

 Dynasties and Kingdoms Of Egypt

 Historians divide Egyptian civilization into four Periods, the Old, Middle, New, and the
Late Kingdoms
 These eras are separated from each another by, respectively, the First, Second, and Third
Intermediate periods.
 During these Intermediate periods, political divisions and weak rulers fragmented the
central government and disrupted the administrative authority of the country.

Egyptian Dynasties and Kingdoms

Dynastic Period Images Timeline
c 25000-3000 BC
Tools and artifacts indicate that humans lived in the Nile valley
Pre-dynastic about 250,000 years ago when the region was a green
Period: grassland. Throughout most of its pre-dynastic history Egypt
encompassed a multiplicity of settlements which gradually
became small tribal kingdoms
c.4000-2680 BC
The formative stage of the Ancient civilization, the entire
culture would remain virtually unchanged for the next 3000
Early
years.
Dynasty: Pharaoh Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt, into a single
kingdom, and made Memphis his capital, this important event
marked the beginning of the dynastic period of Egypt
2650-2150 BC
This period is characterized by the pyramid construction,
Old Kingdom: including the Saqqara and Giza necropolis. By the end of the
6th Dynasty, small provincial principalities emerged to
challenge Pharaonic power.
First 2150-2060 BC
Intermediate The government crumbles and civil war breaks out as several
Period: rival kingdoms fight for control of Egypt.
2055-1991 BC
Mentuhotep 2 re-established political and social order, and
pyramid construction was continued for the last time in
Middle Egyptian history,
Kingdom: During this historical period, Asian foreigners started to settle
in the Delta, their numbers increased rapidly in large
communities, and their leaders became local governors in their
own rights
 1800-1550 BC
Second
Division of Egypt in 13th and 14th Dynasties led to Hyksos
Intermediate
invading Egypt in 1674 BC, Egyptians learned about bronze,
Period:
new weapons, and horse-drawn chariots from invaders

1550-1069 BC
New Egypt's military involvement and expansion in Syria and
Kingdom: Palestine, and the increase in power of the Amun High Priests
which at the end led to the division and collapse of the State

Third 1069-752 BC
Intermediate Economic troubles and civil wars weaken Egypt. There are up
Period: to 4 Pharaohs ruling different parts of Egypt at the same time.
752-343 BC
This period is charaterized by the constant foreign threats from
Late Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians During the reign of
Kingdom: Nectanebo 2, Egypt was conquered by Persians, this marked
the end of native Egyptian rule, all the following dynasties
were foreigners.
343-332 BC
Second Persian
The Persians defeated the Egyptians and Ochus became ruler
Period:
over Egypt founding the 31st Dynasty.
332-30 BC
Invasion by te forces of Alexander the Great brought an end to
Persian rule.
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, his
Ptolemaic
commander Ptolemy 1 Soter founded the Ptolemaic State in
Period: Egypt, which became one of the great powers of the Hellenistic
world.
The Ptolemaic line ended with the suicide of Cleopatra in 30
BC, and Egypt was reduced to a Roman province

http://www.aldokkan.com/egypt/egypt.htm

Egyptian Dynasties
Menes (or Narmer) unified Upper and Lower Egypt and established his capital at Memphis
around 3000 B.C.. By the time of the Old Kingdom, the land had been consolidated under the
central power of a king, who was also the "owner" of all Egypt. Considered to be divine, he
stood above the priests and was the only individual who had direct contact with the gods. The
economy was a royal monopoly and so there was no word in Egyptian for "trader." Under the
king was a carefully graded hierarchy of officials, ranging from the governors of provinces down
through local mayors and tax collectors. The entire system was supported by the work of slaves,
peasants and artisans.

The Old Kingdom reached its highest stage of development in the Fourth Dynasty. The most
tangible symbols of this period of greatness are the three enormous pyramids built as the tombs
of kings at Giza between 2600 and 2500. The largest, Khufu (called Cheops by the Greeks), was
originally 481 feet high and 756 feet long on each side. Khufu was made up of 2.3 million stone
blocks averaging 2.5 tons each. In the 5th century B.C. the Greek historian Herodotus tells us
that the pyramid took 100,000 men and twenty years to build. The pyramids are remarkable not
only for their technical engineering expertise, but also for what they tell us about royal power at
the time. They are evidence that Egyptian kings had enormous wealth as well as the power to
concentrate so much energy on a personal project.

The priests, an important body within the ruling caste, were a social force working to modify the
king's supremacy. Yielding to the demands of the priests of Re, a sun god, kings began to call
themselves "sons of Re," adding his name as a suffix to their own. Re was also worshipped in
temples that were sometimes larger than the pyramids of later kings.

In the Old Kingdom, royal power was absolute. The pharaoh (the term originally meant "great
house" or "palace"), governed his kingdom through his family and appointed officials. The lives
of the peasants and artisans was carefully regulated: their movement was limited and they were
taxed heavily. Luxury accompanied the pharaoh in life and in death and he was raised to an
exalted level by his people. The Egyptians worked for the pharaoh and obeyed him because he
was a living god on whom the entire fabric of social life depended. No codes of law were needed
since the pharaoh was the direct source of all law.

