When the Old Kingdom ended, no single king ruled the whole of Egypt for about a century. Historians call this the First Intermediate Period (c. 2160–2055 BC). It was a time of rival kings and strong local leaders, and also of real change in who could hope for a good afterlife.
Key idea
Two royal houses
| North | South | |
|---|---|---|
| Capital | Herakleopolis, near the Faiyum | Thebes |
| Dynasties | 9th and 10th | 11th (the Intef kings, then Mentuhotep II) |
| Reach | Lower Egypt and Middle Egypt | Upper Egypt, pushing north |
| Outcome | defeated c. 2055 BC or later | reunited Egypt |
Fighting centered on the borderlands around Abydos and Thinis. Local governors chose sides: Ankhtifi, who ruled two southern nomes from his base near Hierakonpolis, backed the north and fought the Thebans. His tomb tells of his deeds and of a famine in which, he says, he fed his people.
Why it works
Not only chaos
Many provincial towns did well. Local workshops made their own styles of art, freed from the court's rules. And spells that had been only for kings, like the Pyramid Texts, began to be written inside the coffins of officials and their families. These Coffin Texts spread in the Middle Kingdom: a good afterlife was now hoped for by many more people.
Worked example: Reading a later text
- The text was written later, under kings who had reunited Egypt.
- Those kings had reasons to describe the time before them as chaos that they ended.
- Archaeology shows many local towns and cemeteries doing well in this period.
Answer: No. It is partly a message of the later kings; the evidence on the ground is more mixed.
Common mistake