Egyptologists traditionally distinguish between the major periods of pharaonic history on the basis of the political state of the country. ‘Kingdoms’—defined as times of political unity and strong, centralized government—alternate with ‘intermediate periods’, which are in contrast characterized by the rivalries of local rulers in their claims for power. In the case of the First Intermediate Period, the long line of kings who had ruled the country from Memphis ended with the last pharaohs of the 8th Dynasty. After the 8th Dynasty power was held by a succession of rulers originating from Herakleopolis Magna, which was located in northern Middle Egypt, near the entrance to the Faiy-um. These kings appear as both the 9th and loth Dynasties in Man-etho’s history, having been mistakenly subdivided in the course of the transmission of the original king-list (see Chapter i for a discussion of Manetho’s Aegyptiaca).
The shift of the royal residence from Memphis to Herakleopolis was evidently regarded by the ancient Egyptians as a major break. This is suggested by the fact that the compilers of the iQth-Dynasty Turin Canon inserted a grand total for the earlier part of Egyptian history after the list of 8th-Dynasty rulers. In addition, the king-list in the temple of Seti I at Abydos gives no royal names for the period between the 8th Dynasty and the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.
In fact, the Herakleopolitans never wielded control over southern Upper Egypt. Here, in the course of prolonged struggles between local magnates, a family of Theban nomarchs established itself as the Leading force, assumed the titles of royalty, and duly appeared in the annals of pharaonic kingship as the nth Dynasty. From this moment onwards, two competing states confronted each other within the territory of Egypt, until, terminating an era of intermittent war, the Theban king Nebhepetra Mentuhotep II managed to defeat his Herakleo-politan opponent and reunite the country under Theban control, thus inaugurating the Middle Kingdom. This chapter therefore deals with the period between the end of the 8th Dynasty and the reign of Nebhepetra Mentuhotep II.
World History
