Egypt - Period of the Regions

  General Description   The Period of the Regions, or the First Intermediate Period of Egypt, refers to the interval between the Old and the Middle Kingdoms. There was no single capital at this time. Instead, there were several powerful hereditary rulers scattered throughout the region, including the Herakleopolitan kings in the north and the Theban Eleventh Dynasty in the south. ^{[1] [2]}
Population and political organization
During the Period of the Regions, different local rulers vied for control of the former provinces (the nomes of the Late Old Kingdom). In Upper Egypt, around Thebes, the Eleventh Dynasty was able to establish a centralized system of regional administration. Interestingly, this dynasty lacked the powerful provincial nomarchs that characterized the Late Old Kingdom, which perhaps presages the unitary state of the Middle Kingdom. ^{[2] [3] [4]}
At this early date, however, the Theban Kingdom was relatively unimportant and removed from developments elsewhere in Egypt. ^[2] Further south along the Nile river, a local governor at Mo’alla, Ankhtifi, waged war on his own behalf without deferring to royal power and claimed authority over multiple southern nomes. ^[5] The political fragmentation of the period is further illustrated by the ’glaring gap’ in monument-building across Egypt. ^[6] Nevertheless, provincial rulers did command sufficient resources to build monumental mastaba tombs and the Theban Kingdom is notable for its rock-cut saff tombs. ^[7]
Although the Intermediate Periods of Egypt are popularly thought of as being synonymous with disruption and a downturn in fortunes for the Egyptian people, several Egyptologists now argue that this assumption is misleading, at least for the First period: they instead contend that economic productivity was generally high during the late Old Kingdom and remained so through the Period of the Regions. ^[8] The main difference was that the king and his court lost power and access to much of this wealth, as the power of local rulers grew vis-à-vis the central state. In fact, despite its portrayal in Middle Kingdom literature as a time of depression, the First Intermediate Period was characterized by dynamism and creativity. ^[9] Popular culture flourished and evidence from burials shows that local populations enjoyed ’conspicuous, if modest, wealth’. ^{[9] [10]}

[1]: (Lloyd 2010, xl) Alan B. Lloyd. 2010. ’Chronology’, in A Companion to Ancient Egypt, Volume 1, edited by Alan B. Lloyd, xxxii-xliii. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

[2]: (Seidlmayer 2000, 127) Stephan Seidlmayer. 2000. ’The First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2055 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 108-36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[3]: (Willems 2010, 84) Harco Willems. 2010. ’The First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom’, in A Companion to Ancient Egypt, Volume 1, edited by Alan B. Lloyd, 81-100. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

[4]: (Seidlmayer 2000, 126) Stephan Seidlmayer. 2000. ’The First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2055 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 108-36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[5]: (Seidlmayer 2003, 118-21)

[6]: (Seidlmayer 2000, 110) Stephan Seidlmayer. 2000. ’The First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2055 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 108-36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[7]: (Seidlmayer 2000, 116, 124) Stephan Seidlmayer. 2000. ’The First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2055 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 108-36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[8]: (Seidlmayer 2000, 113) Stephan Seidlmayer. 2000. ’The First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2055 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 108-36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[9]: (Seidlmayer 2000, 136) Stephan Seidlmayer. 2000. ’The First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2055 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 108-36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[10]: (Morris 2010, 66-69) Ellen Morris. 2010. ’"Lo, Nobles Lament, the Poor Rejoice": State Formation in the Wake of Social Flux’, in After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies, edited by G. M. Schwartz and J. J. Nichols, 58-71. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.