The Shakaba Stone

An African theory on the origin creation

The Stone is currently among the collections in the British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan. It is a little-known antiquity of Egypt from the 25^th Dynasty.

Brief historical background

King Kashta -the emerging of a new political power – Kush-Nubian Kingdom -Modern day Sudan

In the turmoil of what Egyptologist refer to as the third intermediate period dynasties 21-25:1069-664 BCE Egypt had been ravaged by foreign rulers.

South of Egypt a new political power emerged in Napata (now Modern-day Sudan) led by King Kashta and began to look northward.

According to modern chronology, in 705 BCE Kashta- the 3rd King in a succession of Nubian rulers sought to re-establish Old Kingdom traditions.

King Kashta invaded Egypt which had already been weakened by successive invasion by foreigners, but historically his people had long been entrenched in Egyptian culture and customs and dominated by Egypt since the Early Dynastic times (ca 3000-2686 BCE)

Kashta Son Piye left in control of upper and lower Egypt

With Egypt weakened and divided, the Kushite ruler Kashta left his son Piye (747-716 BCE to lead, a military expedition that eventually gained him temporary control over Upper (southern) and Lower (northern) Egypt. Soon after his conquest Piye returned to his homeland for the remainder of his reign.

Piye’s successor and brother Shabaka (716-702 BCE)

After his ascension to the throne in 716 BCE he launched a new invasion of Egypt, reconquered the Delta area, and took up permanent residence there, thus inaugurating the rule of the 25th Dynasty over a united Egypt.

King Shabaka -Egypt had now a Dynasty of Ethiopian born African King

Scholars have come to recognize the 25th Dynasty as a period of renewal, where the Kushite kings intentionally sought to establish an “ideological link with the great eras of Egypt’s past . . . leading to a revival of artistic and literary, and the renewal of ancient Egyptian culture, philosophy, and theology.

King Shabaka and the drive to restore Egyptian culture art, philosophy, and religion.

The Kushite King went to great lengths to restore the glory of Egypt in their own reigns with monumental construction projects reminiscent of earlier times.

Moreover, the Kushite King possessed a genuine reverence and sincere respect for Egyptian customs and traditions—especially religious ones—and sought to support its ancient practices.

The Kushite ruler did not see himself as foreign invader and conquerors, but as Egyptians in culture and religion, who would restore the greatness that was Egypt.

For almost a hundred years, before being conquered by an invading Assyria, the African kings from Kush, in their attempts to renew the splendour and glory of Egypt’s former days, thus ruled in the likeness of the kings of old and can be remembered as great kings of their own time.

The Kushite kings’ sincerity, respect, and good intentions were surely not simply an expression of supreme piety or reverence for Egyptian customs though; there were of course political reasons for their actions.

 “The Kushite rulers,” explains historian John Taylor, “sought to strengthen their legitimacy by posing as champions of ancient tradition.”

To legitimize their rule and seek acceptance as authentic Egyptian rulers, they intentionally cast themselves and their reigns in the mould of those of the Old Kingdom (2686–2125 BCE). Such deliberate acts overtly connected the Kushite kings with an archaic period of Egypt and helped them sustain an image of greatness.

Memphis, the Temple of Ptah, and Shabaka’s Stone.

 Lying about 12 miles south of modern-day Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile, is the ancient city of Memphis (now only in ruins).

Memphis, located between Lower and Upper Egypt at the tip of the Nile Delta (no doubt a factor in its choice as capital of a unified Egypt, having been known anciently by the epithet “That which binds the Two Lands”) was the site of the first royal administrative headquarters of Egypt and long served as an important religious centre.

 It was the residence of the kings of the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods as well as many succeeding kings.

 It was a city that rivalled any other (in Egypt only Thebes was comparable), renowned throughout the ancient world, until it was overshadowed in significance with the establishment of Alexandria by Alexander the Great Greek Liar.

The Origin and Rise of the name EGYPT – Greek corruption of the Kemet Word Hut- Ka- Ptah

Many scholars believe —that the chief Memphite deity, Ptah, and his temple gave rise to the name of Egypt itself by way of a Greek corruption of the word “Hut-ka-Ptah,” meaning “the temple of the Ka of Ptah.” – ‘House of Ptah ‘.

Ptah– according to Ancient Kemet Ptah was the Creator God who spoke the primordial mould from which all other life rose into existence.

Ka – in ancient Kemet was the spiritual part of an individual human being believed to live within the body during life and survive it after death (spirit come from God at birth).

Memphis is the location where the story of Shabaka and his Stone Begins

1.  Memphis was an ancient Egyptian city founded in 3200 BC by King Narmer.
2. The city where god Ptah was worshipped an important religious centre.
3. It is the location where the story of Shabaka and his stone begins.
4. The city played a significant role in understanding the historical context and contents of the stone itself.
5. Shabaka took up residence in Memphis as Egypt’s sole ruler.
6. At some point Shabaka took to attending to the temple of the chief deity of Memphis.

Renovation and Restoration of the Temple of Ptah

1. In the process of renovating and restoring the Temple of Ptah, Shabaka is said to have discovered a worm-eaten “work of the ancestors” (presumably a papyrus scrolls).

The text described, among other things,

1.  A story of the Memphite god Ptah as the creator of all things,
2.  His manifestation as the god Horus (patron god of the Egyptian kings), the great unifier and sole ruler of a divided Egypt at the very beginning of history.
3.  Shabaka was certainly not ignorant of the historical and religious importance of Memphis and its traditions.

