What started the high degree of prosperity achieved by Egyptian civilization?

The unified people living in what we call the Old Kingdom enjoyed 500 years of prosperity, stability, confidence and high-mindedness we still look back to for inspiration today. This work focuses on the 3d to 8th Dynasties known as the Old Kingdom, 2658-2135 BC.

The fish-filled stream flows on its journey north through Nubian sandstone which gives way to limestone and divides into numerous fan like fingers creating the alluvial land known as the Nile Delta.[13] The hills to the east were rich in copper and gold, to the south were the forests providing wood. On the whole, the natural geography provided the safety of frontiers and self-sufficiency nourished by a regular annual inundation of fertility along a valley 600 miles long, and rarely more than 12 miles wide.[16-17]

The negroid inhabitants (look at the tightly-curled hair, wide lips, flat noses) began decorating tombs and the artistic effort directed to grave goods created a prosperous middle class.[24-25] Advantages accrue from planned planting along dikes and canals led by local chiefs. By gradual expansion and annexation, not by large-scale confrontation, Egypt formed a united polity under King Narmer around 2950 BC which lasted 800 years.[26]

The art is not entirely "religious". The early ithyphallic depictions of Min are the only monumental scupltures of the Predynastic Period, and they are reproduced for the rest of ...history.[25]

The sphinx of Gisa is some 60 metres long, with a body of a lion and head of a king with a headcloth. The concept is the reverse of the way all other deities were represented--with a human body and animal/bird head. [10,56] There is no evidence it was worshiped in its own right, and it is not mentioned for a 1000 years after it was made.

The highest Old Kingdom office was that of chief justice (vizier -- taity zab tjaty) whose control extended over all departments of state administration and the judiciary, and who was directly responsible to the king.[94]

Departments of the state administration had large staffs of scribes, and the degree of control over the smallest transactions must have been considerable. [yet] none of these documents has so far been found.[96]

The idea of justice and administering the law was closely connected with the concept of world order (maet). There were no written laws during the Old Kingdom, but royal decrees issued for institutions as well as to private individuals were recorded and kept in royal archives. [96]

Chapter Nine: The Collapse

What caused the first Egyptian civilization to disintegrate after 500 years? (2658-2135 BC)

The author explains that a "general malaise ripped apart the fabric of its society at the end of the Sixth Dynasty". [117] Pepy II ruled over 90 years, followed by strife in his succession, with over 17 rulers, one of which was a woman, in only 16 years. Confusion permeated the system and the country split. Monumental building reduced and slowly ground to a halt. Climatic conditionsbegan worsening with the Sixth Dynasty. Texts describe famine--"everybody eating his children". "Indeed many dead are buried in the river". [118]

Many factors account for the decline. Gigantic building enterprises used up huge amounts of contemporary resources. There was a growing power of the temples resulting from endowments exempt from state obligations, but the numbers of priests were quite small.[119]

The Old Kingdom was not brought to its knees by popular uprising. No large-scale invasion from abroad took place. [119]

Egypt had previously had succession issues--the perduration of Pepy II may have aggravated the situation, but could not have been its cause.

But the seeds of its dissolution were at its birth, the dynamics in the system. A gradual shift in the ownership of land from central authority to independent cult and temple establishments. Private tomb endowments undermined the state by weakening royal authority until the situation was comparable to the situation before the creation of the state. [120]

Privatization of land made the state economy unworkable, and the king unable to enforce its continuation. Weather apparently dealt the decisive blow.

Chapter Ten - EPILOGUE

The Old Kingdom left an indelible mark on Egyptian consciousness. Features of the OK were studied as Egypt experienced new periods of prosperity, but it never regained the same confidence displayed in the Old Kingdom. ( )

Found a Nat Geo map of Egypt from Apr 2001 in the book