Known in modern textbooks as the First Intermediate Period, the Seventh through Tenth dynasties probably spanned a period of around 110 years. Manetho did not even attempt to unravel the history of the Seventh Dynasty, offering instead the following succinct and effective summation: “70 kings reigned for 70 days.” Although a king still sat on the throne in Memphis, nobles openly boasted of having freed their province from Memphite control. Thus one local dynast declared, “I rescued my city in the day of violence from the terrors of the royal house.”¹Breasted 1927, 148 It would be incorrect to say that Egypt was thrust into total chaos for the whole of the First Intermediate Period. Noble princes could still boast of the peace and prosperity which they brought to their respective nomes, but the production of monuments and luxury items was greatly diminished.

Drought and Famine

Tomb inscriptions make reference to a severe drought which afflicted Egypt at this time. A funerary stele of a treasurer named Iti from the town of Imyotru, in Upper Egypt, alludes to these lean and difficult years Egyptians:

Another stele belonging to Seneni of Coptus declares:

A new political center emerged during this period at Heracleopolis in Middle Egypt, which became the capital of the Ninth and Tenth dynasties of Egypt. The name means “City of Heracles” and should not therefore be confused with the much older predynastic center in Upper Egypt, Hierakonpolis (“City of the Hawk”), with which we are already familiar. Although Heracleopolitan kings would gain partial control over Upper and Lower Egypt, they relied upon alliances with local officials who maintained a considerable degree of autonomy. One of these, Ankhtifi, controlled most of Upper Egypt from his base at Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt. Ankhtifi’s biography recorded on the walls of his tomb likewise mentions the famine which gripped the land.

Many scholars view the famine which afflicted Egypt during this period as part of a broader phenomenon of reduced rainfall in the Ancient Near East towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, although there is no agreement as to what may have caused the climate to change across such a broad swath of the ancient world at this time. (We will return to this topic in our entry on Megiddo XIV.)

The Instruction

Although the period produced nothing in the way of notable architecture or art, it left us with a remarkable collection of wisdom sayings attributed to a Heracleopolitan king. Unfortunately, the text is broken at that point where the king is named. Presumably he was one of the Khety’s (also spelled Akhtoy) who reigned during the Ninth and Tenth dynasties at Heracleopolis but there is no agreement as to which one.⁴Lichtheim 2019, 97 The name of his son, Merikare, is preserved in the text. The text is therefore known as The Instruction Addressed to King Merikare (hereafter The Instruction). The earliest known treatise on kingship, it belongs to a genre that will remain popular until the Medieval period.⁵Lichtheim 2019, 97 The text has been preserved in three copies, written on papyrus, which date to the Eighteenth Dynasty. The original probably dates sometime near to when it was purportedly written—the Tenth Dynasty.

Sage Advice

Although written as a manual for kings, The Instruction falls under the broader category of wisdom literature. It is full of sage advice, of which the following excerpts are representative (from Lichtheim 1990, 97-107).

The Cult

No individual god is named in the text but the term ntr, equivalent to the English word “god,” is used throughout. Ntr may be used with reference to a dead pharaoh, a local deity, or a great god depending on the context.⁶Hornung 1981, 47 The Instruction uses the term with reference to the highest god. This fits with the general pattern of wisdom literature in the ancient world which tends towards a sort of practical monotheism.

The Instruction councils the young ruler to build a good tomb with new stone rather than rob stone from the tombs and monuments of one’s ancestors. There follows a perfect expression of the Roman religious concept of do et des (Latin “I give that You may give”).

The tomb provided a resting place for the spirit or ba of the king whose movements are compared to those of a river; the ba follows in death the same familiar pathways it travelled in life. Here the king inserts a short historical vignette which is perhaps one of the most interesting parts of The Instruction.

The king says that his troops fought a battle with Thebes in the “nome of This” (that is Thinis or Abydos). During the struggle the king admits to his troops having destroyed tombs in the cemetery at Abydos. He expresses regret for what happened, claiming that it was never his intention for the tombs to be destroyed, but there was no way he could undo it. The old king claims to have suffered “retribution” for what happened. What form this retribution took is never stated.

Confessions of this type are almost unheard of in the ancient world, except in the Bible. But this confession looks at home in The Instruction which emphasizes the importance of piety and moral conduct.

The Struggle with Asiatics

The Instruction offers insight into how the Egyptians perceived the “Bowmen” and “Asiatics”—the two terms are used interchangeably—and how the flatlanders viewed the hill country.

The Asiatics are not described here as an invading force but as a nuisance. They must nevertheless have gained control of parts of Lower Egypt during the First Intermediate Period for the king claims credit for having successfully pushed them out.

The king who speaks in The Instruction probably reigned during the Tenth Dynasty, when the power of Herakleopolis was at its height. The Instruction is the first flowering of literary output which will reach full blossom in the Twelfth Dynasty. Although the Tenth Dynasty was, in many respects, a Dark Age, it produced a work of literature which stands as a more noble monument even, than all of the pyramids of Giza.