Discussing the Impact of the First Intermediate and Middle Kingdoms on Ancient Egypt's History

[This is a lecture written for the course 'HIST 262: History of the Ancient Near East,' taught Fall 2023 at God's Bible School and College, a regionally accredited College in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bibliographical material will be posted under Research on this site.]

Egypt at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age had moved into a sort of dark age referred to as the First Intermediate Period. This occurs around the same time that the Gutians, a people believed to have originated from the Zagros Mountains region (Adamo and Al-Ansari 2020: 20), attacked Mesopotamia and Elam, devastating the lands (Liverani and Tabatabai 2014: 142-43) and ending the Akkadian Empire. Just as decline in Mesopotamia lead to changes, so decline in Egypt did the same.

Deterioration in both Mesopotamia and Egypt at this time was likely at least partially linked to the drying phase that occurred all over the northern hemisphere and impacted not only Mesopotamia and Egypt but other civilizations, including those in Greece and the Indus Valley (Emma 2014). With drying comes drought, and drought very often turns hungry citizens against those who keep the granaries. Thus, these climatic changes played a major role in the demise of the Old Kingdom (Bárta 2013: 29), and with the population in Egypt doubling between 3000 and 2500 B.C. (Bard 2015: 163), attempts to revive the kingdom failed, leading to a period of instability (Mark 2016).

First Intermediate

The collapse of the Old Kingdom spanned around two hundred years as the kings at Memphis cumulatively lost both wealth and power (Brovarski 2005: 45). The throne was under enormous financial stress, and the dismissal of pyramid building, which was quite costly, did little to relieve the economy (Bárta 2013: 26). In the later Old Kingdom, as new lands were brought under cultivation, the bureaucracy of the land necessarily expanded (Brovarski 2005: 45), and estates were granted to officials as either remuneration or reward (García 2008: 4). The transfer of ownership of these lands that once supported the royal and divine cults permitted the state to continue to function for a while, but as political nomes, or districts, became self-sufficient (Gates 2011: 97) taxes owed to the royal treasury diminished, leading the throne into impoverishment (Brovarski 2005: 45).

As the Old Kingdom crumbled, nomarchs began to vie for power (Murnane 1995: 698). From Memphis continued the Seventh and Eighth Dynasties, but they lost control over much of the kingdom, a rival ruling class emerging at Herakleopolis (Pinch 2002: 12). As the period did not favor achievements in either architecture or literature (Gates 2011: 97), little is known of the final dynasties at Memphis (Bard 2015: 134).

Herakleopolis

Beginning with the Ninth Dynasty, the nomarch Achthoes (Aχθoης) I seizes power and rules from Herakleopolis (David 2003: 64), a city located in middle Egypt near the Faiyum (Seidlmayer 2003: 108). The early parts of this period are not very clear, but with a decentralized government, and with catastrophic famines due to low Nile floods (Willems 2010: 83), nomarchs did all that they could to keep their nomes alive, including warring with other nomes due to competition of resources (Bard 2015: 176). It appears that at least some were successful as a thriving culture existed even among the poor in Upper Egypt (Seidlmayer 2003: 110).

Achthoes I and others legitimately held political power, as they controlled the resources within their districts and supplied their people with needed goods (Bard 2015: 178). Later Egyptians spoke of this time as being one of chaos where the people forsook their gods, but this was likely a justification for the power of the contemporary kings (Beetz 2008: 393). As Herakleopolis continued to gain more and more control, the Herakleopolis nomarchs adopted a pharaonic, or kingly, ruling style, thus establishing a second dynasty within Egypt (Willems 2010: 82).

As the Herakleopolis nome attempted to gain control over the entirety of the kingdom, another nomarch at Thebes began to consolidate power, and with the original Memphis kings being relegated to local control only, Egypt was split into two kingdoms once again, Upper Egypt centered at Thebes and Lower Egypt centered at Herakleopolis (Brovarski 2005: 48).

It should be noted that although the Seventh and Eighth Dynasties belong to Memphis, the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties belong to Herakleopolis, and the Eleventh Dynasty belongs to Thebes, these may not be consecutive. It would appear that the Eighth Dynasty who ruled at Memphis did so as Herakleopolis waged war on surrounding nomes, and the Ninth Dynasty at Herakleopolis occurs consecutive to the Eighth. The Tenth and Eleventh Dynasties ruled somewhat contemporaneously, one in the north and the other in the south (Beetz 2008: 393).

Thebes

In the south, Upper Egypt, wars were also waged, nome against nome. For example, Hierakonpolis, a city in Upper Egypt not to be confused with Herakleopolis in Lower Egypt, captured Edfu in the 3rd Nome, and then the army traveled northward to threaten Thebes (Bard 2015: 178). These types of battles carried on for about a half a century until Herakleopolis in the north attempted to control the entirety of Egypt as a new line of Pharaohs.

Herakleopolis’ concern for the south, of which it had no control (Seidlmayer 2003: 108-109), was to abolish the nomarchs and place the entirety of Upper Egypt under the control of an overseer; the nomarchs in the south resented this and ultimately many rallied to Thebes (Brovarski 2005: 47) as a possible rival to the northern power (Murnane 1995: 698).

Thebes was relatively weaker than Herakleopolis and their allies, which included Assiut (Asyūṭ) in Middle Egypt and even the above mentioned Hierakonpolis and Edfu to the south of Thebes (Wilson 1951: 125), thus encircling the nome. In fact, Thebes and Coptos, their ally, lost a major battle against the Herakleopolis forces early on in the war (Morris 2006: 13). Theban leadership, though, turned to both Nubian and Asiatic mercenaries for help (Brovarski 2010: 49), turning the tides of the war in their favor. Thebes eventually beat the Herakleopolitan alliance in battle (Wilson 1951: 105-06), reuniting the land of Egypt under force of arms (Wilson 1951: 125) and initiating the Middle Kingdom period in Egypt (Bard 2015: 179).

	Egypt	Dates	Dynasties
1300	New Kingdom	1540-1070 B.C.	Dynasties 18-20
1400
1500
1600	Second Intermediate	1786-1540 B.C.	Dynasties 13-17
1700
1800	Middle Kingdom	1936-1786 B.C.	Dynasty 12
1900
2000
2100	First Intermediate	2181-1936 B.C.	Dynasties 7-11
2200
2300	Old Kingdom	2686-2181 B.C.	Dynasties 3-6
2400
2500
2600
2700	Early Dynastic	3050-2686 B.C.	Dynasties 1-2
2800
2900
3000
3100

Middle Kingdom

It should be noted that as with many of the Egyptian dynasties and periods, there is some confusion and debate over what dynasties constitute what periods. There are standard elements throughout Egyptian history, for example the Fourth through Sixth Dynasties belong to the Old Kingdom, the reunification during the Eleventh Dynasty and the Twelfth dynasty belong to the Middle Kingdom, and the Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties belong to the New Kingdom (Mieroop 2011: 47). The issue is what constitutes the beginning or ending of these periods. For some, the Middle Kingdom spans the latter half of the Eleventh Dynasty and both the Twelfth and Thirteenth dynasties (Bard 2015: 38), based on the cultural and political continuity between the Twelfth and Thirteenth (Lloyd 2010: xxxv). For others, the first half of the Thirteenth Dynasty is added (Callender 2003: 137). For some, only the Twelfth Dynasty belongs to the Middle Kingdom (Franke 1995: 735). For the purposes of this study, only the Eleventh and Twelfth will be considered (Krauss and Warburton 2006: 492).

The Middle Kingdom of Egypt begins in the middle of the Eleventh Dynasty when Mentuhotep II of Thebes defeats Herkleopolis and reunifies the nation (Bard 2015: 179). Although known only indirectly (Callender 2003: 140), the reunification brought about another golden age in Egypt. In order to maintain this prosperity, changes needed to be made.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to define the Middle Kingdom. The Old Kingdom has its pyramids, and the New Kingdom has its empire, but the Middle Kingdom was more of a time of transformation (Mieroop 2011: 131).

Deification of Mentuhotep II

No doubt, Mentuhotep II understood that the unifying of the kingdoms would need to be a fight on an ideological front as well as a military one, attempting to win over the populace in order to retain power (Morris 2006: 70-71). The first move that the new king would take was to establish himself as worthy of his position. The king emphasized his lineage, as most kings did, but he also put in place a program of self-deification (Callender 2003: 140). Mentuhotep II claimed the responsibility of major temples within his territory, but he also dedicated statues of himself that would be worshipped; the king portrayed himself as a powerful mortal who had become a god (Morris 2006: 70), renaming himself ‘Uniter of the Two Lands’ (Brovarski 2005: 48).

Bureaucracy

Mentuhotep II spent his reign, after reuniting Egypt, strengthening that unification (Beetz 2008: 444). He retained many of the nomarchs in the land, though those who could be considered unhelpful would be stripped from their positions; throughout the remainder of the Eleventh Dynasty, nomarchs continued their traditional role (Callender 2003: 162) and much of the government was based on Old Kingdom practices (Callender 2003: 161). Overall, Mentuhotep II followed a policy of pacification, attempting to suppress any antagonism between the two former kingdoms (Willems 2010: 138).

Crown bureaucracy was supported through taxation based on the assessment of yields, and forced labor was practiced, which included both the middle and lower classes to specific tasks, for example military service (Callender 2003: 161). It should be noted that before this time, workers were not slaves but conscripted as a form of tax (Bard 2015: 126), a system carried over from the Old Kingdom (Lesko 2005: 909). That said, records in the Middle Kingdom show evidence of incursions into the Nile Valley by outsiders, and several households appear to have had foreigners on their staff (Lesko 2005: 910). Some believe this to be evidence for the keeping of slaves as the Middle Kingdom was the first major period in which slavery was well known to have occurred (Aling 2002: 23). Interestingly, it was during the Middle Kingdom that the class system became permeable, allowing for individuals to rise through the social ranks to positions of power (Morris 2006: 70-71).

Stela of the Gatekeeper Maati. First Intermediate Period, ca. 2051–2030 B.C.

Twelfth Dynasty

Everything changed with the Twelfth Dynasty. After Mentuhotep II came Mentuhotep III and IV, and they had some successes; the renaissance of the Middle Kingdom, though, began with the father of the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemhat I (Leprohon 2005: 50), who usurped the throne and may had been the vizier of Mentuhotep IV (Beetz 2008: 444).

The Twelfth Dynasty rulers showed a pious regard for the preceding dynasty, whom they usurped (Kemp 2006: 64), including the continuing of building statues of Eleventh Dynasty kings (Seidlmayer 2006: 136). After some years attempting to rule from Thebes following Eleventh Dynasty practices (Arnold 1991: 18), Amenemhat I moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to the newly formed city of Itj-tawy [itch-täwy] (Arnold 1991: 10).

Artistic innovations were made, including more realistic sculptures that appeared more like portraits than romanticized concepts of the kings; additionally, sphinx-images begin in this period, including the great sphinx, dramatically suggesting the pharaoh as a protector (O’Neal 2008: 96). Literature, also, expanded, with such tales as the Story of Sinuhe, a temporary exile to Canaan, being written in this period (Kemp 2006: 21). These new heights in literature, as well as architecture and religion, no doubt were stimulated by the growth of the scribal sector and of the middle class in Egyptian society (Callender 2003: 171). Interestingly, Middle Kingdom authors appear to set many of their stories in the Old Kingdom, but these reconstruction of the Old Kingdom must be held in suspect by historians today (Mieroop 2011: 85).

Because of the greater sophistication of the Twelfth Dynasty, some believe the Middle Kingdom to only truly begin at that point (Callender 2003: 145). The dynasty was prosperous and included monumental building projects once again, such as tombs for kings and regional governors (Beetz 2008: 393). Though Mentuhotep III and IV of the Eleventh Dynasty did a little in this way (Leprohon 2005: 50), it was not until Senusret III that the Middle Kingdom reached its apex (Beetz 2008: 393).

Senusret III became the most important king of the Twelfth Dynasty, successfully conquering Nubia, instituting administrative reforms, and ending the semi-independence of the Nomarchs (Aling 2002: 2). He secured major trade routes in Africa, bringing more wealth to the nation (Beetz 2008: 393), and he continued trade in the Southern Levant that had picked up during the Middle Kingdom (Cohen 2016: 6).

Outsiders

It is important to note that from the end of the Old Kingdom, Levantine pastoralists had been slowly infiltrating the Nile Delta, and by the Tenth Dynasty, these Asiatics occupied both the Delta and the east bank of the Nile well into Middle Egypt (Brovarski 2005: 47). During the Middle Kingdom prosperity, more mobile pastoralists from the Levant gradually moved into Egypt, especially at Avaris (García 2014: 240). Records suggest that some of these foreign peoples may have been itinerant craftsmen (Lesko 2005: 910), but as a whole they became increasingly detached from Egyptian rule (García 2014: 240).

As early as Amenemhat I, these Asiatics had been a problem, the king considering them as ‘foes’ (Arnold 1991: 19), and the Middle Kingdom fortress called ‘Walls of the Ruler’ was built in the northeastern Delta (Bard 2015: 188). This is not to say that the Egyptians went to war with the east; they instead developed both diplomatic and trade relations with Syria and Palestine (David 2003: 85). Instead, the rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty feared what the Asiatic outsiders could, and eventually did, become—a threat to Egyptian culture.