Kashta was an 8th century BCE king of the

Kush KUSH 1600 AM is a radio station licensed to Cushing, Oklahoma. The station broadcasts a Full service format, consisting of local and national talk, sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, tha ...

ite Dynasty in ancient

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

and the successor of

Alara As low as reasonably practicable (ALARP), or as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA), is a principle in the regulation and management of safety-critical and safety-involved systems. The principle is that the residual risk shall be reduced as far ...

. His nomen ''k3š-t3'' (transcribed as Kashta, possibly pronounced /kuʔʃi-taʔ/) "of the land of Kush" is often translated directly as "The Kushite". He was succeeded by

Piye Piye (also interpreted as Pankhy or Piankhi; was an ancient Kushite king and founder of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled Egypt from 744–714 BC. He ruled from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, modern-day Sudan. Name Piye ...

, who would go on to conquer

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

and establish the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty there.

Family

Kashta is thought to either have been the brother of his predecessor Alara, or to have been unrelated. Both Alara and Kashta were thought to have married their sisters. These theories date back to the work of Dunham and Macadam, but Morkot points out that there is no clear evidence to support these assumptions. Kashta's only known wife was

Pebatjma Pebatjma (or Pebatma) was a Nubian queen dated to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the wife of King Kashta.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2004, , p.234-240 She is mentioned on a ...

. Several children and possible children are recorded: *King

- Thought to be a son of Kashta. Possibly a son of Pebatjma *King

Shabaka Neferkare Shabaka, or Shabako ( Meroitic: 𐦰𐦲𐦡𐦐𐦲 (sha-ba-ka), Egyptian: 𓆷𓃞𓂓 ''šꜣ bꜣ kꜣ'', Assyrian: ''Ša-ba-ku-u'', Šabakû ) was the third Kushite pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, who reigned fr ...

- Mentioned as a brother of Amenirdis I, and hence a son of Kashta and Pebatjma.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2004, , p. 234-240. *Queen Khensa - Wife of Piye, thought to be a daughter of Kashta and possibly Pebatjma. *Queen

Peksater Peksater (Pekerslo:de:Angelika Lohwasser, Lohwasser, Angelika: ''Die königlichen Frauen im antiken Reich von Kusch: 25. Dynastie bis zur Zeit des Nastasen'', Wiesbaden 2001, (in German) , p. 175.) was a Nubian queen dated to the Twenty-fifth Dyn ...

(or Pekareslo) - She was married to Piye and was buried in Abydos. She may have died while accompanying Piye on a campaign to Egypt. Morkot, Robert G., The Black Pharaohs: Egypt's Nubian Rulers, The Rubicon Press, 2000, . Laming and Macadam suggest she was an adopted daughter of Pebatjma.Dows Dunham and M. F. Laming Macadam, Names and Relationships of the Royal Family of Napata, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 35 (Dec., 1949), pp. 139-149, . *

God's Wife of Amun God's Wife of Amun ( Egyptian: ''ḥm.t nṯr n ỉmn'') was the highest-ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important religious institution in ancient Egypt. The cult was centered in Thebes in Upper Egypt during the Twenty-fifth and Twen ...

Amenirdis I Amenirdis I (throne name: ''Hatneferumut'') was a God's Wife of Amun during the 25th Dynasty of ancient Egypt., p.238 Originating from the Kingdom of Kush, she was the daughter of Pharaoh Kashta and Queen Pebatjma, and was later adopted by Shepe ...

. A statue of Amenirdis mentions she is the daughter of Kashta and Pebatjma. *Neferukakashta - Thought to be a daughter of Kashta and possibly Pebatjma.

Kushite rule of Upper Egypt under Kashta

While Kashta ruled Nubia from

Napata Napata
(2020). (Old Egyptian ''Npt'', ''Npy''; Meroitic language, Meroitic ''Napa''; and Ναπάται) was a city of ...

, which is 400 km north of

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

, the modern capital of

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, he also exercised a strong degree of control over

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

by managing to install his daughter, Amenirdis I, as the presumptive God's Wife of Amun in Thebes in line to succeed the serving Divine Adoratrice of Amun, Shepenupet I,

Osorkon III Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon III Si-Ese was Pharaoh of Egypt in the 8th Century BC. He is the same person as the Crown Prince and High Priest of Amun Osorkon B, son of Takelot II by his Great Royal Wife Karomama II. Prince Osorkon B is best ...

's daughter. This development was "the key moment in the process of the extension of Kushite power over Egyptian territories" under Kashta's rule since it officially legitimized the Kushite takeover of the

Thebaid The Thebaid or Thebais (, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nome (Egypt), nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos, Egypt, Abydos to Aswan. Pharaonic history The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximit ...

region. The Hungarian Kushite scholar,

László Török László Török (13 May 1941 – 17 September 2020) was a Hungarian historian, archaeologist, and Egyptologist. His works on the ancient Coptic language, Ancient Egypt, ancient Nubia, and the Kingdom of Kush were highly regarded. He was a member ...

, notes that there were probably already Kushite garrisons stationed in Thebes itself during Kashta's reign both to protect this king's authority over Upper Egypt and to thwart a possible future invasion of this region from

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

. Török observes that Kashta's appearance as King of Upper and Lower Egypt and peaceful takeover of Upper Egypt is suggested both "by the fact that the descendants of Osorkon III,

Takelot III Usermaatre Setepenamun Takelot III Si-Ese (reigned 774–759 BC) was Osorkon III's eldest son and successor. Takelot III ruled the first five years of his reign in a coregency with his father, according to the evidence from Nile Quay Text No.1 ...

and

Rudamun Rudamun was the final pharaoh of the Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt. His titulary simply reads as Usermaatre Setepenamun, Rudamun Meryamun, and excludes the Si-Ese or Netjer-Heqawaset epithets employed by his father and brother. Biography He was ...

continued to enjoy a high social status in Thebes in the second half of the 8th and in the first half of the 7th century" CEas is shown by their burials in this city as well as the joint activity between the Divine Adoratrice Shepenupet I and the god's Wife of Amun Elect Amenirdis I, Kashta's daughter. A

stela A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

from Kashta's reign has been found in

Elephantine Elephantine ( ; ; ; ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological site, archaeological digs on the island became a World Heritage Site in 1979, along with other examples of ...

(modern day

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city ha ...

)--at the local temple dedicated to the god

Khnum Khnum, also romanised Khnemu (; , ), was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities in Upper Egypt, originally associated with the Nile cataract. He held the responsibility of regulating the annual inundation of the river, emanating from the ca ...

—which attests to his control of this region. It bears his royal name or prenomen: Nimaatre. Egyptologists today believe that either he or more likely Piye was the Year 12 Nubian king mentioned in a well-known inscription at Wadi Gasus which associates the Adopted god's Adoratice of Amun, Amenirdis, Kashta's daughter together with Year 19 of the serving God's Wife of Amun, Shepenupet. Kashta's reign length is unknown. Some sources credit Kashta as the founder of the

25th dynasty The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV, alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty, the Kushite Empire, the Black Pharaohs, or the Napatans, after their capital Napata, was the last dynasty of t ...

since he was the first Kushite king known to have expanded his kingdom's influence into Upper Egypt. Under Kashta's reign, the native Kushite population of his kingdom, situated between the third and fourth

Cataracts of the Nile The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky ...

, became rapidly 'Egyptianized' and adopted Egyptian traditions, religion and culture.Britannica, p.817 Kashta's successor was Piye.

Burial

The pyramids of

el-Kurru El-Kurru was the first of the three royal cemeteries used by the Kingdom of Kush, Kushite royals of Napata, also referred to as Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, Egypt's 25th Dynasty, and is home to some of the royal Nubian pyramids, Nubian Pyramid ...

contain the tombs of Kashta and several of his successors. The highest part of the cemetery contains 4 tumulus tombs (Tum.1,2,4 and 5). To the east of the tumulus tombs we find a row of at least eight pyramids. One of them partially intrudes on a tumulus tomb (Tum.19). The southernmost of this row of pyramids belong to Kashta (presumably to) his wife Pebatjma. Before this row is another row of pyramids which includes those of Piye, Shabaka and

Tanutamani Tantamani ( Meroitic: 𐦛𐦴𐦛𐦲𐦡𐦲, , Neo-Assyrian: , ), also known as Tanutamun or Tanwetamani (d. 653 BC) was ruler of the Kingdom of Kush located in Northern Sudan, and the last pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. His ...

.
To the south of the (presumed) pyramid of Pebatjma one has to cross the southern wadi to reach the southern pyramids. These are the pyramids of the Queens:

Naparaye Naparaye was a Nubian queen dated to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2004, , p.234-240 Naparaye was the daughter of King Piye and the sister-wife of Kin ...

(K.3), Khensa (K.4),

Qalhata Qalhata was a Nubian queen dated to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2004, , p.234-240 Qalhata was a daughter of King Piye and a queen consort to her bro ...

(K.5), and

Arty Arty may refer to: People * Arty (queen), 8th century BC wife of Pharaoh Shebitku * Arty (musician) (born 1989), Russian record producer and DJ born Artem Stolyarov * Arty Ash, stage name of British actor Arthur Richard Dodge (1895–1954) * A ni ...

(K.6).D. M. Dixon, ''The Origin of the Kingdom of Kush (Napata-Meroë)'', ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'', 50 (Dec., 1964), pp. 121-132. File:Statue CG42198 Legrain.jpg, Sitting statue of the Divine Adoratrice of Amun, Amenardis I, daughter of pharaoh Kashta and queen Pebatjma. Cairo Museum (CG 42198) Egyptian - Situla Bearing the names of Kashta and Amenirdis - Walters 543077 - Detail A.jpg, Egyptian - Situla Bearing the names of Kashta and Amenirdis Scarab Inscribed With the Cartouches of Kashta and Amenirdis MET EG124.jpg, Scarab Inscribed With the Cartouches of Kashta and Amenirdis MET EG124

References

{{Kushite Monarchs footer 8th-century BC monarchs of Kush Egyptian people of Nubian descent 8th century BC in Egypt