Egypt, Ancient Kingdom of

The origins of ancient Egyptian civilization, which many regard as one of the fountainheads of Western culture, cannot be established with certainty. Archaeological evidence suggests that early dwellers in the Nile Valley were influenced both by the cultures of the Middle East and by surrounding African cultures. Describing the development of Egyptian civilization, like attempts to identify its intellectual foundations, is largely a process of conjecture based on archaeological discoveries of enduring ruins, tombs, and monuments, many of which contain invaluable specimens of the ancient culture. Inscriptions in hieroglyphs, for instance, have provided priceless data.

The framework for the study of the Dynastic Period of Egyptian history, between the First Dynasty and the Ptolemaic period, relies on the Aegyptiaca of Manetho, a Ptolemaic priest of the third century B.C.E., who organized the country’s rulers into thirty dynasties, roughly corresponding to families. General agreement exists on the division of Egyptian history, up to the conquest of Alexander the Great, into Old, Middle, and New kingdoms with intermediate periods, followed by the late and Ptolemaic periods. New evidence and increasingly sophisticated dating techniques, however, have allowed continual refinement of chronology and genealogy.

Prehistory and Early Dynastic Period

Some 60,000 years ago the Nile River began its yearly inundation of the land along its banks, leaving behind rich alluvial soil. Areas close to the floodplain became attractive as a source of food and water. In time, climatic changes, including periods of aridity, further served to confine human habitation to the Nile Valley, although this was not always true. From the Chalcolithic period (the Copper age, beginning about 4000 B.C.E.) into the early part of the Old Kingdom, people apparently used an extended part of the land.

In the seventh millennium B.C.E., Egypt was environmentally hospitable, and evidence of settlements from that time has been found in the low desert areas of Upper (southern) Egypt. Remains of similar occupation have been discovered at Nubian sites in modern Sudan. Enough pottery has been found in Upper Egyptian tombs from the fourth millennium B.C.E. (in the Predynastic Period) to establish a relative dating sequence. The Predynastic Period, which ends with the unification of Egypt under one king, is generally subdivided into three parts, each of which refers to a site at which its archaeological materials were found: Badarian, Amratian (Naqada I), and Gerzean (Naqada II and III). Sites in Lower (northern) Egypt (from about 5500 B.C.E.) have yielded datable archaeological material of apparent cultural continuity but no long-term sequences such as those found in Upper Egypt.

Archaeological sources indicate the emergence, by the late Gerzean period (about 3200 B.C.E.), of a dominant political force that was to become the consolidating element in the first united kingdom of ancient Egypt. The earliest known hieroglyphic writing dates from this period, and soon afterwards the names of early rulers began to appear on monuments. This period began with a Zero Dynasty, which had as many as thirteen rulers, ending with Narmer (about 3000 B.C.E.). It was followed by the First and Second dynasties (about 2920–2770 B.C.E.), during which at least seventeen kings ruled the land. Some of the earliest massive mortuary structures (predecessors of the pyramids) were built at Saqqara, Abydos, and elsewhere during the First and Second dynasties.

Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period

The Old Kingdom (2575–2134 B.C.E.) spanned nearly five centuries of rule by the Fourth through the Eighth dynasties. The capital was in the north, at Memphis, and the ruling monarchs held absolute power over a strongly unified government. Religion played an important role; in fact, the government had evolved into a theocracy, wherein the pharaohs, as the rulers were called, were both absolute monarchs and, possibly, gods on earth.

The Third Dynasty was the first of the houses that ruled from Memphis. Its second ruler, Zoser (Djoser), who reigned about 2630–2611 B.C.E., emphasized national unity by balancing northern and southern motifs in his mortuary buildings at Saqqara. His architect, Imhotep, used stone blocks rather than traditional mud bricks in the complex there, thus creating the first monumental structure of stone; its central element, the Step Pyramid, was Zoser’s tomb. In order to deal with affairs of state and to administer construction projects, the king began to develop an effective bureaucracy. In general, the Third Dynasty marked the beginning of a golden age of cultural freshness and vigor.

