south, the Saite house advances—Necho and then Psamtik I learning diplomacy, logistics, and coalition-building.
🪙 Greek & Carian mercenaries appear as hard-edged tools of survival—outsiders who can be paid, commanded, and used to balance local rivalries.
📚 Through it all, Egypt endures: temples manage estates, scribes keep records, rituals renew Ma’at, and identity survives every change of throne.
🗺️ Quick map of the story
🌾 Tanis / Sais (Delta politics, ports, alliances) • 🏛️ Memphis (the hinge city) • 🌿 Thebes & Karnak (Amun, priestly power) • 🏜️ Napata / Nuri (Kushite sacred kingship)
📅 Key dates: 1069 BCE • 671 BCE • 663 BCE • 664 BCE
🔍 How we know what we know
This chapter is built from stelae, temple inscriptions, administrative notes, burial evidence, and even foreign voices like Assyrian royal annals. The details can be complex, but the pattern is clear: Egypt adapts, absorbs newcomers, and keeps its institutions alive.
🎧 If you love dynastic intrigue, sacred politics, and the drama of empires colliding on the Nile—this chapter is for you. Drop your favorite ruler below: Shoshenq, Piye, Taharqa, Tantamani, or Psamtik! 👇
🌟 Tip: listen for how legitimacy is performed—through temples, titles, and stone—when a single throne can no longer guarantee unity.
#AncientEgypt #ThirdIntermediatePeriod #Dynasty21 #Dynasty22 #Dynasty25 #Kushite #LibyanDynasties #Taharqa #Piye #Shoshenq #Assyria #Karnak #Thebes #Tanis #Sais #Nubia #EgyptHistory #HistoryDocumentary #Archaeology #IronAge