Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period c. 2686–1552 BC

Abstract

The Old and Middle Kingdoms together represent an important unitary phase in Egypt's political and cultural development. The Early Dynastic Period had seen the creation and consolidation of a type of government and court culture which, with the Third Dynasty, now reached levels of scale and competence marking the beginning of the plateau of achievement for ancient Egypt. After five centuries and following the end of the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2181 BC) the system appears to have faltered, and there seems to have ensued a century and a half of provincial assertion and civil war, the First Intermediate Period. But the re-establishment of powerful central government which followed, c. 2040 BC, seems to have been, with certain changes of nuance, the re-establishment of the patterns of the Old Kingdom. There is thus much to be said for treating certain important aspects of the Old and Middle Kingdoms together.