Scope: At the end of the Old Kingdom, the unthinkable happened: Egypt collapsed and was thrown into anarchy. The Middle Kingdom is the story of the resurrection of Egypt. It is made up of only two dynasties: XI and XII. First we will look at Dynasty XI, the dynasty of unification. We will see Egypt slowly come under a single strong ruler once again and rise to greatness. We will also see that the names of the kings often provide clues to the political state of the country.
Outline
I. Dynasty XI (2134-1991 BC) began with kings all named Intef, so the chronology is a bit confusing. They were more Theban princes than true kings.
A. The Intefs, residing in the south, tried for unification. Intef Seher-towi (2134-2117 BC) begins the dynasty. His name means “makes peace in the two lands,” and he wrote his name in a cartouche. He had aspirations, but isn’t really king of the two lands.
B. Intef Wahankh (2117-2069 BC), “established in life,” was a dog lover, the first in history. An Egyptologist found a stela in 1860 showing his five dogs. (Egyptians were lovers of both cats and dogs.) This pharaoh called himself “King of Upper and Lower Egypt.”
C. Intef Nakht-neb-tep-nefer (2069-2060 BC), “beautiful and strong champion,” fought with northern rulers, trying to unify Egypt.
II. The Intefs are followed by the_Montuhoteps (“the war god is pleased”).
A. Montuhotep I (also called Montuhotep 11), Se-Ankh-ib-towi (2060- 2010 BC), “He Gives Life to the Heart of the Two Lands,” is the new political hope. Later, he added to his Horus name Sam-towi, “Uniter of the Two Lands,” a sign of his accomplishment in unifying the two lands. He took the name Neb-Hepet-Re (“Pleased is the Lord Re”) as his prenomen.
B. A warrior king who really was the unifier, Montuhotep left records of his battles up and down the Nile.
1. He built a spectacular mortuary temple in Thebes that has been excavated several times.
2. In the late nineteenth century, Swiss Egyptologist Edouard Naville found three princesses buried there, poorly mummified.
3. In the 1920s, American archaeologist Herbert Winlock found two more princesses, one only five years old but a “lady of the harem”—a daughter of the court, a ‘palace kid.’
4. In Middle Kingdom burials, people are placed on their sides so they can look out of the coffin through two eyes painted on it.
Often the insides of the coffins are inscribed with spells to help the deceased get to the next world.
5. In the 1920s, Winlock found a mass burial at Thebes of over sixty mummies in Deir el Bahri, or “place of the northern monastery” in Arabic. The mummies all turned out to be young men—a group of soldiers brought back for burial.
6. Winlock made further discoveries in a previously excavated tomb. The tomb of Meket re, chancellor and steward of the palace of Montuhotep I, contained remarkable wooden tomb models, like dioramas, depicting such amenities as bakeries and breweries that he expected to find in the next world.
7. In another tomb, Winlock also found the silver scarab, or beetle, worn by Wah, a man who worked for Meket re. The eyes of the scarab were hacked out so it wouldn’t be able to bite the deceased.
8. Winlock also found the family letters of a Ka priest, Heka Nakht, that revealed him to be a querulous micro-manager of the family estate. Agatha Christie based her novel Death Comes as the End on these letters.
C. Montuhotep Se-Ankh-Ka-Re (2010-1998 BC), “Causing the soul (ka) of Re to live,” succeeded his father. He sent 3,000 men to the caravan route of the Wadi Hammamat in year 8 and was reported to have dug twelve wells along the way.
D. Montuhotep Neb-towi-Re (1997-1991 BC) followed, though few records exist of his reign. He sent 10,000 men under his Vizier Amenemhet to the Wadi Hammamat for stone. A pregnant gazelle led them to the stone to be used and gave birth on it. They sacrificed the gazelle.
E. This was a dynasty that could build big and mount large expeditions—this was Egypt reborn.
Essential Reading:
H. E. Winlock, The Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom in Thebes.
Supplementary Reading:
Aidan Dodson, Monarchy of the Nile, Chapter VI.
Questions to Consider:
1. How did Egypt eventually become a nation again?
2. What were the accomplishments of the pharaohs who unified Egypt?