Egypt - Classic Old Kingdom

  General Description   The Old Kingdom period of Egypt covers the Third to Sixth ruling Dynasties, a period stretching from about 2650 to 2150 BCE. Seshat divides this period into two groups, the ’Classic’ Old Kingdom period, covering the First through Fifth Dynasties (roughly 2650-2350 BCE), and the ’Late’ Old Kingdom, comprising the turbulent Sixth Dynasty (2350-2150 BCE). The Fifth Dynasty, with its complex and effective administrative systems, is considered to be the high point for the centralization of the Old Kingdom government.
Population and political organization
During the Old Kingdom of Egypt, a god-king based in Memphis extended his reach along the Nile river through a network of royal centres, military towers and agricultural domains. ^[1] Few documents survive from the period; what evidence there is suggests that Egypt had become a centrally planned and administered state. ^[2] During the Third Dynasty, high positions within the central administration were characteristically ‒ but not exclusively ‒ the preserve of the king’s family. A notable exception was the chancellor and high priest Imhotep, the architect of Djoser’s famous funerary complex which housed (among other buildings) the Step Pyramid. During the Fourth Dynasty, the number of officials from outside the king’s family increased within the Egyptian administration, a trend which peaked in the Fifth Dynasty when the vizier became a powerful figure in his own right. The vizier oversaw the palace government’s granaries and treasuries, within which there were specialized departments and hierarchies of scribes. ^[3] One of the best known literary works of the Old Kingdom, The Maxims of Ptahhotep ‒ an invaluable source on Egyptian officialdom ‒ was written by a vizier at the end of the Fifth Dynasty. ^[4] According to Egyptologist Hratch Papazian, however, a true hierarchical bureaucracy emerged only in the Late Old Kingdom. ^[5]
Initially, control over the approximately 300,000 square kilometres of Egyptian territory outside of Memphis was exercised through royal centres called hwt, run by directly-appointed state officials. ^[6] At first there were no formal provincial boundaries; the hwt, a royal possession, might extend over several villages, large amounts of royal agricultural land, labourers, fields and cattle. The governor and staff of the hwt were responsible for irrigation works. ^{[6] [7] [8]} One notable change that occurred between the Fifth to Sixth Dynasties was that control over the hwt gradually passed from the royal administration to a provincial nobility. ^[9]
A religious network of temples, mortuary complexes and local cults spread over the landscape of Egypt between 2650 and 2350 BCE. Long viewed as an incarnation of an ancient sky and falcon god called Horus, from the Fourth Dynasty onward the Egyptian king also was considered the son of a sun god, Ra. ^[10] Ra grew in importance during the Old Kingdom and, around the beginning of the Fifth Dynasty, had essentially become an Egyptian state god. Although a common religious-ideological system prevailed throughout Old Kingdom Egypt centred on the divine authority of the king and a pantheon of deities and spirits, in general religious beliefs at this time were ’locally diverse and socially stratified’. ^[11] independent mortuary priests served cults at tombs dedicated to the afterlives of important individuals and local variation in the focus of worship remained an integral part of Egyptian religion. ^[11] On the burial chamber walls of King Unas, who reigned c. 2375-2345 BCE, we find the first Pyramid Texts, ’the earliest large religious composition known from ancient Egypt’. ^[4]

[1]: (Moreno García 2013, 196) Juan Carlos Moreno García. 2013. ’Building the Pharaonic State: Territory, Elite, and Power in Ancient Egypt during the 3rd Millennium BCE’, in Experiencing Power - Generating Authority: Cosmos and Politics in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, edited by J. A. Hill, Ph. H. Jones, A. J. Morales, 185-217. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

[2]: (Malek 2000, 95) Jaromir Malek. 2000. ’The Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2160 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 83-107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[3]: (Papazian 2013, 46, 78) Hratch Papazian. 2013. ’Departments, Treasuries, Granaries and Work Centers’, in Ancient Egyptian Adminstration, edited by Juan Carlos Moreno García, 41-83. Leiden: Brill.

[4]: (Malek 2000, 102) Jaromir Malek. 2000. ’The Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2160 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 83-107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[5]: (Papazian 2013, 67-68) Hratch Papazian. 2013. ’Departments, Treasuries, Granaries and Work Centers’, in Ancient Egyptian Adminstration, edited by Juan Carlos Moreno García, 41-83. Leiden: Brill.

[6]: (Moreno García 2013, 198) Juan Carlos Moreno García. 2013. ’Building the Pharaonic State: Territory, Elite, and Power in Ancient Egypt during the 3rd Millennium BCE’, in Experiencing Power - Generating Authority: Cosmos and Politics in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, edited by J. A. Hill, Ph. H. Jones, A. J. Morales, 185-217. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

[7]: (Van De Mieroop 2011, 80) Marc Van De Mieroop. 2011. A History of Ancient Egypt. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Chichester.

[8]: (Malek 2000, 94) Jaromir Malek. 2000. ’The Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2160 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 83-107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[9]: (Kemp 1983, 108) Barry J. Kemp. 1983. ’Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period c. 2686-1552 BC’, in Ancient Egypt: A Social History, edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor and Alan B. Lloyd, 71-182. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[10]: (Kemp 1983, 71-72) Barry J. Kemp. 1983. ’Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period c. 2686-1552 BC’, in Ancient Egypt: A Social History, edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor and Alan B. Lloyd, 71-182. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[11]: (Malek 2000, 101) Jaromir Malek. 2000. ’The Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2160 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 83-107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.