Poucos estudos têm se dedicado a explorar de forma mais sistemática o processo que levou ao fim do Reino Antigo (2686 a 2160 a.C.) e ao advento do Primeiro Período Intermediário (2160-2055 a.C.) no Antigo Egito. A relativa escassez de fontes sempre foi um dos argumentos usados para rotular esse momento da história egípcia como uma idade das trevas, na qual a civilização do Nilo teria mergulhado em profundo caos decorrente do enfraquecimento da monarquia unificada articulada em torno do faraó e da elite menfita. Nesse entendimento períodos como esse, de retração da capacidade centralizadora do Estado, permanecem alijados da histórica política egípcia e são encarados como meros hiatos dentro de um curso supostamente natural de centralização política. Pretendendo rever essas interpretações, este estudo se debruça sobre a organização da administração estatal egípcia no período que cobre especialmente da Vª dinastia ao Primeiro Período Intermediário. A análise da documentação, que engloba decretos régios e autobiografias inscritas nas tumbas de alguns dos mais destacados funcionários dessa época, demonstra que a corrente percepção acerca do fim do Reino Antigo, na qual as reformas administrativas empreendidas entre a Vª e VIª dinastias teriam provocado excesso de poder das elites locais, levando-as a se autonomizar e a concorrer com o próprio Estado, é equivocada. Partindo de um concepção materialista a respeito do que se entende por Estado foi possível notar que o poder das elites provinciais, no Reino Antigo, articulava-se em torno de pelo menos três eixos principais: através do exercício de funções burocráticas na administração estatal; como responsáveis por instalações régias nas províncias, a exemplo do Hwt; e por intermédio da administração e sacerdócio tanto em templos de divindades locais quanto nas chamadas capelas do ka, destinadas ao culto dos monarcas egípcios. A conclusão é a de que a autonomia de certos grupos provinciais frente ao poder menfita se dá somente após o enfraquecimento deste último, não estabelecendo com ele uma relação causal. Tal autonomia não se configura, igualmente, como um processo de oposição ao Estado, uma vez que elites locais e Estado sei inseriam na lógica estatal por meio de laços de solidariedade e reciprocidade essenciais ao equilíbrio de ambos. Ao ofertar nova luz ao estudo da administração egípcia busca-se repensar as condições que levaram ao declínio do Reino Antigo, assim como reavaliar o lugar do Primeiro Período Intermediário na história egípcia através de uma perspectiva integradora, inserindo-o na dinâmica das relações de poder que marcaram a trajetória dessa sociedade como um momento fundamental no qual administração estatal, longe de entrar em colapso, reorganizase e se rearticula. / Only a few studies have systematically explored the process that led to the ending of the Old Kingdom (2686-2160 B.C) and the arrival of the First Intermediate Period (2160-2055 B.C) in Ancient Egypt. The relative lack of sources has always been an argument to label this moment of the Egyptian history has a period of dark ages, when the Nile civilization supposedly dived into deep chaos due to the weakening of the unified monarchy that jointed around the pharaoh and the Memphite elite. To this understanding, periods like that one, in which the States centralizing capacity retracted, remain excluded from the Egyptian political history and are faced as mere hiatus in a supposedly natural course of political centralization. Aiming to revise such interpretations, the present study discusses the organization of the Egyptian State administration from the 5th dynasty to the First Intermediate Period. The analysis of documents like royal decrees and autobiographies written in the tombs of some of the more distinguished officers of the period, points out the misconception of the current comprehension about the ending of the Old Kingdom. From our point of view, the administrative reforms made between the 5th and the 6th dynasties did not necessarily provoke an excess of power among the local elites, and therefore did not necessarily lead them to become autonomous and then concur with the State. By having in mind a materialistic conception of State, we could notice that the provincial elites power during the Old Kingdom jointed around at least three main perspectives: the exercise of bureaucratic functions in the State administration; the responsibility for royal installations in the provinces, like the hwt for example; and the administration and priesthood in local divinities temples and ka chapels, destined to the cult of the Egyptian monarchs. We have concluded that certain provincial groups started to become autonomous and to face the Memphite power only after this ones hegemony started to weaken; therefore, there is no causal relation. In the same way, such autonomy did not mean an opposition to the State, since the local elites and the State were bounded by solidarity and reciprocity laces which were essential to the balance of both. By offering a new perspective to the study of the Egyptian administration, we aim to rethink the conditions that led to the fall of the Old Kingdom and reevaluate the place of the First Intermediate Period in Egyptian history. We propose an integrating perspective that puts this period into the dynamics of power relations that marked the trajectory of that society as a fundamental moment in which the State administration, far from collapsing, reorganized and rearticulated itself.

