Chapter 3

The First Intermediate Period

Following the very long reign of Pepy II, there seems to have a rapid decline in central power, manifested in a succession of brief reigns known as the Seventh/Eighth Dynasty. Ultimately, the country split, with a civil war presaging forcible reunification under the southern Eleventh Dynasty, which defeated the last representative of the northern Ninth/Tenth Dynasty.

Very few tombs attributable to kings of the First Intermediate Period have been identified. In the Memphite necropolis, only one of the kings of the rump of the Old Kingdom royal line has a known tomb. However, its miniscule size and poor preservation hint at a likely reason for our lack of knowledge of other such monuments – still hidden in the little-explored sandy wastes of Saqqara-South. The known monument was that of Ibi, no larger than a queen’s example of the preceding era (L.XL: fig. 8e; pl. XXXc).¹ Only a few parts of the superstructure survive, along with traces of a small mud brick mortuary temple. The substructure was reduced to two rooms, albeit still decorated with the Pyramid Texts.

A feature of the period is the fragmentation of the state, the detail of which still remains obscure. The existence of a polity centring on Dara (Arab el-Amaiem, Beni Qurra) in Middle Egypt is evidenced principally by a huge funerary monument there (Monument M), dated by pottery to the First Intermediate Period and presumably that of a local ruler – perhaps named Khui on the basis of a name found in nearby tomb (fig. 8f).² Built of brick, the monument covers an area approaching twice that of the pyramids of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, and significantly more than that of Menkaure’s pyramid at Giza. It remains unclear, however, whether the structure was actually a pyramid, or a mastaba with an unusually square plan.

The substructure is unique, apparently entered via a horizontal vaulted passage in the middle of the north side. Beyond this, a vestibule had a stairway running upwards to the left, and a passage to the right; their destination was destroyed along with most of the interior of the superstructure. A passage descended from the end of the vestibule, its roof supported by a series of brick arches until it ended abruptly in a small stone-lined burial chamber.

The end of the First Intermediate Period was marked by a conflict between the Ninth/Tenth Dynasty regime, who were by then ruling in the north, from the city of Herakleopolis (Ihnasiya el-Medina) at the mouth of the Fayyum, and the Eleventh Dynasty one ruling the south from Thebes. No sign of a royal cemetery of the period has been found at Herakleopolis, but at least one of its rulers, its probably-penultimate king, Merykare, seems to have been buried in a pyramid at Saqqara.

Our knowledge of this monument derives solely from the texts on the stelae of a number of its mortuary priests (pl. XXXIa),³ a number of whom shared its priesthood with that of the pyramid of Teti, with the possible implication that the pyramids of Teti and Merykare lay near one another. On the other hand, there are examples from Egyptian history where mortuary priests were buried away from the tomb to which they were affiliated, while the area of the pyramid of Teti was a perennial favourite for tombs for many centuries, possibly attracted by the easy access provided by Teti’s causeway. As a result, the ruined pyramid to the east of Teti’s pyramid was argued by a number of scholars to be Merykare’s;⁴ however it is now clear that this monument is of Fifth Dynasty date (p. 28). Accordingly, the precise location of Merykare’s tomb remains obscure: one possibility may be that, like the Queen Anknesenpepy IV and Prince Ptahshepses noted above (pp. 34-5), he had a tomb constructed somewhere within the temple-structures of Teti or Menkauhor – now largely destroyed – or perhaps a simple shaft-tomb of the kind found for at least one king of the Thirteenth Dynasty (pp. 54-5), with an offering-place within the mortuary temple of Teti, which may explain why they shared some mortuary priests.

The Herakelopolitans’ Theban opponents’ tombs are better known. Located at Thebes-West, the earliest of them lay at El-Tarif, at the northern end of what would grow into a national necropolis during the New Kingdom (maps 11–12; fig. 9; pl. XXXIb). Typical private tombs of this period in the area were cut into the desert gravel and bedrock, with their offering places fronted by a wide but shallow fore-hall, the front of which consisted of a series of pillars, giving such sepulchres their Arabic name, ‘saff’, which implies ‘a line’, or ‘many doorways’. Those of the local kings were simply greatly enlarged versions of these, the earliest example, attributed to Inyotef I, and known as the Saff el-Dawaba,⁵ having a sunken courtyard measuring 65 x 300 m, a double colonnade across the rear providing the façade for the royal offering place. A series of doorways at the sides gave access to tombs of members of the court.

Inyotef II’s tomb, the Saff el-Qisasiya,⁶ was very similar, but slightly wider, with many more chambers at the rear of the court. It is likely that the king’s burial lay at the end of a sloping passage at the rear of the central chapel, but this remains unverified. The tomb was described anciently in Papyrus Abbott, a record of an inspection of Theban royal tombs during the reign of Rameses IX, as having ‘the pyramid fallen down upon it, before which its stela stands; the figure of the king stands upon this stela, his dog between his feet’.⁷ The stela in question (pl. XXXIIa) was found in a brick chapel, apparently being of pyramidal form, at the eastern end of the court – 250 m from the main façade.

The Saff el-Baqar, attributed to Inyotef III,⁸ was essentially identical with the previous two monuments, but with a more elaborate stone-lined offering place. Sarcophagus fragments recovered from the site also suggest more elaborate burial arrangements than in the earlier two saffs. The whole courtyard of the tomb is today filled with modern houses, as is that of Inyotef II and nearly all of that of Inyotef I.

Inyotef III was the last ruler of the line to control the south only, his successor Montjuhotep II reuniting the country and founding the Middle Kingdom mid-way through his reign of half a century. He also abandoned El-Tarif in favour of a new location not far from the Old Kingdom governors’ tombs at the head of a valley now known as Deir el-Bahari, but still oriented towards Karnak. Although in a very different environment from the flat plain of El-Tarif, the concept of the approach to the royal tomb being flanked by the sepulchres of his court was continued. The rock-cut tomb-chapels of the nobility were cut high in the walls of the valley, overlooking the causeway that led from the edge of the cultivation (and perhaps a valley building) to the site of the royal tomb, which will be discussed in the next chapter.