In such a world, government was merely one aspect of religion and religion dominated Egyptian
life. The gods of Egypt came in many forms: animals, humans and natural forces. Over time, Re,
the sun god, came to assume a dominant place in Egyptian religion.

The Egyptians had a very clear idea of the afterlife. They took great care to bury their dead
according to convention and supplied the grave with things that the departed would need for a
pleasant life after death. The pharaoh and some nobles had their bodies preserved in a process of
mummification. Their tombs were decorated with paintings, food was provided at burial and
after. Some tombs even included full sized sailing vessels for the voyage to heaven and beyond.
At first, only pharaohs were thought to achieve eternal life, however, nobles were eventually
included, and finally all Egyptians could hope for immortality.

The Egyptians also developed a system of writing. Although the idea may have come from
Mesopotamia, the script was independent of the cuneiform. Egyptian writing began as
pictographic and was later combined with sound signs to produce a difficult and complicated
script that the Greeks called hieroglyphics ("sacred carvings"). Though much of what we have
today is preserved on wall paintings and carvings, most of Egyptian writing was done with pen
and ink on fine paper (papyrus). In 1798 Napoleon invaded Egypt as part of his Grand Empire.
He brought with a Commission of Science and Arts composed of more than one hundred
scientists, engineers and mathematicians. In 1799 the Commission discovered a basalt fragment
on the west bank of the Nile at Rachid. The fragment is now known by its English name, the
Rosetta Stone. The Egyptian hieroglyphics found on the Rosetta Stone were eventually
deciphered in 1822 by Jean François Champollion (1790-1832), a French scholar who had
mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Coptic. The
Rosetta Stone contains three inscriptions. The uppermost is written in hieroglyphics; the second
in what is now called demotic, the common script of ancient Egypt; and the third in Greek.
Champollion guessed that the three inscriptions contained the same text and so he spent the next
fourteen years (1808-1822) working from the Greek to the demotic and finally to the
hieroglyphics until he had deciphered the whole text. The Rosetta Stone is now on display at the
British Museum in London.

During the period of the Middle Kingdom (2050-1800 B.C.) the power of the pharaohs of the
Old Kingdom waned as priests and nobles gained more independence and influence. The
governors of the regions of Egypt (nomes) gained hereditary claim to their offices and
subsequently their families acquired large estates. About 2200 B.C. the Old Kingdom collapsed
and gave way to the decentralization of the First Intermediate Period (2200-2050 B.C.). Finally,
the nomarchs of Thebes in Upper Egypt gained control of the country and established the Middle
Kingdom.

The rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty restored the power of the pharaoh over the whole of Egypt
although they could not control the nomarchs. They brought order and peace to Egypt and
encouraged trade northward toward Palestine and south toward Ethiopia. They moved the capital
back to Memphis and gave great prominence to Amon, a god connected with the city of Thebes.
He became identified with Re, emerging as Amon-Re.

The Middle Kingdom disintegrated in the Thirteenth Dynasty with the resurgence of the power
of the nomarchs. Around 1700 B.C. Egypt suffered an invasion by the Hyksos who came from
the east (perhaps Palestine or Syria) and conquered the Nile Delta. In 1575 B.C., a Thebian
dynasty drove out the Hyksos and reunited the kingdom. In reaction to the humiliation of the
Second Intermediate Period, the pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, most notably Thutmose III
(1490-1436 B.C.), created an absolute government based on a powerful army and an Egyptian
empire extending far beyond the Nile Valley.

One of the results of these imperialistic ventures of the pharaohs was the growth in power of the
priests of Amon and the threat it posed to the pharaoh. When young Amenhotep IV (1367-1350
B.C.) came to the throne he was apparently determined to resist the priesthood of Amon.
Supported by his family he ultimately made a clean break with the worship of Amon-Re. He
moved his capital from Thebes (the center of Amon worship) to a city three hundred miles to the
north at a place now called El Amarna. Its god was Aton, the physical disk of the sun, and the
new city was called Akhenaton. The pharaoh changed his name to Akhenaton ("it pleases
Aton"). The new god was different from any that had come before him, for he was believed to be
universal, not merely Egyptian.

The universal claims for Aton led to religious intolerance of the worshippers of other gods. Their
temples were closed and the name of Amon-Re was removed from all monuments. The old
priests were deprived of their posts and privileges. The new religion was more remote than the
old. Only the pharaoh and his family worshipped Aton directly and the people worshipped the
pharaoh. Akhenaton's interest in religious reform proved disastrous in the long run. The Asian
possessions fell away and the economy crumbled as a result. When the pharaoh died, a strong
reaction swept away his life's work.
His chosen successor was put aside and replaced by Tutankhamon (1347-1339 B.C.), the
husband of one of the daughters of Akhenaton and his wife, Nefertiti. The new pharaoh restored
the old religion and wiped out as much as he could of the memory of the worship of Aton. He
restored Amon to the center of the Egyptian pantheon, abandoned El Amarna, and returned the
capital to Thebes. His magnificent tomb remained intact until its discovery in 1922.

The end of the El Amarna age restored power to the priests of Amon and to the military officers.
Horemhab, a general, restored order and recovered much of the lost empire. He referred to
Akhenaton as "the criminal of Akheton" and erased his name from the records. Akhenaton's city
and memory disappeared for over 3000 years to be rediscovered by accident about a century ago.

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture3b.html