The Egyptian 11th Dynasty
The Egyptian 11th Dynasty
The first nth-Dynasty ruler to gain control of the whole of Egypt was
Nebhepetra Mentuhotep II (2055-2004 BC), who probably succeeded
Nakhtnebtepnefer Intef III (2063-2055 BC) on the Theban throne.
Mentuhotep's tremendous achievement in reuniting Egypt was recognized by the ancient Egyptians themselves, and as late as the 2oth
Dynasty there were numerous private tombs containing inscriptions
celebrating his role as founder of the Middle Kingdom. The increase in
historical records and buildings, the evident prosperity of the land
during the latter years of his reign, and the resurgence and development of all forms of art are particular indicators of his success in
restoring peace. It is sobering to reflect that, after such a promising
start, the nth Dynasty was to collapse only nineteen years after his
death.
Nebhepetra Mentuhotep II
Among the many rock carvings of various dates on the cliffs at Wadi
Shatt el-Rigal, 8 km. north of Gebel el-Silsila, there is a relief incorporating a colossal figure of the nth-Dynasty ruler Nebhepetra
Mentuhotep II dwarfing three other figures: his mother, his likely predecessor Intef III, and Khety, the chancellor who served both kings.
This has long been taken as proof that Mentuhotep II was the son of
Intef III. Further such proof seems to be provided by a relief on a
masonry block from the site of Tod that portrays Mentuhotep II
towering over a line of three kings named Intef, lined up behind him,
thus again suggesting family connections with the Intefs as well as a
lengthy royal ancestry. This insistence on lineage', however, seems to
beg the question of Mentuhotep's actual origins, and it would not be
surprising to discover either that Mentuhotep had not been a royal son
or that these monuments were a deliberate attempt to counterbalance
claims made by the Herakleopolitan rulers as members of the 'House
of Khety' (see Chapter 6).
Mentuhotep II appears to have reigned quietly over his Theban
kingdom for fourteen years before the last phase in the civil war
between Herakleopolis and Thebes erupted. We know virtually nothing of this conflict, but a graphic image of its savagery may well have survived in the form of the so-called tomb of the warriors at Deir
el-Bahri, not far from Mentuhotep II's mortuary complex. The
unmummified linen-wrapped bodies of sixty soldiers, clearly killed in
battle and subsequently placed together in a rock-cut common tomb,
were preserved by dehydration. Despite the absence of any embalming, these corpses are the best preserved of all Middle Kingdom bodies.
Because they were buried as a group and within sight of the royal
cemetery, it has been surmised that they died in some particularly
heroic conflict, perhaps connected with the war against Herakleopolis.
The Herakleopolitan ruler Merykara died before Mentuhotep
reached Herakleopolis, and with his death Herakleopolitan resistance
must have collapsed, for Merykara's successor governed the northern
kingdom for only a few months. Mentuhotep's victory over the last
Herakleopolitan ruler provided him with the opportunity to reunite
Egypt, but we have only indirect knowledge about how long this took
and how severe such struggles were. This process may well have taken
many years, for there are scattered references to other fighting throughout this stage of Mentuhotep's reign. One of the clues to the insecurity
felt at this time is the inclusion of weapons among the grave goods of
ordinary men; another is the depiction of administrators carrying
weapons instead of official regalia on funerary stelae. However, as
peace and material prosperity advanced within the country, such items
seem to have diminished in frequency.
Part of Mentuhotep's reconquest included forays into Nubia, which
had returned to native rule during the last stages of the Old Kingdom.
There was at least one line of native rulers controlling parts of Nubia at
the time when Mentuhotep II's armies descended upon them. An
inscription on a masonry block from Deir el-Ballas, thought to belong
to his reign, mentions campaigns in Wawat (Lower Nubia), and we
also know that a garrison was established by Mentuhotep in the fortress at Elephantine, from which troops could more rapidly be deployed
southwards.
In addition to the emphasis on his lineage, part of Mentuhotep's
strategy to enhance his reputation with his contemporaries and successors was a programme of self-deification. He is described as 'the
son of Hathor' on two fragments from Gebelein, while at Dendera and
Aswan he usurped the headgear of Amun and Min, and elsewhere
wears the red crown surmounted by two feathers. At Konosso, near
Philae, he took on the guise of ithyphallic Min. Both this iconography
and his second Horus name, Netjeryhedjet ('the divine one of the
white crown'), emphasize his self-deification. Evidence from his Deir el-Bahri temple indicates that he intended to be worshipped as a god in
his House of Millions of Years, thus pre-dating by hundreds of years
ideas that became a central religious preoccupation of the New Kingdom. It is evident that he was reasserting the cult of the ruler.
Mentuhotep's self-promotion was accompanied by a change of
name as well as this process of self-deification. His Horus name was
altered several times during his reign, each change evidently marking
a political watershed. Sematawy ('the one who unites the two lands')
was the last alteration, the earliest dated occurrence for this being
year 39. However, prior to year 39 the king had celebrated his sedfestival, and perhaps this was the occasion when he took that name.
