Tantamani
last Egyptian pharaoh of the 25th dynasty
Tantamani (Ancient Egyptian: tnwt-jmn; Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒁹𒌨𒁕𒈠𒉌𒂊, romanized: Tanṭammanē; Ancient Greek: Τεμένθης, romanized: Teménthēs), also known as Tanutamun or Tanwetamani (d. 653 BC) was ruler of the Kingdom of Kush located in Northern Sudan, and the last pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. His prenomen or royal name was Bakare, which means "Glorious is the Ba and Ka of Re."
Filiation
He was the son of King Shabaka and the nephew of his predecessor Taharqa. In some Egyptological literature he is identified as the son of Shebitku. Assyrian records call Tantamani a son of Shabaka and refer to his mother, Qalhata, as a sister of Taharqa. Some Egyptologists interpreted the Assyrian text as stating that Tantamani was a son of Shebitku, but it is now more common to consider Tantamani a son of Shabaka.
Conflict with Ashurbanipal of Assyria
Soon after the Assyrians had appointed Necho I as king and left, Tantamani invaded Egypt in hopes of restoring his family to the throne. Tantamani marched down the Nile from Nubia and reoccupied all of Egypt, including Memphis. Necho I, and the Assyrians' representative were killed in Tantamani's campaign.
This led to a renewed conflict with Ashurbanipal in 663 BCE. The Assyrians led by Ashurbanipal returned to Egypt in force.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tantamani” as last Egyptian pharaoh of the 25th dynasty. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as last Egyptian pharaoh of the 25th dynasty. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q434535. VIAF identifies the subject as 15718441. The Library of Congress control number is no2003090998. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Tantamani”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Tantamani primary sources, Tantamani archive and Tantamani research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tantamani”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Tantamani” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.