ABSTRACT
In the ird Intermediate Period of Egyptian history (1069-664), which followed the Ramesside era, Egypt’s inuence and involvement in international aairs were much reduced. ere was, however, a resurgence of Egyptian claims upon the kingdom’s former Palestinian territories by a ruler of Libyan origin called Sheshonq I (biblical Shishak; 945-924), founder of the 22nd Dynasty. Sheshonq restored some measure of Egyptian authority over Palestine by conquering Israel and Judah. According to his inscription on the Bubastite Gate of the temple of Karnak in ebes, he conquered well over one hundred cities of Israel, Judah and southern Palestine. But Assyria was the great power of the age, and until its fall at the end of C7, the dominant overlord of Syria and Palestine. In 671, Egypt fell victim to it when the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, provoked by Egyptian support for Assyria’s rebel vassals in the Levant, invaded and conquered the kingdom, and installed Assyrian governors there. His conquests were followed up by his successor Ashurbanipal in 664/3. But shortly aerwards, Egypt regained its independence under a new dynasty, the 26th, oen referred to as the Saite dynasty (664-525). is line of rulers ushered in what scholars call the ‘Late Period’ in Egyptian history, which lasted until Alexander’s conquests in 332.
