King Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. B.C. Ancient African Kingdoms

Artistic expression, although still employed for the glory of the king or the gods, found new subject matter during the Middle Kingdom. Even a cursory examination of Old Kingdom texts shows they were largely of a type such as inscriptions on monuments, pyramid texts, theological works. In the Middle Kingdom, although these kinds of inscriptions are still seen, true literature developed which dealt not just with kings or gods but the lives of common people and the human experience. Works such as the Lay of the Harper question whether there is life after death as does Dispute Between a Man and his Ba (his soul). The best known and most popular prose works such as The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor and The Tale of Sinuhe also come from this period.

Tale of Sinuhe (Berlin 10499)L. Baylis (Copyright)

Sculpture and painting also often focus on daily life and common surroundings. Paintings of streams and fields, of people fishing or walking, are more common at this time. Images of everyday life and activities were painted in tombs so that the soul would be reminded of the life it had left behind on earth and move toward the Field of Reeds, the paradise of the afterlife, which was a mirror image of what had been left behind. Statuary became more realistic and new techniques were developed to create sharper and more life-like creations.

Temple building, following the great mortuary complex of Mentuhotep II at Thebes, worked to create a seamless relationship between the structure and the surrounding landscape which resulted in almost every temple built in the 12th Dynasty mirroring Mentuhotep II’s to greater or lesser degrees. The kings of the 12th Dynasty encouraged this kind of expression and their cordial relationship with the local nomarchs made the 12th Dynasty one of the greatest in the history of Egypt.

The King & the Nomarchs

Senusret I was succeeded by Amenemhat II (c. 1929-1895 BCE) who may have ruled jointly with him. A distinctive feature of the Middle Kingdom is the practice of co-regency whereby a younger man, the king’s chosen successor (usually a son) would rule with the king in order to learn the position and ensure a smooth transition of power. Scholars are divided on whether this practice was actually observed, although at points such as with Amenemhat II and his successor Senusret II (c. 1897-1878 BCE) there is no doubt. The practice of co-regency is suggested by double dates for two rulers on official cartouches but the meaning of those double dates is not clear.

Little is known of Amenemhat II’s reign, but Senusret II is known for his good relations with the regional nomarchs and increased prosperity for the country. It is interesting to note that, under Senusret II’s reign especially, the local officials prospered just as they had toward the end of the Old Kingdom and yet this did not cause the problems for the crown which it had before. Van de Mieroop writes:

The 12th Dynasty kings at Itj-tawi were powerful but they were not alone in possessing wealth and social standing. For a long time during the Middle Kingdom the provincial elites that had been more-or-less independent in the First Intermediate Period kept their local authority, albeit within a setting where a king ruled the entire country. (103)

These local officials were extremely devoted to their kings as evidenced by their biographies carved into tombs such as those at Beni Hassan (even though these are probably idealized). These tombs are all large and well-crafted, attesting to the wealth of their owners, and all were for nomarchs or other regional administrators, not for royalty.

Senusret III & Egypt’s Golden Age

Senusret II was succeeded by Senusret III (c. 1878-1860 BCE), the most powerful king of the era whose reign was so prosperous he was deified in his lifetime. Senusret III is considered the model for the legend of Sesostris, the great Egyptian Pharaoh who, according to Herodotus, campaigned in and colonized Europe and, according to Diodorus Siculus, conquered the entire known world. Senusret III is the best candidate as basis for Sesostris as his reign is marked by military expansion into Nubia and an increase in wealth and power for Egypt.

The prestige of the nomarchs declines during Senusret III’s reign and the title vanishes from the official records suggesting the position was absorbed by the crown. This interpretation is supported by the institution of larger districts under the control of the central government. The individual families who had held the position do not seem to have lost their status, however, as the tombs at Beni Hassan mentioned earlier attest. Many of the biographies inscribed tell the story of a former nomarch who became a royal administrator devoted to the king.

Senusret III was the epitome of the warrior-king and embodied the Egyptian cultural value of military skill and decisive action. At the head of his army, he was considered invincible. His campaigns into Nubia expanded Egypt’s boundaries and the fortifications he built along the border fostered trade. He also led an expedition into Palestine and afterwards increased trade relations with that region.

Head of Senusret IIIOsama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

Although the Middle Kingdom was a stable time of great prosperity, one still finds evidence of uncertainty in the literature and other inscriptions of the period. The Lay of the Harper mentioned earlier, for example, questions the existence of an afterlife and encourages a more existential view. The Execration Texts, objects upon which spells were written to destroy one’s enemies, are more numerous during the Middle Kingdom than any other period in Egypt’s history. The Egyptians believed in sympathetic magic whereby one could elevate a friend, or destroy an enemy, by working with an object which represented them.

The Execration Texts were clay objects, sometimes statues, with the names of one’s enemies written on them and a verse one would recite before smashing the object. As the piece was destroyed, so would one’s enemies be. Senusret III’s campaigns and military success assured the Egyptians of safety, but the number of these objects found during this period indicates that, as Egypt grew more secure and wealthy, the people grew more fearful of loss. The realism of the literature of the New Kingdom could be interpreted to reflect people’s growing concern with the present, rather than an idealized afterlife, as their daily lives became more comfortable and they found they had more to lose than before.

An example of this kind of fear can be read in the Ipuwer Papyrus (The Admonitions of Ipuwer) in which a scribe bitterly laments the loss of a golden age and the terrible conditions of the present. Although the Ipuwer Papyrus has been interpreted as history concerning the First Intermediate Period it is actually literature expressing the common human experience of a yearning for a golden age, a time when everything was beautiful, as contrasted to a present of uncertainty and fear.

The vivid images in the Ipuwer Papyrus convey clearly how times have changed for the worse which has encouraged a literal reading of it as referring to the First Intermediate Period, but the work makes more sense when read as an expression of fear of loss in the present, in the Middle Kingdom, and the kind of chaos which one should expect. The writer goes to great lengths to make sure the reality of such a loss is keenly experienced by the reader.

Ipuwer PapyrusRijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden (CC BY)

This fear of the loss of material goods, social stability – even all that one knew – could account for the rise in popularity of the Cult of Osiris at Abydos and the increasing veneration of Amun at Thebes. Amun combined the earlier aspects of the sun god Ra and the creator god Atum into an all-powerful god whose priests (like those of Ra in the past) would eventually amass more land and wealth than the pharaohs of the New Kingdom and would actually eventually topple the New Kingdom. Osiris, originally a fertility god, would become known as Lord and Judge of the Dead, the deity who determined where one’s soul would spend eternity, and his cult would become the most popular, merging finally with that of his wife Isis.

Both of these gods promised stability in one’s earthly journey and an eternal life beyond the grave. Senusret III paid special attention to the city of Abydos, where Osiris’ head was thought to be buried, and sent representatives there with gifts for Osiris’ statue. Abydos developed into a wealthy city during this time, the most popular place of pilgrimage in all of Egypt, with the most coveted necropolis. People wanted to be buried near Osiris to have a better chance of impressing him when their time came to stand before him at judgment.

At the same time, Amun’s Temple at Karnak was continually being added to. This temple was dedicated to Amun, Lord of the Sky and Earth, who would become known as Amun-Ra, King of the Gods of Egypt. Amun assured believers of his constant watchful care during their lives and the continuation of harmony. The realism of the literary and artistic works of the time can be seen as reflected in the religious developments which promised an unbroken continuation of one’s present life.

As the afterlife, presided over by Osiris, was seen as a direct reflection of one’s present life, and one’s present life was protected by Amun, one had no reason to fear change because there would be none. Death was only another change in the course of one’s life, not the end of it. The depictions of the afterlife at this time became just as vivid and realistic as those of common scenes from everyday life.

The End of the 12th Dynasty

This realism even extends to how Senusret III is portrayed artistically. Whereas previous kings of Egypt are always depicted in statuary as young and strong, those of Senusret III are realistic and show him at his actual age and looking worn and tired from the responsibilities of rule. This same realism is apparent in the statuary of his son and successor Amenemhat III (c. 1860-1815 BCE), who is represented in statuary both ideally and realistically. Amenemhat III boasted of no great military victories but built almost as many monuments as his father and was responsible for the great mortuary temple at Hawara known as ‘The Labyrinth,’ which Herodotus claimed was more impressive than any of the ancient wonders of the world.

