Documents discovered at Hazor and at sites in Egypt and Iraq attest that Hazor maintained cultural and trade relations with both Egypt and Babylon. In the course of close to 30 years of excavation, fragments of 18 different Egyptian statues, both royal and private, dedicated to Egyptian kings and officials, including two sphinxes, were discovered […]
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From 6th BC Ethiopian sculpture in Sicily?
Ethiopian in Megara Hyblaia, 6thc. BC. Beautiful life like ancient Sculpture via Archaeologia dei Nebrodi. Italian Region: Sicily Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, is just off the toe of Italy’s boot. It has been a crossroads of cultures for 3,000 years, a history reflected in its diverse architecture, cuisine and ancient ruins. Palermo, […]
Elite 18th Dynasty Family
A shrine on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt served as a memorial to an elite 18th Dynasty family that appears to have been originally from Nubia. archaeology.org/news (Courtesy © The Gebel el Silsila Survey Project) Read more and see other beautiful ancient art gebelelsilsilaepigraphicsurveyproject.blogspot.com/2015/12/six-nk-statues-and-intact-relief-scenes Remains of a Nubian temple in Sudan thought […]
Pharaohs: National Geographic
An ignored chapter of history tells of a time when kings from deep in Africa conquered ancient Egypt.
By Robert Draper
National Geographic Contributing Writer
Photograph by Kenneth Garrett
In the year 730 B.C., a man by the name of Piye decided the only way to save Egypt from itself was to invade it. Things would get bloody before the salvation came.
“Harness the best steeds of your stable,” he ordered his commanders. The magnificent civilization that had built the great pyramids had lost its way, torn apart by petty warlords. For two decades Piye had ruled over his own kingdom in Nubia, a swath of Africa located mostly in present-day Sudan. But he considered himself the true ruler of Egypt as well, the rightful heir to the spiritual traditions practiced by pharaohs such as Ramses II and Thutmose III. Since Piye had probably never actually visited Lower Egypt, some did not take his boast seriously. Now Piye would witness the subjugation of decadent Egypt firsthand—“I shall let Lower Egypt taste the taste of my fingers,” he would later write.
North on the Nile River his soldiers sailed. At Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, they disembarked. Believing there was a proper way to wage holy wars, Piye instructed his soldiers to purify themselves before combat by bathing in the Nile, dressing themselves in fine linen, and sprinkling their bodies with water from the temple at Karnak, a site holy to the ram-headed sun god Amun, whom Piye identified as his own personal deity. Piye himself feasted and offered sacrifices to Amun. Thus sanctified, the commander and his men commenced to do battle with every army in their path.