Taharqa in Western Asia and Libya

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/ TAHARQA IN WESTERN ASIA AND LIBYAתרהקה מער סיה ו לו Author(s): DONALD B. Redford and ' רדפורד דונלדSource:Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies / יה ת ו ק י ת עו ץר ה תעי ד י םי ר ק ח מ :ל ר שי - ץרVol. AVRAHAM MALAMAT VOLUME / (1993 / pp. 188*-191* ספר רהם תשנ"ד(,Published by: Israel Exploration SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23624631

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TAHARQA IN WESTERN ASIA

AND LIBYA

DONALD B Redford

University of Toronto

The purpose ofthe paper* is to present new textual

evidence on the reign of Pharaoh Taharqa. Since

we must rely for a good deal of information con

cerning this fascinating Sudanese ruler on sources

in Akkadian, it is always welcome to turn up

material of native Egyptian origin.

Throughout Egypt as a whole, but especially at

Thebes, the 25th Dynasty was responsible for a

renewal in all facets of life which has left an indel

ible mark in the surviving monumental and archae

ological record.1 The great 'House of Amun', in

economic decline to a certain extent during the

22nd and 23rd Dynasties, experienced a revival

which witnessed the embellishment of the Karnak

temple with temenos walls, pavilions, porches

(h3yt) and shrines dedicated to the Divine Worship

pers.2 Excavation has revealed that the shrinkage in

Thebes of domestic occupation and the shift of

population to the safety of the temenoi which had

begun in Dynasty 21 was dramatically reversed

after 700 BC: probably due to the Kushite renais

sance, the houses of the middle class began to

spread far to the east of the Amun temple over land

unoccupied for four centuries, as the population of

the city suddenly increased.3 Providing in part the

focus for the eastward aggrandizement of the city

was the shrine today known as 'Temple C'. Al

though the present temple is of 3rd century BC

date, it replaced an earlier building, the blocks of

* The present paper was delivered at the International

Conference of Asian and North-African Studies in Toronto,

August, 1990. It is a pleasure to offer it to Professor Malamat

whose own work has shed so much light on the history of the

Judaean kingdom in the 7th century.

which proclaim it to have been another of the

Divine Worshipper's shrines, this one dedicated to

Amenirdis I and Shepenwepet II, and centering

upon the worship of Khons-pa-khrod."

Of the three reigns which span the half century

between 711 and 664 BC, textual preservation

yields an imbalanced view. Royal statements of the

hmst-nsw variety, prayers or even dedicatory build

ing texts are noticeably sparse in the repertoire of

inscriptions from the reigns of Sabaco and Shab

taka, while Taharqa's floruit is relatively rich in

texts, both stereotyped formulaic genres and more

personal statements.5 Whatever the reason for this

— the haphazard of preservation or royal predilec

tion — it has ensured the survival of a Taharqa

Triumphans into classical times;6 while Sabaco and

Shabtaka have been completely transmogrified in

folk-memory into tribal eponyms.7

Taharqa's foreign activity, military of otherwise,

has over the past two decades fallen into much

sharper focus than theretofore, and this is due not

only to the analysis of long known texts, but also to

the publication of fresh material.8 In particular a

judicious use of the Kawa Inventories9 has made it

virtually certain that the first decade of the reign,

i.e. 690/89 to 680 BC,10 witnessed military activity

across Egypt's borders: a campaign of unknown

destination in year 6, action against the Libyans in

year 8, and a campaign somewhere along the Le

vantine coast in year 10." The success of this policy

of involvement by force in foreign affairs during

the reign is the gauge against which must be mea

sured Taharqa's dominance of the Philistine and

Phoenician cities on the morrow of Esarhaddon's

accession.12



3/5

TAHARQA IN WESTERN ASIA AND LIBYA 189

TH1

n—ם.

םיי

ria rnMMM

1 11 . 1

A hitherto unpublished stela of Taharqa from

Karnak was noted by the author in 1990. The stela,

of Aswan granite, is preserved in part in three large

chunks, which today reside in the Sheikh Labib

storeroom.13 Two of the chunks fit together, yield

ing a maximum height of 1.20 m, and a preserved

width of 1.25 m; the third cannot be directly fitted,

but must be placed lower down in the original

format. Only the left side and margin is now pre

served: the right hand side, the stela's top with

vignette (if any) and an unknown number of lines

at the beginning of the text are now lost. Most of

the center has been damaged in the re-use of the

fragments. The content of the lowest line in frag

ment A suggests that this line was either the end of

the inscription or quite close to it. Twenty-one lines

each 5.5 cm in width are extant in part and, de

pending on the placement of fragment C, this

number might be confidently increased by no more

than 6. The carving of the glyphs is superior, and

recalls the best work of the Late Period. The defi

nite article is freely used, the possessive article

alternates with the suffixes, 3rd personal plural -w

alternates with sn, and the participial form employs

the periphrasis with ir, found in Late Egyptian

but much more common in Demotic. Although



4/5

190 DONALD B REDFORD

Taharqa's name occurs nowhere in the preserved

text, the statement in line 14 can only point to him:

'the Inundation came as a cattle-thief, although for

many years in abeyance'.14

The beginning of the preserved part of the text is

concerned, apparently, with the desuetude and vio

lation of the cult of an un-named god: cf. the

references to (2) someone 'who had fallen into the

habit of damaging the the daily menu (?) of

the god's-offering, the eternal endowment' and to

the neglect (3) 'of their customary ritual. There was

no initiation of [ ] before me in order to per

form it .

