2190 BC – 2180 BCs

Events in 2190 BC – 2180 BC 2

• 3100 BC – 2181 BC The Pyramid Age (3100–2181 BC) The first millennium of Egyptian civilisation spans from Narmer's unification to the collapse of the Old Kingdom -- the period in which the foundations of Egyptian civilisation are laid and the pyramids are built. The Early Dynastic period (3100-2686 BC) establishes the pharaonic state, hieroglyphic writing, the nome administrative system and the religious ideology of divine kingship. The Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC) is the Pyramid Age: Djoser's Step Pyramid, Sneferu's three pyramids, Khufu's Great Pyramid of Giza, Khafre's pyramid and the Sphinx, and Menkaure's pyramid. The Old Kingdom collapses c.2181 BC into the chaos of the First Intermediate Period.
• 2181 BC – 2055 BC First Intermediate Period -- collapse and fragmentation The First Intermediate Period (c.2181-2055 BC) is the first great collapse in Egyptian history -- a period of political fragmentation, famine, civil war and cultural disruption following the end of the Old Kingdom. The causes are debated: a prolonged drought (evidenced by low Nile floods in tree-ring and cave records), the overextension of royal resources on pyramid building, and the growing power of provincial governors (nomarchs) who resist central control. Egypt splits into competing kingdoms based in Herakleopolis (north) and Thebes (south). The collapse is traumatic enough to produce a literature of lamentation -- the Admonitions of Ipuwer, the Dialogue of a Man with his Soul -- reflecting on social chaos.