Egypt - Thebes-Libyan Period

  General Description   The Theban-Libyan Period in Egypt (Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties, 1069-747 BCE) ^[1] represents another time of decentralization in Egypt and, together with the subsequent Kushite period, makes up the Third Intermediate Period. ^[2]
Population and political organization
The governments at Memphis and Thebes followed the traditional ’intermediate period’ pattern of rulers (pharaoh at Memphis, high priest at Thebes) who ran a bureaucratic system managed by a vizier and overseers of departments. ^[3] However, the vizier and overseers of the treasury and granaries were unable to project their influence over the regions ^[3] and Egypt in this period is best characterised as ’a federation of semi-autonomous rulers, nominally subject (and often related) to an overlord-king’. ^[4]
The Egyptian pharaohs of the Twenty-first Dynasty (1077-943 BCE), based at Memphis near the Nile Delta, ^[5] served only as nominal heads of state for the whole of Egypt; ^[6] a formal agreement ceded control of Middle and Upper Egypt to priest-rulers at Thebes. ^{[7] [6]} The priests, who doubled as military commanders, derived their right to rule from the oracles of the ’Theban triad’ of gods, Amun, Mut and Khons. ^[8]
The Twenty-first Dynasty pharaohs, perhaps in an effort to provide greater legitimacy for their rule over Upper Egypt, turned Tanis in the delta into a ’holy city’, building royal tombs within temples built for the Theban triad. ^[5] The most powerful pharaoh of this period, however, was the first Libyan ruler and founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty, Shoshenq I (r. 945-924 BCE). He embarked on an ’ambitious royal building programme’ and attempted to regain control of the entirety of Egypt, curtail Thebes’ independence, and expand into the Levant. ^[9] The high point did not last long. The perennial problem of Upper Egyptian independence eventually led to the formal division of the state, an imaginative if drastic solution that created a parallel Twenty-third Dynasty based in Leontopolis, or perhaps Herakleopolis. ^[10] The new dynasty was enjoined to reassert control of the south, allowing the Twenty-second Dynasty rulers to concentrate on Lower Egypt. ^[10] This did not work: by the time of Shoshenq III (r. 827-773 CE), the Twenty-second Dynasty pharaohs could barely even control the north: ’numerous local rulers - particularly in the Delta - became virtually autonomous and several declared themselves kings’. ^[11]
Unfortunately, due to scant evidence, there are no reliable population estimates for this time.

[1]: (Baines 2017) John Baines. January 2017. Seshat workshop. Oxford.

[2]: (Pagliari 2012, 183) Giulia Pagliari. 2012. ’Function and Significance of Ancient Egyptian Royal Palaces from the Middle Kingdom to the Saite Period: A Lexicographical Study and Its Possible Connection with the Archaeological Evidence’. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham.

[3]: (Taylor 2000, 337) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[4]: (Taylor 2000, 338) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[5]: (Taylor 2000, 327) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[6]: (Van De Mieroop 2011, 270) Marc Van De Mieroop. 2011. A History of Ancient Egypt. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

[7]: (O’Connor 1983, 232) David O’Connor. 1983. ’Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period c. 2686-1552 BC’, in Ancient Egypt: A Social History, edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor and Alan B. Lloyd, 183-278. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[8]: (Taylor 2000, 327-28) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[9]: (Taylor 2000, 329) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[10]: (O’Connor 1983, 233) David O’Connor. 1983. ’Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period c. 2686-1552 BC’, in Ancient Egypt: A Social History, edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor and Alan B. Lloyd, 183-278. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[11]: (Taylor 2000, 330) John Taylor. 2000. ’The Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 324-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.