The government of the kingdom
Mentuhotep ruled from Thebes, which, until then, had not been a particularly prominent town in Upper Egypt. It was a good location from
which to exercise control over the remaining nomarchs (regional
governors), and most of Mentuhotep's officials were local men. The
scope of their duties was wide: the vizier, Khety, conducted campaigns
in Nubia for the king, while the chancellor, Meru, controlled the
Eastern Desert and the oases. The latter office was much more significant than it had been in the Old Kingdom. In addition to the existing
post of 'governor of Upper Egypt', an equally powerful new post,
'governor of Lower Egypt', was created. This strengthening of the
central government increased the king's control over his officials while
simultaneously curtailing the power of the nomarchs, who had enjoyed
complete independence in the First Intermediate Period.
The numbers of nomarchs were probably reduced by Mentuhotep the governors of Asyut, for instance, certainly fell from power because
of their support for the Herakleopolitan cause. The nomarchs of Beni
Hasan and Hermopolis, however, retained control as before, perhaps
as their reward for assisting the armies of the Theban nomarchs. The
governors of Nag el-Deir, Akhmim, and Deir el-Gebrawi also remained
in office. The nomarchs' conduct, however, was monitored by officials
from the royal court, who moved around the land at regular intervals.
Another indication of a return to a strong and united Egyptian
government is found in the journeys being taken beyond Egyptian
borders. One of the famous expedition leaders of this time was Khety
(the official depicted on the Shatt el-Rigal relief described above), who
patrolled the Sinai area and also carried out assignments in Aswan.
Henenu, the 'overseer of horn, hoof, feather and scale', was the king's
steward; amid his numerous jobs, he travelled as far as Lebanon for cedar for his master. Such journeys suggest that Egypt was beginning
to restore its influence in the outside world.
The building projects ofMentuhotep II
In addition to the numerous military campaigns launched by Mentuhotep in his fifty-one-year reign, he was also responsible for numerous
building projects, although most of these have been destroyed. New
temples and chapels were erected, the majority of these being located
in Upper Egypt at Dendera, Gebelein, Abydos, Tod, Armant, Elkab,
Karnak, and Aswan. A combined Dutch and Russian team has discovered a Middle Kingdom temple near Qantir, in the eastern Delta.
Its architecture reflects that of Mentuhotep's mortuary complex at
Deir el-Bahri, but firm dates have not been published.
Throughout the Middle Kingdom, the royal cemeteries were continually evolving, not only architecturally, but structurally and spatially.
This constant change seems to reflect the search for a spiritual
solution to the question of what constituted the most effective type of
tomb, and this is very evident in Mentuhotep's mortuary monument,
at Deir el-Bahri in western Thebes. This was by far the most impressive of his surviving buildings, although little remains of it today. The
temple design was unique, for neither of his nth-Dynasty successors
(Sankhkara Mentuhotep III and Nebtawyra Mentuhotep IV) completed their tombs, while the 12th-Dynasty kings chose monuments
inspired by Old Kingdom models. The saff-tomb (see Chapter 6) had
been the tomb design used by previous Theban rulers in the el-Tarif
region of western Thebes, but Mentuhotep's monument altered this
tradition. Even though some of its architects seem to have been previously involved in the construction of so^tombs, his complex reveals
a vision previously absent from both the Theban and Herakleopolitan
models; therefore it is rightly recognized as the most important building of the phase between the end of the Old Kingdom and the
beginning of the i2th Dynasty.
This inspiring symbol of the reunification of Egypt epitomized a
new beginning. It was, for example, the first royal structure overtly to
stress Osirian beliefs a reflection of the religious levelling' between
the funerary cults of kings and commoners that had taken place in the
First Intermediate Period. Significant innovations in this temple were
the use of terraces, and the verandah-like walkways (or ambulatories)
that were added onto the central edifice. The design incorporated
groves of sycamore and tamarisk trees, which were planted in front of
the temple, each in a pit cut 10 down into the rock and filled with.
soil. A long, unroofed causeway ran up from this tree-lined court to the
upper terrace, upon which the central edifice was built. This main construction may have taken the form of a square mastaba-tomb (perhaps
surmounted by a hill); behind it lay a hypostyle hall and the intimate
cult centre.
The tombs of the king's wives, Queens Neferu and Tern, were
included in the complex, the latter being buried in a dromos tomb at
the rear of his temple, the former in a separate rock-cut tomb on the
northern temenos wall in the forecourt. Several chapels and tombs for
six other women, four of whom are named as 'royal wife', were found
behind the central edifice, within the western walkway. Their original
burials belong to the earliest phase of Mentuhotep's temple. When
excavated, several of these tombs still contained their original burials,
as well as the earliest evidence for the use of models depicting both the
coffins and the bodies of the deceased the precursors of the shabti
figures that became more popular at a later date. These women buried
in the western walkway seem to have been of lower status than Neferu
and Tern, and all of them were young: the eldest, Ashaiyet, was 22, and
the youngest, Mayt (whose badly destroyed chapel contains no indications of the title of'wife'), was only a 5-year-old child. The significance
of these less-important wives is uncertain; they may have been the
daughters of nobles whom the king wished to keep in check, but most
of them are named as priestesses of Hathor; therefore it has also been
suggested that their tombs may have formed part of a Hathoric cult for
the king within his mortuary monument. Another enigma is that the
burials appear to be contemporaneous. Did these young girls die
together in some disaster?
