Middle Kingdom of Egypt

A painted relief depicting pharaoh Mentuhotep II, from his mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari

An Osiride statue of the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom, Mentuhotep II

After the collapse of the Old Kingdom, Egypt entered a period of weak pharaonic power and decentralization called the First Intermediate Period.[3] Towards the end of this period, two rival dynasties, known in Egyptology as the Tenth and Eleventh, fought for control of the entire country. The Theban Eleventh Dynasty only ruled southern Egypt from the First Cataract to the Tenth Nome of Upper Egypt. To the north, Lower Egypt was ruled by the rival Tenth Dynasty from Herakleopolis.[4] The struggle was to be concluded by Mentuhotep II, who ascended the Theban throne in 2055 BC.[5] During Mentuhotep II's fourteenth regnal year, he took advantage of a revolt in the Thinite Nome to launch an attack on Herakleopolis, which met little resistance.[4] After toppling the last rulers of the Tenth Dynasty, Mentuhotep began consolidating his power over all of Egypt, a process which he finished by his 39th regnal year.[3] For this reason, Mentuhotep II is regarded as the founder of the Middle Kingdom.[6]

Mentuhotep II commanded petty campaigns south as far as the Second Cataract in Nubia, which had gained its independence during the First Intermediate Period. He also restored Egyptian hegemony over the Sinai region, which had been lost to Egypt since the end of the Old Kingdom.[7] To consolidate his authority, he restored the cult of the ruler, depicting himself as a god in his own lifetime, wearing the headdresses of Amun and Min.[8] He died after a reign of 51 years and passed the throne to his son, Mentuhotep III.[7]

Mentuhotep III reigned for only twelve years, during which he continued consolidating Theban rule over the whole of Egypt, building a series of forts in the eastern Delta region to secure Egypt against threats from Asia.[7] He also sent the first expedition to Punt during the Middle Kingdom, using ships constructed at the end of Wadi Hammamat, on the Red Sea.[9] Mentuhotep III was succeeded by Mentuhotep IV, whose name, significantly, is omitted from all ancient Egyptian king lists.[10] The Turin Papyrus claims that after Mentuhotep III came "seven kingless years".[11] Despite this absence, his reign is attested from a few inscriptions in Wadi Hammamat that record expeditions to the Red Sea coast and to quarry stone for the royal monuments.[10] The leader of this expedition was his vizier Amenemhat, who is widely assumed to be the future pharaoh Amenemhet I, the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty.[12][13]

Mentuhotep IV's absence from the king lists has prompted the theory that Amenemhet I usurped his throne.[13] While there are no contemporary accounts of this struggle, certain circumstantial evidence may point to the existence of a civil war at the end of the 11th Dynasty.[10] Inscriptions left by one Nehry, the Haty-a of Hermopolis, suggest that he was attacked at a place called Shedyet-sha by the forces of the reigning king, but his forces prevailed. Khnumhotep I, an official under Amenemhet I, claims to have participated in a flotilla of twenty ships sent to pacify Upper Egypt. Donald Redford has suggested these events should be interpreted as evidence of open war between two dynastic claimants.[14] What is certain is that, however he came to power, Amenemhet I was not of royal birth.[13]

The head of a statue of Senusret I.

From the Twelfth Dynasty onwards, pharaohs often kept well-trained standing armies, which included Nubian contingents. These formed the basis of larger forces that were raised for defense against invasion, or expeditions up the Nile or across the Sinai. However, the Middle Kingdom was basically defensive in its military strategy, with fortifications built at the First Cataract of the Nile, in the Delta and across the Sinai Isthmus.[15]

Early in his reign, Amenemhet I was compelled to campaign in the Delta region, which had not received as much attention as Upper Egypt during the 11th Dynasty.[16] Also, he strengthened defenses between Egypt and Asia, building the Walls of the Ruler in the East Delta region.[17] Perhaps in response to this perpetual unrest, Amenemhat I built a new capital for Egypt in the north, known as Amenemhet It Tawy, or Amenemhet, Seizer of the Two Lands.[18] The location of this capital is unknown, but is presumably near the city's necropolis, the present-day el-Lisht.[17] Like Mentuhotep II, Amenemhet bolstered his claim to authority with propaganda.[19] In particular, the Prophecy of Neferty dates to about this time, which purports to be an oracle of an Old Kingdom priest, who predicts a king, Amenemhet I, arising from the far south of Egypt to restore the kingdom after centuries of chaos.[17]

