PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 65T 



head east. Among them are the pots and pans, the cosmetic jars, the stools, and 

 other objects. Over the whole burial is spread a great ox-hide. . . . Several 

 had their lingers twisted into their hair or had covered their faces with their 

 hands. One woman had struggled over on her back and was clutching her throat. 

 But most of them lay composed as if minded to die quietly, according to the 

 custom of their fathers.' (17, xii. 24.) Reisner could not observe any marks of 

 violence, but, judging from the contorted positions of some of the bodies, 

 thought that they had been buried alive. The remains from these burials have 

 been examined by Elliot Smith, who states that the skeletons surrounding the 

 bedstead are those of folk of proto-Egyptian and Middle Nubian (C-group) 

 types, wliile those on the beds belonged to typical New Empire Egyptians, such 

 as lived in the Thebaid at tliis time. (23, 228.) 



The first historical capital of the Sudan was Napata, the mediasval Merowe 

 or Merawi, near Jebel Barkal, between the 19th and 20th parallels of latitude, 

 a few miles south of the Fourth Cataract. Napata was certainly an important 

 place in the XVIII. dynasty but how much earlier is uncertain. In the XX. 

 dynasty the high priest of Ammon assumed the viceregency of Nubia, and even 

 Rameses XII., the last and feeblest king of this dynasty, retained Thebes and 

 Nubia though the delta h?,d become independent. Remembering the troubles 

 and revolts of the XXI. and XXII. dynasties and the expulsion of the nobles of 

 Thebes we may believe that the priestly families of Thebes were forced to flee 

 to the more remote parts of Nubia, and so set up at Napata a kingdom which, 

 in theory at least, reproduced the theocracy of Ammon at Thebes. The first 

 recorded lord of this new kingdom was Kashta, whose son Piankhi succeeded 

 him about 741 B.C. and by 721 B.C. had conquered and garrisoned Egypt almost 

 as far north as the Fayum. Later he received the submission of the Lords of 

 the Delta, and was succeeded by his brother Shabaka, who ruled all Egypt and 

 founded the XXV. (Nubian) dynasty which lasted at least fifty years. Thus 

 Napata was Egyptianised, and being a great trading centre cannot but have 

 influenced profoundly the country to the south, so that when Meroe was founded 

 in the eighth century B.C. the ruling influence must have been Egyptian. The 

 mission sent by Nero to explore the Nile reported that Meroe was ruled by a 

 Queen Candace, whose predecessors had borne that name for many generations. 

 (16. Bk. vi. chap. 35.) It is uncertain whether the Candace of Nero's time was 

 one with the Candace (Kantakit) who was buried in a Meroe pyramid, or whether 

 the latter was identical with the queen who attacked Egypt diu'ing the reign of 

 Augustus. However the matter may stand, we know of two if, not three queens 

 bearing the same name. Yet, since the monuments show that a king was 

 generally the head of the state, Pliny's assertion requires qualification ; more- 

 over, there is the perfectly definite reference to King Ergamenes slaughtering 

 the priests who, as was the cus'tom, had determined his death. In both state- 

 ments I cannot but see examples of Egyptian theocratic influence. Nor are they 

 mutually destructive if it be remembered that the throne might, and often did, 

 pass in the female line, and that this practice was known to be in full force 

 during the XVIII. and later dynasties.' 



It would be entirely consonant with the policy of the priests of Ammon to 

 take advantage of the spirit of the sed festival, the rite of ceremonial Osirifi- 

 cation practised by the Egyptian kings, in order to obtain for themselves abso- 

 lute political control. This would be easier if among the barbaric tribes in 

 southern Nubia the king was ceremonially killed as he recently was in Fazogli, 

 and as he still is among the Nilotes. "That the practice of slaying the king 

 was no new priestly device is, I think, clear from the account given by Strabo, 

 and though I have no space to analyse this, I may point out that it accords well 

 with our knowledge of the divine kings existing in the Nile valley at the present 

 day, or in recent times. Strabo's description makes clear how relatively narrow 



* Paynozem I. of the XXI. dynasty married the daughter of the Tanite 

 king, Pesibkhenno I. and Sheshonk the founder of the XXI. dynasty legiti- 

 mised his line by marrying his son to the daughter of Pesibkhenno II.. the last 

 king of the preceding dynasty. So, too, in order to hold the treasure of Ammon 

 at Thebes, Piankhi caused Shepnupet the daughter of Osorkon III., sacerdotal 

 priestess of Thebes, to adopt his sister-wife Amenardis. 



1915. u u 