The Fourth Dynasty began with King Sneferu, whose building projects included the first true pyramid at Dashur, south of Saqqara. Sneferu, the earliest warrior king for whom extensive documents remain, campaigned in Nubia (or Kush) and Libya and was active in the Sinai. Promoting commerce and mining, he brought prosperity to the kingdom. Sneferu was succeeded by his son Khufu (or Cheops), who built the Great Pyramid at Giza. Although little else is known of his reign, that monument not only attests to his power but also indicates the administrative skills the bureaucracy had gained. Khufu’s son Redjedef, who reigned about 2528–2520 B.C.E., introduced the solar element (Ra, or Re) into royal titles and the Egyptian religion. Khafre, (or Chephren), another son of Khufu, succeeded his brother to the throne and built his mortuary complex at Giza. The remaining rulers of the dynasty included Menkaure, or Mycerinus, who reigned about 2490–2472 B.C.E. He is known primarily for the smallest of the three large pyramids at Giza.

Under the Fourth Dynasty, Egyptian civilization reached a peak in its development, and this high level was generally maintained in the Fifth and Sixth dynasties. The splendor of the engineering feats of the pyramids was approximated in every other field of endeavor, including architecture, sculpture, painting, navigation, the industrial arts and sciences, and astronomy. It was during this period astronomers first created a solar calendar based on a year of 365 days. Old Kingdom physicians also displayed a remarkable knowledge of physiology, surgery, the circulatory system of the body, and antiseptics.

Although the Fifth Dynasty maintained prosperity with extensive foreign trade and military incursions into Asia, signs of decreasing royal authority became apparent in the swelling of the bureaucracy and the enhanced power of nonroyal administrators. The last king of the dynasty, Unis, who reigned about 2356–2323 B.C.E., was buried at Saqqara, with a body of religious spells, called Pyramid Texts, carved on the walls of his pyramid chamber. Such texts were also used in the royal tombs of the Sixth Dynasty. Several autobiographical inscriptions of officials under the Sixth Dynasty indicate the decreasing status of the monarchy. Records even indicate a conspiracy against King Pepi I, who reigned about 2395–2360 B.C.E., in which the ruler’s wife was involved. It is believed that during the later years of Pepi II, who reigned about 2350–2260 B.C.E., power may have been in the hands of his vizier (chief minister). Central authority over the economy was also diminished by decrees of exemption from taxes. The nomarchs—governors of nomes (districts)—were rapidly becoming individually powerful, as they began to remain in place rather than being periodically transferred to different nomes.

The Seventh Dynasty marked the end of the Old Kingdom and the beginning of the First Intermediate Period. As a consequence of internal strife, the reigns of this and the succeeding Eighth Dynasty are rather obscure. It is clear, however, that both ruled from Memphis and lasted a total of only sixteen years. By this time the powerful nomarchs were in effective control of their districts, and factions in the south and north vied for power. Under the Heracleopolitan Ninth and Tenth dynasties, the nomarchs near Heracleopolis controlled their area and extended their power north to Memphis (and even into the delta) and south to Asyut (Lycopolis). The rival southern nomarchs at Thebes established the Eleventh Dynasty, controlling the area from Abydos to Elephantine, near Syene (present-day Aswan). The early part of this dynasty, the first of the Middle Kingdom, overlapped the last part of the Tenth.

Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period

Without one centralized government, the bureaucracy was no longer effective, and nomarchs openly championed regional concerns. Egyptian art became more provincial, and no massive mortuary complexes were built. The religion was also democratized, as commoners claimed prerogatives previously reserved for royalty alone. They could, for instance, use spells derived from the royal Pyramid Texts on the walls of their own coffins or tombs.

Although the Middle Kingdom (2040–1640 B.C.E.) is generally dated to include all of the Eleventh Dynasty, it properly begins with the reunification of the land by Nebhepetre Mentuhotep, who reigned 2061–2010 B.C.E. The early rulers of the dynasty attempted to extend their control from Thebes both northward and southward, but it was left to Mentuhotep to complete the reunification process, sometime after 2047 B.C.E. Mentuhotep ruled for more than fifty years, and despite occasional rebellions, he maintained stability and control over the whole kingdom. He replaced some nomarchs and limited their power, which was still considerable. Thebes was his capital, and his mortuary temple at Dayr al Bahrī incorporated both traditional and regional elements; the tomb was separate from the temple, and there was no pyramid.

