Nastasen was a
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
of
Kush
Kush or Cush may refer to:
Bible
* Cush (Bible), two people and one or more places in the Hebrew Bible
Places
* Kush (mountain), a mountain near Kalat, Pakistan Balochistan
* Kush (satrapy), a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire
* Hindu Kush, a ...
(335 – 315/310 BC). According to a
stela
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
from
Dongola
Dongola ( ar, دنقلا, Dunqulā), also spelled ''Dunqulah'', is the capital of the state of Northern Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric (14th century). It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancien ...
his mother was named Queen
Pelkha and his father may have been King
Harsiotef
Harsiotef was a Kushite King of Meroe (about 404 – 369 BC).
Harsiotef took on a full set of titles based on those of the Egyptian Pharaohs:
''Horus name:'' Kanakht Khaemnepet ("Mighty Bull appears in Napata")
''Nebty Name:'' Nednetjeru ("Who ...
. His successor was
Aryamani
Aryamani was a Nubian king.
Titles
*Horus name: Kanakht Meryre ("Mighty Bull, beloved of Re")
*Prenomen: Usermaatre Setepenre ("Re is one whose equity is mighty, chosen one of Re")
* Nomen: Son of Amun Aryamani (''Sa-en-Amun Iry-Amun'') with epit ...
.
He is known from three types of objects. There is a stela with a long historical inscription, a silver handle of a mirror and several ''
shabti
The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. The Egyptological term is derived from , which replaced earlier , perhaps the nisba of "' ...
''-figures. The mirror handle and the ''shabti'' were found in a pyramid at
Nuri
Nuri is a place in modern Sudan on the west side of the Nile River, Nile, near the Fourth Cataract. Nuri is situated about 15 km north of Sanam, Sudan, Sanam, and 10 km from Jebel Barkal.
Nuri is the second of three Napatan burial sites ...
(Nu. 15), which was obviously his burial place. He was the last Kushite king to be buried in the royal cemetery at
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 1.63 m high granite stela was found at
New Dongola and is now in the Berlin Museum Inv. no. 2268. Originally it was most likely placed in the
Amun temple of Jebel Barkal. In the upper part appear the pictures and name of his mother,
Pelkha and his wife,
Sekhmakh
Sekhmakh was the wife of the Nubian king Nastasen, who ruled in the Fourth century BC.
Sekhmakh is known from the great stela of the king, where she is depicted in the roundle. There is also her funerary stela,Khartum 1853 found in a temple at Jeb ...
, next to the king.
The tomb of Nastasen is among several in Nuri that are slated for excavation by archaeologists using underwater archaeological methods. That is necessary because of rising ground waters in what was the Nubian region of Ancient Egypt. These tombs are under the pyramids and have flooded. Initial excavation reports of his tomb indicate that, essentially, it may be undisturbed by robbers. Expectations exist that artifacts not adversely affected by the water, will be found so more will be known about Nastasen from what is discovered along with tantalizing evidence already found, of artifacts mostly damaged or lost due to the action of the water.
During his reign, Nastasen defeated an invasion of Kush from
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient ...
. Nastasen's monument calls the leader of this invasion Kambasuten, a likely local variation of
Khabbash
Khabash, also Khababash or Khabbash, resided at Sais in the fifth nome of Lower Egypt in the fourth century BC. During the second Persian occupation of Egypt (343–332 BC) he led a revolt against the Persian rule in concert with his eldest son, ...
. Khabbash was a local ruler of Upper Egypt who had campaigned against the
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
...
around 338 BC. His invasion of Kush was a failure, and Nastasen claimed to have taken many fine boats and other booty during his victory.
[Fage, page 225]
References
Literature
*
*Laszlo Török, in: ''Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, Vol. II'', Bergen 1996, 467-501,
External links
The hieroglyphic text of the stela 4th-century BC monarchs of Kush
4th-century BC rulers
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