Aktisanes is a

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

n king who is mentioned by the Greek historian

Hecataeus of Abdera :''See Hecataeus of Miletus for the earlier historian.'' Hecataeus of Abdera or of Teos ( el, Ἑκαταῖος ὁ Ἀβδηρίτης), was a Greek historian and Pyrrhonist philosopher who flourished in the 4th century BC. Life Diogenes La ...

. He is perhaps identical with Menmaatre-Setepenamun Gatisen known from Nubian sources.

Titles

Horus name The Horus name is the oldest known and used crest of ancient Egyptian rulers. It belongs to the " great five names" of an Egyptian pharaoh. However, modern Egyptologists and linguists are starting to prefer the more neutral term: the "serekh na ...

: Kanakht Merymaat ("Mighty Bull who loves Equity") *

Nebty name The Nebty name (also called the Two-Ladies-name) was one of the " great five names" used by Egyptian pharaohs. It was also one of the oldest royal titles. The modern term "Two-Ladies-name" is a simple derivation from the translation of the Egyptia ...

: Wer-menu-em-per-itef-Amen-en-nepet ("Whose monuments are great in the house of his father Amun in Napata") *

Golden horus name The royal titulary or royal protocol is the standard naming convention taken by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. It symbolised worldly power and holy might, also acting as a sort of mission statement for the duration of a monarch's reign (although s ...

: Ir-sankhy-rekhyu ("Who vivifies the ''rekhit'' people") *

Prenomen The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birt ...

: Menmaatre Setepenamun ("Re is one whose equity endures, chosen one of Amun") * Nomen: Gatisen (Aktisanes) Gatisen had a Ramesside-style titulary. His Horus name Kanakht-merymaat is the same as the Horus name of

Ramesses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as ...

(and

Osorkon II Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon II was the fifth king of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and the son of King Takelot I and Queen Kapes. He ruled Egypt from approximately 872 BC to 837 BC from Tanis, the capital of that dynasty. After ...

and

Shoshenq III King Usermaatre Setepenre Shoshenq III of the 22nd Dynasty ruled for 39 years according to contemporary historical records. Two Apis Bulls were buried in the fourth and 28th years of his reign and he celebrated his Heb Sed Jubilee in his regnal ...

). This is a second reason why he is placed by some scholars around 300 BC. It had been assumed that in the fourth century BC, there was a Ramesside revival in Nubia. Other researchers have pointed out that the reading of the name Gatisen is uncertain. They place the king before 700 BC and assume that there was no Ramesside revival.

Monuments and inscriptions

His longest text is a now lost building inscription copied by the Lepsius expedition in

Nuri Nuri is a place in modern Sudan on the west side of the Nile, near the Fourth Cataract. Nuri is situated about 15 km north of Sanam, and 10 km from Jebel Barkal. Nuri is the second of three Napatan burial sites and the construction of ...

, but only published in 1977. The text was only partly preserved. It once most likely adorned a door at a temple in

Napata Napata (Old Egyptian ''Npt'', ''Npy''; Meroitic ''Napa''; grc, Νάπατα and Ναπάται) was a city of ancient Kush at the fourth cataract of the Nile. It is located approximately 1.5 kilometers from the right side of the river at the ...

. The names of the king are not preserved, most importantly the nomen Gatisen is missing. The other inscription is to be found on two adjoining blocks, showing the king in front of Amun-Re-Horachte-Atum. The blocks were found at the

Jebel Barkal Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal ( ar, جبل بركل) is a mesa or large rock outcrop located 400 km north of Khartoum, next to Karima in Northern State in Sudan, on the Nile River, in the region that is sometimes called Nubia. The jebel is 1 ...

. In this inscription the throne name and the nomen of the king are preserved, but the nomen Gatisen is difficult to read. The same holds true for a doorjamb from the same place providing the full titulary of the king, but with the nomen only partly preserved. The name Gatisen has been identified with Aktisanes, known from the Greek historian

. This identification is not certain, especially because the reading of the name as Gatisen is uncertain. Hecataeus describes Aktisanes as an enemy of the Egyptian king Amasis. This seems unlikely as the earlier Nubian kings are well-known. Therefore and for other reasons it is in general assumed that Hecataeus chose the name of a contemporary Nubian king as he composed his more fictional story.

Burial

Aktisanes was buried at

. He is thought to have been buried in either pyramid 11 or pyramid 14.László Török, The kingdom of Kush: handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization

References

Literature

* Laszlo Török, in: ''Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, Vol. II'', Bergen 1996, 511-520, {{ISBN, 82-91626-01-4 4th-century BC monarchs of Kush 3rd-century BC monarchs of Kush