Propaganda notwithstanding, Amenemhet never held the absolute power commanded in theory by the Old Kingdom pharaohs. During the First Intermediate Period, the governors of the nomes of Egypt, nomarchs, gained considerable power. Their posts had become hereditary, and some nomarchs entered into marriage alliances with the nomarchs of neighboring nomes.[20] To strengthen his position, Amenemhet required registration of land, modified nome borders, and appointed nomarchs directly when offices became vacant, but acquiesced to the nomarch system, probably to placate the nomarchs who supported his rule.[21] This gave the Middle Kingdom a more feudal organization than Egypt had before or would have afterward.[22]

In his twentieth regnal year, Amenemhat established his son Senusret I as his coregent,[22] beginning a practice which would be used repeatedly throughout the rest of the Middle Kingdom and again during the New Kingdom. In Amenemhet's thirtieth regnal year, he was presumably murdered in a palace conspiracy. Senusret, campaigning against Libyan invaders, rushed home to Itjtawy to prevent a takeover of the government.[23] During his reign, Senusret continued the practice of directly appointing nomarchs,[24] and undercut the autonomy of local priesthoods by building at cult centers throughout Egypt.[25] Under his rule, Egyptian armies pushed south into Nubia as far as the Second Cataract, building a border fort at Buhen and incorporating all of Lower Nubia as an Egyptian colony.[26] To the west, he consolidated his power over the Oases, and extended commercial contacts into Syria-Palestine as far as Ugarit.[27] In his 43rd regnal year, Senusret appointed Amenemhet II as junior coregent, before dying in his 46th.[28]

A group of West Asiatic peoples (possibly Canaanites and precursors of the future Hyksos) depicted entering Egypt circa 1900 BC. From the tomb of a 12th dynasty official Khnumhotep II under pharaohs Amenemhat II and Senusret II, at Beni Hasan.[29][30][31][32]

The reign of Amenemhat II has been often characterized as largely peaceful,[27] but records of his genut, or daybooks, have cast doubt on that assessment.[33] Among these records, preserved on temple walls at Tod and Memphis, are descriptions of peace treaties with certain Syrio-Palestinian cities, and military conflict with others.[33] To the south, Amenemhet sent a campaign through lower Nubia to inspect Wawat.[27] It does not appear that Amenemhet continued his predecessors' policy of appointing nomarchs, but let it become hereditary again.[24] Another expedition to Punt dates to his reign.[33] In his 33rd regnal year, he appointed his son Senusret II coregent.[34]

Evidence for the military activity of any kind during the reign of Senusret II is non-existent. Senusret instead appears to have focused on domestic issues, particularly the irrigation of the Faiyum. This multi-generational project aimed to convert the Faiyum oasis into a productive swath of farmland.[35] Senusret eventually placed his pyramid at the site of el-Lahun, near the junction of the Nile and the Fayuum's major irrigation canal, the Bahr Yussef.[36] He reigned only fifteen years,[37] which explains the incomplete nature of many of his constructions.[35] His son Senusret III succeeded him.

Statue head of Senusret III

Senusret III was a warrior-king, often taking to the field himself. In his sixth year, he re-dredged an Old Kingdom canal around the First Cataract to facilitate travel to Upper Nubia. He used this to launch a series of brutal campaigns in Nubia in his sixth, eighth, tenth, and sixteenth years. After his victories, Senusret built a series of massive forts throughout the country to establish the formal boundary between Egyptian conquests and unconquered Nubia at Semna.[38] The personnel of these forts were charged to send frequent reports to the capital on the movements and activities of the local Medjay natives, some of which survive, revealing how tightly the Egyptians intended to control the southern border.[39] Medjay were not allowed north of the border by ship, nor could they enter by land with their flocks, but they were permitted to travel to local forts to trade.[40] After this, Senusret sent one more campaign in his 19th year, but turned back due to abnormally low Nile levels, which endangered his ships.[38] One of Senusret's soldiers also records a campaign into Palestine, perhaps against Shechem, the only reference to a military campaign against a location in Palestine from the entirety of Middle Kingdom literature.[41]

A rare etched carnelian bead excavated in Egypt, and thought to have been imported from the Indus Valley Civilization through Mesopotamia, in an example of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations. Abydos tomb 197, Late Middle Kingdom. Now in Petrie Museum ref. UC30334, London.[42][43]

Domestically, Senusret has been given credit for an administrative reform which put more power in the hands of appointees of the central government, instead of regional authorities.[38] Egypt was divided into three water, or administrative divisions: North, South, and Head of the South (perhaps Lower Egypt, most of Upper Egypt, and the nomes of the original Theban kingdom during the war with Herakleopolis, respectively). Each region was administrated by a Reporter, Second Reporter, some kind of council (the Djadjat), and staff of minor officials and scribes.[44] The power of the nomarchs seems to drop off permanently during his reign, which has been taken to indicate that the central government had finally suppressed them, though there is no record that Senusret ever took direct action against them.[38]

