2.8 DBQ on First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom

First Intermediate Period

2100-2050 BC

In the Old Kingdom, the kings were supreme. Eventually the nobles began to aspire to an afterlife like the king. An afterlife were they wouldn’t be servants of the king. The nobles began to increase in wealth as well which increased their power. The priests in the cult of Re (Ra) decided to claim that Re (Ra) was more important than Horus. They won. Now the pharaoh also started using the title, son of Re. All deities were equal to the Pharaoh except for Re.

The Old Kingdom collapsed and chaos began. Some documents report famine. (Have you read any documents that might report famine in Egypt around 2100-2000 BC?) The nomes were ruling on their own. Trade declined and temples were damaged and tombs looted. The old optimism and confidence vanished until a new ruler would rise up and unify Egypt once more.

During this time, the literature changes slightly.

1. Why might tomb robbers occur more frequently during this period?

Document #1

Tales of Ancient Egypt: The Shipwrecked Sailor, c. 2200 BCE

THE wise servant said, "Let thy heart be satisfied, O my lord, for that we have come back to the country; after we have been long on board, and rowed much, the prow has at last touched land. All the people rejoice and embrace us one after another. Moreover, we have come back in good health, and not a man is lacking…

…"Now I shall tell that which has happened to me, to my very self. I was going to the mines of Pharaoh, and I went down on the sea in a ship … They had said that the wind would not be contrary, or that there would be none. But as we approached the land, the wind arose, and threw up waves eight cubits high. As for me, I seized a piece of wood; but those who were in the vessel perished, without one remaining. A wave threw me on an island, after that I had been three days alone, without a companion beside my own heart. I laid me in a thicket, and the shadow covered me. Then stretched I my limbs to try to find something for my mouth. I found there figs and grain, melons of all kinds, fishes, and birds. Nothing was lacking. And I satisfied myself; and left on the ground that which was

over, of what my arms had been filled withal. I dug a pit, I lighted a fire, and I made a burnt offering unto the gods.

"Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that of a wave of the sea. The trees shook, and the earth was moved. I uncovered my face, and I saw that a serpent drew near. He was thirty cubits long, and his beard greater than two cubits; his body was as overlaid with gold, and his color as that of true lazuli. He coiled himself before me. "Then he opened his mouth, while that I lay on my face before him, and he said to me, "What has brought you, what has brought you, little one, what has brought you? If you say not speedily what has brought you to this isle, I will make you know yourself; as a flame you shall vanish, if you tell me not something I have not heard, or which I knew not, before you.'

…"Then I replied to him, and holding my arms low before him, I said to him, "I was embarked for the mines by the order of the majesty, in a ship, one hundred and fifty cubits was its length, and the width of it forty cubits. … A storm came upon us while we were on the sea. Hardly could we reach to the shore when the wind waxed yet greater, and the waves rose even eight cubits. As for me, I seized a piece of wood, while those who were in the boat perished without one being left with me for three days. Behold me now before you, for I was brought to this isle by a wave of the sea.'

"Then said he to me, "Fear not, fear not, little one, and make not your face sad. If you have come to me, it is God who has let you live. For it is He who has brought you to this isle of the blest, where nothing is lacking, and which is filled with all good things. See now, you shall pass one month after another, until you shall be four months in this isle. Then a ship shall come from your land with sailors, and you shall leave with them and go to your country, and you shall die in your town.'

Source:

From: Eva March Tappan, ed., The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Are, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), Vol. III: Egypt, Africa, and Arabia, trans. W. K. Flinders Petrie, pp. 41-46.

Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg has modernized the text.

2. How would you describe the interactions of the people in this story?

Middle Kingdom

2050-1700 BC

Document #2

The first person to unify Egypt was Mentuhotep II. He begins to open up trade again and the Middle Kingdom begins.

3. This is his tomb. What is different than the Old Kingdom tombs?

Document #3

The capital during the Middle Kingdom was Thebes. Amon was the god of Thebes and they blended his name with Amon-Re. The kings were now called the sons of Amon-Re and

Amon-Re became the king of all the gods.