He was succeeded by Amenemhat IV (c. 1815-1807 BCE), who continued his policies. He finished his father’s building projects and initiated many of his own. Military and trade expeditions were launched numerous times during his reign and trade flourished with cities in the Levant, especially Byblos, and elsewhere. The policy of the co-regency, if it was actually followed, which had ensured a smooth transition of power from ruler to ruler now failed in the case of Amenemhat IV who had no male heir to groom for success.

Upon his death the throne went to his sister (or wife) Sobekneferu (c. 1807-1802 BCE) about whose reign little is known. Sobekneferu is the first woman to rule Egypt since the Early Dynastic Period unless one accepts the queen Nitiqret (Nitocris) of the 6th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom as historical. The debate over the historicity of Nitocris has been going on for decades and is no closer to a resolution but many scholars (Toby Wilkinson and Barbara Watterson among them) now accept her as an actual person rather than a myth Herodotus created.

That aside, Sobekneferu reigned centuries before Hatshepsut, the woman often cited as Egypt’s first female monarch, and to rule with full royal powers as a man. A woman named Neithhotep (c. 3150 BCE) and another, Merneith (c. 3000 BCE), are thought to have ruled in their own names and by their own authority in the Early Dynastic Period but these claims are contested. Merneith may have only been a regent for her son Den and Neithhotep, whose reputation as a reigning monarch relies largely on the grandeur of her tomb and inscriptions, could have simply been honored as a great king’s wife and mother.

Unlike Hatshepsut, whose statues increasingly portray her as a male, Sobekneferu is clearly depicted as a female monarch. She either refurbished or founded the city of Crocodilopolis south of Hawara in honor of her patron god Sobek and commissioned other building projects in the great tradition of the other rulers of the 12th Dynasty.

When she died without an heir the 12th Dynasty ended and the 13th began with the reign of Sobekhotep I (c. 1802-1800 BCE). The 12th Dynasty was the strongest and most prosperous of the Middle Kingdom. As van de Mieroop notes, “All but the last two rulers of the 12th Dynasty built pyramids and mortuary complexes in the surroundings and filled them with royal statuary, relief sculptures, and the like” (102). The 13th Dynasty would inherit the wealth and the policies but would not be able to make any great use of them.

The End of the Middle Kingdom

The 13th Dynasty is traditionally seen as weaker than the 12th, and it was, but exactly when it began to decline is unclear because the historical records are fragmentary. Certain kings, such as Sobekhotep I, are well attested but they become less so as the 13th Dynasty continues. Some kings are only mentioned in the Turin King’s list and nowhere else, some are named in inscriptions but not in lists. Manetho’s king list, which is regularly consulted by Egyptologists, fails in the 13th Dynasty when he lists 60 kings ruling for 453 years, an impossible duration, which scholars interpret as a mistake for 153 years (Van de Mieroop, 107). The claim that the dynasty lasted for 150 years after Sobekhotep I is also probably wrong in that the Hyksos were firmly established as a power in Lower Egypt by c. 1720 BCE and were in control of that region by c. 1782 BCE.

Statue of SobekhotepOsama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

The 13th Dynasty seems to have continued the policies of the kings of the 12th and kept the country unified but, as far as the fragmentary records indicate, none of them had the personal strength of the previous kings. Separate political entities began to spring up in Lower Egypt, the Hyksos being the greatest, and the capital at Itj-tawi does not seem to have had the resources to control any of them. Mortuary complexes, temples, and steles were still raised during this time and documents show the efficient bureaucracy of the 12th Dynasty was still in place but the momentum which propelled Egypt throughout the 12th Dynasty was lost.

As with the transition from the period of the Old Kingdom to the First Intermediate Period, the change from the Middle Kingdom to the Second Intermediate Period is often characterized as a chaotic decline. Neither of these characterizations is accurate. The 13th Dynasty faltered and a stronger power rose to take its place. Although the later Egyptian histories would characterize the time of the Hyksos as a dark period for the country, the archaeological record argues otherwise. The Hyksos, although they were foreigners, continued to respect the religion and culture of Egypt and seem to have benefited the country more than later historians give them credit for.

The Second Intermediate Period, during which the Hyksos ruled Egypt, may not have been the chaos it is presented as but still could not approach the heights of the Middle Kingdom. There was, in fact, some loss of culture such as that of hieroglyphic script and the rise of hieratic script. There is also evidence that artistic achievements were of a lower quality during the Second Intermediate Period. Scholars Bob Brier and Hoyt Hobbs write of the Middle Kingdom: