Of Aspelta, king of Kush (6th century B. C. E.)

        Varia                                                               MittSAG 23

112

to have considered these three hypostases of Amun 

to be three different deities,

63

 in accordance with 

Blackman’s and Török’s views one would have to 

conclude that Nasalsa was - simultaneously or suc-

cessively - the high priestess of three gods in three 

different temples of Kush. Whether this was possible 

remains a question.

It is of some importance that the accompanying 

inscription of Nasalsa in the lunette of the Anlamani 

Stela, the earliest of the relevant pieces of evidence, 

states that she is «rattling the sistrum to HER father, 

that he give HER life».

64

 It follows, therefore, that 

acting in her capacity of sistrum-player she petitio-

ned for her own prosperity, instead of playing her 

«priestly role in the renewal of the royal power» of 

her son,

65

 which seems to complicate the theories of 

Török (or rather, of Troy) still more.

As for Henuttakhebit, it is clear from the Dedica-

tion Stele record that she becomes a sistrum-player 

not at Aspelta’s enthronement but in his 3rd regnal 

year. Török tries to explain this by the hypothe-

sis that Aspelta, after his accession, first married 

Madiqen, the (supposed) widow of his predecessor 

Anlamani, who - due to this marriage, remained in 

the office of high priestess of Amun at Sanam for 

another three years, after which was replaced by 

Henuttakhebit, a new wife of the king.

The greatest problem about this interpretation is 

the fact that Henuttakhebit is referred to in the text 

not as a new «king’s wife», but obviously as a princess. 

As it was recently shown by the present writer, the 

attribute Hnwt-tA, alleged in the Fontes to be a queenly 

title «the mistress of the land»,

66

 is merely an element 

of her personal name (which consequently should be 

read «Henuttakhebit» and not «Kheb»).

67

 This also 

gives the clue to the otherwise inexplicable fact, often 

missed by students of the stele, that neither in the text 

(line 13) nor in the caption to her representation in 

the lunette is her name written in a royal cartouche. 

In other words, both in the text and in the relief she 

is presented as the junior (both literally and meta-

phorically) of the personages.

The conclusion that three years after Aspelta’s 

accession Henuttakhebit became a sistrum-player in 

the temple of Amun of Sanam, while still remaining a 

63  See above, note 60.

64 Macadam, The Temples of Kawa, pls. 15-16.

65  That there are no «scribal» errors here may be seen from 

the fact that an identical caption accompanies a similar 

representation of the queen-mother Abar rattling sistrum 

before Amun-Re in two symmetrical scenes in the lunette 

of king Taharqa’s stele Kawa V (Macadam, The Temples 

of Kawa, pls. 9-10)

66  Török, ‘Adoption Stela’, p. 260, 266-67.

67  See above, note 17.

princess, is fatal for the aforementioned idea that the 

office of (jHjj.t-)sistrum-player was connected with 

queen-ship, and that «the continuity of royal power 

was paralleled with the continuity of the office of the 

queen as priestess of Amûn».

68

It is further important to notice that many 

scholars, including Blackman and Török, when 

speaking about the priesthood mainly focus on the 

privileged strata of this corporation only,

69

 whereas 

it is obvious that, both in Egypt

70

 and Kush, the 

status of different members of temple personnel, 

including temple musicians - and more narrowly, 

sistrum-players - could be quite different. 

By coincidence in the very temple of Amun-Re 

in Gematen (Kawa), along with the Anlamani stele, 

where it was reported that the king dedicated his four 

sisters to the four hypostases of Amun in order that 

they «rattle the sistrum before them» (see above), 

some other sort of evidence was also discovered. 

The text on the stele Kawa III of king Taharqa (ca 

690-664), recording some reconstruction works in 

this temple (in fact much more prestigious than 

the Amun temple in Sanam) in his regnal years 2-8, 

informs us that the king «<…> provided his (Amun’s 

- A.V.) magazine with servants (and) maid(servant)s, 

(being) children of captives (or: «chieftains» ? - A.V.) 

from Tjehenu (Libya - A.V.) <…> and he filled it 

(the temple - A.V.) with numerous musicians, their 

sistra in their hands, to rattle the sistrum before his 

(Amun’s - A.V.) beautiful face (in order) that he made 

the requital for this giving him (Taharqa - A.V.) all 

life from himself, all soundness from himself <…>» 

(cols. 22-24).

71

Another inscription of Taharqa, giving the 

account of years 8-10, reports that the same temple 

was again provided with musicians or chantresses 

(cols 20-21) «to rattle the sistrum before his beau-

tiful face». Neither their names nor their number is 

again indicated,

72

 but, like their colleagues mentio-

ned in the previous inscription, they almost certainly 

were captives since they are enumerated among the 

«numerous maid(servant)s (being) wives of chiefs 

of North-land (Lower Egypt)» (col. 20), «good gar-

68  Török, ‘Adoption Stela’, p. 267.

69  Cf. A. Lohwasser, ‘Die Handlungen der Kuschitischen 

Königin im Götterkult’, VIIIe Conférence internationale 

des études nubiennes. Actes. III. Etudes (Lille, 1998), p. 

136.

70  See Blackman’s own considerations, quoted above, in note 

50.

71 Macadam, The Temples of Kawa, pls. 5-6.

72  Kawa VI, cols. 20-21 (Macadam, The Temples of Kawa, 

pls. 11-12), cf. FHN I, pp. 172-73. Judging by the deter-

minative of plural, these «musicians» were not less than 

three in number.

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