This 400-year period, comprising the 21st to 25th Dynasties (1069664 BC), may justly be regarded as marking a new phase in Egypt’s history. The period is characterized by significant changes in Egypt’s political organization, society, and ailture. Centralized government was replaced by political fragmentation and the re-emergence of local centres of power; a substantial influx of non-Egyptians (Libyans and Nubians) permanently modified the profile of the population, while Egypt as a whole became more inward-looking, its contacts with the outside world (and its impact on the Levant in particular) greatly reduced in scale. These, and other, factors had important consequences for the functioning of the economy, for the structure of society, and for the religious attitudes and funerary practices of the inhabitants. It is true that the period was marked by tensions over control of territory and resources, leading on occasion to conflicts, but violence was not endemic; the period as a whole was stable and represents far more than a temporary lapse from traditional pharonic rule (an imfor-tunate implication of the customary designation ‘Intermediate’). Many of the events and trends of these years were permanent in their effect and played a crucial role in shaping the Egypt of the later first millennium BC.
A sound historical framework for these centuries has proved more difficult to establish than for any other major period of Egyptian history. No pharaonic king-lists include the 2ist-25th Dynasties, and the Egyptologist is thus forced to rely more heavily than is strictly
Desirable on the often garbled excerpts from the history of Manetho (itself derived chiefly from Delta-based sources and thus offering, at best, an incomplete picture). Careful collation of the Manethonian lists with the scattered inscriptions of kings and local dignitaries of the period and cross-references to Near Eastern sources has yielded a chronology that is accepted in its main points by most scholars, but some areas remain subjects for debate (notably the relationships and spheres of influence of some of the provincial rulers who adopted royal status during the late ninth and eighth centuries BC). With the exception of sites such as Tanis, the survival of evidence from this period in the Delta is, as always, relatively poor, and, while Thebes has yielded a very large quantity of artefacts, private statuary and funerary equipment tend to predominate, whereas economic sources such as administrative papyri are very rare. Since it was in the north that many of the most significant developments were taking place at this time, a balanced picture of the country as a whole is difficult to achieve.
World History
