Dating is one of the most basic concerns in archaeology, and texts of ancient Egyptian king lists are an invaluable source of information for dating pharaonic evidence. King lists must have been available to Manetho, a 3rd-century-BC Egyptian priest who first devised a system of 31 dynasties for the almost 3,000 years of pharaonic history. Although modern scholars have demonstrated problems with Manetho’s sequence, which is only preserved in later excerpts, its basic divisions are still followed. Manetho’s dynasties span the time from the beginning of pharaonic history in the 1st Dynasty (ca. 3000 bc) to the end of the domination of Egypt by the Persian Empire, when Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great (332 bc). Although some dynasties in Manetho’s list correspond to a new ruling family, this is not true for every dynasty.
In the later 19th century, when Egyptian textual and monumental evidence became available to scholars, pharaonic chronology was divided into several major periods (“kingdoms”), when the large territorial state was unified and centrally controlled by a king. These periods are called the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. The earliest period of pharaonic civilization consists of the 1st and 2nd Dynasties, now called the Early Dynastic Period (ca. 3000-2686 bc), but which was known as the Archaic Period in earlier histories. Preceding the 1st Dynasty is Dynasty 0, which was first proposed by Werner Kaiser in the 1960s. Kaiser’s hypothesis was later confirmed by excavations of the German
Archaeological Institute at Abydos, where tombs of kings who preceded the 1st Dynasty have been identified.
In most periodizations the Old Kingdom consists of the 3rd through 6th Dynasties (ca. 2686-2181 bc). The Middle Kingdom begins with the reunification of Egypt under King Nebhepetra Mentuhotep II of the later 11*h Dynasty, and spans the 12*h and 13*h Dynasties (ca. 2055-1650 bc). The New Kingdom, the age of Egypt’s empire abroad, spans the 18th through 20th Dynasties (ca. 1550-1069 bc). The 19th and 20th Dynasties are sometimes called the Ramessid Period because many of the kings of these dynasties were named Rameses. The dates used in this book are those found in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Ian Shaw [ed.], 2000).
Conventionally the periods of political division between the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms are called “intermediate” periods. The First Intermediate Period, between the Old and Middle Kingdoms, consists of the 7th through 10th Dynasties, and the earlier 11th Dynasty (ca. 2181-2055 bc). The 7th and 8th Dynasties (ca. 2181-2060 bc) were a short period of about 20-25 years in which a number of kings reigned in the north for a couple of years each. The 9th and 10th Dynasties represent kings whose power base was at Herakleopolis in the Faiyum region, hence this period is sometimes called the Herakleopolitan Period (ca. 2160-2025 bc). The largely concurrent 11th Dynasty (ca. 2160-2025 bc) arose at Thebes and eventually controlled all of Egypt.
The Second Intermediate Period, between the Middle and New Kingdoms, consists of the 15th through 17th Dynasties (ca. 1650-1550 bc). The minor kings of the 14th Dynasty located in the Delta may have been contemporary with either the 13th or the 15th Dynasty. This was a time of divided rule in Egypt, with the Hyksos, ethnically foreign kings of the 15th Dynasty whose origins were in Palestine, controlling northern Egypt, and Egyptian kings of the 16th/17th Dynasties in the south. Later kings of the 17th Dynasty, whose power base was at Thebes, eventually fought northward and ended Hyksos rule there.
The Third Intermediate Period, after the end of the New Kingdom, consists of the 21st through 25th Dynasties (ca. 1069-664 bc). The 21st Dynasty established a new capital at Tanis in the northeastern Delta, while a theocracy ruled by a general, who was also high priest of Amen, controlled the south from Thebes. A later king of the 21st Dynasty (Osorkon the Elder), was the son of a Libyan chief in the Delta, and the kings of the 22nd Dynasty were acculturated Egyptian-Libyans, who attempted to reassert control over all of Egypt. But local rulers of the 23rd and 24th Dynasties also asserted their authority in various centers in the Delta. These dynasties partially overlap in time with the 22nd and 25th Dynasties. The 25th Dynasty (ca. 747-656 bc) is sometimes called the Kushite Dynasty because Egypt and Nubia were controlled by kings of Kush, a kingdom which developed to the far south of Egypt, centered between the 3rd and 6th Cataracts of the Nile.
The Late Period consists of the 26th through 31st Dynasties (664-332 bc). In the 26th Dynasty (664-525 bc) Egypt was reunified under kings whose capital was at Sais in the Delta, hence the term Saite Dynasty. In the 27th Dynasty (525-359 bc) Egypt was conquered by Persians of the Achaemenid kingdom whose capital was at Persepolis, in what is now southwestern Iran. The 28th, 29th, and 30th Dynasties (404-343 bc)
Were a period of successful rebellion against Persian control, and the 31st Dynasty (343332 bc) is when Persian control was briefly re-established in Egypt.
Destroying the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great of Macedon conquered Egypt in 332 bc. After Alexander’s death in Babylon in 323 bc his empire fell apart. The Ptolemaic Dynasty (305-30 bc) followed when Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals, assumed control in Egypt in 323 bc, becoming its first king in 305 bc. The last Ptolemaic ruler was Cleopatra VII (51-30 bc). After her suicide Egypt became a Roman province during what is called the Roman Period (from 30 bc onward). The nominal end of the Roman Period was in ad 395, when the Roman Empire was divided into the East (Byzantine, including Egypt) and West. The combined periods of Ptolemaic and Roman rule are often called the Greco-Roman Period.
The Roman emperors, who seldom visited the country, supported Egyptian religion. Temples for the cults of Egyptian gods (and the emperor as pharaoh) were built during these times and covered with reliefs of the gods and hieroglyphic texts. Egyptian mortuary practices continued as well.
With Rome’s adoption of Christianity in the 4*h century and its spread though Roman provinces, ancient Egyptian religion and the elaborate beliefs surrounding burial gradually ceased to be tolerated. The Coptic Period (also known as the Byzantine Period), from the early 4*h century until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in ad 641, represents the true end of ancient Egyptian civilization. Ancient Egyptian beliefs came to be characterized as pagan, as did the most visible manifestations of ancient culture - the elaborate tombs and temples, and the cult of the god-king.
World History
