Ancient Egypt In Focus: Middle Kingdom

    The history Of the middle kingdom.

For one hundred years after the decline of the Old Kingdom (2134-2040 BC), the once proud land of Egypt splintered into dozens of independent states. It seemed as if the Two Lands and the king of the Two Lands would never appear again; but two kings, Intef and Mentuhotep, in the region of Luxor re-established order and reinstituted the institution of the Egyptian king. The dynasty they began, the Eleventh Dynasty, marks the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. Under these kings, trade with foreign countries began again, irrigation projects were repaired, and the writing of texts started up from scratch. The power of the king, however, never really returned. Local cities and villages had become accustomed to their independence and local governors operated indendently. This was a major threat to the monarchy; in fact, one king, Amenemhet I, seems to have been murdered by a conspiracy among local governors. Only well into the Middle Kingdom period did a king, Sesostris III, finally break the local governors and return the monarchy to its previous power.

   As the kings of Egypt slowly regained the authority of the monarchy, Egypt again grew in wealth and population. A large part of that population were non-Egyptians who migrated to the Nile Valley in order to enjoy the prosperity. There was no such thing as naturalization in Ancient Egypt or the Middle East; no matter where you lived, you always belonged to your original tribe or nation. If you migrated to Egypt, you did not become an Egyptian, but became a "sojourner" or "foreigner." The life of a foreigner in Egypt and elsewhere occupied a range of possibilities: sometimes foreigners had fewer privileges and rights, but more often they were allowed to form their own communities with their own leaders and laws. They were required only to pay taxes and tariffs.

   The non-naturalization of foreigners greatly influenced the course of Egyptian history in the Middle Kingdom. As their numbers increased, they settled in increasingly large communities and their leaders became kings in their own rights. The power of these foreigners grew as rapidly as their numbers until the power of the Egyptian monarch fell into oblivion. Egypt entered another period of disorder called The Second Intermediate Period.

The art of Middle Kingdom

With the collapse of the Old Kingdom about 2160 BC, there was also a big change in art styles. The carved reliefs of the Old Kingdom continue, still with the background all carved away.

But the subject matter is different: in the Middle Kingdom instead of Pharaohs crushing their enemies, you get quiet scenes from daily life. Here you see a boy driving donkeys to thresh out the grain on the top register and on the bottom men winnowing the threshed grain. Over their heads, hieroglyphs explain what they are doing.

The style of three-dimensional sculpture also changed in the Middle Kingdom. Pharaohs no longer look so serious and strong; now they look more boyish and eager, less like gods and more like people.

The history of the Middle Kingdom is very much characterized by a tension between the artistic styles of the various provincial sites and the styles of the royal workshops at Itjtawy, the new capital established near el-Lisht. Only by the late Middle Kingdom does the distinctive provincial styles become eclipsed by the art of the royal workshops.

Architecture in the Middle Kingdom

Pyramids are still the most important royal funerary buildings. At the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty they were still built in stone, but under Senusret II the material for pyramid cores was mud brick (with a limestone casing).

A few temples of the period have been excavated. In the Middle Kingdom limestone is the main building material for many temples. Mud is still an important material. Senusret I seems to have been the first king who rebuilt and enlarged the temples in a programme encompassing the whole country.          

All Middle Kingdom pyramids are located in the Fayum Oasis and Dahshur, south of Cairo.

Middle Kingdom Pyramids

Pyramids were built with a stone core and a framework of rough blocks. This framework was then filled with mudbrick, debris and sand. Finally, the outer surface would be faced with fine tufa limestone.

The use of mudbrick was a problem with regard to the preservation of the structures, and once the outer casing of limestone had been removed, the pyramid was in effect "unprotected". This is why most of the Middle Kingdom pyramids today resemble little more than heaps of rubble. These pyramids do not match the elaborate and massive Old Kingdom Pyramids.

 Height: they range from 55 to 80 metres. Base lenght: large structures that measure from 85 to 105 metres square at the base.

Underground complex substructures consisting of corridors and antechambers leading to the main burial chamber. Burial chambers were formed from monolithic quartzite blocks, with niches carved out for the sarcophagus and canopic chests. The chambers were closed by a system of sand filled shafts. In such a system, huge limestone slaps sat atop the burial chamber and the shafts leading to the chamber were filled with sand.

Vast pyramid complexes in the Middle Kingdom included a mortuary temple, terraces, caseways, a valley temple, satellite pyramids for queens and workers villages.

