Arikhankharer

Arikhankharer (also transliterated Arikankharor, Arrikharêr; in Meroitic hieroglyphics Arikḫror; in Egyptian hieroglyphs ’Irk-nḫr) was crown prince of the Meroitic Kingdom of Kush in the first half of the 1st century AD.^[1]

Arikhankharer
Crown prince of Kush
Prince Arikankharer slaying his enemies (Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, USA)
Born	unknown
Died	ca. mid-1st century AD
Burial	Pyramid 5 (?), North Cemetery, Meroë
Names Arikhankharer (Arikḫror, ’Irk-nḫr)
Dynasty	Meroitic
Father	Natakamani
Mother	Amanitore

Arikhankharer was the eldest son of the co-regents Natakamani and Amanitore, and is depicted with them in reliefs in the temple of Apedemak at Naqa and the temple of Amun at Meroë.^[2] His royal dress and other aspects of his iconography, along with the Meroitic title pqrtr and the Egyptian throne name Ꜥnḫ-kꜢ-Rᵉ (Ankh-ke-re), confirm his status as the heir apparent.^[1][3] In a relief now in the Worcester Art Museum, he is depicted in royal dress, smiting his enemies and watched over by the winged goddess Tly (otherwise unattested).^[1][4]

Arikhankharer died before reaching the throne and was succeeded as crown prince by his brother Arikakahtani.^[1][3] He may have been^[5] buried in pyramid 5 of the north cemetery at Meroë (Begarawiyah N 5), which was excavated in 1921 by an expedition sponsored by Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.^[6] Roman glass and other imported objects from the tomb suggest a date around the middle of the 1st century AD.^[1][7] The tomb also produced fragments of Greek bronze sculpture, including two small heads of Dionysos.^[8]

References

1. T. Eide, T. Hägg, R. Holton Pierce, and L. Török, eds., Fontes Historia Nubiorum: Textual Sources for the History of the Middle Nile Region between the Eighth Century BC and the Sixth Century AD, vol. III: From the First to the Sixth Century AD (Bergen 1998), pp. 904–907, no. 213.
2. L. Török, The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization (Handbook of Oriental Studies 1: The Near and Middle East, vol. 31. Leiden 1997), pp. 461–467.
3. G. A. Reisner, "The Meroitic Kingdom of Ethiopia: A Chronological Outline", The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 9 (1923), pp. 34–77, at p. 69.
4. Worcester Art Museum 1922.145.
5. Emberling, Geoff; Williams, Bruce (2020). The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia. Oxford University Press. p. 583. ISBN 978-0-19-752183-0.
6. D. Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush IV: The Tombs at Meroë and Barkal (Boston 1957).
7. L. Török, "Kush and the External World", in S. Donadoni and S. Wenig, edd., Studia Meroitica 1984. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference for Meroitic Studies (Meroitica 10. Rome 1989), pp. 49–215, at pp. 135–138.
8. One is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 24.957); the other is in the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum (inv. 1948). See M. B. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston 1971), no. 68; F. Chamoux, "Une tête de Dionysos en bronze trouvée à Méroë", Kush 8 (1960), pp. 77–87.