The Third Intermediate Period
Ancient EgyptA Kingdom Splits in Two
Around 1070 BC, the last pharaoh of the New Kingdom, Ramesses XI, died, and with him the unified Egypt that had dominated the eastern Mediterranean began to fracture. What followed is what historians call the Third Intermediate Period, roughly 1070 to 664 BC. "Intermediate" is the modern label scholars use for stretches when central authority weakened and rule was divided. In practice, power split between kings ruling from the northern Delta city of Tanis and the powerful High Priests of Amun who governed the south from Thebes. Egypt was no longer a single command radiating from one throne, but a patchwork of overlapping authorities, often linked by marriage and mutual recognition rather than by conquest.
Priests, Pharaohs, and a Divided Land
The 21st Dynasty (about 1070–945 BC) embodied this arrangement. Kings such as Psusennes I reigned at Tanis, building tombs whose treasures rival the famous burials of earlier eras, while the Theban priesthood of Amun controlled much of Upper Egypt. The two centers cooperated more than they clashed, and some historians argue the High Priests effectively functioned as kings in the south. One striking sign of the age was practical economy: instead of carving fresh monuments, rulers frequently reused stone, statues, and even royal mummies. Priests gathered up the bodies of New Kingdom pharaohs, including Ramesses II, and reburied them in hidden caches to protect them from tomb robbers, a remarkable act of preservation we still benefit from today.
The Libyan Pharaohs
Why did so many later pharaohs bear names like Shoshenq and Osorkon? Generations of Libyan settlers and warriors, descended from groups Egypt had once fought and absorbed, rose to prominence in the Delta. Around 945 BC, a chieftain named Shoshenq I seized the throne and founded the 22nd Dynasty, often called the Libyan or Bubastite dynasty. Shoshenq I tried to reassert Egyptian strength abroad, launching a campaign into the Levant; the Hebrew Bible records a pharaoh called Shishak who attacked Jerusalem, and many scholars identify him with Shoshenq, though the exact details remain debated. Over time, however, the Libyan kings could not hold the country together, and rival lines of pharaohs ruled simultaneously from different cities, leaving Egypt politically splintered.
The Kushites Take the Crown
From the south, beyond Egypt's traditional borders, a new power watched the chaos and stepped in. The kingdom of Kush, centered in Nubia, had absorbed Egyptian religion and culture and now saw itself as guardian of the god Amun. Around the 720s BC, the Kushite king Piye marched north and subdued the squabbling Delta rulers, founding the 25th Dynasty of Kushite pharaohs. These kings presented themselves as restorers of traditional Egyptian piety, reviving old artistic styles and building extensively. For a time, a single dynasty again ruled the Nile from the heart of Africa to the Mediterranean, an extraordinary reversal of the usual flow of conquest.
Assyria and the End of an Age
The Kushite revival ran headlong into the most fearsome empire of the day: Assyria. In the 670s and 660s BC, Assyrian armies under kings Esarhaddon and then Ashurbanipal invaded Egypt, driving the Kushite pharaohs back south. The campaigns culminated in the sack of Thebes around 663 BC, a catastrophe that echoed across the ancient world. Out of this turmoil rose a local ruler from Sais, Psamtik I, who skillfully consolidated power and reunified Egypt by 664 BC. His reign is conventionally taken to mark the start of the Late Period, closing the long, fragmented chapter of the Third Intermediate Period and ushering in a final flourishing of native Egyptian rule before the Persian conquest.
Key Dates to Remember
- c. 1070 BC — Death of Ramesses XI ends the New Kingdom; power divides between Tanis and the Theban priesthood, beginning the Third Intermediate Period.
- c. 945 BC — Shoshenq I, of Libyan descent, founds the 22nd Dynasty and briefly revives Egyptian military ambition in the Levant.
- c. 728–720s BC — The Kushite king Piye conquers the divided Delta, establishing the 25th (Kushite) Dynasty over a reunited Egypt.
- 671 BC — The Assyrian king Esarhaddon invades Egypt, pushing the Kushite pharaohs southward.
- c. 663 BC — Assyrian forces under Ashurbanipal sack Thebes, a devastating blow to Kushite power in Egypt.
- 664 BC — Psamtik I begins his reign at Sais, opening the Late Period (26th Dynasty); he consolidates control of Upper Egypt by c. 656 BC.