Egypt’s Old Kingdom

Abstract

This chapter outlines the diachronic development of and exchanges between central and local milieus in third millennium BC Egypt. The community at court witnessed a gradual rapprochement between kings and high-ranking officials during the Old Kingdom, beginning in the Fifth Dynasty. Increasing explication of kingship in visual discourse hints at conflicting views on the position of the king. Burial arrangements differed widely across provincial Egypt and at court, revealing a high degree of social diversity. Funerary culture revolved around the establishment of social relationships and social memory, whereas ideas about life in the netherworld were rarely expressed. The majority of preserved settlements in the Old Kingdom were planned by the state. Urbanism was weakly developed compared to other early complex states. The spiritual center of provincial towns was community shrines. Their material culture exhibits a mixture of central and local features, typical of “little traditions.” The shrines served as power bases for courtiers, sent out in the late Old Kingdom by the government to establish royal power permanently in the hinterland. The history of shrines and local elites differed across the country. In the long run, local temples emerged as the economic and ideological interface between provincial communities and the crown. Temples and towns coevolved toward the New Kingdom, at which time Egyptian society had a more urban outlook.