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The Old Kingdom
The foundations of society were established in
the Archaic Period. By the Old Kingdom (Dynasties 3–6), Egypt had
become a highly organized, centralized theocracy. There were great
advances in many fields including art, architecture, literature,
medicine, and technological skills such as stone masonry and
metalworking. The king held absolute power, which enabled him to
devote a considerable proportion of the country’s wealth and
manpower to construct a great monument as his burial site. The Great
Pyramid built for King Cheops at Giza (Dynasty 4) was the zenith of
burial construction, but pyramids became a great economic drain on
Egypt’s resources and eventually contributed to the decline and
disintegration of the Old Kingdom..
Structure of the Society
Society reflected the pyramid structure, with the king at the top and a broad base of peasantry at the bottom. Egypt revolved around the concept of a god king and this held the country together as a political state. This idea was more evident in the Old Kingdom than at any other time. Each king was believed to be half divine. This unique status placed an impassable chasm between the king and his subjects and, in the Old Kingdom, supported the idea that only the king had an individual eternal life, which he spent sailing with the gods in the heavens. His status also gave him the power to mediate between gods and men. In theory he owned all the land, its resources, and its people, but in practice he was subject to ma’at, the principle of balance and order, and was constrained by precedent. Many of his duties in religion, law and justice, politics, warfare, and social affairs were delegated to royal officials, who advised him on state matters. The king’s role originated in the Predynastic Period, when he came to be recognized as the most powerful of the many tribal leaders. By the Old Kingdom, the king had become a ruler who was surrounded by a large court and a rapidly increasing bureaucracy. Kings practiced polygamy, and there were sometimes disputes among the royal children over succession to the kingship. It has been suggested that marriage to the royal heiress, known as the Great Royal Daughter (the eldest daughter of the previous king and his chief queen), ensured the king his accession to the throne; however, recent studies have weakened this argument. The earlier theory proposed that the holder of the title Hemet-neter (God’s Wife) was the king’s chief wife, who had been the Great Royal Daughter whom he had to marry in order to legitimatize his claim to the throne. The more recent suggestion is that this was instead a priestly title, associated with the cult of the god Amun, and that it had no dynastic significance. Consequently, many scholars have now discarded the idea that the royal inheritance passed through those heiresses who held this title. To offset the rivalry of his siblings and relatives, the king gave them the most influential positions in government and provided them with wealth and lavish tombs. In the Old Kingdom these men and their families formed the nobility. At first their official appointments, given by the king, were held only throughout their lifetime. In later times, to offset a decline in royal power, the king appointed men outside the royal family in addition to his own relatives, and positions became hereditary in a vain attempt to ensure their loyalty. The king gave royal land and possessions to his nobles and tombs close to his own pyramid. These were provisioned with goods and supported and maintained by estates also provided by the king. The king’s bounty and approval were required in order that the nobility could hope to achieve some kind of immortality after death. An extensive hierarchy of minor officials supported these great administrators and governors. Their departments were accommodated, together with the royal domestic quarters, in a large complex known as the “Great House.” This was at Memphis, Egypt’s capital, where the chief royal residence, administrative headquarters, and great religious center were situated during the Old Kingdom. The royal burial sites were near to Memphis at Saqqara, Giza, Meidum, and Dahshur, and many artisans and craftsmen lived at Memphis, preparing the burial monuments and producing fine objects to be placed in the tombs. Wealthy residents were also supplied with furniture, jewelry, toilet equipment, and other articles for their daily use. The majority of the population (perhaps 80 percent) were peasants. They were not slaves because they were not “owned,” but their lives and opportunities were very limited. For most of the year they irrigated the land and grew crops to feed the population and provide the perpetual offerings presented at the tombs and pyramids. When inundation made cultivation impossible for three months of each year, the peasants may have been paid by the state to labor on the pyramid. They could also be conscripted to undertake military duties and accompany royal expeditions to obtain hard stone or gold from the south. .
