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Ancient Egyptian Dynasties |
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The word Pharaoh that Western History uses to identify the line of Egyptian kings in ancient Egypt is a term not used by the Egyptians themselves, but rather a word derived from Greek. The Egyptian word most likely prevalent to designate the king was the word “nesu.”
The span of the Egyptian dynasties (31 as categorized by historians) was from 3100 B.C. through 332 B.C. when Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered Egypt. By then, Egypt was already under the rule of Persian kings, the 30th dynasty having been the last period during which Egyptian-born Pharaohs ruled.
The king commanded vast resources and as the ruling administrator, as well as supreme religious figure, had tremendous obligations within the kingdom. He was the god-king endowed with the powers to control chaos and maintain order in ancient Egypt, a balance that would be reflected in the natural cycles of the Nile, for example, or the protection of Egypt against invasion by foreigners. The concept of ma’at (balance/order/truth) was of overarching importance to Egyptians and was represented by a young goddess with a twin nature who brought order and rationale to all things divine, material, and human. The Pharaoh’s ability to establish ma’at was fundamental to the strength of his/her rule. When the Pharaoh was crowned it was believed that s/he became the incarnation of the god Horus who would guide the Pharaoh to attain ma’at. The first dynastic king’s name is disputed but thought to be either King Narmer, King Menes or King Aha, and he was the ruler who first united Upper and Lower Egypt and who founded the city of Memphis on an island in the Nile. King Djer, thought to be the second ruler and therefore also crucial to upholding the union of Upper and Lower Egypt, was also documented by a later ancient Egyptian historian, Manethos, as being a learned anatomist and writer of scientific texts. Not much is known about these early rulers and writing on tablets from these periods is harder for historians to decipher than later hieroglyphic texts. What is important about the early dynasties is the importance they had in establishing the foundations upon which the subsequent dynasties could flourish. The record of ancient Egyptian history is kept according to the time periods during which different rulers governed the region. Egyptian chronology as recorded by Egyptians themselves was based on the number of years each king ruled. A 3rd century Egyptian priest/historian named Manetho listed the number of dynasties at 30 and although there are gaps in the record of leadership and overlaps of different reigns as well, historians today generally accord 31 dynasties, during which Manetho lived, to the period between roughly 3100 B.C. and 300 B.C. Although there are not many surviving king lists in the archaeological record, what has been preserved shows the sense of chronology that ancient Egyptian rulers had. At Karnak, for example, Tuthmosis III (ruling in about 1450 B.C.) kept a record of previous kings at his temple of Amun. At their temples in Abydos, Ramses II and his father Sethos I kept a king list of over seventy kings in chronology leading from the first king to their reigns. The archaeological record of monuments and found objects such as pottery and stone annals from the ancient Egyptian period contribute to the king lists to recreate a coherent dating system. Beyond this, cross-referential dating, using records kept by the Babylonians and Assyrians who had contact with the ancient Egyptian rulers, also helps in determining the periods of different dynasties. The periods during which the thirty-one dynasties of Egyptian rule unfolded are classified by historians as: the Archaic period, which includes the 1st and 2nd Dynasties between the dates 3000 and 2700 B.C.; the Old Kingdom, including the 3rd through 8th Dynasties, dating between 2700 and 2160 B.C.; the 1st Intermediate Period, including the 9th and 10th Dynasties, between 2160 and 2010 B.C.; the Middle Kingdom, including the 11th and 12th Dynasties, between 2106 and 1786 B.C.; the 2nd Intermediate Period including the 13th through 17th Dynasties, between 1786 and 1550 B.C.; the New Kingdom, including the 18th through 20th Dynasties, between 1550 and 1069 B.C.; the Late Period i/3rd Intermediate including the 21st through 25th Dynasties, between 1069 and 656 B.C.; the Late Period ii/Saite-Persian including the 26th through 31st Dynasties, between 664 and 332 B.C. The kings of the thirty-one dynasties who ruled Egypt throughout its history were recognized as gods on earth and were seen to have divine right to rule. In the most prosperous times the kings of Egypt implemented great building projects and created complex infrastructure upon which the society grew. Bordered by deserts to the west and east, by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and by the Nile to the south, the kingdom of ancient Egypt had a secure and convenient location that bolstered the growth of a complex society and culture. As a center for trade routes to and from western Asia, the Mediterranean, and central Africa, new elements were continuously introduced into Egyptian culture and made it a thriving nexus. During different phases of its history, Egypt both was influenced by foreign forces and, in its own time, would influence and engage with foreign societies. Asia, Sinai, Phoenicia and Palestine were part of a cross-current of exchange throughout the dynastic periods in Egypt. Egypt pressed into Asia, invading and establishing a presence there, at several different points in its political history while at alternate periods, it too was subject to invasions of foreigners, for example the Hyksos (an Asiatic people) invasion during the 17th century B.C.E. Furthermore, internal political conflict affected reigns of the different kings. Nonetheless, the hierarchical structure of Egyptian society rested on the supremacy of the kings or pharaohs. Profession in Ancient Egypt was a defining factor of the social classes. The social stratification of the society could be presented as a pyramidal structure where the base was composed of soldiers, farmers, and laborers who made up the majority of the population. Skilled craftsmen and artisans followed in the hierarchy, providing beneficiary products for the cultural wealth of the society. Above this class was the priestly class. The position of a priest was not only limited to the religious duties in the temples. Priests would carry out administrative, economic and religious roles simultaneously and would be involved in determining religious ceremonies and in charge of healing practices as much as in establishing the agricultural schedule for the seasons. Above or alongside the category of priests, though these categories may have been somewhat fluid, was the further celebrated class of scribes, who were considered supreme as translators of religion and magic, being accomplished in written communication and endowed with the responsibility of recording funerary rights as well as bureaucratic data. Members of the nobility would also have the literate skills of the scribe class, and some of the nobility may have served as scribes, but generally those who were educated for this discipline would not have significant administrative power in their roles. The power lay in the hands of the nobility and the pharaohs, where the nobility comprised the local power and the pharaohs the central power. The noble families would be a balance to the power of the pharaohs to varying degrees throughout the dynasties of Ancient Egypt, though their regional power would decline after the Middle Kingdom period. The pharoahs, as living gods, were the supreme figures of rule and authority over the larger population and established for the length of the 31 dynasties an insurmountable division between the upper and lower classes. |
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