| Piye | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piankhi, Piankhy, Paankhi, Paanchi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Drawing of the upper part of theStele of Piye. The lunette on the top depicts Piye being tributed by various Lower Egypt rulers, and the text describes his successful invasion of Egypt. While the stele itself dates back to Piye's reign in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, it also describes events from the Twenty-third Dynasty. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | 744–714 BC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Kashta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Shebitku | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consort | Tabiry,Abar,Khensa,Peksater | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | PharaohTaharqa, God's WifeShepenupet II, QueenQalhata, QueenArty, QueenTabekenamun, QueenNaparaye, QueenTakahatenamun, Har, Khaliut | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Father | KingKashta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mother | possibly QueenPebatjma | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | el-Kurru | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monuments | Stelae atJebel Barkal, enlargement ofTemple of Amun, Jebel Barkal, Pyramid atEl-Kurru | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | 25th Dynasty | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Piye (also interpreted asPankhy orPiankhi;[3][a] d. 714 BC) was an ancientKushite king and founder of theTwenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled Egypt from 744–714 BC.[6] He ruled from the city ofNapata, located deep inNubia, modern-daySudan.
Piye adopted twothrone names:Usimare andSneferre.[7] He was passionate about the worship of the godAmun, like many kings of Nubia. He revitalized the moribundGreat Temple of Amun atJebel Barkal, which was first built underThutmose III of the New Kingdom, employing numerous sculptors and stonemasons from Egypt. He was once thought to have also used the throne name 'Menkheperre' ("the Manifestation ofRa abides") but this prenomen has now been recognized as belonging to a local Theban king namedIni instead who was a contemporary of Piye.[8]
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Piye was the son ofKashta andPebatjma. He is known to have had three or four wives.Abar was the mother of his successorTaharqa. Further wives areTabiry, Peksater and probablyKhensa.[9]
Piye is known to have had several children. He was the father of:
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As ruler ofNubia and Upper Egypt, Piye took advantage of the squabbling ofEgypt's rulers by expanding Nubia's power beyond Thebes into Lower Egypt. In reaction to this,Tefnakht ofSais formed a coalition between the local kings of the Delta Region and enticed Piye's nominal ally—kingNimlot of Hermopolis—to defect to his side. Tefnakht then sent his coalition army south and besiegedHerakleopolis where its kingPeftjauawybast and the local Nubian commanders appealed to Piye for help. Piye reacted quickly to this crisis in hisregnal year 20 by assembling an army to invade Middle and Lower Egypt and visited Thebes in time for the greatOpet Festival which proves he effectively controlled Upper Egypt by this time. His military feats are chronicled in the Victory stela atGebel Barkal:
Hear what I have done in exceeding the ancestors. I am the king, the representation of god, the living image of Atum, who issued from the womb marked as ruler, who is feared by those greater than he, [whose father] knew and whose mother perceived even in the egg that he would be ruler, the good god, beloved of the gods, the Son of Re, who acts with his two arms, Piye, beloved of Amon ....
— Victory Stele of Piye.[12]
Piye viewed his campaign as aholy war, commanding his soldiers to cleanse themselves ritually before beginning battle. He himself offered sacrifices to the great godAmun.[13]
Piye then marched north and achieved complete victory at Herakleopolis, conquering the cities of Hermopolis andMemphis among others, and received the submission of the kings of theNile Delta includingIuput II ofLeontopolis,Osorkon IV of Tanis and his former ally Nimlot at Hermopolis. Hermopolis fell to the Nubian king after a siege lasting five months. Tefnakht took refuge in an island in the Delta and formally conceded defeat in a letter to the Nubian king but refused to personally pay homage to the Kushite ruler. Satisfied with his triumph, Piye proceeded to sail south to Thebes and returned to his homeland in Nubia never to return to Egypt.
Despite Piye's successful campaign into the Delta, his authority only extended northward from Thebes up to the western desert oases and Herakleopolis where Peftjauawybast ruled as a Nubian vassal king. The local kings of Lower Egypt—especially Tefnakht—were essentially free to do what they wanted without Piye's oversight. It wasShebitku, Piye's successor, who later rectified this unsatisfactory situation by attacking Sais and defeating Tefnakht's successorBakenranef there, in his second regnal year.
Piye's highest known date was long thought to be the "Year 24 IIIAkhet day 10" date mentioned in the "Smaller Dakhla Stela" (Ashmolean Museum No.1894) from theSutekh temple ofMut el-Kharab in theDakhla Oasis.[15] However, reliefs from the Great Temple at Gebel Barkal depict Piye celebrating aHeb Sed Festival. Such festivals were traditionally celebrated in a king's 30th Year. It is debated whether the reliefs portrayed historical events, or were prepared in advance for the festival—in which case Piye might have died before his 30th regnal year. Piye is also attested by two papyri dated to Year 21 and 22 of his reign where he is named Pharaoh "Piye Si-Ese Meryamun" which is undoubtedly this king's name.[16]
Kenneth Kitchen has suggested a reign of 31 years for Piye, based on the Year 8 donation stela of a king Shepsesre Tefnakht who is commonly viewed as Piye's opponent.[17] A dissenting opinion came fromOlivier Perdu in 2002, who believes that this stela refers instead to the later kingTefnakht II because of stylistic similarities to another, dated to Year 2 ofNecho I's reign.[18][19] Secondly, Kitchen observes that:
A fragmentary bandage from Western Thebes bears an obscure date of Sneferre Piankhy [or Piye]. The visible traces indicate ‘Regnal Year 20', a patch and trace (the latter compatible with a ‘10'), and a shallow sign perhaps an otioset. In other words, we here have a date higher than Year 20 of Piankhy [or Piye], and very possibly Year 30 - which would fit very well with the 31 years’ minimum reign which has been already inferred on independent grounds.[20]
Piye's tomb was located next to the largestPyramid in the cemetery, designated Ku.1 (seen in the image on the right), atel-Kurru nearJebel Barkal in what is nowNorthern Sudan. Down a stairway of 19 steps opened to the east, the burial chamber is cut into the bedrock as an open trench and covered with acorbelled masonry roof. His body had been placed on a bed which rested in the middle of the chamber on a stone bench with its four corners cut away to receive the legs of the bed so that the bed platform lay directly on the bench. Further out to the edge of the cemetery (the first pharaoh to receive such an entombment in more than 500 years)[13] his four favorite horses had been buried. This site would be also occupied by the tombs of several later members of the dynasty.
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