The 11th Dynasty terraced tomb of Mentuhotep II, the ruler who united Egypt at the end of the First Intermediate Period, on the West Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes) is an anomaly. It was built deep within Egypt's pyramid age, and incorporates many of the elements of pyramids. It may have even had a pyramidal superstructure. The name of this temple was "Mentuhotep's (cult) sites shine blissfully".

Mentuhotep II selected a site on a rocky hillside at modern Deir el-Bahari where some of his predecessors of the First Intermediate Period built their saff tombs.

The complex consisted of a valley temple, the ruins of which lie under the fields at the edge of the Nile valley and probably also under the ruins of Ramesses IV's valley temple, a causeway, a stepped, terraced mortuary temple that is partially cut into the rock cliff face, and a subterranean burial chamber. Winlock believed that the temple went through three construction phases, while Arnold thought there were four phases. The complex is generally oriented east-west, but bends slightly to the north.

At the back of the courtyard (western end) stood the massive, terraced mortuary temple. The facade of the lower, pillared hall consisted of a portico built of limestone blocks. This portico, which had two rows of pillars, was divided in half by a ramp leading to the second terrace. Originally, the portico walls were decorated with scenes of battle.

In the center of the platform are the remains of the mysterious "mound", of now indeterminable shape. It may have been (a podium for) a pyramid, a mastaba or a dome-like structure. The only thing that seems certain is, that it was massive. On the left-hand (= north western) corner, part of the enclosure wall of the mound has been recovered or reconstructed. (Unfortunately, I saw this feature only when I was studying the pictures back at home. That's why I don't have a close up of it.)

Around the "mastaba" are the bases and stumps of columned halls. On the far left, the remains of an outer wall around the halls can still be seen. The back (= towards the west) leads to the actual tomb (with a descending trench). On the south west corner of the platform, you can see neat rows of stones: debris that has been arranged there by modern excavators.

On either side of the ramp was a pillared gallery. The left (south) and right (north) sides of the platform were "barren": plain, undecorated walls.

Amenemhet 1 Pyramid 12th Dynasty

Base: 83m

Height: 55m

Amenemhet established a new tradition of giving each component structure in the pyramid complex its own unique name.

Some of the limestone used in the construction of the core was striped from Old Kingdom monuments, blocks of stone from the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, Unas and Pepi have been found in the pyramid

Inside the pyramid a sloped shaft blocked with granite slabs ran from the ground level entrance chapel to a vertical shaft that descended directly to the burial chamber.

Senusret 2 12th Dynasty

Base: 106m

Height: 49m

The Pyramid complex includes a satellite pyramid or a queens pyramid. Parts of the black granite Pyramidion that set atop the pyramid have been found A cobble filled drainage ditch around the pyramid was filled with sand to channel rain water It has eight rock cut mastabas on the north side of the pyramid.

Amenemhet 3 12th Dynasty 

Hawara in Fayum, not far from Senusret 2 pyramid

Base: 105m

Height: 58m

Thirteen centuries after its construction, it was visited by the Greek traveler and historian Herodotus, who described it as a labyrinth, this was one of the great wonders of the ancient world.  It was Excavated by the British archaeologist Petrie in the years 1888-1910, the site unfortunately revealed almost nothing of the wonderful building that once must have been there. There were life-size portraits of people of the community living there, which were kept in the houses and then placed as funerary masks on the mummy of the deceased.  The pyramid has a mud brick core and a casing of fine white limestone. The entrance into the substructure was placed directly in the casing, on the south side of the pyramid, The central burial chamber of the pyramid, carved from a single block of granite, is estimated to have weighed 110 tons, and had a sarcophagus made of quartzite.

The most impressive surviving examples of non-royal funerary architecture are the rock cut tombs of local governors in Middle Egypt. Officials buried at royal cemeteries were buried beneath mastabas, as in the Old Kingdom.

Most of the tombs have a similar layout, with a carved entrance, and then a large room containing painted decorations and burial shafts, followed by a small niche.

Egyptian Temples

Temples construction began at Thebes (Karnak and Abu Simbel) - but all the temples of The Middle Kingdom were subject to massive reconstruction in the New Kingdom. There are no surviving unaltered examples.

Sculpture.

The sculpture of the Middle Kingdom is often described as a new attempt at realism. The early work of this period directly imitates Old Kingdom examples in an attempt to restore old traditions, but the sculpture of the 12th Dynasty exhibits a fresh interest in reality. Portraits of rulers such as Amenemhet III and Sesostris III are clearly different from those of Old Kingdom rulers.