The reign of the first Twelfth Dynasty king, Amenemhat I, was peaceful. He established a capital near Memphis and, unlike Mentuhotep, de-emphasized Theban ties in favor of national unity. Nevertheless, he gave the important Theban god Amon prominence over other deities. Amenemhat demanded loyalty from the nomarchs, rebuilt the bureaucracy, and educated a staff of scribes and administrators. The literature was predominantly propaganda designed to reinforce the image of the king as a “good shepherd” rather than as an inaccessible god. During the last ten years of his reign, Amenemhat ruled with his son as coregent. The Story of Sinuhe, a literary work of the period, implies that the king was assassinated.

Amenemhat’s successors continued his programs. His son, Senwosret I, who reigned 1971–1926 B.C.E., built fortresses throughout Nubia (or Kush) and established trade with foreign lands. He sent governors to Palestine and Syria and campaigned against the Libyans in the west. Senwosret II, who reigned 1897–1878 B.C.E., began land reclamation in Al Fayyñm. His successor, Senwosret III, who reigned 1878–1841 B.C.E., had a canal dug at the first cataract of the Nile, formed a standing army (which he used in his campaign against the Nubians), and built new forts on the southern frontier. He divided the administration into three powerful geographic units, each controlled by an official under the vizier, and he no longer recognized provincial nobles. Amenemhat III continued the policies of his predecessors and extended the land reform. A vigorous renaissance of culture took place under the Theban kings. The architecture, art, and jewelry of the period reveal an extraordinary delicacy of design, and the time was considered the golden age of Egyptian literature.

The rulers of the Thirteenth Dynasty—some fifty or more in about 120 years—were weaker than their predecessors, although they were still able to control Nubia and the administration of the central government. During the latter part of their rule, however, their power was challenged not only by the rival Fourteenth Dynasty, which won control over the delta, but also by the Hyksos, a little-known group of people who invaded from western Asia. By the Thirteenth Dynasty there was a large Hyksos population in northern Egypt. As the central government entered a period of decline, their presence made possible an influx of people from coastal Phoenicia (roughly, present-day Lebanon) and Palestine (present-day Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank) and the establishment of a Hyksos Dynasty. This marks the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period, a time of turmoil and disunity that lasted for some 214 years. The Hyksos of the Fifteenth Dynasty ruled from their capital at Avaris in the eastern delta, maintaining control over the middle and northern parts of the country. At the same time, the Sixteenth Dynasty also existed in the delta and Middle Egypt, but it may have been subservient to the Hyksos. More independence was exerted in the south by a third contemporaneous power, the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty, which ruled over the territory between Elephantine and Abydos. The Theban ruler Kamose, who reigned about 1555–1550 B.C.E., battled the Hyksos successfully, but it was his brother, Ahmose I, who finally subdued them, reuniting Egypt.

New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period

With the unification of the land and the founding of the Eighteenth Dynasty by Ahmose I, the New Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.E.) began. Ahmose reestablished the borders, goals, and bureaucracy of the Middle Kingdom and revived its land-reclamation program. He maintained the balance of power between the nomarchs and himself with the support of the military, who were accordingly rewarded. The importance of women in the New Kingdom is illustrated by the high titles and position of the royal wives and mothers.

Once Amenhotep I, who reigned 1525–1504 B.C.E., had full control over his administration—he was coregent for five years—he began to extend Egypt’s boundaries in Nubia and Palestine. A major builder at Karnak, Amenhotep, unlike his predecessors, separated his tomb from his mortuary temple; he began the custom of hiding his final resting place. Thutmose I continued the advances of the new Imperial Age and emphasized the preeminence of the god Amon. His tomb was the first in the Valley of the Kings. Thutmose II, his son by a minor wife, succeeded him, marrying the royal princess Hatshepsut to strengthen his claim to the throne. He maintained the accomplishments of his predecessors. When he died in 1479 B.C.E., his heir, Thutmose III, was still a child, and so Hatshepsut governed as a regent. Within a year, she had herself crowned pharaoh, and then mother and son ruled jointly. When Thutmose III achieved sole rule upon Hatshepsut’s death in 1458 B.C.E., he reconquered Syria and Palestine, which had broken away under joint rule, and then continued to expand his empire. His annals in the temple at Karnak chronicle many of his campaigns. Nearly twenty years after Hatshepsut’s death, he ordered the obliteration of her name and images. Amenhotep II, who reigned 1427–1401 B.C.E., and Thutmose IV tried to maintain the Asian conquests in the face of growing threats from the Mitanni and Hittite states of western Asia, but they found it necessary to use negotiations as well as force.

