Analysis: The Selection of Aspalta as King of Kush

Date: c. 600 BCE

Geographic Region: Kush (present-day Sudan and Egypt)

Author: Unknown

Summary Overview

Inscribed on one of the best-known stelae dating from the reign of the Kushite king Aspalta, the Enthronement Stela of Aspalta stands as a key primary source in understanding the government and culture of the northern African kingdom of Kush, also known as Nubia. Aspalta is one of the best-known rulers of Kush, and his reign is associated with turning points in Nubian history, such as the move of the capital from Napata, where he was chosen as king, to Meroë, where Kushite civilization was centered until its decline several centuries later. Although Kush shared some cultural characteristics with neighboring Egypt, which its kings had briefly ruled, Aspalta's stela reveals some uniquely Nubian customs and supports the view of Kush as a fully independent kingdom and realized civilization by the time of Aspalta's reign in the sixth century BCE.

Defining Moment

The Kingdom of Kush was located along the middle Nile River in the ancient region of Nubia, which also sometimes lends its name to the civilizations that arose there. Lying along what is now part of Sudan and southern Egypt, Nubia long served as a throughway for trade goods, such as ivory, from sub-Saharan Africa to Egypt and the greater Mediterranean world. The region was also home to its own rich deposits of gold and other valuable minerals, particularly iron. In its early development, Nubian civilization was more African than Egyptian or Mediterranean; historians believe the region was settled by migratory herders from sub-Saharan Africa by about 2400 BCE. This first civilization was based on farming and animal husbandry rather than trade, and Nubians developed a reputation as fierce warriors.

Over time, independent Nubian farming villages coalesced into the kingdom of Kerma. Kerma's leaders were among the first to encourage close ties with the Egyptian civilization to the north, and soon Nubians had begun to engage in profitable long-distance trade with Egypt. From the mid-seventeenth century BCE to the mid-sixteenth century BCE, Nubian warriors served as mercenaries in the Egyptian army as that civilization sough to repel the Hyksos invasion. This brought Nubians into close contact with Egyptian culture, and from that time onward, Nubia began to undergo a period of Egyptianization. Having secured itself from the Hyksos threat, Egypt then embarked on expansionary efforts under the pharaoh Thutmose I. One of their main targets was Kerma. After several decades of fighting, the Nubian kingdom fell to Egyptian forces, and Nubia remained at least nominally under Egyptian rule for some seven hundred years. During this time, Nubia was directly overseen by a mixture of Egyptian officials and Nubians who had adopted Egyptian customs, and the region took on more and more Egyptian traits, such as the adoption of the Egyptian gods. However, Nubians began to reassert increasing control over their territory around the eleventh century BCE as Egypt's hold on the region weakened. During the eighth century BCE, Nubian kings successfully gained control of Egyptian lands, establishing themselves as the rulers of all of Egypt and Nubia.

Nubian control of Egypt was short-lived, however, as the powerful Assyrians forced the Kushite kings out of Egypt by the mid-seventh century BCE. Nubian leaders retreated to their strongholds and established a more limited kingdom of Kush, with its capital at the city of Napata, a trading center from which the Nubian kings had previously overseen their broader combined lands. Kush reasserted itself as a powerful trading state, and its kings again sought to protect their lands from outside control. One of these kings, Aspalta, assumed the throne in the early sixth century BCE.

Document Information

The text given here comes from one of the significant stelae dating from the time of Aspalta's reign. A stela is a large stone slab inscribed with images and text commemorating an event, person, or other entity; in the ancient world, stelae often were used as grave markers. Historians believe that the usage of stelae spread to Nubia from nearby Egypt, and artists of those regions typically used similar techniques and styles as Egyptian artists. However, no specific information about this text's authorship or creation survives.

As a relative scarcity of information survives about Aspalta's reign and indeed about Kush in general during that time, the stelae that have been excavated are among the best historical sources for that era. Excavations of materials created under Aspalta began in the 1910s, and this stela was found at the sacred site of Gebel Barkal.

Document Analysis

The Enthronement Stela of Aspalta describes in great detail the process by which Aspalta was anointed as the ruler of the Kushites in sixth century BCE. This text is divided into three sections, which treat the process sequentially and show the close connections between government and religion in Kushite civilization.

The stela's text opens by setting the scene: “the Falcon upon his throne”—that is, the sitting king—has died, leaving the leadership of Kush unfilled. Members of the army and others who had been part of the king's bureaucracy gathered in the capital, Napata, to choose the king's successor from among his brothers. This group announces its intention to turn the decision over to the god Amon-Re, proclaiming that the rightful king is “here with us, but we do not know him!” Amon-Re, identified as the head god of the Kushites, is named as the best possible entity to select the new king as the king is closely affiliated with the god and his powers; in calling the deceased king Inle-Amon, the “Son of Re,” the stela recalls the Egyptian belief that the pharaoh was a direct descendent of divinity and thus semidivine himself.

The Nubian leaders then travel to the temple of Amon-Re in Napata, where they confer with the religious figures associated with that place. The group again declares the greatness of Amon-Re and proclaims their hope that his selection will strengthen the Kushites for the benefit of both citizens and their deities, for “we cannot do a thing without this god.” The temple's priests offer prayers and rituals in order to prepare for the god to make his wishes known through an oracle. The Kushite leaders then prostrate themselves before the god and directly ask him to select the new king in order to fulfill a series of purposes—“to revive us, to build the temples… and to present divine offerings.” Choosing wisely, it is implied, will please both the humans and the gods.

As options, the Kushite leaders presented the deceased king's surviving brothers. Apparently none of these choices pleased the god, for the oracle was silent. Then, the leaders proposed just one brother, Aspalta. It thus seems probable that the commanders had essentially preselected Aspalta as the king, and the ensuing ritual was conducted out of custom or religious sentiment. This suggestion was affirmed by the god, who declared Aspalta the king and attested his ability to fulfill the purposes previously laid out.

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Fage, J. D. Cambridge History of Africa. New York: Cambridge UP, 1978. Print.

Mokhtar, G. Ancient Civilizations of Africa. Paris: UNESCO, 1981. Print. UNESCO General History of Africa Ser.

Pope, Jeremy W. The Double Kingdom under Taharqo: Studies in the History of Kush and Egypt, c. 690–664 BC. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Print.

Török, László. The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Leiden: Brill, 1997. Print.