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PERIOD GUIDE · Egypt

The First Intermediate Period in Egypt: two competing dynasties

According to the Met's timeline, from about 2150 to 2030 BCE Egypt was ruled by two competing dynasties, one at Heracleopolis in the north and one at Thebes in the south. For now the site has one article on the period.

Approximately 2150-2030 BCE
1 article or guide

Move through the periods

Its place in the Egypt scheme

The whole scheme with this period marked; the periods before and after are its neighbours in the row. Boundaries follow the sources and are not to scale.

All periods and subdivisions
  1. The Neolithic in Egypt7,000-4,500 BCE
  2. The Predynastic period in Egypt4,500-3,100 BCE
  3. The Early Dynastic period in Egypt3,100-2,649 BCE
  4. The Old Kingdom of Egypt2,649-2,150 BCE
  5. The First Intermediate Period in Egypt2,150-2,030 BCE
  6. The Middle Kingdom of Egypt2,030-1,640 BCE
  7. The Second Intermediate Period in Egypt1,640-1,550 BCE
  8. The New Kingdom of Egypt1,550-1,070 BCE
  9. The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt1,070-712 BCE
  10. The Late Period in Egypt712-332 BCE
  11. Macedonian and Ptolemaic Egypt332-30 BCE
  12. Roman rule in Egypt30 BCE - 330 CE
  13. Byzantine rule in Egypt330-641 CE
  14. Early Islamic Egypt641-969 CE
  15. Fatimid Egypt969-1,171 CE
  16. Ayyubid Egypt1,171-1,252 CE
  17. Mamluk Egypt1,250-1,517 CE

The frame

On the Met's timeline the First Intermediate Period, from Dynasty 8 to mid-Dynasty 11, is dated about 2150-2030 BCE. According to the source, by the end of the Old Kingdom centralized power had weakened, and in this period Egypt was ruled by two competing dynasties, one based at Heracleopolis in the north, the other at Thebes in the south; the overview says that power decentralized, "only to be unified again" by the Theban king Mentuhotep II in the Middle Kingdom. The site follows the Met's timeline here, as for all of Egypt's periods up to the Middle Kingdom. Source 1.

Boundaries and overlaps

Both boundaries run inside the sequence of dynasties: the period opens with Dynasty 8, Dynasty 7 not being mentioned on the page, and it ends in the middle of Dynasty 11, where the Middle Kingdom begins. The page of the Spanish mission to Heracleopolis places Dynasties 9 and 10 "around 2100 BC", within the period, but dates a tomb in the city's cemetery "around 2000", that is, after the start of the Middle Kingdom according to the Met. The cemetery itself is described there as one of the First Intermediate Period and the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. The site does not move the dates to fit the boundary. Sources 1, 2.

On this site

One article is placed in this period: "Heracleopolis: the northern capital of Dynasties 9 and 10", which presents the city's status and the source's two dates on either side of the boundary. Source 2.

What is missing

The period has a single item on the site. Checked: the Met's timeline, the page of the Spanish mission, and the Asyut Project page of the Free University of Berlin, proposed as a source for the governors' tombs at Asyut; that page could not be opened (the site blocks automated reading), and according to the earlier summary of it, it gives no tomb owners' names, dates or finds, so no article was written on it. Missing: a second item with a dated phase in this period, for example an excavation publication or catalogue entry for the Asyut tombs that names their owners and dates, or a museum object whose record dates it to the First Intermediate Period. Sources 1, 2, 3.

Source

Sources and further reading

The research and references behind this page. Rights to external content remain with their owners.

  1. 1 Egypt, 8000-2000 B.C. (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, chronology)

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 2000 · Checked

  2. 2 Misión arqueológica española en Egipto. Excavaciones en Heracleopolis Magna (Ehnasya el Medina)

    Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid · Partly checked

  3. 3 The Asyut Project (Freie Universität Berlin, project page)

    Freie Universität Berlin · Not opened for checking

Related periods, objects and places

Period

The Old Kingdom of Egypt: the pyramids of Giza and Saqqara

Approximately 2649-2150 BCEPeriod

The Middle Kingdom of Egypt: reunification from Thebes

Approximately 2030-1640 BCE

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