Amenhotep III ruled peacefully for nearly four decades, 1386–1349 B.C.E., and art and architecture flourished during his reign. He maintained the balance of power among Egypt’s neighbors by diplomacy. His son and successor, Akhenaton, (Amenhotep IV) was a religious reformer who fought the power of the Amon priesthood. Akhenaton abandoned Thebes for a new capital, Akhetaton, which was built in honor of Aton, the disk of the sun on which his new monotheistic religion centered. The religious revolution was abandoned toward the end of his reign, however, and his son-in-law, Tutankhamen, returned the capital to Thebes. Tutankhamen is known today chiefly for his richly furnished tomb, which was found nearly intact in the Valley of the Kings by the British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1922. The Eighteenth Dynasty ended with Horemheb, who reigned 1319–1307 B.C.E.

The founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Ramses I (1307–1306 B.C.E.), had served his predecessor as vizier and commander of the army. Reigning only two years, he was succeeded by his son, Seti I, who reigned 1306–1290 B.C.E. and led campaigns against Syria, Palestine, the Libyans, and the Hittites. Seti built a sanctuary at Abydos. Like his father, he favored the delta capital of Pi-Ramesse (now Qantir). One of his sons, Ramses II, succeeded him and reigned for nearly sixty-seven years. Ramses II was responsible for much construction at Luxor and Karnak, and he built the Ramesseum (his funerary temple at Thebes), the rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel, and sanctuaries at Abydos and Memphis. After campaigns against the Hittites, Ramses made a treaty with them and married a Hittite princess. His son Merneptah, who reigned from 1224 to 1214 B.C.E., defeated the Sea Peoples, invaders from the Aegean who swept the Middle East in the thirteenth century B.C.E., and records tell of his desolating Israel. Later rulers had to contend with constant uprisings by subject peoples of the empire.

The second ruler of the Twentieth Dynasty, Ramses III, had his military victories depicted on the walls of his mortuary complex at Medinet Habu, near Thebes. After his death the New Kingdom declined, chiefly because of the rising power of the priesthood of Amon and the army. One high priest and military commander even had himself depicted in royal regalia.

The Twenty-First through the Twenty-Fifth dynasties are known as the Third Intermediate Period. Kings ruling from Tanis, in the north, vied with a line of high priests, to whom they appear to have been related, from Thebes, in the south. The rulers of the Twenty-First Dynasty may have been partially Libyan in ancestry, and the Twenty-Second Dynasty began with Libyan chieftains as kings. As the Libyan’s rule deteriorated, several rivals rose to challenge them. In fact the next two dynasties, the Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth, were contemporaneous with part of the Twenty-Second Dynasty, just as the Twenty-Fifth (Kushite) Dynasty effectively controlled much of Egypt during the latter years of the Twenty-Second and the Twenty-Fourth dynasties.

Late Period

The Twenty-Fifth through the Thirty-First dynasties ruled Egypt during the time that has come to be known as the Late Period. The Kushites ruled from about 767 B.C.E. until they were ousted by the Assyrians (from present-day Iraq) in 671 B.C.E. Egyptian independence was reestablished early in the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty by Psammetichus I. A resurgence of cultural achievement, reminiscent of earlier epochs, reached its height in the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. When the last Egyptian king was defeated by Persian king Cambyses in 525 B.C.E., the country entered a period of Persian domination under the Twenty-Seventh Dynasty. Egypt reasserted its independence under the Twenty-Eighth and Twenty-Ninth dynasties, but the Thirtieth Dynasty was the last one of Egyptian rulers. The Thirty-First Dynasty, which is not listed in Manetho’s chronology, represented the second Persian domination.

