After 1100 BC, a long period of political decentralization and foreign intervention in Egyptian affairs began. Dynasties XXI and XXII claimed control over all of the Nile Valley but actually ruled only the northern part of the country. The south was ruled by local dynasts based at Luxor and bearing the title of "High Priest of Amun." These high priests were often related by blood or marriage to the kings who ruled the North and they therefore acknowledged the suzerainty of the northern pharaohs, but for all practical purposes the high priests governed Southern Egypt autonomously. Under these circumstances, the resources available to the kings of this era were considerably reduced. The tomb of one of these kings, Psusennes I (reigned circa 1000 BC), was discovered in 1939 virtually unrobbed and intact within the precinct of a large temple at his capital Tanis in the eastern Delta. The tomb's collection is characterized by many objects of gold and other precious material, but the assemblage pales by comparison with the items discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb, and the quality of workmanship is much inferior.
The XXIInd Dynasty was of "Libyan" originprobably a family of nomadic, possibly Berber, background from the area west of the Nile Valley. Libyans had been living along the western edges of the Delta throughout pharaonic times and had been employed in the Egyptian army, where they earned a considerable reputation for their martial prowess. Precisely how a family of Libyans came to power in northern Egypt around 950 BC is unknown, but evidence of serious internal disorder is absent, whereas evidence of the prominence of Libyans in affairs of the XXIst Dynasty is abundant. One of the Libyan kings, Sheshonq I (circa 930 BC)probably the Pharaoh "Shishak" of the Old Testamentraided into Palestine and returned which much booty, an event recorded in reliefs carved at Karnak. But after the middle of the ninth century civil strife within the Egyptian royal family rapidly degenerated into a break-up of the state. By 750 BC several competing dynasties had arisen: the XXIIIrd, the XXIVth, and, most importantly, the XXVth, the last representing a line of Nubian kings who led their armies north into Egypt and eventually brought most of the Nile Valley under their control.
The Nubian Dynasty represents in many ways the only major "success" of the civilization of Ancient Egypt in influencing the development of another culture. From early in dynastic times, Egyptians had been in regular commercial (and, frequently, military) contact with the peoples of the land of "Kush," which is the stretch of the Nile Valley Iying between the present Egyptian-Sudanese border and the city of Khartoum. In the Middle and New Kingdom Periods, the Egyptian presence in Nubia and Kush was profound, and after 1000 BC, a state emerged in the Northern Sudan that was a complex mix of traditional Egyptian patterns and local Nubian forms. This state featured a powerful monarch who ruled as a divine pharaoh and who worshiped many deities of Egyptian origin. Egyptian patterns in art and architecture were favored.
After 770 BC, the Nubian state began to extend its political influence north into Egypt proper. In the anarchic circumstances of the time, the Nubians were by far the most powerful force on the scene. During the reigns of Kings Kashta (770-750), Pi'ankhi (750-712), and Shabaka (712-698), the Nubians seized control of the entire country and re-unifying it under their rule. They even shifted their capital from Napata in the Sudan to Memphis. The Nubian kings claimed that they were restorers, whose intention was to return Egypt to its ancient traditions and former greatness. The art and architecture of the period was consequently characterized by the use of archaic forms and patterns. Moreover, additions were made to many of the most important temple complexes in Egypt. But the rule of the XXVth Dynasty came to an abrupt end around 660 BC. During the previous decade, the Nubian kings had fought off several efforts by the Assyrian Empirethen the dominant power in the Fertile Crescentto conquer Egypt. The fighting in Egypt raged back and forth, with the Assyrians receiving aid from an ambitious and powerful Egyptian family centered in the Delta town of Sais. This family already claimed the title of pharaoh, but it was not until the Assyrian king Assurbanipal finally drove out the Nubians for good that the Saite dynasty was able to assert its authority over the entire Nile Valley. The principal author of this dynasty's success was Psammetik I (664-610), who took advantage of the victory of his Assyrian allies and their subsequent withdrawal from Egypt (due to civil strife back in Asia) to make himself pharaoh.
Psammetik's dynasty was the XXVIth, often called the "Saite" dynasty in recognition of the importance of its capital, the Delta city of Sais. The XXVIth Dynasty was another that sought to justify its assumption of power by harkening back to the old rituals and traditions of kingship and religion, rebuilding and restoring many monuments in the process. Craftsmen and artists of the period drew heavily upon ancient models for inspiration, but at the same time there were interesting innovations, particularly in the extreme naturalism of some of the sculptural portraiture.
Nevertheless, however much the Saite kings may have hearkened back to ancient forms and patterns, they also recognized the extent to which Egypt had fallen behind much of the rest of the Mediterranean world in terms of military technology, and in order to maintain themselves in power they depended heavily upon foreign mercenaries. Many of these mercenaries were Greek, and it is with the Saite period that Egypt's interaction with the Greek world began. Before the seventh century BC, contact between the Greek world and Egypt had been sporadic at tees!, and it had not involved any serious level of political interaction. But in the Saite Period, Greek presence in Egypt sharply accelerated. Not all of the Greeks in Egypt were mercenaries. Many were merchants, for the Saite kings promoted and facilitated trade with the Mediterranean world by establishing special entrepots for foreign traders. The most famous of the these trading posts was Naucratis, a Delta town to which Greek merchants were permitted access. The excavated remains of Naucratis reveal huge dumps of Greek sixth and fifth century BC Greek pottery and bear witness to the existence of a flourishing commerce between Greece and Egypt. If Egyptian art and architecture ever had any influence upon the development of Greek art and architecture, it was certainly during the Saite period that this influence was most profound. What form the influence took remains controversial, but the size and scope of Egyptian monumental sculpture in particular may have inspired Greek craftsmen to create works of a similar character - but with a style that quickly became uniquely Greek.
