The Old and Middle Kingdoms together represent an important unitary phase in Egypt's political and cultural development. The Early Dynastic Period had seen the creation and consolidation of a type of government and court culture which, with the Third Dynasty, now reached levels of scale and competence marking the beginning of the plateau of achievement for ancient Egypt. After five centuries and following the end of the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2181 BC) the system appears to have faltered, and there seems to have ensued a century and a half of provincial assertion and civil war, the First Intermediate Period. But the re-establishment of powerful central government which followed, c. 2040 BC, seems to have been, with certain changes of nuance, the re-establishment of the patterns of the Old Kingdom. There is thus much to be said for treating certain important aspects of the Old and Middle Kingdoms together.

DIVINE KINGSHIP

Divine kingship is the most striking feature of Egypt in these periods. In the form of great religious complexes centred on the pyramid tombs its cult was given monumental expression of a grandeur unsurpassed anywhere in the ancient Near East. Yet despite its all-pervading influence in Egyptian civilization it is not easy to present a coherent account of its doctrines, especially one which avoids mixing material from widely separated periods. One good reason for this is the Egyptian mode of communication, presenting doctrine not in the form of cogently argued treatises intended to persuade, but as series of concisely worded assertions which to us often take on a deeply cryptic appearance.