An Egyptian priest named Manetho wrote a history of Egypt in Greek that divided everything into dynasties, a dynasty being various royal houses. In modern terms you have three Egyptian periods. Old, Middle and New Kingdom.
Early Dynastic Period: 3000-2600
Old Kingdom: 2600-2150 B.C
Middle Kingdom: 2000-1800
New Kingdom: 1550-1100 B.C
Late Period: 750 B.C - 1992 A.D or C.E in common terms.
Lower Egypt is Nile Delta, Upper Egypt is south of Delta
The Egyptian King was called "Lord of the Two Lands" and wore a double crown. Here! I'll even show you a picture of the three different crowns of Egypt.
Pretty neat, ja?
Now the Old Kingdom was the time when the pyramids were constructed. The earliest pyramids were made out of mud brick, the bigger ones were made out of stone. The largest ones were built during the fourth dynasty around 2500B.C. These pyramids were built in Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt. What we can learn from these great architectural feats is that the king was really powerful, and the people after all were willing to serve their king who was a god born into this world. Unfortunately the Pharaoh begins to lose power to his provincial governors who were granted land as "salaries" which eventually led to a removal of power from the King. Also around this time the Nile starts to dry up. Famines begin and Egypt begins practicing artificial irrigation.
And that's our lecture on the Old Kingdom.
As a reminder these sources come from An Introduction to the Ancient World second edition by L. Ed Blois and R.J. Van der Spek I am not stealing this info. This is to help me study for a midterm.
Starix Draxon
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