Sphinx of Taharqo

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC

History

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2010

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Throughout this week, Neil MacGregor is describing power struggles across the globe around 3000 years ago, as ambitious new forces set about building sophisticated new societies - from the Middle East to South America. Today he describes what was happening along the River Nile and how a powerful new king conquered Egypt from Sudan. His name was Taharqo and he ruled from a vibrant new civilisation (in modern day Sudan) called Kush. These days few people even know that the mighty land of the Pharaohs was once ruled over by its southern neighbour. The evidence is summed up by a sculpture at the British Museum that shows the ruler from Kush as an Egyptian sphinx.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.0	If you were to ask which country the River Nile belongs to, most people would immediately say Egypt.
0:30.0	But in fact, of course, the Nile is a river that can be claimed by nine different African countries. And as water resources get scarce, the question of its ownership today is a burning political issue.
0:37.0	A history of the world, in a hundred objects. The Sphinx of Taharko, made of stone, approximately 680 BC, discovered in Kawa, Northern Sudan.
1:16.0	Egypt has always been wary of its huge southern neighbour, but for most of its history it has been by far the stronger of the two but there was a
1:25.4	moment around 3,000 years ago when for a century or so it all looked very different.
1:31.6	It really was the center of a very powerful looked very
1:34.0	powerful, vibrant civilization in the heart of Africa,
1:38.0	black Africa.
1:40.0	And it was one of the major civilizations of the ancient world, although it's always seen as been on the periphery of that world. This week I'm investigating the world around 700 BC, Even though populations were tiny, only about 1% of today's world
2:06.8	population occupied the whole of the globe then, large-scale conflicts were frequent and bitter.
2:13.4	War was everywhere and one of the features of the period was the conquest of long-established
2:17.9	centers of wealth and civilization by poorer peoples living on the edge.
2:23.0	In the case of Egypt, this meant that the mighty land of the Pharaohs was conquered and ruled by its southern neighbor,
2:29.0	what is now northern Sudan, but was then called the Kingdom of Kush.
2:35.0	I'm walking through the galleries of the British Museum, heading for a stone Sphinx.
2:41.0	Sphinx's statues were the lion's body and a man's head are creatures of myth and
2:46.6	legend but they're also one of the great symbols of Egyptian royalty and power the
2:51.9	most famous of all of course being the great Sphinx. royalty and
2:55.0	compared with one at Giza, this sphinx at Giza,
2:59.0	compared with one at Giza, this sphinx is very small.
3:02.0	It's about the size of a spaniel. But it is particularly
	...

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