Manetho, the historian of Ptolemaic times, dramatically categorized the ephemeral Seventh Dynasty as ‘Seventy kings in Seventy days’. The Eighth Dynasty, ruling from Memphis and probably related to the kings of the Sixth Dynasty, managed to maintain some sort of order in the region of the ancient capital, but with little influence elsewhere. One of these kings, Hakare Ibi, contrived to build a pyramid at Saqqara which contained a recension of the Pyramid Texts.10 Another, Neferkahor, held on to the throne for four years, during which time he issued decrees, even directing the Governor of Upper Egypt on what offerings should be made in the temples on the occasion of his accession.11
Occasionally there are glimpses of what were obviously attempts to maintain some sort of order in the Dual Kingdom, or in what then remained of it. Iuu was Vizier during the Eighth Dynasty;12 he was a devotee of Anubis and was buried at Abydos. Conditions were not so far gone that he was prepared to forgo the sacred unguents which he was entitled to have buried with him. Far away from Memphis it was evidently easier to maintain something like the customary life of a prosperous individual; thus Merery was a priest in the temple of Hathor at Denderah.13 He assumed an impressive repertoire of titles and describes himself as the successor of the nomarch of the Sixth Upper Egyptian nome, of which Denderah was the capital. The last king of this shadowy dynasty was Demedjibtowy,14 who was overthrown by a powerful contender for the kingship from a family of princes whose seat was at Heracleopolis.
That there was unrest in parts of the country is indicated in some of the funerary inscriptions of the time. Thus Rehu, an official residing at Akhmim, the capital of the Ninth Upper Egyptian nome records fighting between rival forces from the north and south of the country during the
Transition between the Eighth and Ninth Dynasties.15 Akhmim was on the frontier between the two rival forces, in a confrontation which the kings in Memphis evidently lost. Rehu was however still able to commission an attractively decorated tomb though the work is not as fine as the best of the Old Kingdom. He also records bull-fights, a popular spectator sport of the region which evidently continued to be held and which Rehu evidently very much enjoyed. That standards were not wholly lost is also indicated by the tomb of Setka at Elephantine which again is far from the centre of affairs where such disputes as there were seem principally to have been located.16
World History
