In about 2055 Bc one of the Theban princes, Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh Dynasty, launched a campaign north and eliminated the kingdom of Heracleopolis. There is no archaeological evidence of prolonged warfare and so it is likely that the nomes acquiesced in the takeover. The reunification marks the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. Mentuhotep’s progress in reuniting Egypt can be seen in three successive Horus names he took for himself. ‘He who breathes life into the heart of the Two Lands’ was the first expression of his desire to unify the country. Then, as if to stress his southern origins, ‘Divine is the White Crown [of southern Egypt], and finally, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign when he felt totally secure, ‘He who unifies the Two Lands’. His success was reinforced by the declaration of himself as a god and in reliefs he is shown wearing symbols of different deities.
Mentuhotep’s concerns went further than unification. He secured the borders of Egypt against raiding nomads and then reasserted Egyptian influence over Nubia. Haunted by the recent loss of such a rich territory, Mentuhotep and his successors of the Twelfth Dynasty aimed at a total domination of the area and its peoples. Their power was expressed in a series of elaborately constructed forts on the Nile between the First and Second Cataracts. When Mentuhotep died he was buried in one of the finest monuments of the Middle Kingdom, a great funerary complex set against a natural amphitheatre of rock on the west bank at Thebes. It is a combination of old styles and new (not least in its recognition of the ‘people’s’ cult of Osiris). As if establishing its links with an older Egypt, the complex has a valley temple, a causeway, 950 metres long, flanked by statues of the king in the form of Osiris, and a mortuary temple. Terraces and walkways give it further spaciousness and it was
Surrounded by groves of sycamore and tamarisk trees. What it lacks is a pyramid (although some experts believe that one may have been built on the roof of the mortuary temple). The body was buried under the cliff face itself, while alongside the main complex are the tombs of six ‘queens’, wives or concubines of Mentuhotep. Close by archaeologists have found a tomb with the remains of sixty men who had been killed in battle. It is possible that these were heroes of the final battle for control of Egypt who were granted the status of lying beside their leader. The complex is a further sign of the ability of the great rulers of Egypt to express their links to the past without compromising their individuality. It is also a demonstration of the growing skills of the stone masons as well as engineers and architects. Sophistication of design rather than monumentality for its own sake is a major feature of the Middle Kingdom building projects.
For the time being no more royal burials took place at Thebes. The Eleventh Dynasty was replaced by the Twelfth about 1985 Bc when one Amenemhat seized power. Amenemhat I was a commoner who had risen to the post of king’s vizier, ‘overseer of officials, lord of judgement, overseer of everything in this entire land’, as one boastful inscription from his early career proclaims. He then appears as king himself although how he managed it is not known. Amenemhat was committed to making a new start. Seeking to strengthen his position strategically (there was increasing fear of raids from Asia which a headquarters as far south as Thebes was not well placed to deal with), he founded a new capital at Itj-tawy just south of Memphis in Middle Egypt (its full name reads ‘It is Amenemhat who has conquered the Two Lands’). The new foundation also reflects Amenemhat’s determination to establish an identity that is distinct from his predecessors. Its architecture shows experimentation with different designs for tombs and other complexes, some drawing on older models. Without rejecting earlier tradition, the capital, ‘the Residence’ as it was known, showed that artistic creativity could be fostered by an enlightened ruler. Amenemhat also set a new tradition of installing his son as co-regent so that power could pass more smoothly on a king’s death and this practice kept his dynasty in power for some two hundred years.
World History