The six women's chapel tombs evidently belong to the same period
in the development of the Deir el-Bahri monument as the tomb known
as the Bab el-Hosan, which lies beneath the temple forecourt. This
royal tomb is thought by Dieter Arnold to have been an earlier and
incomplete burial for the king. It was in this structure that a blackskinned statue in festival robes was found. The unusual skin colour is
another of the many references to Osiris, symbolizing the fertility and
regenerative powers of Mentuhotep II.
Although the temple was decorated throughout, not enough of its
art has survived to be able confidently to reconstruct the overall system
of design and decoration, although there are some distinct themes.
The king's supernatural and Osirian aspects are emphasized, but there
are also scenes from court life. The regional nature of the artwork is
evident in many of the surviving fragments of painted decoration, and
such characteristic touches as thick lips, large eyes, and exaggeratedly
thin and awkward bodies are all apparent. However, there is also some
masterly carving (especially that from the chapels of the young wives),
which is more typical of the Memphite school. This mixture of techniques reflects the political situation indicated by some of the craftsmen's biographies, which also show that they came from various
regions of Egypt, bringing with them their local traditions. In time, the
Memphite style prevailed, but it was several generations before it
replaced the regional artistic genres throughout Egypt.
Although we cannot point to any monuments of Mentuhotep II in
the Temple of Amun at Karnak, there is a reference to the god in
Mentuhotep's temple, and the location of the latter in the curve of the
cliffs at Deir el-Bahri is itself significant, being directly aligned with
Karnak on the opposite bank. This position may have been intended to
allow the king's funerary cult to benefit from the annual visit of the god
Amun to Deir el-Bahri in a rite known as the Beautiful Festival of the
Valley. Certainly, the cult of Amun began to grow at Thebes from this
time onwards.
Mentuhotep III and IV
Queen Tern was the mother of Sankhkara Mentuhotep III (0.2004-
1992 BC), who was an energetic builder. In 1997 a Hungarian team led
by Gyoro Voros not only discovered a hitherto unknown Coptic sanctuary below the peak of Thoth Hill, on the west bank at Thebes, but
also found an early Middle Kingdom tomb that surely belonged to
Mentuhotep III. Its architecture may have been the inspiration for the
bab-tombs of the early i8th Dynasty.
The reign of Mentuhotep III was characterized by a certain amount
of architectural innovation, including a triple sanctuary at the site of
Medinet Habu, which foreshadowed the i8th-Dynasty temples to
'family' triads. In addition, the remains of the brick temple that he
constructed on the 'hill of Thoth', the highest peak overlooking the
Valley of the Kings, not only contained another triple shrine but also
incorporated the earliest surviving examples of temple pylons. Not far
from the temple lie the remains of the sed-festival palace of
Mentuhotep III.
The art preserved from his brief reign is no less innovative, with the
relief sculpture arguably reaching its peak for the Middle Kingdom at
this point. The carving of the stone is extremely fine, the raised relief
conveying tremendous spatial depth with a differentiation of no more
than a few millimetres of thickness within the stone. The subtlety of the portraiture and details within clothing on his reliefs from Tod are
far superior to the sculptures of Mentuhotep II.
Mentuhotep III was also the first Middle Kingdom ruler to send an
expedition to the East African land of Punt to obtain incense, although
such expeditions to the Red Sea and Punt became more frequent in
the i2th Dynasty. Mentuhotep's expedition, led by an official called
Henenu, was sent via the Wadi Hammamat, thus apparently necessitating the construction of ships on the shores of the Red Sea using
timbers that had been transported across with them. He also attempted
to protect the north-eastern border through the construction of fortifications in the eastern Delta.
When Mentuhotep III died, in about 1992 BC, there seem to have
been 'seven empty years', corresponding to the reign of Nebtawyra
Mentuhotep IV (who perhaps usurped the throne, since he is missing
from the king-lists). His mother was a commoner with no royal titles
other than 'king's mother', so he may not even have been a member of
the royal family.
Little is known of Mentuhotep IV's reign, except for his quarrying
expeditions. Inscriptions from the Hatnub travertine quarry suggest
that some of the nomarchs in Middle Egypt might have been troublesome at about this time. The most important event attested from his
reign was the sending of a quarrying expedition into the Wadi Hammamat. Amenemhat, the vizier who led the expedition, ordered the
cutting of an inscription at the quarry to record two remarkable omens
that the party were said to have witnessed. The first was a gazelle who
gave birth to her calf on the stone that had been chosen for the lid of the
king's sarcophagus, and the second was a ferocious rainstorm that,
when it died down, disclosed a well, 10 cubits square, full of water to
the brim. In such barren terrain, this would certainly have been a
spectacular, even miraculous, discovery. It seems almost certain that
the man who became the first king of the i2th Dynasty was this same
Amenemhat. Like most of the nth-Dynasty high officials, he would
have held various powerful posts; it may have been either the weakness
of the king or the lack of a viable male heir that caused the throne to
pass to the vizier.
