WHAT IS THE FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD ?

Chronological phase (c. 2130–1938 bc) between the Old Kingdom (2575–2130 bc) and the Middle Kingdom (1938–1600 bc), which appears to have been a time of relative political disunity and instability. The period includes the 9th dynasty (c. 2130–2080 bc), 10th dynasty (c. 2080–1970 bc), and 11th dynasty (c. 2081–1938 bc). (The period corresponds to Manetho’s 7th to 10th dynasties and the early part of the 11th dynasty.) After the end of the 8th dynasty, the throne passed to kings from Heracleopolis, who made their native city the capital. Major themes of inscriptions of the period are the provision of food supplies for people in times of famine and the promotion of irrigation works. In the 10th dynasty, a period of generalized conflict focused on twin dynasties at Thebes and Heracleopolis. The 11th dynasty made Thebes its capital. In the First Intermediate Period, monuments were erected by a larger section of the population and, in the absence of central control, internal dissent and conflicts of authority became visible in public records. Non-royal individuals took over some of the privileges of royalty, notably identification with Osiris in the hereafter and the use of the Pyramid Texts. These were incorporated into a more extensive corpus inscribed on coffins – the Coffin Texts – and continued to be inscribed during the Middle Kingdom.