The Collapse of the Old Kingdom: Low Floods, Famines, and Anarchy
by
Fekri A. Hassan
University College London, UK

Unified in 3200 BC, the Egyptian nation state passed through a thousand years of development and prosperity until the reign of Pepy II (2246-2152 BC). Then suddenly the country plunged in an age of terror and anarchy marking the end of the Old Kingdom. The sudden and mysterious collapse of the Old Kingdom has led to several alternate explanations. Current evidence from high-resolution palaeoclimatic data for an abrupt global cooling event ca. 2200 BC, would have caused a drastic drop in Nile flood levels. Examination of textual accounts of famines dating shortly after 2200 BC reveals that famines were most probably related to catastrophically low Nile floods, which led to squalor, pestilence, want, poverty, plunder, violence, murder, arson, hatred, treachery, enmity, and fighting. One text in particular, by Ipuwer, gives a detailed account of the events, which included a reduction in population due to infanticide, suicide, high mortality, and sterility. The text speaks of a social upheaval marked by a collapse of the social hierarchy as nobles and noblewomen were reduced to poverty, and many who were poor exploited the situation to become wealthy. In addition, the ideological basis of society was undermined as tombs and pyramids were desecrated and looted. Local troubles were compounded by attacks from desert dwellers who captured parts of the Delta. The text also highlights the downfall of kingship and the destruction of the administrative structure and the rise to power of the strong and the corrupt.

The combination of textual and palaeoclimatic data are essential for developing a comprehensive model of the interrelationship between climatic change and cultural events. The juxtaposition of texts and palaeoclimatic proxies also serves as a means of interpreting and assessing the significance and validity of textual statements.

Date received: May 10, 2002