Hellenization of the monumental landscape of the Meroitic kingdom under Natakamani and Amanitore: cultural and historic context

Abstract

The Meroitic Kush was the largest state on the southern borders of the Roman world. It reached its highest development by the 1st century AD under the rule of Natakamani and Amanitore whose extraordinary building activity attracted many scholars. Withing the framework of a large-scale program of renewing the monumental landscape of their state, the co-rulers erected, rebuilt, and restored cult and palace complexes throughout the country from Amara in the north to Naqa in the south. A characteristic feature of this activity was a wide use of Hellenizing motifs in both architecture and iconography. However, Hellenization did not affect all royal monuments: it was limited to palace complexes and temples of local Kushite gods, predominantly Apedemak, located on main trade routes passing from the inner Africa to the Mediterranean. The paper attempts to explain the reasons for such a striking but, to all appearances, carefully planned phenomenon. The author argues that Natakamani and Amanitore were willing to strengthen their own position within the country and beyond by emphasizing their independence from the northern neighbor through Egyptianization instead of Romanization. The latter could be an attempt to establish themselves as heirs of the Ptolemaic state using Ptolemaic iconography (primarily Dionysiac and solar), Egyptian language, and construction or restoration of the temples of Amun. The case of the Meroitic kingdom under Natakamani and Amanitore may be extremely useful for understanding cultural and historical processes that took place on the outskirts of the Hellenistic and then Roman worlds.