Neferkare Shabaka, or Shabako was the third Kushite pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Kemet, who reigned from 705 to 690 BC. Greek sources called him Sabacon and is mentioned by both renowned historians Herodotus and Manetho. Kemet had been ravaged by foreign rulers for a period of 400 years after the end of the New Kingdom. A renewal of ancient Kemetic culture, philosophy and theology was desperately needed to unite the country. The Pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty were Nubians and even though the Nubians had followed the Ancient Egyptian religion for 2000 years, they were considered foreign rulers. Pharaoh Neferkare Shabaka, the 3rd Nubian ruler, sought to reestablish Old Kingdom traditions and used various restoration projects as an opportunity to bring back the golden days of Ancient Kemet as well as to popularize and solidify his rule.
Succeeding his brother Piankhi, in Kush (modern Sudan), Shabaka moved north, captured Bocchoris, the second king of the 24th dynasty, and, according to tradition, burned him alive. He made Memphis, his capital and adopted the titles of the traditional Kemetic Nwsts (Pharaohs). He contributed to numerous religious buildings at Waset (Thebes), which was dedicated to Amun, the God of Gods.
Jebel Barkal, located in modern day Sudan was thought to be the primordial birthplace of Amun. The Ancient Kushites and Kemites looked to this sacred mound with great reverence as it was considered to be the perennial source of fertility as well as divine kingship. The Kemites took regular pilgrimages into the heart of Nubia to honor Amun and pay homage to the Creator Spirit. The religious and cultural ties of Kemet and Nubia run deep, so in 747 BC, when the Libyans occupied Kemet, Nubians from the Kingdom of Kush marched north to restore law and order. Kemet was weak from being invaded repeatedly by Asiatic nomads, but when the Kushites arrived, it wasn't to ravage or destroy. They saw this as an opportunity to seize power and restore Kemet to its former glory. The Kushites spent a considerable amount of time rebuilding the great monuments and temples. This differs greatly from the Libyans and other Asiatics invaders whom came to pillage and plunder.
The Kushite pharaohs built columned temples with pylon gateways and added to the great Amun temple complex of Karnak. They also took old kingdom religious texts and transferred them into stone for better preservation. An example of this is the Shabaka Stone, named after the Nubian king who had it inscribed. According to the text on the stone, Shabaka was inspecting the Temple of Ptah in Memphis when he came across a “Papyrus of the ancestors which was so worm-eaten that it could not be understood from the beginning to end”. Horrified by what he saw, Shabaka ordered the text on the worm-eaten papyrus scroll to be copied onto something more durable.
According to the text on the Shabaka Stone, the world was brought into being by Ptah through his heart and words:
“There took shape in the heart, there took shape on the tongue the form of Atum. For the very great one is Ptah, who gave [life] to all the gods and their kas through this heart and through this tongue,” and “For every word of the god came about through what the heart devised and the tongue commanded”.
“Heru (Horus) came into being in him; Djheuti (Thoth) came into being in him as Ptah. Power came into being in the heart and by the tongue and in all limbs, in accordance with the teaching that the heart is in all bodies and mouths of all Gods, all men, all flocks, all creeping things and of everything which lives… And so it is said of Ptah: He who made all and brought the gods into being. From him every thing came forth: foods, provisions, divine offerings, all good things…Thus Ptah was satisfied after he had made all things and all divine words”.
“Lo, he gave birth to the gods.
He made the towns.
He established the nomes.
He placed the gods in their shrines.
He settled their offerings.
He established their shrines.
He made their bodies according to their wishes.
Thus the gods entered into their bodies,
of every kind of wood, of every kind of stone, of every kind of clay,
in every kind of thing that grows upon him,
in which they came to be.
Thus all the gods and their Kas were gathered to him,
content and united with the Lord of the Two Lands.”
Bodine, Joshua J. “the shabaka stone: an introduction.” Studia Antiqua 7, no. 1 (2009): 3.
Dodson, Aidan. “Shabaka.” The Encyclopedia of Ancient History(2013).
The religious text on the Shabaka Stone is referred to as the Memphite Theology and the writing is seemingly much older than the 25th Dynasty, incorporating some of the earlier theological writings of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, as well as some of the Pyramid Texts. On the stone Shabaka added, "I found the writings of the ancients damaged, and I restored it better than it was."
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