Senusret III left a lasting legacy as a warrior pharaoh. His name was Hellenized by later Greek historians as Sesostris, a name which was then given to a conflation of Senusret and several New Kingdom warrior pharaohs.[45] In Nubia, Senusret was worshiped as a patron God by Egyptian settlers.[46] The duration of his reign remains something of an open question. His son Amenemhet III began reigning after Senusret's 19th regnal year, which has been widely considered Senusret's highest attested date.[47] However, a reference to a year 39 on a fragment found in the construction debris of Senusret's mortuary temple has suggested the possibility of a long coregency with his son.[48]

The reign of Amenemhat III was the height of the Middle Kingdom's economic prosperity. His reign is remarkable for the degree to which Egypt exploited its resources. Mining camps in the Sinai, which had previously been used only by intermittent expeditions, were operated on a semi-permanent basis, as evidenced by the construction of houses, walls, and even local cemeteries.[49] There are 25 separate references to mining expeditions in the Sinai, and four to expeditions in Wadi Hammamat, one of which had over two thousand workers.[50] Amenemhet reinforced his father's defenses in Nubia[51] and continued the Faiyum land reclamation project.[52] After a reign of 45 years, Amenemhet III was succeeded by Amenemhet IV,[49] whose nine-year reign is poorly attested.[53] Clearly by this time, dynastic power had begun to weaken, for which several explanations have been proposed. Contemporary records of the Nile flood levels indicate that the end of the reign of Amenemhet III was dry, and crop failures may have helped to destabilize the dynasty.[52] Further, Amenemhet III had an inordinately long reign, which tends to create succession problems.[54] The latter argument perhaps explains why Amenemhet IV was succeeded by Sobekneferu, the first historically attested female king of Egypt.[54] Sobekneferu ruled no more than four years,[55] and as she apparently had no heirs, when she died the Twelfth Dynasty came to a sudden end as did the Golden Age of the Middle Kingdom.

A kneeling statue of Sobekhotep V, one of the pharaohs from the declining years of the Middle Kingdom.

After the death of Sobeknefru, the throne may have passed to Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep,[56][57] though in older studies Wegaf, who had previously been the Great Overseer of Troops,[58] was thought to have reigned next.[59] Beginning with this reign, Egypt was ruled by a series of ephemeral kings for about ten to fifteen years.[60] Ancient Egyptian sources regard these as the first kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty, though the term dynasty is misleading, as most kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty were not related.[61] The names of these short-lived kings are attested on a few monuments and graffiti, and their succession order is only known from the Turin Canon, although even this is not fully trusted.[60]

After the initial dynastic chaos, a series of longer reigning, better-attested kings ruled for about fifty to eighty years.[60] The strongest king of this period, Neferhotep I, ruled for eleven years and maintained effective control of Upper Egypt, Nubia, and the Delta,[62] with the possible exceptions of Xois and Avaris.[63] Neferhotep I was even recognized as the suzerain of the ruler of Byblos, indicating that the Thirteenth Dynasty was able to retain much of the power of the Twelfth Dynasty, at least up to his reign.[63] At some point during the 13th Dynasty, Xois and Avaris began governing themselves,[63] the rulers of Xois being the Fourteenth Dynasty, and the Asiatic rulers of Avaris being the Hyksos of the Fifteenth Dynasty. According to Manetho, this latter revolt occurred during the reign of Neferhotep's successor, Sobekhotep IV, though there is no archaeological evidence.[64] Sobekhotep IV was succeeded by the short reign of Sobekhotep V, who was followed by Wahibre Ibiau, then Merneferre Ai. Wahibre Ibiau ruled ten years, and Merneferre Ai ruled for twenty-three years, the longest of any Thirteenth Dynasty king, but neither of these two kings left as many attestations as either Neferhotep of Sobekhotep IV. Despite this, they both seem to have held at least parts of Lower Egypt. After Merneferre Ai, however, no king left his name on any object found outside the south.[65] This begins the final portion of the Thirteenth Dynasty when southern kings continue to reign over Upper Egypt. But when the unity of Egypt fully disintegrated, the Middle Kingdom gave way to the Second Intermediate Period.[66]

Clay model of a Middle Kingdom house. Musée du Louvre.