One of the innovations in sculpture that occurred during the Middle Kingdom was the block statue, which would continue to be popular through to the Ptolemaic age almost 2,000 years later. Block statues consist of a man squatting with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms folded on top his knees[6]. Often, these men are wearing a "wide cloak" that reduces the body of the figure to a simple block-like shape. Most of the detail is reserved for the head of the individual being depicted. In some instances the modeling of the limbs has been retained by the sculptor. There are two basic types of block statues: ones with the feet completely covered by the cloak and ones with the feet uncovered.

In the 12th Dynasty images of the king are not idealized to the point of being godlike. The care and concern of high office are clearly mirrored in the face. The bone structure is indicated beneath taut surfaces, producing a type of serious realism not encountered before in Egyptian art. Statues of private persons at all times tended to imitate the royal style; thus it is natural that portraits of the nobility in the 12th Dynasty show this same realism.

When the funerary complex of King Montuhotep the Second of the Eleventh Dynasty, who had his residence in Thebes, was excavated, it brought to light statues of the king. Most of the statues had broken heads. Only one statue of the king was found that was completely preserved . It depicts a king with a strong personality, a heavy body, a majestic appearance, and divine aura. 

In the nineteenth century, the discovery of a number of statues at Tanis, the modern San el-Hagar in the east of the Delta, surprised art historians by their unusual forms and facial features.

Their features and artistic style had not been known in Egypt earlier. The unusual appearance of the statues convinced the archaeologists that these sculptures could be attributed to the Hyksos rulers who had built their residence at Avaris, the modern Tell el-Dabaa, in the vicinity of San el-Hagar.

These statues did not have the familiar and traditional idealistic forms and features known in the Old Kingdom and the first half of the New Kingdom. The statues found at Tanis had strange facial features, such as aged and tired faces with high cheekbones and wrinkled cheeks, pouted mouths, and large ears.

Sphinxes were also discovered with lions' manes instead of the usual nemes royal headdress, known from the Great Sphinx at Giza. These sculptures also featured a kind of archaic wig and beard.

Closer examination of the names and features revealed that the original owners of these sculptures were kings of the Twelfth Dynasty, namely Senusert the Third and Amenemhat the Third.

The statues had been usurped, or taken as their own, by later kings, such as Panehsy from the Hyksos period, Ramesses the Second and Merenptah from the Nineteenth Dynasty, and Psusennes from the Twenty-First Dynasty. These later kings had carved their names on the statues in the places of the original owners' names.

Royal sculptures, particularly of Sesostris III and Amenemhet III, achieved a high degree of realism, even of portraiture. The first true royal colossi were produced in the 12th dynasty (if the Great Sphinx of Giza is discounted) for the embellishment of cult temples. Colossi of Amenemhet I and Sesostris I exhibit a hard, uncompromising style said to typify the ruthless drive of the 12th-dynasty kings.

Paintings.

The Art of Egypt in the Middle Kingdom featured meticulously painted works that focused on portraying completeness, rather than concentrating on the beauty. These paintings carried a standard format for depicting human beings and their natural surroundings. This style was continuously followed through the various Egyptian dynasties. Egypt had a profound influence of its Gods, Goddesses, and the Pharaohs. Most of the paintings depicted some kind of physical activity, such as bow hunting, musicians playing music, or a simple painting of the queen in her mansion.

One of the major discoveries that throw some light on the art of 'Middle Kingdom' is the 'Book of Dead.' This book consists of paintings, which illustrate a funeral, depicting Anubis (the god of embalming), the coffin containing the body of the deceased, and the women mourners. This painting tries to underscore the concept of life after death and the significance of spirituality after death. Hieroglyphics was another innovative form of the art of Egypt. Here, the combinations of symbols were used to represent the meanings of a sentence. Each of the symbols represented a different meaning, like the Sky God (Horus) was represented by a Falcon's Head; the God of Funerals (Anubis) was represented by a jackal, and so on. The use of Hieroglyphics is the evidence of significant place that art held in the day-to-day life of the Egyptians.

The coffins for the dead also carried the symbolic delineation  of the life after death. Most of the paintings in the Royal Tombs illustrated a woman adorned with a falcon emblem facing westwards, since the west direction was considered the passage to the next world after death. At the foot of the coffin, the God of funerals, Anubis was depicted in the form of two black jackals.

By Anastasia Grishchenko