Poucos estudos têm se dedicado a explorar de forma mais sistemática o processo que levou ao fim do Reino Antigo (2686 a 2160 a.C.) e ao advento do Primeiro Período Intermediário (2160-2055 a.C.) no Antigo Egito. A relativa escassez de fontes sempre foi um dos argumentos usados para rotular esse momento da história egípcia como uma idade das trevas, na qual a civilização do Nilo teria mergulhado em profundo caos decorrente do enfraquecimento da monarquia unificada articulada em torno do faraó e da elite menfita. Nesse entendimento períodos como esse, de retração da capacidade centralizadora do Estado, permanecem alijados da histórica política egípcia e são encarados como meros hiatos dentro de um curso supostamente natural de centralização política. Pretendendo rever essas interpretações, este estudo se debruça sobre a organização da administração estatal egípcia no período que cobre especialmente da Vª dinastia ao Primeiro Período Intermediário. A análise da documentação, que engloba decretos régios e autobiografias inscritas nas tumbas de alguns dos mais destacados funcionários dessa época, demonstra que a corrente percepção acerca do fim do Reino Antigo, na qual as reformas administrativas empreendidas entre a Vª e VIª dinastias teriam provocado excesso de poder das elites locais, levando-as a se autonomizar e a concorrer com o próprio Estado, é equivocada. Partindo de um concepção materialista a respeito do que se entende por Estado foi possível notar que o poder das elites provinciais, no Reino Antigo, articulava-se em torno de pelo menos três eixos principais: através do exercício de funções burocráticas na administração estatal; como responsáveis por instalações régias nas províncias, a exemplo do Hwt; e por intermédio da administração e sacerdócio tanto em templos de divindades locais quanto nas chamadas capelas do ka, destinadas ao culto dos monarcas egípcios. A conclusão é a de que a autonomia de certos grupos provinciais frente ao poder menfita se dá somente após o enfraquecimento deste último, não estabelecendo com ele uma relação causal. Tal autonomia não se configura, igualmente, como um processo de oposição ao Estado, uma vez que elites locais e Estado sei inseriam na lógica estatal por meio de laços de solidariedade e reciprocidade essenciais ao equilíbrio de ambos. Ao ofertar nova luz ao estudo da administração egípcia busca-se repensar as condições que levaram ao declínio do Reino Antigo, assim como reavaliar o lugar do Primeiro Período Intermediário na história egípcia através de uma perspectiva integradora, inserindo-o na dinâmica das relações de poder que marcaram a trajetória dessa sociedade como um momento fundamental no qual administração estatal, longe de entrar em colapso, reorganizase e se rearticula. / Only a few studies have systematically explored the process that led to the ending of the Old Kingdom (2686-2160 B.C) and the arrival of the First Intermediate Period (2160-2055 B.C) in Ancient Egypt. The relative lack of sources has always been an argument to label this moment of the Egyptian history has a period of dark ages, when the Nile civilization supposedly dived into deep chaos due to the weakening of the unified monarchy that jointed around the pharaoh and the Memphite elite. To this understanding, periods like that one, in which the States centralizing capacity retracted, remain excluded from the Egyptian political history and are faced as mere hiatus in a supposedly natural course of political centralization. Aiming to revise such interpretations, the present study discusses the organization of the Egyptian State administration from the 5th dynasty to the First Intermediate Period. The analysis of documents like royal decrees and autobiographies written in the tombs of some of the more distinguished officers of the period, points out the misconception of the current comprehension about the ending of the Old Kingdom. From our point of view, the administrative reforms made between the 5th and the 6th dynasties did not necessarily provoke an excess of power among the local elites, and therefore did not necessarily lead them to become autonomous and then concur with the State. By having in mind a materialistic conception of State, we could notice that the provincial elites power during the Old Kingdom jointed around at least three main perspectives: the exercise of bureaucratic functions in the State administration; the responsibility for royal installations in the provinces, like the hwt for example; and the administration and priesthood in local divinities temples and ka chapels, destined to the cult of the Egyptian monarchs. We have concluded that certain provincial groups started to become autonomous and to face the Memphite power only after this ones hegemony started to weaken; therefore, there is no causal relation. In the same way, such autonomy did not mean an opposition to the State, since the local elites and the State were bounded by solidarity and reciprocity laces which were essential to the balance of both. By offering a new perspective to the study of the Egyptian administration, we aim to rethink the conditions that led to the fall of the Old Kingdom and reevaluate the place of the First Intermediate Period in Egyptian history. We propose an integrating perspective that puts this period into the dynamics of power relations that marked the trajectory of that society as a fundamental moment in which the State administration, far from collapsing, reorganized and rearticulated itself.