The Shabaka ordered the ancient document to be copied onto stone

The Shabaka Stone – to be displayed in the House of Ptah

The copying of the warm eaten work of ancestors onto stone

1.  After this unsuspected discovery, Shabaka ordered the ancient document to be copied onto stone, presumably to serve as a concrete image—to be displayed in the house of Ptah.

• Shabaka’s residence at Memphis was proof that Egypt had been reunited; the prominent display of his newly-commissioned stone in the House of Ptah, along with an introduction of Shabaka as Ptah’s beloved, was all the more evidence affirming that, once again, Egypt was united under a divinely-approved ruler—King Shabaka.

• Shabaka’s Stone is thus arguably the most important literary monument from his reign.

• The Stone’s Provenance, Ancient and Modern. Originally erected as a lasting monument in the Temple of Ptah at Memphis in the late eighth century BCE, the stone was at some point removed, though it is not known how, when, or why.

•  Its history of ownership picks back up in modern times as a donation to the British Museum in 1805 by George John, 2nd Earl of Spencer (1758–1834)— “trustee of the museum” since 1794—where it has sat for nearly two hundred years as one artifact among many.

•  Recently, an examination of the museum’s archives by Amr El Hawary has revealed that the stone was transported to England, along with five other objects.

• But no one knows its whereabouts until in resurfaced in Alexandria only then to be moved to England.

Details and descriptions of the Stone

1.  Shabaka Stone as a rectangular block of black granite.
2. The stela itself is roughly 137 cm wide with the left-side height estimated at 91 cm and the right side about 95 cm
3. Not only have parts of the stone’s inscriptions been intentionally defaced—such as the erasure of Shabaka’s name in three places (lines 1 and 2) and the name of the god Seth being chiselled out in many others (at least lines 7, 8 and 9).

The Decipherment of the Shabaka Stone

1. Scholars today owe a debt to James H Breasted who discovered the hidden clue that led to the stone’s decipherment:
2. The individual hieroglyphs were written as expected, he found that the columns (lines) of the inscription were to be read not from right to left, as is usually the case, but numbered in the reverse order while still being read from top to bottom.

The Contents of the Shabaka Stone

1. The Introduction and titulary of the Kings (Lines 1-2).
2. A story of the gods that recounts the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the god Horus at Memphis (lines 3-47).
3. A creation myth known as the Memphite Theology (lines 48–64)
4. According to the story, the composition had been copied onto stone from an older deteriorated “work of the ancestors” in order to preserve and memorialize it—and it is the introduction’s claim that has long entertained inquiries from scholars.
5. As previously noted, the name Shabaka was erased from the stone in later history and is not found anywhere on it; what does appear in the introduction that positively associates it with Shabaka is his throne name Neferkare.

History and myth of creation- interwoven together into a single line

1. In most ancient accounts of origins, history and myth were woven together into a single storyline.
2. Ancient peoples—Egypt included—were not particularly concerned with history-writing as carried out under the prescriptions of the modern science of historiography.
3. Rather, “history” was an interpretation told through many elements of narrative art as a means of recalling memories of the past in a way that provided context for meaningful action in the present.
4. Not only was history meant to draw from the past to shape the present, but the circumstances of the present also often affected the way the past was remembered and interpreted.
5.  Not surprisingly, then, historical writing was often an amalgamation of historical and mythological elements.
6. And what is true of most ancient accounts of historical events is also true for Egyptian origins as well.
7. Growing out of the prehistoric cultures in Upper Egypt known as the Naqada, Egyptian civilization can be traced back historically to the late fourth millennium B.C.E. (ca. 3200–3000 BCE) when it was unified as a distinctively new creation under the rule of a king that later Egyptians referred to as Menes.
8. The legendary Menes, at least from the 18th Dynasty (1550–1295 BCE) onward, was viewed as the great “founder of the Egyptian realm” who “drained the original marshes; founded Memphis, the first city; and acquainted humankind with culture and civilization which they had not previously known.”
9. The unification of Egypt, the founding of Memphis, and the establishment of an Egyptian state—all historical events despite whatever mythical characteristics the story may have included—long served as important elements in the story of Egyptian origins.
10. These elements are also essential components of the myth of Egypt’s origins inscribed on the left-hand side of the Shabaka Stone.

Ancient Kemet – King served as a Bridge between the Divine and Mortal realm

1. In ancient Egypt, the king served as a bridge between the divine and the mortal realm. “Ancient Egyptian civilization,” comments Barry Kemp.
2. The text declares the supremacy of the Memphite god Ptah both politically and theologically.
3. Horus, who is but a manifestation of Ptah, had a divine right to rule in Memphis, the capital of a unified Egypt and home to Ptah the supreme god.
4. The earthly king, in his various manifestations of and interactions with the gods, was the great unifier of Egypt, having “united the Two Lands in the Nome of the Wall [i.e., the White Wall or Memphis].”
5. Egyptian tradition (nor was it on the Shabaka Stone) history was “ritual in the cosmos.”

In conclusion the Shabaka stone

1.  Described among other things, a story of the Memphite god Ptah as creator of all things in the universe.

For more detailed account and reading

1)  The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meriotic Civilization (Handbook of Oriental Societies: The Near and Middle East 31; Leiden: Brill, 1998).

2)James H. Breasted, ed., Ancient Records of Egypt (Chicago: University of Illinois

Press, 2001), 4:406–07.

3) Taylor, “The Third Intermediate Period (1069–664 BCE),” 331.

The studies of Adolf Erman, Kurt Sethe and Hermann Junker were influential in establishing a good understanding of the text and opening up the field for later researchers of this period.