4. What was the capital of the Old Kingdom and who was the god of that city?

5. What is the capital of the Middle Kingdom and who is the major god now? What major change happens with this new god?

In the Old Kingdom, only the kings were given access to the afterlife. Now nobility also had access. Funerary Texts are incantations to secure safe passage to the underworld and in the

Old Kingdom these incantations were in pyramids and thus called Pyramid Texts. In the Middle Kingdom, they were called Coffin Texts because nobility were now buried as well in

coffins.

6. What type of tombs were the nobility buried in based on the picture above?

7. What is a funerary text?

Document #4

In Egypt, art was very symbolic and religious. Art had not much purpose outside of religion. They used lots of symbols to convey meaning. People are often seen with combined human and animal characteristics. They use frontalism, the body is seen as if you are looking at the full front but the head is depicted in profile, and most scenes showed military or religious events or daily life. Pottery was made for every day and religious purposes. Statues were included in temples and tombs as symbols of divinity. Jewelry was used for adornment and magic.

a. b.

c.

8. What do you think the symbol in (a) represents?

9. What is pictured in (b)? This was very symbolic. What might this piece of jewelry symbolize?

10. What is pictured on the front of this headress in (c)? Why do you think the Egyptians used this symbol?

Document #5

Senusret III was one of the pharaoh’s in the Middle Kingdom. He created a better government, improved irrigation and created a canal called the Bahr Joseph to save water during the overflowing of the Nile. The water would be stowed in times of famine. Famines would be caused by not just lack of rainfall but also by weather patterns such a heat and insect infestations. He built fortresses near the second cataract to protect trade routes as well as walls in northeastern Egypt to protect against Asia. During his reign, Egypt is said to have had a terrible famine and his vizier united all the nomes under the king’s protection. They king now OWENED all the land in Egypt. He reigned around 1879 BC.

His son was the Pharaoh Amenemhet III. Egypt continued to prosper as trade increased and agricultural production skyrocketed. After his reign, in the 1700’s, the Middle Kingdom began to dwindle in prosperity and the government began to weaken. Also after the reign of Amenemhet III, a large settlement of Semitic people begin to appear in the Delta region in a place called Avaris (will become part of the Pharaoh Ramesses’ city-complex later). In this settlement, we have LOTS of evidence of trade with not just the Mesopotamian area but also with Crete. It is during the Middle Kingdom that some evidence exists for using Semites as slaves as well.

In the 1980’s, a professor found the remains of a great statue of a non-Egyptian who seems to have had an important status in Egypt. The statue was found in Avaris. Only parts of it remain but it was probably about 6 ½ feet high and 5 feet deep. Slightly larger than an actual human. A throw stick is in one hand and crosses to his right shoulder. This man is wearing a garment that is Canaanite in origin and was of three colors: black, red, and white. The statue is placed in a tomb which contained no burial remains. His face has been hammered off and there is no name. (When the Egyptians

would erase names, it was to erase a person for all eternity. Names had power-mystical power.) The hair style also is unlike the wigs of Egypt. The statue dates to around 1,700 BC. The settlement of Avaris will prosper in the Nile Delta until the fall of the Middle Kingdom. The people living in Avaris also fell on hard times and they will eventually leave or be pushed out by invaders. A group of people, called the Hyksos, from Canaan took over the city after it was abandoned.

Towards the end of the Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period or the early New Kingdom that we can tentivally place the Hebrew account of the Exodus. However, other than the Hebrew account of the Exodus there exists no other evidence for the Exodus. Historians have to rely on archaeologists to provide extra-Biblical information which ranges from pictures of Semitic people, inscriptions of the existence of the nation of Israel, pathways of destruction caused by invaders, papyri detailing Semitic names and Semitic settlements.

11. How might historians use the above information provided by archaeologists?

Second Intermediate Period

In the 1700’s BC, Egypt fell on hard times. This allowed a group of people from Canaan to invade. They are known as the Hyksos and are responsible for what is called the Second Intermediate Period. These kings would rule from Avaris in the Delta and will eventually control all of Egypt. They introduced the chariot, bow and arrow and bronze weaponry.