Hellenistic and Roman Periods

The occupation of Egypt by the forces of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E. brought an end to Persian rule. Alexander, who came from Macedonia in present-day Greece, appointed Cleomenes of Naucratis, a Greek resident in Egypt, and his Macedonian general, known later as Ptolemy I, to govern the country. Although two Egyptian governors were named as well, power was clearly in the hands of Ptolemy, who in a few years took absolute control of the country.

Rivalries with other generals, who carved out sections of Alexander’s empire after his death in 323 B.C.E., occupied much of Ptolemy’s time, but in 305 B.C.E. he assumed the royal title and founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Ptolemaic Egypt was one of the great powers of the Hellenistic world, and at various times it extended its rule over parts of Syria, Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), Cyprus, Libya, Phoenicia, and other lands.

Partly because indigenous Egyptian rulers had a reduced role in affairs of state during the Ptolemaic regime, they periodically demonstrated their dissatisfaction by open revolts, all of which were, however, quickly suppressed. In the reign of Ptolemy VI, Egypt became a protectorate under Antiochus IV of Syria, who successfully invaded the country in 169 B.C.E. The Romans, however, forced Antiochus to give up the country, which was then divided between Ptolemy VI and his younger brother, Ptolemy VIII. The latter took full control upon the death of his brother in 145 B.C.E. The succeeding Ptolemies preserved the wealth and status of Egypt while continually losing territory to the Romans. Cleopatra was the last great ruler of the Ptolemaic line. In an attempt to maintain Egyptian power she aligned herself with Julius Caesar and, later, Mark Antony, but these moves only postponed the end. After her forces were defeated by Roman legions under Octavian (later Emperor Augustus), Cleopatra committed suicide in 30 B.C.E.

For nearly seven centuries after the death of Cleopatra, the Romans controlled Egypt (except for a short time in the third century C.E.., when it came under the power of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, in present-day Syria). The Romans treated Egypt as a valuable source of wealth and profit and were dependent on its supply of grain to feed their multitudes. Roman Egypt was governed by a prefect, whose duties as commander of the army and official judge were similar to those of the pharaohs of the past. The office, therefore, was one with which the Egyptian population was familiar. Because of the immense power of the prefects, however, their functions were eventually divided under Emperor Justinian, who in the sixth century C.E.. put the army under a separate commander, directly responsible to him.

Egypt in the Roman period was relatively peaceful; its southern boundary at Aswan was only rarely attacked by the Ethiopians. Egypt’s population had come under the influence of Greek culture under the Ptolemies, and it included large minorities of Greeks and Jews, as well as other peoples from Asia Minor. The mixture of the cultures did not lead to a homogeneous society, and civil strife was frequent. In 212 C.E.., however, Emperor Caracalla granted the entire population citizenship in the Roman Empire.

Alexandria, the port city on the Mediterranean founded by Alexander the Great, remained the capital as it had been under the Ptolemies. One of the great metropolises of the Roman Empire, it was the center of a thriving commerce between India and Arabia and the Mediterranean countries. It was the home of the great Alexandrian library and museum and had a population of some 300,000 (excluding slaves).

Egypt became an economic mainstay of the Roman Empire not only because of its annual harvest of grain but also for its glass, metal, and other manufactured products. In addition, the Indian Ocean trade brought in spices, perfumes, precious stones, and rare metals from the Red Sea ports. Once part of the empire, Egypt was subject to a variety of taxes as well.

In order to control the people and placate the powerful priesthood, the Roman emperors protected the ancient religion, completed or embellished temples begun under the Ptolemies, and had their own names inscribed on them as pharaohs; the cartouches of several can be found at Isna, Kawn Umbu, Dandara, and Philae. The Egyptian cults of Isis and Serapis spread throughout the ancient world. Egypt was also an important center of early Christendom and the first center of Christian monasticism. Its Coptic or Monophysite church separated from mainstream Christianity in the fifth century C.E..

During the seventh century the power of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire was challenged by the Sassanids of Persia, who invaded Egypt in 616. Byzantine forces expelled them again in 628, but soon after, in 641, the country fell to the Arabs, who brought with them a new religion, Islam, and began a new chapter of Egyptian history.

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