The period between the6th and the 1 1th Dynasties is one of the most obscure in Egypt's history ; yet tlie complete dearth of monuments can scarcely be fnrtuitous. Manetho localizes the 7th and 8th Dynasties still at Memphis, and we may indeed suppose tliat there was no sudden break with the past. The provincial nobles could only gradually assert their strength, and the Pharaohs alill
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reigiied, at least nominallj-.in their ancient capital. But of these kinjrs we know nothing, scarcely their names. Possihly they were, in later times, regarded as usurpers. Genealojries in certain tombs (ElBersheh) appear to reach back to their times, and show how the nomarchs already flourished. The succeeding DjTiasties, the 9th and 10th, would be equally unknown were it not for the inscriptions of Siut, whose princes record their participation in the struggle of the petty Dynasty of Ueracleopolis (Ahnas) against 'the South.' The 9th ana 10th Dynasties are indeed currently ascribed to Heracleopolis, while subsequent events make it evident that by ' the South ' is here meant the principality of Thebes. Tliat town had been the seat of a noble family under the 6th Dynasty ; and while the royal power had grown weak, tiie Theban nomarchs had nursed their strength, till at lengtli, having overcome the Heradeopolites, they by degrees re-established unity and order.
(0) the Mittdle Kingdom. — The claims of these first Theban Pharaohs — the Utli Dynasty — to be the legitimate successors of the Memphite kings were recognized in their own and future genera- tions. Their number and sequence isnotclear. They bear alternately the names Mntw/itp (Mentuhotep) and /«(/■( Intef), though it is pretty certain this does not imply the imdisturbed succession of one family. The ro^'al honours were not attained by the first member of the series, who bears merely the title of nomarch ; the kingly titles are assumed by his successors. One at least of them — Mntwhtp III. — had a long reign, and left evidence of his power from the Cataracts to the Delta. Another records a trading expedition on the Ked Sea as well as quarrying work in the eastern desert.
Whether the 12th Dynasty succeeded the 11th without disturbance is not certain. It gave to Egypt seven of the most active, powerful, and long-lived of her kings, and seems in every sense to have been worthy of the admiration bestowed on it in after ages. To /mnm/t'<-Amcnemes I. fell the task of completing the work of union and pacification initiated by his predecessors. The magnates of Middle Egypt (lieni-Hasan) have recorded his intervention to settle local disputes as to territory on tlie basis of former arrangements, and to confirm his faitliful vassals in their pos- sessions. Elsewhere we read of revolts suppressed and of conquests abroad. Indeed, Egypt had now for the first time a royal house whose aspiration it was to extend the frontiers of their dominions. It is true that booty or tribute were still the chief inducements to war ; but the campaigns were now upon a larger scale, the enemies attacked more distant, and the results of victory more lasting. The energies of the kings were turned chiefly southward, towards the gold mines of Nubia. That country, once subdued, — mainly by the exertions of Wsr(fn (Usertesen) III., — was to be held by means of fortresses, of which two can still be traced beyond the second Cataract. All E^'ypt contains scattered remains of the building activity of the 12tli Dyna.sty, whoso kings resirled in various cajiitals — the earlier in Tliebes, where the nucleus of the Amon temiile dates from their time, and jiossibly at Memphis ; the la*«r, in tlie Kayyflm, where Amencmes III. built the most colossal of Egyptian funerary temples, known in later ages as the Labyrinth, and where he utilized an extensive natural lake (L. Moeris) to fertilize the whole district. The custom of burial in pyramids, maintained on a modest scale by the 11th Dyniusty at Thebes, was carried on by their successors, who built largo tombs of this cla.ss near Memphis (Lislit, Turrali, Dahshur) or in the Fayyrtm (Illahun, llawarah). There are grounds for sujiposing the later kings of the Dynasty to have hml foreign blood in their
veins : their portraits show features singularly dillerent from the accustomed type of the age. The internal history of the middle kingdom is the history of the development of the decentralizing tendencies which had their rise in the conditions of the 6th Dynasty. The development can ba traced in the inscribed tombs of the noble families buried at Beni- Hasan, El - Bersheh, Siut, and Aswftn. The nomes of Middle and Upper Egypt are the centres of interest, each of them in the hands of a family of which the genealogy can, in some cases, be traced back to the Old Kingdom. The nomarchs were still, however, under certain obligations to the central power. Hut the crown was no longer in the position of irresponsible despotism which it had enjoyed in furmer times. Its powers were restricted on all sides by the growth of the provincial resources. The nomarchs, some of whom by judicious marriages had become lords of several provinces at once, had their own courts, ofticials, and levies, though the latter were apparently at the king's disposal for external wars. So far, however, as we can judge, the country sufTered little as yet from these conditions. The age of the Middle Kin<jdom, though differing rather in degree than in kind from that of the Memphite Dynasties, was one of probably greater material, artistic, and literary wealth, and appeared, not undeservedly, to succeeding generations as a golden age.