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Foreign Affairs
Egypt traded with and sometimes campaigned against her neighbors, seeking gold, hard stone, turquoise, good quality timber, and incense and spices. Through the port of Byblos (on the Syrian coast), Egypt obtained timber to construct tombs, coffins, ships, and doors. From Punt (probably situated on the east coast of Africa near the south end of the Red Sea) was acquired myrrh and frankincense for use in religious rituals. Expeditions were sent to Sinai to obtain turquoise, and there were extensive contacts with Nubia (to the south of Egypt). Here commercial expeditions, supported where necessary by military force, sought hard stone and exotic goods including ebony, ivory, incense, oil, and panther skins. .
Religious Organization
There were now attempts to rationalize various aspects of religion. Village communities had worshiped local tribal gods in predynastic times, and in the early dynasties these gods had been brought together to form a confusing pantheon. During the Old Kingdom, as some cities emerged as major religious centers associated with particular gods or groups of gods, efforts were made to give some kind of structural order to the various elements of religious beliefs and practices. Each center had a powerful priesthood that developed a distinctive theology. This promoted the god’s supremacy and claim to be the creator of the universe. The most important centers were Heliopolis, Memphis, and Hermopolis, where the gods Re, Ptah, and Thoth, respectively, were worshiped. The priesthoods each stated their god’s supremacy in a “Creation Myth.” .
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THE SUN GOD
The most important and successful deity during the Old Kingdom was
the sun god Re, whose center was at Iwnw (later known as
Heliopolis). From Dynasty 2 each king declared his allegiance to Re
by adopting the title Son of Re as part of his royal name. The cult
of Re played an important part in pyramid and solar temple
development, in the Pyramid Texts and creation myths, and in
political and religious events in Dynasty 5. There are a number of
important myths associated with Re. He assimilated the cult center
(Iwnw) and some of the characteristics of an earlier god, Atum, and
as Re-Atum was worshiped as creator of the world. He had various
physical forms. As Khepri, shown as a dung beetle pushing the sun in
front of him (in the way dung beetles propel dung balls in front of
them), he became a symbol of renewal and self generation,
representing the sun as he appeared in the early morning. Another
form was Re-Harakhte (Re in his horizon). The sun, regularly
appearing at dawn and disappearing at sunset, was regarded as an
eternal and self-renewing force. Re, it was believed, sailed a daily
course around a circular ocean in the center of which lay the earth
(believed to be flat and formed by the back of the earth god Geb).
The circular ocean’s upper half formed the sky above the earth,
while the lower half flowed through the underworld. The sun emerged
at dawn on the earth’s surface and spent the day in the sky,
illuminating the earth, and at night it passed below the horizon
into the underworld. This daily birth, death, and rebirth in the
sun’s cycle were regarded as the pattern for the king’s own life,
death, and resurrection. The sun cult played an important role in
two major monuments of the Old Kingdom: pyramids and solar temples.
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PYRAMIDSThe
classic form, with smooth sloping sides, was developed from the step
pyramid. While the step pyramid may have been associated with star
worship, the classic (or “true”) pyramid was probably linked with
the sun cult, which may have superseded star worship. The true
pyramid possibly represented a sun ray, providing a ramp to heaven
that would enable the king buried within the pyramid to ascend and
join the gods, particularly Re, on the daily celestial journey in
the sacred bark. The first stone pyramid Djoser’s Step Pyramid at
Saqqara was built in Dynasty 3. The pyramid complex as an
architectural form reached its zenith at Giza in Dynasty 4, but from
Dynasty 5 the pyramids declined. They ceased with the collapse of
the Old Kingdom. Although reintroduced in the Middle Kingdom, they
were finally replaced by rock-cut tombs.
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SOLAR TEMPLES
In Dynasty 5 the kings gave unprecedented support to the sun cult
and its priesthood and built six special solar temples to Re.
Resources were allocated to these rather than to the kings’ own
pyramids, which were now built to inferior standards. These temples
were modeled on the original sun temple at Heliopolis (which has
never been located). This apparently contained as a central feature
the benben stone, which represented both a sun ray and the god’s
cult symbol.
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The Old Kingdom
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