89 | Padiamenope
O
WNER OF THE LARGEST PRIVATE TOMB IN
E
GYPT
Like Montuemhat (no. 88), Padiamenope lived at Thebes through the turbulent years spanning the end of the 25th and the beginning of the 26th Dynasty. He, too, witnessed the flight of the last Nubian pharaoh, Tanutamani, and the subsequent sack of Thebes by the Assyrians, not only surviving these momentous events but prospering. He, too, was buried in a magnificent tomb, cut into the bedrock in the same part of the Theban necropolis. However, unlike his contemporary, Padiamenope remains something of an enigma. His tomb is the largest private funerary monument in the whole of Thebes, perhaps the whole of Egypt; yet the man himself never rose above the rank of Chief Lector-Priest. The corpus of inscriptions relating to Padiamenope is extensive, comprising shabti figurines, an offering table, a temple text and at least seven statues; yet in none of these does he mention either the kings he served or – even more peculiarly – the name of his father. Padiamenope, it seems, was guarded about the source of his great wealth.
What we do know is that he was a Theban by birth and lived his entire life in that great religious city of Upper Egypt. His mother, Namenkhaset, played the sistrum and sang in the cult of Amun, in common with many wives of high officials. Other than these occasional temple duties, she was a housewife. Padiamenope would therefore have grown up acquainted with some of the mysteries of Karnak temple. On reaching adulthood, he entered the priesthood, more specifically training as a lector-priest, one of the group of learned priest-scholars who guarded, interpreted and developed the liturgy for use in the great temples of the land. Padiamenope evidently excelled at this work, for he rose to be Chief Lector-Priest of Amun, Overseer of Scribes of the Divine Books and Keeper of His God’s Secrets. While these positions gave him an important role within the temple cult, they did not equate to one of the great offices of state and he remained outside the upper echelons of the priesthood.
None the less, Padiamenope was able to commission for himself a truly stupendous tomb. Like those of his near-contemporaries, it was orientated towards a small way-station, built on the ruins of the causeway of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple. This small structure was used as a resting-place during the annual Beautiful Festival of the Valley, when the sacred image of Amun-Ra left its sanctuary at Karnak to pay a visit to Deir el-Bahri. Through the proximity of his tomb to the route taken by the divine image, Padiamenope hoped to share in the good fortune bestowed by Amun-Ra, through all eternity. The tomb itself was an impressive piece of architecture. Its sunken outer court measured 31.4 by 23.2 m (103 by 76 ft) and was reached by a flight of steps descending from ground level between two massive mudbrick walls supporting an arched gateway. The first court connected by means of a doorway with an inner court.
The numerous titles and epithets listed inside the tomb included several that hinted at special favour in royal circles: beloved sole companion (rather than the usual ‘sole companion’), Overseer of All the King’s Affairs, ‘who is in the heart of his lord’, ‘king’s beloved acquaintance’, and ‘revered in the king’s presence’. Perhaps this helps to explain the apparent wealth of Padiamenope, even if he thought that it was better not to flaunt such patronage on public monuments like statues. The political upheavals during his lifetime seem to have taught him that discretion was the better part of valour.
In keeping with his professional interest in sacred writings, Padiamenope’s tomb was decorated almost exclusively with religious texts; curiously, they most closely resemble those dating to the late Ramesside Period, some five hundred years earlier. It seems that the historical scholar wished to surround himself in the afterlife with the fruits of his research in the temple library. The 25th and early 26th Dynasties were a period of intense interest in earlier cultural forms, whether literary or artistic, and Padiamenope emerges as a leading figure in this archaizing movement.
90 | Nitiqret (Nitocris)
G
OD
’
S
W
IFE
,
KING
’
S SERVANT
The sacred office of God’s Wife of Amun was not just of great religious significance, it was also politically important: when held by a close female relative, it gave the king the means of controlling the Theban priesthood and, by extension, the southern half of the country. For a monarch such as Psamtik I with a strictly provincial power-base in the northwestern Delta, this would have been a key objective. Moreover the legitimacy conferred by close association with the Amun cult would have been particularly attractive to a new dynasty, particularly one which had come to power as Assyrian vassals. Hence, in the ninth year of his reign, Psamtik I sent his eldest daughter to join the college of priestesses at Karnak with the aim of securing her eventual succession as God’s Wife of Amun.
Nitiqret must have been very young when she was sent to Karnak in spring 656 BC, since she is known to have lived for another seventy years. On the appointed day, she was escorted to the quayside at the royal residence and went aboard her ship for the sixteen-day river journey to Thebes. Details of the voyage, which had all the ceremony of a royal progress, were recorded by the flotilla’s proud commander, Sematawytefnakht (I) (no. 91).
On her arrival at Thebes, Nitiqret was taken immediately to the great temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak where she was formally welcomed by an oracle of the god. She was then introduced to the incumbent God’s Wife of Amun, Piye’s daughter Shepenwepet II. An agreement was reached between Psamtik I and the Theban hierarchy whereby Nitiqret would succeed to the office of God’s Wife only after the death of both the current incumbent and her designated successor (Amenirdis II). The formalities over, Nitiqret’s adoption as eventual heir was witnessed by ‘all the prophets, priests and friends of the temple’, and a formal record of the contract was made in writing.
Crucially, it signed over to Nitiqret all the property of the God’s Wife of Amun ‘in country and town’. Indeed, economic considerations were at the heart of the agreement. For his part, Psamtik I claimed that he had endowed Nitiqret ‘better than those who were before her’. This was no idle boast, since her dowry included 1,800 arouras (486 ha, 1118 acres) of land in Upper Egypt and its produce, together with daily and monthly supplies from the royal estate and the temples under the king’s control in the Delta. In return for this sizeable endowment, Nitiqret was to receive daily and monthly supplies from some of Thebes’ most powerful individuals, including Montuemhat (no. 88). Nitiqret’s adoption as heiress to the God’s Wife of Amun thus marked the formal recognition of Saite suzerainty in Thebes, the last stronghold of the previous Kushite dynasty: until the year before, all Theban documents had been dated according to the years of Tanutamani’s reign, even though the last Kushite pharaoh had long since abandoned Egypt.
Although Nitiqret did not expect to become God’s Wife for many decades, she came into her inheritance rather sooner than her adoption contract had stipulated. With the Kushites expelled from Egypt, it was no longer reasonable nor politically expedient for their appointee to wait such a long time to succeed. So, when Shepenwepet II died, some time in the latter years of Psamtik I’s reign, the designated heiress Amenirdis II was passed over, retaining the deputy position of Divine Adoratrice, while Nitiqret became God’s Wife. Once installed, she held office for the next quarter of a century, dying in 586 BC, in the fourth year of the reign of Apries. She was buried, with great ceremony, in a splendid tomb-chapel in the forecourt of Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu, at the heart of the Theban necropolis. The Delta princess had come to the end of her long journey.
91 | Sematawytefnakht (I)
R
OYAL
F
LOTILLA
C
OMMANDER
On 2 March 656 BC a splendid flotilla set out from the royal residence, bound for the religious capital of Thebes, some 960 km (600 miles) to the south. The ships were fully crewed and laden with provisions. This was no ordinary convoy: its purpose was to convey Nitiqret (no. 90), the king’s daughter, to the great temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak. There, she would be received by the priesthood and acknowledged as the future God’s Wife of Amun, the most important sacred office in Egypt after the High Priest himself.
In overall charge of the journey was the Flotilla Commander Sematawytefnakht, and the next sixteen days of sailing up the Nile were to be the pinnacle of his career, the most important two weeks of his life. His background, upbringing and rise to prominence are all obscure. He probably came from the town of Herakleopolis (ancient Hnes), a few days’ sailing south of Memphis. By 656 BC he had become governor of the local region, the twentieth nome (province) of Upper Egypt, known to the ancient Egyptians by the charmingly descriptive name of ‘upper pomegranate-tree’. Sematawytefnakht was also Chief of the Harbour at the royal residence, responsible for all river-borne traffic in and out of the most prestigious port in the country. With a combination of courtly, military and logistical experience, Sematawytefnakht was the ideal choice to supervise Nitiqret’s elaborate royal progress.
Planning for the journey had been going on for months in advance. Royal messengers had travelled upstream the length of the route, to persuade and cajole all the provincial governors through whose lands the flotilla would pass to supply provisions for the princess and her enormous retinue. Each nomarch would be responsible for providing the bread, beer, meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables to feed the convoy. In this way, the royal exchequer would be spared the entire burden of financing such a costly undertaking, and the regional potentates would be able to display their loyalty to the ruling dynasty.
By the time the day of departure dawned, all was ready. As marshals cleared the way, Nitiqret went in procession from the king’s private apartments to the harbour side. Sematawytefnakht was probably at the quayside to supervise the embarkation. Sixteen days later, the flotilla under his command arrived safely at Thebes, to be met by throngs of people, shouting and clamouring for a glimpse of the princess. The second she stepped ashore, Sematawytefnakht’s job was finished. He had enjoyed only a brief moment of fame, but it had been enough to secure his immortality.
92 | Ahmose II (Amasis)
U
SURPER WHO MADE PEACE WITH THE
