Saite Forts in Egypt; Political-Military History of the Saite Dynasty

Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2008. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Very good. Petra Marikova Vickova (Illustrations) and Kveta S. The text is in English. 139, [5] pages. Illustrations. Plates. Bibliography. Index. Stiff covers have flaps. Very slight cover wear. The policy and military strategy of the Saites - the men who stayed behind during the reunification of Egypt, after the period of disorder and unrest of the Third Intermediate Period is analyzed by the author in the first half of the book. The stress is put however, on the forts and various smaller types of fortifications: citadels, watchtowers, strongpoints, etc., which created the backbone of Egyptian defense system in the threatened parts of the country. K. Smoláriková is Egyptologist and Classical archaeologist, specialized in Greek settlement in Egypt during the first millennium B.C. - prior to the time of Alexander of Macedonia. She has also been working on the analysis of Greek and Asia Minor pottery imports found in Egypt. Since 1993 taking part in archaeological excavations in Egypt as a field archaeologist. She has been working on the problems connected to the ancient Egyptian religion in the first millennium B.C. The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVI, alternatively 26th Dynasty or Dynasty 26) dynasty was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC (although others followed). The dynasty's reign (664-525 BC) is also called the Saite Period after the city of Sais, where its pharaohs had their capital, and marks the beginning of the Late Period of ancient Egypt. This dynasty traced its origins to the Twenty-fourth Dynasty. Psamtik I was probably a descendant of Bakenranef. Following the Assyrian conquest of Egypt by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the reigns of Taharqa and Tantamani, and the subsequent collapse of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, Psamtik I was recognized as sole king over all of Egypt. Psamtik formed alliances with King Gyges of Lydia, who sent him mercenaries from Caria and ancient Greece which Psamtik used to unify all of Egypt under his rule. In 605 BCE, an Egyptian force under Necho II of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty fought the Babylonians at the Battle of Carchemish, helped by the remnants of the army of the former Assyria, but this was met with defeat. With the sack of Nineveh in 612 BC and the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, both Psamtik and his successors attempted to reassert Egyptian power in the Near East, but were driven back by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar II. With the help of Greek mercenaries, Pharaoh Apries was able to hold back Babylonian attempts to conquer Egypt. The Persians would eventually invade Egypt in 525 BCE, when their king, Cambyses II, captured and later executed Psamtik III, in the Achaemenid conquest of Egypt, eventually founding the Achaemenid Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt.