Download What was the the Old Kingdom

What was the “Old Kingdom” of Egypt?
While the unification of Egypt in the Archaic period was the single most important event in
Egyptian history, it was a long and drawn-out affair. Although Narmer is credited with unifying
the country, all the kings of the first two dynasties had to fight constant wars against
considerable opponents all along the Nile. But the third dynasty of Egyptian kings began
powerfully; the second king of that dynasty, a man named Netcheriche or Djoser (or Zoser)
became powerful enough to control the whole of the country. Egypt had, meanwhile, prospered
and grown beyond everyone's wildest dreams. Agricultural production had been revolutionized
by the building of massive irrigation projects; trade had ballooned to super-human proportions;
the population had swelled exponentially. Suddenly Egypt found itself wealthy; the country
literally exploded with creativity for the next several generations. This period,from 2650-2134,
the Old Kingdom, was the richest and most creative period in Egyptian history. All the
pyramids were built at this time; the growth in population and wealth allowed the kings to
apportion vast amounts of labor and materials to these monuments to themselves.
The first to build one was Djoser himself. Pyramid-building is mathematically not a complex
affair, but the Egyptians learned the art slowly. Djoser's pyramid, called the Step Pyramid, is not
a smooth pyramid, but a series of six bases built one on top of another. A later king, Snofru,
would build a pyramid closer to the classic design, but it was his son, Cheops, who built the
largest of them all, the Great Pyramid of Giza. All of the enormous pyramids were built in the
lifetimes of only four kings: Snofru, Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus, but they remain an icon
of the richest and most powerfully creative period of Egyptian culture.
The Djoser Step Pyramid
The Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza
What do they represent? What did an Egyptian of the Fourth Dynasty see when those massive
man-made mountains of stone loomed on the horizon? They represented the institution of the
monarchy itself. The king was a living god. As a god he was above every other human being; his
power was not given to him, it was an aspect of his divine nature. As a god, he brought life,
fertility, order, stability, and rationality to the Egyptian state just as the gods brought life,
fertility, order, stability,and rationality to the universe as a whole. He stood aloof and distant
from the rest of humanity, and only the king had the right or the ability to join the gods after he
died. The Egyptian in the street did not expect an afterlife of bliss or rebirth during the Old
Kingdom; it was only in later Egyptian history that rebirth was seen as common to all humans.
The pyramids represent all of these things. As monuments, they represent the inherent power of
the king. As geometry, they represent the order, balance, and rationality of the universe and its
incarnation in the king himself. As tombs, they represent the life after death available to the king
as living god.
There's no question that the first pyramids were almost entirely political in nature. All the
pyramids were built during the lifetime of the king who would occupy it; if the king died, the
pyramid would be abandoned. The very first pyramid, Djoser's Step Pyramid, has a Sed
("slaughter") court where the king would perform the Sed celebrations reconfirming his position
as king.
The Djoser Pyramid/Tomb Complex
The Old Kingdom lasted for four dynasties (3-6), but declined rapidly near the end of the sixth
dynasty. The annual floods of the Nile, which would water the ground and bring rich soil, fell off
precipitously. People began to starve, and the once proud united kingdom fell into disarray and
chaos until it fell completely into the darkness of the First Intermediate Period.
After the magnificence and creative energy of the Old Kingdom, the Nile began to a series of
poor floods which caused widespread hunger and death. All the administrative organization that
held the country together during the Old Kingdom fell apart into chaos; the country splintered
apart into dozens of chiefdoms. Each of these chiefs declared themselves king of all Egypt, but
their claim was as ephemeral as the wind. The institution of the Egyptian king pretty much died
out as local governors and officials associated themselves with their own region rather than with
the king.
Reasons why the “Old Kingdom is so important”.
Stunning advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during the Old Kingdom,
fueled by the increased agricultural productivity made possible by a well developed central
administration. Under the direction of the vizier, state officials collected taxes, coordinated
irrigation projects to improve crop yield, drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and
established a justice system to maintain peace and order. With the surplus resources made
available by a productive and stable economy, the state was able to sponsor construction of
colossal monuments and to commission exceptional works of art from the royal workshops. The
pyramids built by Djoser, Khufu, and their descendants are the most memorable symbols of
ancient Egyptian civilization, and the power of the pharaohs that controlled it.
Along with the rising importance of a central administration arose a new class of educated
scribes and officials who were granted estates by the pharaoh in payment for their services.
Pharaohs also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples to ensure that these
institutions would have the necessary resources to worship the pharaoh after his death. By the
end of the Old Kingdom, five centuries of these feudal practices had slowly eroded the economic
power of the pharaoh, who could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration.
As the power of the pharaoh diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge
the supremacy of the pharaoh. This, together with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150 BC,
ultimately caused the country to enter a 140-year period of famine and strife known as the First
Intermediate Period.