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16 FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD: 2181 - 2040 BC

http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/firstintermed.html



FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD: 2181 - 2040 BC
This period saw a breakdown of central government. 



The First Intermediate Period was traditionally described as a low point in ancient Egyptian history, largely because the information we have regarding this period is sketchy and often contradictory but also because to some it marks a nadir in Egyptian culture, art and architecture. However, some Egyptologists have challenged this view of the period and asked the question was the First Intermediate Period a "dark age".
It is generally agreed that the centralised state collapsed shortly after the rule of Pepi II. Pepi was in his nineties when he passed away. He survived many of his heirs but left a large number of people with tenuous claims to the throne and there were significant successional difficulties following his departure. There also seem to have been problems caused by the rise in the power of certain noble families. As if this was not enough, there may also have been unpredictable fluctuations in the level of the inundation which caused widespread famine and instability during which the temples were pillaged and art works vandalised. Pharaonic authority buckled under the pressure and powerful "nomarchs" struggled to step into the breach and take control of Egypt.

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