Silko

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the American Indian writer, see Leslie Marmon Silko .

Graffito on a pillar barrier of the Kalabsha temple: while Silko, sitting on a horse, stabs a blemmyer with a lance, the goddess of victory Nike crowns him with the ancient Egyptian hem-hem crown .

Silko was a king of Nobatia who ruled in the first half of the 5th century and was perhaps the successor of the Charamadoye . He was succeeded by Aburni .

Temple inscription

Silko is known from two sources. An inscription in bad Greek from the 5th century on a wall of the Mandulis temple in Kalabsha describes Silko as the king of the nobles and the Ethiopians and reports of three campaigns against the Blemmyes . An attack on Talmis (Kalabsha) and Taphis ( Taifa ) is mentioned. Silko reports that he was victorious and captured these places on the third attack. He is the last ruler to be depicted in pharaonic fashion on an ancient Egyptian temple wall.

The inscription from Kalabsha has been interpreted variously as evidence of the Christian faith of Silko. He mentions that God (Greek θεός , theós ) helped him to victory. The counter-argument is that the term could also have referred to the sun god Mandulis, who was worshiped in the temple. If Silko was still a follower of the old Nubian religion, according to an assumption that is not supported by other facts, his secretary or scribe could have been a Christian and inserted the word for the Christian God of his own accord. However, the generally not so far-reaching powers of the subordinates cast doubt on this.

Literary source

Silko is also mentioned in a partially incomprehensible letter from the Blemmyer King Phonen to the noble King Aburni from the middle of the 5th century, which was found in Qasr Ibrim in 1976 . Here Silko also appears as an enemy of the Blemmyes. All documents that mention Silko are written in Greek and testify that at that time the Meroitic language was no longer in use , at least in Sub- Nubia .

See also

• List of the Nubian kings

literature

• Derek A. Welsby : The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia . London 2002, ISBN 0-7141-1947-4 , pp. 16-17 .
• Günther Hölbl : Ancient Egypt in the Roman Empire - The Roman Pharaoh and His Temples II - The Temples of Roman Nubia . Zabern, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3376-5 , p. 25-27 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Siegfried Richter: Studies on the Christianization of Nubia. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2002, pp. 145f, ISBN 3-89500-311-5