Page 278 - Encyclopedia Of World History

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had a hierarchical and highly segmented society, a cen-
trally directed economy and administration that
employed the advantages of writing, and trade links to
neighbors and distant regions. Some of these kingdoms
may have had better access to certain resources, or sim-
ply better leadership, which allowed them to increase
their territorial gains, wealth, and power.
At around 3100 BCE, so it seems, the rulers of the pow-
erful kingdom of Abydos (Thinis) in the south managed
The Sphinx in Jizah, Egypt, photographed to subsume the territory of Hierakonpolis and largely
between 1867 and 1899. It is a powerful expanded its territory in the south. To what extent this
symbol of the Egyptian state, both past and process was an act of warfare, economic coercion, or vol-
present. untary alliance is unknown. One of the persons who may
have been largely responsible for this act was king
Narmer, the first king of what has come to be known as
the north by the southern rulers. However, in absence of the first dynasty, who dedicated a ceremonial cosmetic
archaeological evidence for warfare, today it is often palette to the Horus temple at Hierakonpolis on which
explained in terms of active interpolity exchange during he represented himself as the protector of his territory
this period. from outside enemies and the forces of chaos. Such rep-
In the south, the late Chalcolithic chiefdoms saw a resentations are well known from before and after the
growth in population in the increasingly urban market time of Narmer and most likely do not refer to actual
centers; the north not only replicates this process but events but rather have to be seen in the light of ideolog-
does so at a much greater scale, although at a slightly ical validation and political legitimization.
later point in time. The region at the apex of the Nile Simultaneously, the region around Memphis received
Delta and around what later became the capital Mem- another boost in activity, and from the time of Narmer’s
phis experienced a period of growth around 3300 BCE successor, Hor-Aha, there is the first evidence of monu-
that is measured by an increase in cemetery sites and mental architecture in the form of richly endowed private
number of graves. It is possible that this area may have tombs for members of the royal family and the bureau-
been a kingdom or city-state in its own right, but there cratic elites at Memphis, while the kings themselves
is currently no evidence, other than much later histori- chose to be buried with their ancestors in the royal
cal sources that refer to a Memphite kingdom, to support necropolis at Abydos. It appears as if the family, or
this. Contemporary archaeological evidence from the dynasty, of Abydene rulers of this time was so powerful
area’s main necropolis at Helwan also suggests that this that they not only succeeded in integrating Hierakonpo-
region gained in importance on a countrywide scale as lis into their territory, but soon after also moved north
rulers from different parts of Egypt maintained contacts and thus created the national territory of Egypt, with
with its inhabitants and employed administrative per- Memphis as its capital. This, finally, represents the com-
sonnel from here. pletion of the second stage of state formation in Egypt.
Already at this stage, basically all the criteria for state
formation in Egypt were fulfilled. Each of the kingdoms The Third Stage
had a powerful monarch who was seen as having abili- The final stage was a far more drawn-out process, in
ties beyond the natural realm, including the ability to which the state administration consolidated the govern-
mediate between the human and the divine; they each ment, devised a method to determine, collect, and redis-