The speaker next launches into a description of

measures taken against some adversary: 'I [...] to

this city in order to provide horses, charfiots

and...] more than anything', the enemy 'did all

this in marching against me (7)', but the speaker set

forth 'hastening to the place where they were (7)',

'they were destined for a severe and grievous blow,

the work of my hands... I had no compassion on

the least of them nor (10) [on the most influential of

them(?).. .]';and soon they were 'fleeing before me

with fear pulsating through their limbs... (11)... I

forced(?) his confederates to the ground all at once'.

Next comes the settlement after the victory: (11)'[I

placed the...] in quarters, I settled them in villages,

and [their] cattle [in... (13)the.. .came their bene

volences] in their hands; and I had brought the

mellifers of the levy [and I put them in the...] of

the House of Amun and made them responsible for

the divine income of honey'.

The preserved text concludes with an appeal to

Amun:'(15)... O thou lord of the gods May years

be granted me [(16).. .thou(?) hast] been in my

heart since I was a youth. It was thy 'Great

Name'...(17)[.. .1 gave] thee the valuables of every

land, and bore (the contents of) their treasuries to

thee to Karnak; and see [I] gave (18)[...].. .be

hold, thou art here forever to return answer for

thyself .. .'15

If any specific references, toponyms or personal

names, to the enemy were once contained in the

stela, they are now either lost or in one of the

heavily abraded sections. The 'children of the

chiefs' are mentioned in a broken passage (rt.-3),

and 'this city' presumably refers to Thebes. Rt.-8

refers to 'sailing south' (hnti), and Rt-9 may con

tain the word 'oasis' (although I am very diffident

about the reading). Whoever the enemy are, they

can get at the speaker 'overland', possess cattle and

allies, possibly excel in honey-production (LI 1-13)

and once defeated are to be settled in special

quarters and villages in Egypt (R-l 1).

In spite of this meager evidence it is tempting to

identify Taharqa's adversaries in this pericope with

some Libyan enclave. The Kawa inventories ap

prise us of the fact that, in year 8, the following

significant dedications were made: 'one bronze

statue of the king smiting foreign countries'

(111,15), 'every kind of timber, acacia, cedar, and

persea' (111,21), and 'the children of the chiefs of

the Tjehenu' (111,22). A geographic text at Sanam

includes the 'oasis', and the Tjehenu appear in a list

of conquered places at the same site.16 It is not

unreasonable to postulate an altercation with some

Libyan group — the obsolete 'Tjehenu' was often

pressed into service in the 1st millennium but tells

us nothing — in the Dakhleh or Bahriya just before

year 8.

The banal references to 'extending the frontiers

of Egypt]' and the universality of the statement

regarding the treasuries of all states, brings us to

the Asiatic theatre wherein Taharqa sought to

emulate his New Kingdom predecessors. Assyrian

sources and the passage in 2 Kings have long since

given indication of the figure Taharqa cut in the

politics of Western Asia.17 His image and that of

the Egypt over which he ruled is now significantly

enhanced by the publications of the past 13 years.

In 680, when Esarhaddon came to the throne,

Egypt was in the ascendancy in the Levant, able to

retrieve the wealth of the treasuries of subverted

states, and expected to meet any invader from the

north on a Levantine battlefield.18 The army of the

25 th Dynasty was made up of redoubtable war

riors, endowed with an elan vital and a swiftness

in battle.19 In the early 670s, on the eve of the

clash between two riverine empires, a Nilotic

and a Mesopotamian, it may well have looked to

contemporaries an even match, if not 'advantage

Nubia'



5/5

TAHARQA IN WESTERN ASIA AND LIBYA 191

NOTES

' See J. Leclant, Recherches sur les monuments thebains

de la XXVe dynastie dite ethiopienne, Cairo 1965, Passim;

idem, Annuaire du College de France, 1981—82, pp. 499ff;

1982-83, pp. 527ff.

2 J. Leclant, BIFAO 53 (1953), pp. 112ff; P. Barguet, Le

temple d'Amon-re ä Karnak, Cairo, 1962, pp. 5, 10, 13, 16ff

50f, 90, 123f; R.A. Parker et al., The Edifice ofTaharqa by

the Sacred Lake at Karnak, Providence, 1977; J. Lauffray,

KARNAK V, 1975, pp. 77 ff; on the Kushite proclivity to

restore temenos walls, see Leclant, op.cit. (n. 1), pp.221,

337ff 347; on the Divine Worshippers, see idem, Enquetes

sur les sacerdoces et les sanctuaires egyptiens... Cairo,

1954; E. Graefe, Untersuchungen zur Verwaltung und Ges

chichte der Institution der Gottesgemahlin des Amun, Wies

baden, 1981; Leclant, LdÄ VI (1986), pp. 156-84.

