Ptolemids’ Heirs during the Period of Pax Romana? Evolution of the Royal Ideology and Monumental Landscape of the Meroitic State under Natakamani and Amanitore

Natakamani and Amanitore ruled the Meroitic (Kushite) kingdom during its last major rise in the 1st century AD. Many scholars consider their reign a period of economic prosperity based on peaceful relations with the Roman Empire and effective control of trade routes between the African inland and the Mediterranean. During the co-regency of Natakamani and Amanitore, an unprecedentedly large-scale program of development of the monumental landscape of the middle Nile Valley was initiated. It is generally believed that the basis for this activity was the desire of the co-rulers to strengthen their legitimacy. This paper examines the cultural landscape of the Meroitic kingdom, the political and economic contexts of the reigns of Natakamani and Amanitore, as well as the main characteristics of the monumental landscape created by them. It is argued that the building activity of the co-rulers reflected the development of the traditional model of relations between Kush and Egypt, whose rulers claimed for their right to unify the lower and middle reaches of the Nile. In this regard, the monumental propaganda of Natakamani and Amanitore appears as an attempt to declare the Meroitic co-rulers as the Ptolemids’ heirs who supported the claims of the Meroitic elites for independence from the Roman Empire.