From the end of the 1st dynasty,
there is evidence of rival claimants to the throne. One line may have become
the 2nd dynasty, whose first king’s Horus name, Hetepsekhemwy, means
“peaceful in respect of the two powers” and may allude to the
conclusion of strife between two factions or parts of the country, to the
antagonistic gods Horus and Seth, or to both.
Hetepsekhemwy and his successor, Reneb, moved their burial places to Ṣaqqārah;
the tomb of the third king, Nynetjer, has not been found. The second half of
the dynasty was a time of conflict and rival lines of kings, some of whose
names are preserved on stone vases from the 3rd-Dynasty Step Pyramid at Ṣaqqārah
or inking lists. Among these contenders, Peribsen took the
title of Seth instead of Horus and was probably opposed by Horus Khasekhem,
whose name is known only from Kawm al-Aḥmar and who used the programmatic
epithet “effective sandal against evil.” The last ruler of the dynasty combined
the Horus and Seth titles to form the Horus-and-Seth Khasekhemwy, “arising in
respect of the two powers,” to which was added “the two lords are at peace in
him.” Khasekhemwy was
probably the same person as Khasekhem after
the successful defeat of his rivals, principally Peribsen. Both Peribsen and
Khasekhemwy had tombs at Abydos, and the latter also built a monumental brick
funerary enclosure near the cultivation.
There were links of kinship between Khasekhemwy and the 3rd
dynasty, but the change between them is marked by a definitive shift of the
royal burial place to Memphis. Its first king, Sanakhte, is attested in
reliefs from Maghāra in Sinai. His successor, Djoser (Horus name
Netjerykhet), was one of the outstanding kings of Egypt. His Step Pyramid at Ṣaqqārah
is both the culmination of an epoch and—as the first large all-stone building,
many times larger than anything attempted before—the precursor of
later achievements. The pyramid is set in a much larger enclosure than that of
Khasekhemwy at Abydos and contains reproductions in stone of ritual structures
that had previously been built of perishable materials. Architectural details
of columns, cornices, and moldings provided many models for later development.
The masonry techniques look to brickwork for models and show little concern for
the structural potential of the stone. The pyramid itself evolved through numerous
stages from a flat mastaba (an
oblong tomb with a burial chamber dug beneath it, common at earlier nonroyal
sites) into a six-stepped, almost square pyramid. There was a second, symbolic
tomb with a flat superstructure on the south side of the enclosure; this
probably substituted for the traditional royal burial place of Abydos. The king
and some of his family were buried deep under the pyramid, where tens of
thousands of stone vases were deposited, a number bearing inscriptions of the
first two dynasties.
Thus, in perpetuating earlier forms in stone and burying this material,
Djoser invoked the
past in support of his innovations.
Djoser’s name was famous in later times, and his monument was
studied in the Late period. Imhotep, whose title as
a master sculptor is preserved from the Step Pyramid complex, may have been its
architect; he lived on into the next reign. His fame also endured, and in the
Late period he was deified and became a god of healing. In Manetho’s history, he is associated with reforms of writing, and this may reflect a genuine
tradition, for hieroglyphs were simplified and standardized at that time.
Djoser’s successor, Sekhemkhet, planned a still more grandiose step
pyramid complex at Ṣaqqārah, and a later king, Khaba, began one at Zawyat
al-ʿAryan, a few miles south of Giza. The burial place of the last king of the
dynasty, Huni, is
unknown. It has often been suggested that he built the pyramid of Maydūm, but this probably
was the work of his successor, Snefru. Inscribed
material naming 3rd-dynasty kings is known from Maghāra to Elephantine but not
from the Middle
East or Nubia.
The organizational achievements of the 3rd dynasty are reflected in
its principal monument, whose message of centralization and concentration of
power is reinforced in a negative sense by the archaeological record. Outside
the vicinity of Memphis, the Abydos area continued to be important, and four
enormous tombs, probably of high officials, were built at the nearby site of
Bayt Khallaf; there were small, nonmortuary steps pyramids throughout the
country, some of which may date to the 4th dynasty. Otherwise, little evidence
comes from the provinces, from which wealth must have flowed to the center,
leaving no rich local elite. By the 3rd dynasty the rigid structure of the
later nomes, or provinces, which formed the basis of Old Kingdom
administration, had been created, and the imposition of its uniform pattern may
have impoverished local centers. Tombs of the elite at Ṣaqqārah, notably those
of Hezyre and Khabausokar, contained artistic masterpieces that look forward to
the Old Kingdom.
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