Shebitku

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Shebitku was the third king of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt and ruled from (707/706 BC-690 BC) according to Dan'el Kahn's most recent academic research in Orientalia 70. He was the nephew and successor of Shabaka. In recent years, a new Egypt-Assyrian synchronsym has been discovered from the Great Inscription of Tang-i Var in Iran. Carved by Sargon II of Assyria(722-705 BC), the inscription dates to the period around 707/706 BC and reveals that it was Shebitku, king of Egypt, who extradited the rebel king Iamanni of Ashdod into Sargon's hands, rather than Shabaka as previously thought. This suggests that Shebitku was ruling in Egypt by 706 BC at the very latest, and perhaps as early as 707 BC to permit time for both Iamanni's extradition and the recording of this deed in Sargon's inscription.

[edit] The Alleged coregency of Shebitku

Turin Stela 1467, which depicts Shabaka and Shebitku seated together (with Shebitku behind Shabaka) facing two other individuals across an offering table, was once considered to be clear evidence for a royal coregency between these two Nubian kings in William Murnane's 1977 book on Ancient Egyptian Coregencies. (Murnane, Coregencies, p.190). However, the Turin Museum has subsequently acknowledged the statue to be a forgery. Robert Morkot and Stephen Quirke who analysed the stela for a 2001 article, also confirmed that the document is a fake which cannot be used to postulate a possible coregency between Shabaka and Shebitku. (see Morkot & Quirke below)

Secondly, Shebitku's Year 3, 1st month of Shemu day 5 inscription in Nile Level Text No.33 has been assumed to record a coregency between Shabaka and Shebitku among some scholars. This Nile text records Shebitku mentioning his appearing (xai) in Thebes as king in the temple of Amun at Karnak where "Amun gave him the crown with two uraei like Horus on the throne of Re" thereby legitimising his kingship. (Török, p.4) Jürgen von Beckerath argued in a GM 136(1993) article that the inscription recorded both the official coronation of Shebitku and the very first appearance of the king himself in Egypt after comparing this inscription with Nile Level Text No.30 from Year 2 of Shebitku when Shabaka conquered all of Egypt. If correct, this would demonstrate that Shebitku had truly served as a coregent to Shabaka for 2 years.

Kenneth Kitchen, however, astutely observes that the "verb xai (or appearance) applies to any official 'epiphany' or official manifestation of the king to his 'public appearances'." (Kitchen, TIPE, p.170) Kitchen also stresses that the period around the first month of Shemu days 1-5 marked the date of a Festival of Amun-Re at Karnak which is "well attested" for the New Kingdom Period, the 22nd Dynasty through to the Ptolemaic period. (Kitchen, TIPE, p.170) Hence, in the Third Year of Shebitku, this Feast to Amun evidently coincided with both the Inundation of the Nile and a personal visit by Shebitku to the Temple of Amun "but we have no warrant whatever for assuming that Shebitku...remained uncrowned for 2 whole years after his accession." (Kitchen, TIPE, p.171) Murnane also endorsed this interpretation by noting that Shebitku's Year 3 Nile Text "need not refer to an accession or coronation at all. Rather, it seems simply to record an 'appearance' of Shebitku in the temple of Amun during his third year and to acknowledge the god's influence in securing his initial appearance as king." (Murnane, Coregencies, p.189) In other words, Shebitku was already king of Egypt and the purpose of his visit to Karnak was to receive and record for posterity Amun's official legitimization of his reign. Hence, the evidence for a possible coregency between Shabaka and Shebitku is illusory at present.

[edit] Reign

During Shebitku's reign, there was initially a policy of conciliation with Assyria which was marked by the formal extradition of Iamanni back into Sargon II's hands. After Sargon II's death, however, Shebitku appears to have adopted a different policy by actively resisting any new Assyrian expansion into Canaan under Sennacherib,Sargon's successor. A stela from Kawa relates that Shebitku asked his 'brothers', including Taharqa, to travel north to Thebes from Nubia. The Nubian army travelled along with Taharqa presumably to fight the Assyrians at the Battle of Eltekh in 701 BC. Another stela records that when Jerusalem was under attack by the Assyrians, the king of Kush marched against Sennacherib. Shebitku joined in the resistance against Sennacherib and an Egyptian army was sent to Palestine, led by Shebitku's brother, Prince Taharqa. Shebitku also completed the decoration of the Temple of Osiris Heqadjet in Thebes during his reign. The Temple had been constructed under Osorkon III. The decorations are notable for proving that Osorkon III's daughter, Shepenupet I was still the serving God's Wife of Amun at Karnak and had outlived her two brothers Takelot III and Rudamun by at least three full decades. In 690 BC, Shebitku died and was succeeded by Taharqa.

[edit] References

J. von Beckerath, "Die Nilstandsinschrift vom 3. Jahr Schebitkus am kai von Karnak," GM 136 (1993), pp. 7-9
Dan'el Kahn, "The Inscription of Sargon II at Tang-i Var and the Chronology of Dynasty 25," Orientalia 70 (2001), pp.1-18
William Murnane, Ancient Egyptian Coregencies, (SAOC 40: Chicago 1977)
R. Morkot and S. Quirke, "Inventing the 25th Dynasty: Turin stela 1467 and the construction of history", Begegnungen - Antike Kulturen im Niltal Festgabe für Erika Endesfelder, Karl-Heinz Priese, Walter Friedrich Reineke, Steffen Wenig (Leipzig 2001), pp.349–363
L. Török, The Royal Crowns of Kush: A Study in Middle Nile Valley Regalia and Iconography in the 1st Millenia B. C. and A.D., Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 18 (Oxford 1987) 4 ff.