Decentralization during the First Intermediate Period left the individual Egyptian provinces, or Nomes, under the control of powerful families who held the hereditary title of Great Chief of the Nome, or Nomarch.[70] This position developed during the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, when the various powers of Old Kingdom provincial officials began to be exercised by a single individual.[70] At roughly this time, the provincial aristocracy began building elaborate tombs for themselves, which have been taken as evidence of the wealth and power which these rulers had acquired as nomarchs.[70] By the end of the First Intermediate Period, some nomarchs ruled their nomes as minor potentates, such as the nomarch Nehry of Hermopolis, who dated inscriptions by his own regnal year.[67]

When the Eleventh Dynasty came to power, it was necessary to subdue the power of the nomarchs if Egypt was to be reunified under a central government. The first major steps towards that end took place under Amenemhet I. Amenemhet made the city, not the nome, the center of administration, and only the haty-a, or mayor, of the larger cities would be permitted to carry the title of nomarch.[24] The title of nomarch continued to be used until the reign of Senusret III,[24] as did the elaborate tombs indicative of their power, after which they suddenly disappeared.[71] This has been interpreted several ways. Traditionally, it has been believed that Senusret III took some action to suppress the nomarch families during his reign.[72] Recently, other interpretations have been proposed. Detlef Franke has argued that Senusret II adopted a policy of educating the sons of nomarchs in the capital and appointing them to government posts. In this way, many provincial families may have been bled dry of scions.[24] Also, while the title of Great Overlord of the Nome disappeared, other distinctive titles of the nomarchs remained. During the First Intermediate Period, individuals holding the title of Great Overlord also often held the title of Overseer of Priests.[73] In the late Middle Kingdom, there existed families holding the titles of mayor and overseer of priests as hereditary possessions.[71] Therefore, it has been argued that the great nomarch families were never subdued, but were simply absorbed into the pharaonic administration of the country.[71] While it is true that the large tombs indicative of nomarchs disappear at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, grand royal tombs also disappear soon thereafter due to general instability surrounding the decline of the Middle Kingdom.[71]

Head and Torso of a Noblewoman, around 1844–1837 BC. 59.1. Brooklyn Museum

In the first half of the Twelfth Dynasty, proportions of the human figure returned to the traditional Memphite style of the Fifth and early Sixth Dynasties.[91] Male figures had broad shoulders, a low small of the back, and thick muscular limbs. Females had slender figures, a higher small of the back and no musculature.[91] In this period, sketches for the production of statues and reliefs were laid out on a squared grid, a new guide system. Since this system contained a greater number of lines, it allowed more body parts to be marked. Standing figures were composed of eighteen squares from the feet to the hairline. Seated figures were made of fourteen squares between their feet and hairline, accounting for the horizontal thigh and knee.[92] The black granite seated statue of king Amenemhat III to the right is a perfect example of male proportions and the squared grid system at this period.[93] Most royal statues, such as this one, would serve as representations of the king's power.[94]

The quality of Egyptian statuary reached its peak in the Middle Kingdom.[95] Royal statues combined both elegance and strength in a manner that was seldom seen after this period.[96] A popular form of statuary during this time was that of the sphinx. During this period, sphinxes appeared in pairs, and were recumbent, with human faces, and a lion's mane and ears. An example would be the diorite sphinx of Senusret III.[95]

One of the innovations in sculpture that occurred during the Middle Kingdom was the block statue, which would continue to be popular through to the Ptolemaic Kingdom almost 2,000 years later.[97] Block statues consist of a man squatting with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms folded on top his knees. Often, these men are wearing a "wide cloak" that reduces the body of the figure to a simple block-like shape.[98] The surface of the garment or "wide cloak" allowed space for inscriptions.[79] Most of the detail is reserved for the head of the individual being depicted. In some instances the modeling of the limbs has been retained by the sculptor.[99] There are two basic types of block statues: ones with the feet completely covered by the cloak and ones with the feet uncovered.[100]

This statue to the right represents a woman from the top echelon of society and demonstrates characteristics of Middle Kingdom art. The heavy tripartite wig frames the broad face and passes behind the ears, thus giving the impression of forcing them forward. They are large in keeping with the ancient Egyptian ideal of beauty; the same ideal required small breasts, and also in this respect the sculpture is no exception. Whereas the natural curve of the eyebrows dips towards the root of the nose, the artificial eyebrows in low relief are absolutely straight above the inner corners of the eyes, a feature which places the bust early in the Twelfth Dynasty. Around 1900 BC these artificial eyebrows began to follow the natural curve and dip toward the nose.[101]

In the later Twelfth Dynasty, proportions of the human figure changed. These changes survived through the Thirteenth to Seventeenth Dynasties. Male figures had smaller heads in proportion the rest of the body, narrow shoulders and waists, a high small of the back, and no muscled limbs. Female figures had these proportions more to an extreme with narrower shoulders and waists, slender limbs and a higher small of the back in order to keep a distinction between male and female measurements.[102]