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Volume 1 - Nebuchadnezzar & the Egyptian Exile

          The first volume in the Displaced Dynasties series was motivated by a single consideration.  Almost seven chapters in the Hebrew Bible, exclusively contained in the writings of the biblical prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, describe an invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, dated with some precision around the year 565 B.C.  According to these two eyewitnesses the devastation inflicted on Egypt was catastrophic.  Every temple in the country (with one exception) was demolished.  Most of the population of Egypt was slaughtered or taken captive.  Only a small remnant survived.   For years Egypt was left without a resident pharaoh.  Temple worship ceased.  The devastation lasted for forty years, though from extra biblical sources we can determine that sporadic restoration activity was underway during the final two decades, following the 543 B.C. takeover of the country by Cyrus the Great.   This rebuilding intensified under Cambyses, following his 525 B.C. expedition to Egypt, and into the reign of Darius I. 

        There is but a single problem with this history.   According to Egyptologists it never happened.   The denial is based on an Egyptian timeline which places  Manetho’s 26th (Saite) dynasty in the time frame 664-525 B.C., leaving no room either for a  twenty year interregnum or for an 18 year rule by the Persians prior to 525 B.C.  Amasis (570-526 B.C.), the penultimate Saite dynasty king, ruled throughout the critical forty year period.

        But the historians are wrong.  The fault lies in the Egyptian chronology on which the traditional history is based.  That chronology, throughout the relevant period, is in error by 121 years!   Saite dynasty dates need to be lowered by that amount, moving the dynasty to a position overlapping the first Persian domination of Egypt. 

        In the traditional history the Saite dynasty kings ruled Egypt for 139 years, from 664-525 B.C.  They were succeeded by the Persians, who ruled for 121 years, from 525-404 B.C., this on the assumption that Cambyses came to Egypt in 525 B.C. as a conqueror and destroyer, initiating Persian rule over Egypt.   We argue instead that in 543 B.C. Cyrus the Great invaded and conquered an Egypt defended only by a small Babylonian army of occupation.  He immediately established Psamtik I as a vassal king, the first of the Saite dynasty pharaohs to rule Egypt as a province of the Persian Empire.   In that capacity the 26th dynasty kings governed Egypt for 139 years, from 543-404 B.C.  
       
        Every chapter of this 1st volume of the Displaced Dynasties series argues directly, or indirectly, for this revised timeline.    
        
Ancient Egypt Timeline
Ancient Egypt Timeline
Table of Contents & Preface

Chapter 1: Nebuchadnezzar's Wars
    Rise of Nebuchadnezzar
     Invasion of Egypt
    Amasis or Exile

Chapter 2: A Saite/Persian Dynasty
    Displaced Dynasties
    Herodotus or Pseudo-Herodotus?
    Demotic Chronicle

Chapter 3: Osorkons, Sheshonks and Takeloths
    Osorkon II & Takeloth II
    Shifting Sun & Suffocating Wind
    Assyrian Invasions
    Rudamon & His Successors

Chapter 4: Invasion & Exile (570-543 B.C.)
    Rudamon to Shabataka
    Taharka the Conqueror
    The Great Flood
    Taharka's Lament
    Taharka in Nubia
    Babylonian Garrisons
    Tanuatamon

Chapter 5: Repair & Restoration (543-525 B.C.)
    Cyrus, King of Egypt
    Rise of Psamtik I
    Petition of Petesi
    Mentuemhet
    Tomb of Petorsiris

Chapter 6: Cambyses in Egypt (525-522 B.C.)
    Cambyses' Expedition
    Elephantine Papyri: Petition to Bagoas
    Cambyses' Apis Bull

  
  
                                                                                                                     
Chapter 7: Udjahorresne - Statue & Tomb
    The Udjahorresne Statue Inscription: The Preamble
    Napatan & Meroitic Kingdoms
    Udjahorresne Statue Inscription: The Bibliography
    Udjahorresne's Tomb

 Chapter 8: Necao & the Persian Wars
    Necao Wahemibre & Darius I
    Canal Construction & Circumnavigation
    Triremes & Rebellion
    Apis Bulls of the 1st Persian Domination
    Basiliphorous & "Beautiful" Names

Chapter 9: Psamtik II & the Inaros Rebellion
    Xerxes & Samtoutefnakht
    A 5th Century Psamtik II
    Ankhnesneferibre & Psamtik III
    Inaros & His Contemporaries

Chapter 10: Amasis & the Greeks
    Amasis & Apries
    Naucratis
    The Architect Khnemibre

Chapter 11: A Second "Cambyses"
    The Amyrtaeus Rebellion
    The Governor/Pharaoh Kbdj

Appendix A:  The Tang-I-Var Inscription

Index



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