The Reunification of Ancient Egypt under Mentuhotep II
The second half of Pepy II's ninety-four year reign was rather ineffective, as the forces that had been eroding the theoretical foundations of the Egyptian state became apparent. Since Egyptian kingship was based on the principal of divine kingship, a king whose economic power had been greatly weakened could no longer perform the role Egyptian doctrine had assigned him. "The consequences of this for the whole of Egyptian society were serious; the ex officio system of remuneration no longer functioned satisfactorily and the fiscal system was probably on the verge of collapse." (Shaw pg.116) There is no one reason behind the decline and ultimate collapse of the Old Kingdom and unified Egypt. From tracking the direction and magnitude of the Nile, experts have determined that this period in Egyptian history suffered an extremely low amount of flooding. Agriculture along the Nile was dependant upon annual overflowing so rich topsoil from upstream could be deposited onto the parched farmland. When this failed, Egypt's entire economic system failed with it. As there could be no real warning before this catastrophe, any preparations would have been useless, and as a result, Egypt suffered a terrible famine. As easy as it may have seemed f
After Asyut had been defeated, the network of Herakleopolitan rule over Middle Egypt collapsed. Once this first great kingdom fell, most of Egypt followed. It is unlikely that Mentuhotep II had to conquer and sack every city he wanted to rule. In fact, it is far more probable that local rulers simply sided with the winning party. The motivation to save themselves from 'the terror which was spread by the [Theban] king's house,' may have been enough to induce the rulers of Egyptian nomes to accept Mentuhotep II's rule without a fight. Mentuhotep II is credited with reuniting Egypt's many independent nomes, creating the first centralized government in 200 years and beginning the Middle Kingdom. His rise to power wasn't easy however. Several small kingdoms and individual city-states had to be conquered first, along with their kings. The tomb of Ity-yeb, the second overseer of priests at Asyut, reports successful military operations against the 'southern nomes'. Unfortunately, Herakleopolitan victories seem to have ended at this point. From the time of Ity-yeb's son Hety II, to the rule of Merikare, no conflict with southern or Theban opposition was recorded. This is due in part to most of the texts of ancient Egypt being recovered in tombs. You would not want to rec
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Approximate Word count = 856
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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