As our marketing team was doing due diligence with our new line of playing cards, we discovered that there were no “one-eyed” queens in a standard deck.
According to Elder G:
In a standard deck of playing cards, the “one-eyed” face cards are:
Jack of Hearts
Jack of Spades
King of Diamonds
These cards are called “one-eyed” because, in the traditional artwork of the deck, they are shown in profile, so only one eye is visible.
However,
the Google was able to provide more general information on the “one-eyed” queen.
Amanirenas (also spelled Amanirena), was queen regnant of the Kingdom of Kush from the end of the 1st century BCE to beginning of the 1st century CE. She is known for invading Roman occupied Egypt and successfully negotiating the end of Roman retaliation, retaining Kushite independence.
Queen Amanirenas is one of the most famous Meroitic queens because of her role in leading the Kushite army against the Romans in a war that lasted three years (25 BC to 22 BC). This war is largely responsible for halting Rome’s southward expansion in Africa.
The reign of Kandake Amanirenas lasted thirty years (40-10 B.C.E.). Experts believe she was born sometime between 60 and 50 B.C.E. She led Kush at a very important time when the nation was under threat from the Roman Empire.
In 30 B.C.E., the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus conquered Egypt. That’s when he set his sights south to Kush. But Kandake Amanirenas was ready. In 24 B.C.E., she led 30,000 soldiers against the Roman forces in Egypt. She and her son, Prince Akinidad, fought among the soldiers and won a great victory.
As a result of this first battle, Kush took three Roman cities and many captives. The Kushite troops also defaced many monuments to Caesar Augustus throughout the cities. Amanirenas ordered the head removed from one bronze statue of Augustus. Upon return to her palace, she buried the head beneath the entrance as an insult to the emperor.
Rome launched a counterattack. It reclaimed its lost cities and invaded Kush. Kandake Amanirenas continued to fight. In one battle, she lost an eye. After healing, she returned to battle.
Meroë was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site is a group of villages called Bagrawiyah. This city was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush for several centuries from around 590 BC, until its collapse in the 4th century AD. The Kushitic Kingdom of Meroë gave its name to the “Island of Meroë”, which was the modern region of Butana, a region bounded by the Nile (from the Atbarah River to Khartoum), the Atbarah and the Blue Nile.
The Meroë Head, or Head of Augustus from Meroë, is a larger-than-life-size bronze head depicting the first Roman emperor, Augustus, that was found in the ancient Nubian site of Meroë in modern Sudan in 1910. Long admired for its striking appearance and perfect proportions, it is now part of the British Museum’s collection. It was looted from Roman Egypt in 24 BC by the forces of queen Amanirenas of Kush and brought back to Meroë, where it was buried beneath the staircase of a temple.
Wikipedia / Images by – Aiwok – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, – Following Hadrian https://www.flickr.com/photos/41523983@N08/14647638801 – Nic McPhee from Morris, Minnesota, USA – British Museum with Cory and Mary, 6 Sep 2007 – 301, CC BY-SA 2.0
The BBC Feature….
Discovery For nearly 2,000 years, the Head of Augustus lay buried under the desert sands of what is now northern Sudan.
It is the only portrait of Augustus found in a place that was never directly touched by Roman rule.
The head was discovered in a building that Prof Garstang interpreted as being a victory shrine.
However, he did not know yet who the statue depicted.
Walking on the emperor’s head When the Kushites won a victory against the Romans in Southern Egypt, the head was moved to Meroë.
The victors had decapitated an important statue of Augustus.
Prof Garstang described finding it buried under steps at the entrance to the building.
It may have been a symbolic gesture showing contempt for the power of Rome, enabling those who entered to walk on or over the head of the Roman emperor.
Cool Images from the BBC of the Meroë Excavation….
Sweet Dreams!
The Hamadab Stela
The Hamadab Stela is a colossal sandstone stela found at Hamadab just south of the ancient site of Meroë in Sudan. Now kept at the British Museum, the significance of the stela resides in the fact that it is inscribed with one of the longest known texts in the Meroitic script.
Description The stela is in good condition, although part of the top is missing. The upper part includes a frieze showing the Kushite rulers Queen Amanirenas and Prince Akinidad facing various Egyptian deities including Amun and Mut. Below this royal scene is a relief depicting bound prisoners. A 42-line inscription in Meroitic cursive script is engraved beneath this.
Meroitic script Meroitic was the principal language of the Kingdom of Kush. Poorly understood by modern scholars, it remains untranslatable, although most letters of the Meroitic alphabet are now known (even though the meaning of most words remain obscure). In this inscription, the names of the two monarchs Amanirenas and Akinidad are clearly discernible. It has been proposed that the Hamabad Stela may commemorate a Kushite raid on Roman Egypt in 24 BC. One outcome of these raids could have been the looting of the Meroë Head from a city in Lower Egypt.
Wikipedia / Images by Jononmac46 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
A Reflection
It’s fascinating to reflect on the duration of the ancient Egyptian civilization. Elder G actually wrote a couple of programs that produced charts to help illustrate this.
The WLBOTT Time Machine
Through the use of the corporate time machine, we obtained what we believe are the only photographs of Queen Amanirenas. The Time Travel team gifted the queen with a pair of sun glasses.
