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The First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, [1] spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom. [2] It comprises the Seventh (although this is mostly considered spurious by Egyptologists), Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and part of the Eleventh Dynasties.
As Egyptian political power disintegrated at Memphis, new dynasties arose in the south, the Abydos Dynasty and the Sixteenth Dynasty at Thebes. [ 15 ] The Fifteenth Dynasty at one point, after a period of about 20 years since its foundation, extended its rule as far south as Thebes , entering into conflict with Pharaoh Neferhotep III .
The periodization of ancient Egypt is the use of periodization to organize the 3,000-year history of ancient Egypt. [1] The system of 30 dynasties recorded by third-century BC Greek-speaking Egyptian priest Manetho is still in use today; [2] however, the system of "periods" and "kingdoms" used to group the dynasties is of modern origin (19th and 20th centuries CE). [3]
At the end of the Second Intermediate period, the 18th Dynasty came to power in Egypt. The first king of the 18th Dynasty, Ahmose, completed the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt and consolidated his rule over the land, unifying Upper and Lower Egypt. With that, Ahmose ushered in a new period of prosperity, the New Kingdom. [43]
Intermediate periods are red, orange, and yellow. Note that multiple dynasties could reign from different cities simultaneously in intermediate periods and at the end of the Middle Kingdom. Dynastic reigning times are often very approximate; the above uses the dates of the Egyptian dynasty list template.
During the First, Second and Third Intermediate Periods, Egypt had multiple capitals held by rival dynasties. Thinis was Egypt's first capital following its unification in c. 3100 BCE. The country's current capital is Cairo, and this has been the case since 972.
Egyptian writings do not show dialect differences before Coptic, but it was probably spoken in regional dialects around Memphis and later Thebes. [111] Ancient Egyptian was a synthetic language, but it became more analytic later on. Late Egyptian developed prefixal definite and indefinite articles, which replaced the older inflectional suffixes.
The Eighth Dynasty held sway at a time referred to as the very end of the Old Kingdom or the beginning of the First Intermediate Period. The power of the pharaohs was waning while that of the provincial governors, known as nomarchs , was increasingly important, the Egyptian state having by then effectively turned into a feudal system.