When Tanutaman escaped from Egypt, he set up his rule again in Kush. Even though he and his followers were not strong enough to invade Egypt again, they continued claim that they were the true pharaohs of Egypt. But no matter what they said, a new dynasty controlled Egypt, from the northern city of Sais. The new rulers of Egypt became the 26th Dynasty. Its first king was Psammeticus I.
About 640 BCE, Psammeticus sent troops to Elephantine to protect Egypt's southern border from a possible Kushite attack. But some time passed before these troops were paid, so the king of Kush bribed the soldiers to leave Psammeticus. After deserting, they went to work for the Kushite, who gave them lands in the southern part of his kingdom. This and other disputes probably led to the war that broke out between Egypt and Kush in the early sixth century BCE.
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Portrait of Psammeticus I of Sais, first king of Dynasty 26. As a member of a princely family from northern Egypt, he sided with the Assyrians in order to rid Egypt of the Kushite kings. After both the Kushites and the Assyrians departed from Egypt about 660 BCE, Psammeticus seized the Egyptian throne for himself and his family. |
| Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum. |
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Portrait of the Kushite king Senkamanisken from Jebel Barkal. He was perhaps the Nubian king who urged the Egyptian troops of Psammeticus I, stationed at Elephantine, to desert their posts and to come and work for him. These "deserters" were later settled in a region far to the south of Napata and Meroë, where their descendants were seen centuries later by Roman explorers. |
| Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. |