La Première Période intermédiaire égyptienne est souvent perçue comme une époque de crise de l’autorité royale, de morcellement politique du pays et de perte des valeurs éthiques traditionnels. Cette recherche a l’ambition de vérifier l’état de ce changement dans l’organisation sociale à travers le prisme de l’histoire institutionnelle. Les sources primaires analysées sont principalement les textes commémoratifs des notables des villes et des membres de leur maisonnée : il s’agit de titres, d’épithètes et de récits autobiographiques qui révèlent comment les rangs supérieurs de la société définissaient leur autorité, c’est-à-dire leur pouvoir et leur prestige. L’étude de leurs fonctions et de leur comportement dans quatre secteurs administratifs (l’administration centrale, territoriale, l’administration des palais et des temples) et dans le domaine privé permet de conclure que la Première Période intermédiaire ne représente pas une césure nette avec le passé. En revanche, l’augmentation des centres ayant leurs propres ateliers qui produisent des monuments inscrits offre une photographie inédite sur les sociétés urbaines et sur les liens que les élites de province entretenaient avec la capitale à la fin du IIIe millénaire. Des aspects caractéristiques de la Première Période intermédiaire, comme l’importance des activités militaires, sont aussi envisagés. / Egypt's First Intermediate Period is often portrayed as a time of crisis of the royal authority, political fragmentation, and loss of traditional ethical values. The aim of this research is to assess the features of this transformation in the social organization, through the lens of institutional history. The primary sources analysed are chiefly the commemorative texts of the towns' dignitaries and the members of their households; they includes titles, epithets, and autobiographical records that reveal how the higher ranks of society defined their authority, i.e. their power and prestige. The study of the roles and behaviour of these individuals within four administrative areas (i.e. central, territorial, palace, and temple administration) and in the private domain makes it possible to conclude that the First Intermediate Period does not constitute a clear break with the past. On the other hand, the increase in the number of centres that were provided with their own workshops for the production of inscribed monuments offers a new view of the contemporary urban societies, and of the link that the provincial elites maintain with the capital at the end of the 3rd millennium. Some features distinctive of the First Intermediate Period (for instance, the importance of military activities) are also considered.

This thesis investigates how the burial chamber of the 8th Dynasty pyramid of king Qakare Ibi at Saqqara in Egypt (c. 2109-2107 B.C.) was inscribed. It uses a holistic approach to focus on the textual programme and its unusual aspects in comparison to older pyramids. In doing so, it addresses issues of textual transmission and of scribal practice in the process of inscribing the walls of subterranean chambers in pyramids. The aim is to contextualise the texts of Ibi within the Memphite tradition of Pyamid Texts and the development of mortuary literature on different media from the late third millennium BCE Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom in the early second millennium BCE. The first chapter presents the background to this research and information on king Ibi and his pyramid. The second chapter treats research on the arrangement of the texts on the walls of subterranean chambers of royal pyramids of kings and queens and compares the layout of the texts in the pyramid of Ibi with older pyramids. It then discusses in detail one section on the east wall of Ibi, where the order of spells diverges from other transmitted sequences. The unusual combination of spells and the practice of shortening spells is investigated further in the third chapter, where two sections of texts on the south wall are analysed. The fourth chapter explores garbled texts and discusses processes of copying and inscribing the texts onto the walls of pyramids. The fifth chapter analyses the modifications of the writing system in pyramids, especially the mutilation of hieroglyphs, and how this practice relates to the tradition of altering signs in pyramids. Finally, the sixth chapter synthesises the results of the preceding chapters in two sections. The first section summarises the process of inscribing pyramids and contextualises aspects of scribal practices within it. The second section concludes the thesis with a discussion of the features of the textual programme of Ibi and of how it relates to the broader transmission of mortuary literature.

The subject of the diploma thesis is a data completion and evaluation of the finds of copper tools and model tools in the 3rd Millennium BC, in the Early Dynastic Period, Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, in Egypt and Nubia. The first part of the thesis contains subject definition, chronological and chorological definitions and short introduction in the copper metallurgy of Ancient Near East and Egypt in the examined periods. The thesis is based on the catalogue of the archaeological contexts, the description of method and structure is followed by the synthesis of facts about archaeological context of finds. The main part of the thesis is a register of tool classes, examining their chronology, morphology and selectively also the occurrence in other sources. The conclusion brings together the facts and delineates the role of copper tools and model tools in the Ancient Egyptian society of the examined periods.

