Jebel Barkal

Abstract

Jebel (“Mt”) Barkal stood at the center of ancient Napata, the city farthest up the Nile from Thebes in Egypt’s Nubian empire. Following their conquest of Kush, the Egyptians identified this hill as a residence of a primeval aspect (“ka”) of Amun of Karnak, whom they depicted locally as a ram-headed man but who is revealed here to be a form of Kamutef. Once perceived as a creation site and a birthplace of Amun (being nearest the Nile sources), Jebel Barkal naturally came to be understood as the birthplace of the “royal ka.” This “discovery” apparently prompted the pharaohs to build Luxor Temple at Thebes as a ritual substitute for Amun’s temple at Napata, enabling the kings to house the Nubian god (their imagined “father”) in their capital and to reunite locally with him and with their “royal kas.” The Egyptian belief that their kingship sprang from “Amun of Karnak” at Jebel Barkal/Luxor was revived in the 8th century bce by the kings of Kush, who used it to claim Egyptian kingship for themselves during the 25th Dynasty and subsequently. This paper summarizes what is currently known of Jebel Barkal’s historical and religious significance and presents the results of the latest archaeological investigations.