Building programme of King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore

King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore belonged to the most important rulers of the ancient kingdom of Kush (in the Middle Nile region), more precisely to its Meroitic period (approx. 300 BCE – 350 AD). Judging by the number and quality of monumental structures (temples and palaces) which they constructed, their joint reign (during the 1st century AD) certainly represented one of the peaks in the history of the kingdom of Kush, comparable probably only to the era of the 25th dynasty when the Kush monarchs ruled not only the present-day North Sudan, but also the whole Egypt.
Since 2009, a National Museum expedition has been working in the archaeological location of Wad Ben Naga in North Sudan. From 2011 to 2017, the expedition focused primarily on the so-called Typhonium, a temple known from reports and sketches of European and American travellers who visited the area of the present-day Sudan in the 19th century. However, the temple was damaged at the turn of the century and then fell into oblivion. It was rediscovered in 2011. A systematic archaeological research showed that, in fact, it was a temple dedicated to goddess Mut, built by Natakamani and Amanitore. In immediate proximity of the temple of Mut, there are the remains of the main temple of the whole area, dedicated to Mut’s husband, the god Amun. This temple was also built by the ruling couple. In 1844, two altars with “bilingual” (Egyptian and Meroitic) inscriptions of the names of Natakamani and Amanitore were discovered thanks to which the Meroitic script was decoded. In 2018, this temple started to be researched.
Within the ongoing grant project, all structures built by Natakamani and Amanitore in Wad Ben Naga should be evaluated in the context of other monuments of this sovereign couple located in various archaeological sites across North Sudan.

Project name: Building programme of King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore
Code: 18-00454S
Duration: 2018–2020
Agency: Czech Science Foundation
Project type: standard project
NM’s principal investigator: PhDr. Pavel Onderka

Anticipated results/outputs:
In 2019, an international colloquium dedicated the building programme of King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore will take place in the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, Prague. A book monograph on this topic will be published.