In recent years, research on the field of ancient Egyptian economy in its earliest historical forms has grown quickly. Despite previous efforts in the last decades, the nature of the ancient Egyptian economic system has not yet been satisfactorily defined. Ancient Egypt had, like the majority of preindustrial societies, a pre-eminently agrarian economy. Amongst the agricultural products acquired from the Egyptian land, cereals stood out due to their economic significance. Grain and cereal-based products, such as bread and beer, were used as a medium of exchange and a basis for wages. The aforementioned importance of cereals must have made their management and storage a matter of priority. The storage of food staples is always of utmost importance as it is a key component of food distribution, which is an important means of executing power and accomplishing the goals by specific actors in a system (Paulette 2013: 106). Despite the significance of grain storage for the understanding of socio-economic and power relations in a given society, no comprehensive macro-study on grain storage in ancient Egypt has been undertaken. Thus, the main goal of this work is to obtain a new multi-faceted picture of grain storage in ancient Egypt. More precisely, the study focuses on an extensive historical span...

Le premier volume est consacré à l’analyse des matériaux et des techniques utilisées pour la fabrication des « modèles » funéraires, c’est-à-dire, les maquettes en bois représentant des personnages ou des scènes de la vie quotidienne, typiques du mobilier funéraire des élites entre la fin de l’Ancien et la fin du Moyen Empire (env. 2350-1630 av. J.-C.). Dans une première partie, axée sur le matériel provenant des sites de Saqqâra, Assiout et Meir, les traits stylistiques et techniques ont été examinés afin de définir des groupes d’objets et identifier des ateliers de production. Des critères de datation ont ensuite été définis et comparés aux autres pièces du mobilier funéraire découverts dans les sépultures étudiées. Suivant un déroulé chronologique depuis la fin de l’Ancien Empire, la deuxième partie se concentre sur les ateliers de fabrication et les contacts interrégionaux. Une attention particulière est portée au rapport qui unit pouvoir royal, élites et artisans au travers de l’envoi d’équipements funéraires et plus particulièrement des modèles en bois découverts de la région memphite à la Haute-Égypte. La troisième partie s’intéresse aux fonctions sociales, économiques et religieuses des modèles et examine plus particulièrement le rapport étroit qui unit ce mobilier et les pratiques funéraires entre la fin de l’Ancien et la fin du Moyen Empire. Le deuxième volume présente le corpus des modèles en bois examinés. Un troisième volume est consacré aux annexes.L’examen des modèles en bois, significatif de profonds changements politiques et religieux à l’origine de nouvelles coutumes et croyances funéraires entre la VIème et la XIIIème dynastie, précise le contexte géographique, historique et social associé à la fabrication et à l’utilisation de ce mobilier et permet d’affiner la perception du rapport entre artisans et pouvoir, rapport omniprésent dans la société égyptienne antique dès la période prédynastique. / The first part focuses on material analysis and process use for the manufacturing of funerary “models”. These wooden objects represent people or everyday scenes of life, used by Egyptian elites for funeral furniture between the end of the Old Kingdom to the end of the Middle Kingdom (cir. 2350-1630 BC). In a first part, focused on objects from Saqqara, Assiut and Meir, the stylistic and technical features were examined to define groups of objects and workshops. Then, dating criteria were defined and compared with the funeral furniture discovered in the studied graves. According to one unwound chronological since the end of the Old Kingdom, the second part concentrates on workshops and interregional contacts. A particular attention is worn in the relationship between royal power, elites and craftsmen through the sending of funeral equipment and more particularly bare wooden models of the Memphite area to the Upper Egypt. The third part is interested in the social, economic and religious functions of the models and examines more particularly the narrow relationship which unites this furniture and the funeral practices between the end of the Old Kingdom to the end of the Middle Kingdom. The second volume presents the corpus of the examined wooden models. The third volume is dedicated to appendices. The examination of wooden models, significant of political and religious deep changes at the origin of new customs and funeral faiths between the VIth and the XIIIth dynasty, specifies the geographical, historic and social context associated with the manufacturing. The analysis of these objects allows refining the perception of the relationship between craftsmen and power, omnipresent in the Egyptian society from the Predynastic period.