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2686-2134 - Old Kingdom - Dynasties IV-XI

It had been long suspected that the numerous dynasties contained in the chronologies of Manetho and Eratosthenes, were either gross forgeries, or consisted of lists of contemporary monarchs, and it was surmised, and indeed affirmed, that the stone of Abydos contained the whole succession of native Egyptian Pharaohs from Mizraim or Menes, as he is called by the Egyptians and Greeks, down to Rameses II, who erected the tablet, and whose signet and phonetic name appear last in the series. The same king is known by several names. The complete order of the titles of the Pharaohs of the Old Empire is as follows ; the standard name, the vulture Uraeus name, the gold Horus, the throne name, and the family name. As a general rule the public monuments give the titles complete, but invariably the scutcheon containing the throne or family name, or both.

Manetho, one of the two Egyptian writers whose histories have come down to the present, though in a fragmentary form, gives either the date of 5000 BC, according to the computation of Mariette-Bey, or 3600 BC, according to Bunsen, for the commencement of the Egyptian kingdom. The testimony of Eratosthenes, the librarian at Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, is in direct conflict with the chronology of his contemporary Manetho, as may be thus proved. Eratosthenes gives 986 years from the time of Menes, the proto-monarch of Egypt, to that of Pharaoh Nilus, whom Herodotus (ii. 3) calls the son and successor of Rameses the Great. Dicaearchus, a Greek historian of the fourth century BC says, " From the time of Pharaoh Nilus to the first Olympiad there were 436 years."

According to the King-List of Manetho the period of the Ancient Empire included the reigns of the kings of the first eleven dynasties. Authorities differ as to whether the Old Kingdom included Dynasty III, or started with Dynasty IV.

The first king of the fourth dynasty was Seneferu, a mighty warrior and a builder of pyramids. He worked the copper mines of Sinai, both for the sake of the metal and the turquoises found in them, and in a large relief cut on the rocks at Wadi Magharah this king is represented in the act of slaying a typical Semitic native of the country. Under Senoferu there was great material prosperity, and the arts already in that condition of excellence which makes the Pyramid age in some respects the most remarkable in the annals of Egypt. There was also find foreign conquest, not as in the time of the Empire for glory, but with the view of extending the Egyptian rule to countries whose products were valuable for the arts.

As King of the South and King of the North he built two pyramid tombs, one at Dahshur and the other on the site now called Medum. The latter is commonly called the " Pyramid of Medum," and the " False Pyramid," and is over 120 feet in height; it consists of three stages, which are about 7o, 2o, and 3o feet high respectively, but it was never finished. Round about the pyramid, which was called "Kha," are the tombs of several of Seneferu's officials, including those of Rahetep and his wife Nefert, and of Nefermaat and his wife Atet. Quite close to it were also found a number of tombs in which the bodies had been buried in the contracted, or predynastic, position, a fact that proves that the humble subjects of Seneferu preserved the funerary customs of their ancestors. The Queen of Seneferu was called Mertitefes. She survived her husband and married his great successor Khufu, whom she also survived; of her origin nothing is known.

Khufu, the Suphis I of Manetho and Cheops of Herodotus, immediately succeeds Senofera in the lists of the monuments, so that he may be regarded as the legitimate head of Dynasty IV. The list of that dynasty is as follows:-Khufu, Ratatf, Khafra, Menkaura, Shepseekaf, corresponding to eight kings in Manetho, in whom also the order is'different, Hatatf (Eatoises) following ttenkaura (Mencheres), a natural consequence of the association in fame of the builders of the three most celebrated pyramids, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura. The age of the pyramid-builders is the most brilliant before the Empire. We can judge from the royal tombs of the magnificence of the kings, and from the sepulchres around of the wealth of the subjects.

The reign of Khufu is principally marked by the building of the Great Pyramid. A curious inscription of a later date states that he rebuilt the temple of Isis, near the Sphinx, carved out of the rock by some earlier king, and that he made a pyramid for the Princess Hent-een in the same neighbourhood. The charge of impiety which the local tradition reported by Herodotus brings against Khufu thus fails, and the charge of tyranny associated with it, may be equally groundless. The cost of life in building the Great Pyramid can scarcely be compared with that of a long war under conditions resembling those of modern China. It should be noted that Khufu, as well as Khafra and Ratatf, were still objects of worship under Dynasty XXVI.

The reign of Khafra is commemorated, like that of Khufu, by the royal sepulchre and the tombs of subjects. From the latter we are able to contradict the tradition of his hostility to the national religion, in which Herodotus associates him with Khufu. The most interesting remains of the time are the statues of this king found in a well near the Sphinx, into which they were probably thrown either by a foreign invader or by early Christians or by Arabs, rather than in a popular revolt after his death

Menkaura, or Mencheres, the Mycerinus of Herodotus, and the founder of the Third Pyramid, does not seem to have been specially reverenced in later times, in contradiction to the report of Herodotus. It is, however, interesting, in connection with the tradition of his support of religion, that the Egyptian Ritual speaks of its 64th chapter as found by Har-tot-ef, son of Mencheres, at Hermopolifl Magna, when he made an inspection of the temples of Egypt, and brought as a precious document to the king.

The next family, Dynasty V, continued to rule at Memphis. Of its sovereigns we know but little. The last but one, Asia, is the first Pharaoh whom we know to have had two names, the throne-name as well as the ordinary one. To his son Ptah-hotep is assigned the ancient moral treatise already noticed in speaking of Egyptian literature, which ia on the whole the best fruit of Egyptian thought that time has spared. The last king, Unas, varied the form of royal, tombs, by constructing the great truncated pyramid now called Mastabat-Faraoon, or Pharaoh's Seat, north of the Pyramids of Dahshoor.

The Sixth Dynasty was probably a family of a different part of Egypt. It left many records which indicate less centralization at Memphis than those of the earlier sovereigns, and mark the beginning of wars for predatory purposes and extension of territory. This change ia accompanied by a less careful style of sculpture, and less pains in the excavation of the tombs, as though the Egyptians were gaining a larger horizon, or, it may be, exchanging religion for ambition. The interest of the dynasty centers in the undoubtedly long reign of Pepi, second or third king of the line, and the inscription of Una, In this inscription we first read of great wars, and foreign conquered nations are spoken of by name. A military system had already begun, for we read how the king sent with Una an officer and soldiers to transport a sarcophagus for the royal tomb from the quarries of Tura. A war is then undertaken against the nomads of the eastern desert- the Amu (Shemites) and the Herusha, "those who are on the sand." An army is levied from the whole population of Upper and Lower Egypt, as though there were no military caste. Africans are also enrolled from several countries mentioned by name, which must have been subject to Egypt, and are drilled by Egyptian officers, including priests.

Fepi was succeeded by his son Merenra. The new king made Una governor of Upper Egypt, and employed him to bring blocks of granite from Elephantine for his pyramid, and in varioua other works of which the inscription already referred to gives most curious details. He was charged to obtain wood, which was provided by the prince of four Ethiopian nations among those furnishing troops to the great army of Pepi. We thus learn that tributary Ethiopia was ruled by a native prince or princes under the governor of Upper Egypt, who also had the power of establishing posts in the dependency. Merenra was followed by his younger brother Nef erkara, and, according to Manetho, the dynasty ended with the beautiful Queen Nitocris, whose name appears in the Turin Papyrus, but whose exact historical place is not certain.