3 D. Redford, JARCE 14 (1977), pp. 12-16; idem, JSSEA

11 (1981), p. 260; idem, JARCE 28 (1991), pp. 75-83; the

expansion was a concomitant of the proliferation of Osirian

installations in Northeast Karnak: idem, Orientalia 55

(1986), pp. Iff

4 D. Redford, 'Three Seasons in Egypt, I. The Excavations

of Temple C at Karnak,' JSSEA 18 (1992), forthcoming.

5 Cf. among others, M.F. Laming Macadam, The Temples

of Kawa I, Oxford, 1949; P. Vernus, BIFAO 75 (1975),

pp. 1 ff; E. Graefe, M. Wassef, MDAIK 35 (1979), pp. 103ff;

D. Meeks, Hommages Sauneron, Cairo, 1979, pp. 22 Iff;

A.M. Moussa, MDAIK 37 (1981), pp. 331 ff

6 Strabo i.3.21, xv. 1.6; G. Goossens, CdE 22 (1947),

pp. 239ff; J. Janssen, Biblica 34 (1953), p. 34.

7 M.C. Astour, JBL 84 (1965), pp. 422-25.

A. Spalinger, Orientalia 43 (1974), pp. 295 ff; idem, CdEי

53 (1978), pp. 22ff; D. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, Israel(Prin

ceton, 1992), pp. 354-364. See also the sources quoted above

in n. 5.

' MacAdam, Kawa I, pp. 5ff, 33 ff

10 On Taharqa's accession, see R.A. Parker, Kush 8 (1960),

p.267 f.

" Redford, op. cit. (n. 8), p. 354f; J. Lauffray, MUS J 46

(1970), p. 153 ff The regnal years given are the dates of the

donations: the military activity which occasioned them may

date from the year before in each case.

12 Redford, op. cit. (n. 8), p. 356f. In connexion with Ta

harqa's subversion of the Philistine plain, it is interesting to

note the recent discovery at Miqne of a fragment of faience

with a hieroglyphic text commemorating 'Amun-re, Lord of

the Thrones of the Two Lands, preeminent in the Holy

Mountain, at the "Horns-of-the-earth",' S. Gitin, BAR 16, 2

(1990), p. 41, On the 'Holy Mountain' (dw w'b), see C.

Desroches-Noblecourt, Le Petit Temple d'Abou Simbel,

Cairo, 1968, p.203f. n. 342; S. Wenig, LdA II (1977),

pp. 434 ff.; for the 'Horns-of-the-Earth' see R.A. Caminos,

The Shrines and Rock Inscriptions of Ibrim, London, 1968,

p. 41, n. 4; A.J. Spalinger, JNES 37 (1978), p. 37 n. b. This

Napatan avatar of Amun־re points unequivocally to the

patron deity of the 25th Dynasty, and constitutes prima facie

evidence of Taharqa's hegemony. The attempt by the exca

vator to use the item as proof of Egyptian control under the

26th Dynasty, from 630 BC, is wrong-headed. There was

indeed an extension of Egypt's control into the southern

Levant under Psammetichos I between 640 and 635, but the

present object is not proof of that: the 26th Dynasty reviled

the 25th, and made every effort to efface their memory. It

would be totally unexpected, to say the least, for Psammeti

chos to 'export' a sistrum from the reign of the hated

Taharqa

, I am indebted to the late Professor Sayed Tawfikנ'

erstwhile chairman of the Egyptian Antiquities Organiza

tion, and to the late Sayed Abdul Hamid, chief inspector for

Karnak, for permission to publish this stela. Thanks are also

due to Dr. Sayed Hegazi, present inspector, for permission to

photograph the text. The stela will be published in due course

in the JSSEA.

14 MacAdam, Kawa I, p. 30 n. 31.

" This supplication sounds like, and is in the same vein as,

the long prayer of Taharqa addressed to Amun on the south

wall of Chamber VI at Karnak. See B. Porter, R. Moss,

Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hiero

glyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings II, Oxford, 1972, p. 92,

(264); see also Vernus, op. cit. (n. 5).

16 J. Garstang, AAAL 9 (1922), Pis. 23a, 41; cf. also Cairo

770 (J. Simons, Egyptian Topographical Lists Relating to

Western Asia, Leiden 1937, p. 187).

" The reference in 2 Kings 19:9 is almost certainly an

anachronism. By far the best treatment now of this biblical

material is P. Dion, in the Bulletin of the Canadian Society of

Biblical Studies 48 (1988), pp. 3-25.

18 Cf. J. A. Knudtzon, Assyrische Gebete an den Sonnengott

II, 1893, Nos. 69-70; R. Borger, Die Inschriften Asarhad

dons, König von Assyrien, Graz, 1956, p. 102; H. Tadmor,

BA 29 (1966), p. 100; M. Elat, JAOS 98 (1978), p. 33;

Redford, op. cit.. (n. 8), pp. 355f.

" See Moussa, loc. cit. (n. 5).

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