The Middle Kingdom Renaissance

To understand the major difficulties of Middle Kingdom chronology, a start can be made with the ‘standard chronology’ given both by W. F. Edgerton, ‘Chronology of the Twelfth Dynasty’, JNES i (1942), 307-14, and by R. A. Parker, The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 111., 1950), and ‘The Sothic Dating of the Twelfth and Eighteenth Dynasties’, in J. H. Johnson and E. F. Wente (eds.). Studies in Honor of G. R. Hughes (Chicago,

111., 1976), 177-89). A clear account of the problems involved with any chronology and with the co-regency theory is presented in W. Kelly Simpson, ‘Studies in the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty: l-U’,JARCE 2 (1963), 53-63. For ‘revised chronologies’ modifying this mainstream view, see, for example, Rolf Krauss, Sothis und Munddaten (Hildesheim, 1985), and Detlef Franke, ‘Zur Chronologie des Mittleren Reiches I and IT, Orientalia, NS 57 (1988), 113-38.

In Die chronologische Eixierungdes dgyptischen Mittleren Reiches nach dem Tempelarchiv von Illahun (Vienna, 1992), I. Luft has proposed fixed dates for the Middle Kingdom based on the el-Lahun papyri. In Sesostris ler, etude chronologique et historique du regne (Brussels, 1995), Claude Obsomer reexamines the previous theories and the evidence (translations and line drawings of texts) and offers a number of cogent reasons why the coregency theory should be questioned in regard to Amenemhat I, II, and Senusret I. Josef Wegner, ‘The Nature and Chronology of the Senusret III-Amenemhat III Regnal Succession: Some Considerations Based on New Evidence from the Mortuary Temple of Senusret III at Abydos', JNES 55 (1996)- 249-79, conveniently reviews the chronology debate (although he virtually ignores the arguments mounted by Obsomer) and produces new and vital evidence for the reign of Senusret III. In ‘Amenemhat I and the Early Twelfth Dynasty’, MMJ 26 (1991), 5-48, Dorothea Arnold has strongly questioned the dating of tombs normally attributed to the period of Mentuhotep III, her views setting the transfer of government to Lisht in about year 2 o of the reign of Amenemhat I.

Herbert Winlock, The Rise and Eall of the Middle Kingdom (New York, 1947), still deserves to be read, not least because Winlock did so much of the original investigation for this period. Edouard Naville, The Xlth Dynasty Temple at Deir el-Bahari, 3 vols. (London, 1907-13), is indispensable. Dieter, Dorothea, and Felix Arnold’s reinvestigations are more important for insights into the meaning and purpose of the architecture and pottery of this period: Mentuhotep Tempel des Konigs Mentuhotep von Deir el Bahari (Mainz, 1974), Der Pyramidenbezirk des Konigs Amenemhet III (Mainz, 1987), and The South Cemeteries of Lisht, i: The Pyramid of Senwosret I (New York, 1988). Gydro Voros’s interesting discovery of the nth Dynasty temple of Mentuhotep III, as well as his sed - festival building and his probable tomb, on Thoth Hill at Luxor, is published in Temple of the Pyramid of Thebes (Budapest, 1998).

A number of very detailed and thoughtful studies of individual reigns have been published, beginning with Labib Habachi’s study of Mentu-hotep II: ‘King Nebhepetre Mentuhotpe: His Monuments, Place in History, Deification and Unusual Representations in the Form of Gods’, MDAIK 19 {1963), 16-52. Winlock, The Slain Soldiers of Neb-hepet-Re Mentu-hotpe (New York, 1945), looks at warfare in Mentuhotep IPs time; Alan Gardiner, ‘The First King Mentuhotpe of the Eleventh Dynasty’, MDAIK 14 (1956), 42-51, solves the problem of the various names of the king. For the i2th Dynasty there is Ronald Leprohon, The Reign of Amenemhat I (Toronto, 1980), and Robert Delia, A Study of the Reign of Senusert III (New York, 1980). Obsomer’s quite splendid Sesostris ler (cited above), which, among other things, puts forward a persuasive argument for discounting the theory of co-regencies for the 12th Dynasty, has set new standards for such works. For the ‘Tod treasure’, see Fernand Bisson de la Roque et al., Le Tresor de Tod (Cairo, 1953). Dietrich Wildung, Sesostris und Amenemhet, Agypten im Mittleren Reich (Freiburg, 1984; French trans., L’Age d’or) offers a penetrating artistic analysis for the entire Middle Kingdom. Two chapters of Gay Robins’s The Art of Ancient Egypt (London, 1997), survey Middle Kingdom art and architecture at a more general level, but offer more insights than the earlier studies of Edward Terrace, Egyptian Paintings of the Middle Kingdom (New York, 1967).

Essential reading on administration during the 13th Dynasty is Stephen Quirke’s pithy monograph The Administration of Egypt in the Late Middle Kingdom (New Malden, 1990), while his Middle Kingdom Studies (New Malden, 1991) includes some useful discussions concerning various processes of change in both the the 12th and 13th dynasties. Miriam Lich-theim. Ancient Egyptian Autobiographies chiefly of the Middle Kingdom (Freiburg, 1988), provides vital source material.

Torgny Save-Soderbergh, Aegypten und Nubien (Lund, 1941), is the basic volume for Middle Kingdom activities in Nubia, supplemented by Paul Smither, ‘The Semnah Dispatches’, JEA 31 (1945), 3-10, which provides fascinating insights into life in the Nubian forts. Bryan Emery, Lost Land Emerging (New York, 1967), gives a popular account of the excavation of Nubia in more recent times. Extremely helpful information on the workings of the Egyptian administration in Nubia are provided by Stuart Tyson Smith in various articles, as well as in Askut in Nubia (London,

1995)-

For information on life within the palace during the Middle Kingdom, see Alexander ScharfFs article on Papyrus Bulaq 18: ‘Ein Rechnungsbuch des koniglichen Hofes aus de 13. Dynastie (Papyrus Boulaq Nr. 18)’, ZAS

56 (1920), 51-68, as well as Quirke’s Administration volume (mentioned above), and Manfred Bietak (ed.), Haas and Palast im Alten Agypten (Vienna, 1996), which contains a wealth of information on Middle Kingdom houses and palaces (most articles in English). The second part of Barry Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (London, 1989), provides an informative, lively account of the organization and daily lives of bureaucrats and townspeople who lived at this time.

The letters of Hekanakhte were translated by T. G. H. James in The Hekanakhte Papers and other Early Middle Kingdom Documents (New York, 1962). Middle Kingdom literature has been made available in many texts, such as Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, i (Los Angeles, 1973), and Richard Parkinson, Voices from Ancient Egypt (London, 1991), while the classic interpretation of links between Middle Kingdom literature and politics is Georges Posener, Litterature et politique dans I’fgypte de la Xlle dynastic (Paris, 1956).

Numerous articles and monographs have been written on Egyptian religion, such as Stephen Quirke, Ancient Egyptian Religion (London, 1992), but no single book has yet been written on the religion of the Middle Kingdom in particular. In the meantime, Quirke’s essay on Middle Kingdom religion in W. Forman and S. Quirke, Hieroglyphs and the Afterlife (London, 1996), has gone some way towards addressing this deficiency. Raymond Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, 3 vols. (London, 1972-8), contains essential primary source material, while two books by Harco Willems, Chests of Life (Leiden, 1988), and The Coffin of Heqata (Groningen, 1994), discuss the evidence for religious beliefs and practices of the Middle Kingdom.