The Political Origins of the Sixth Dynasty in Memphis
Manetho mentioned about this dynasty that its origin is from Memphis, and this is very likely, as the more archaeological research advances, the more convinced we become of it, because we notice in the work of its founder a clear tendency towards elevating the status of Ptah, the god of Memphis and bringing his priests closer and turning away from the sun priests, so did there arise in Egypt during the reign of the last king of the Fifth Dynasty Was there a movement against the influence of the sun priests, and its leaders were the people of Memphis, whose god's star was rising as their political power and access to the throne increased? We will not be able to answer this question definitively as long as archaeological discoveries do not show new documents that enlighten us more than what we have now.
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| Kings of the Sixth Dynasty Teti،Pepi I،Pepi II |
The Assassination of Teti and the Brief Reign of Userkare
This dynasty, like its predecessors since at least the Third Dynasty, was based in the capital, Memphis, and its first king, Teti, was buried in his pyramid at Saqqara. Manetho reminds us that he did not die a natural death, but was killed by his guards, and this may have been true; because the founders of the new rule are always exposed to the revenge of those who removed them from the king and removed them from the place of prominence.
This is confirmed by the fact that whoever came after him on the throne, King Userkare, did not stay in power for more than a few years and hardly left behind any traces in the country. For some reason, the ancient inscriptions that followed this period omitted him, as he may have been from the house of the old owner, who regained his family's throne but was then defeated.
Weni : From Childhood to Statesman Under Pepi I
In the history of the life of Weni, the greatest figure of that era, we see him mentioning how he started his life in the reign of Teti, when he was a small child and mentions the jobs he held in his youth, and then moves on to the reign of Pepi I, who witnessed all the years of his reign and then extended his life after that.
We see Weni, moving directly to the reign of Pepi without reference to the reign of those who sat on the throne before him, and he would not have dared to overthrow that king if he was not sure that it would please the family whose kings he had won the trust of.
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| Autobiography_of_Weni |
The Rise of Pepi I and the Trial of Queen Yamtes
Pepi I lifted his country from what it was in, and Egypt enjoyed a prosperous era during the twenty-five years of his rule, in which the arts were elevated and Egypt again returned to its connection with its neighboring nations, and it is enough for a person to see his large statue made of copper in the Cairo Museum or his other statues in other museums especially those made of alabaster in the Brooklyn Museum in New York, or visit his temple in Saqqara near Pharaoh's mastaba, and admire the beauty of his inscriptions to realize that the great level of inscriptions reached between the days of Isesi in the Fifth Dynasty and King Teti in the Sixth Dynasty remained high.
We do not yet know the real connection between this king and Teti. But we do know that his family life was not without intrigue in the early part of his life. Weni, to whom we have referred, tells us that this king appointed him to be among the investigators of his wife because of his confidence in him, but we do not know precisely what was the conspiracy for which this queen was put on trial.
In any case, after the trial of Queen Yamtes, he wanted to consolidate his position in the country, so he resorted to a new policy, which is his marriage to one of the powerful families in Upper Egypt, so he took the daughter of the prince of Abydos as his wife and became the mother of his son Merenre. He took the daughter of the prince of Abydos as his wife and became the mother of his son Merenre, who took over the reign after the death of his brother.
Merenre I and Egypt’s Southern Expeditions
Merenre was a young child when his father died. Although he had been on the throne for about ten years, he was a young man at the time of his death, as a lock of hair hung on the side of his mummy's head, which was found in his pyramid. Our information about the reign of this king is almost limited to what the Weni tablet provided us with, which mentioned the work he was assigned, and the last work he did was to dig five canals at Aswan to facilitate communication between Egypt and the countries south of it, as the policy of the Sixth Dynasty became to contact the south and send expedition leaders to explore those countries.
The Long Reign of Pepi II and the Weakening of Royal Power
After the death of Merenre I, his child brother Pepi II took over as king. Manetho mentioned that he ruled for ninety-four years and that he sat on the throne when he was six years old. His mother was his guardian from the beginning of his reign, and his uncle, Prince Djau, who became his minister, was the most influential person in the country. The family erected their rock-cut tombs in the area known as al-Qasr wa as-Sayyad near Nag Hammadi in Qena Governorate.
Perhaps the most famous work done in the early years of this king's reign were the expeditions he sent to the south under the command of the Elephantine rulers.
The Collapse of Central Power and Rise of Local Governors
The authority of the kings was weakened by the increasing influence of the provincial governors, each of whom became a prince ruler in his own province with only a fraction of loyalty to the throne.
In such circumstances, when the central authority disintegrates, the burdens on the government increase, public projects are disrupted, and every employee tries to enrich himself and collect as much wealth as he can, so the burdens and grievances pile up on the shoulders of the poor peasant who becomes a prey for everyone who comes and goes from the rich or from government employees. When things got worse, there was a great revolution in the country, a revolt against the throne, the rulers and the gods.
The End of the Sixth Dynasty: Nitocris and Political Disintegration
The first of them was called Merenre II, and he ruled for one year, then a woman, Netjerkare, who was mentioned by Manetho as Nitocris, sat on the throne, but she only stayed for two years, then chaos prevailed and the days of the sixth dynasty and the days of the ancient state came to an end.
This is the summary of the political history of this family, and our presentation of the history of this family will not be correct unless we talk in some detail about three topics, the first of which is the life history of the leader, Weni, who played the largest role in the history of the country in his days, and the second is the topic of the travelers who went to Sudan, and then talk about that social revolution that the people carried out to avenge themselves on those who did injustice and oppression.
Weni’s Military Campaigns in Palestine and Internal Reforms
Perhaps the most important inscription and the most important historical document left to us by the Sixth Dynasty is the painting of Weni, who was once standing in his tomb in Abydos and is now in the Egyptian Museum, in which he tells us the history of his life and his various works in the service of the kings of that dynasty, in which he tells us the history of his life and his various works in the service of the kings of that dynasty.
Weni mentions that he started his life in the government during the reign of King Teti, the first king of this dynasty, as a young boy, and then rose in his reign until he became in a great position, as he was the director of the agricultural office and at the same time he was the director of the king's lands.
Weni continues in his story, deliberately not referring to who ruled after Teti and mentions the rest of his life history during the reign of Pepi I. He mentions the king's love for him and his confidence in him, as he also assigned him a major job in the judiciary, which is the post of judge (Nekhen (Hierakonpolis), and made him head of the Council of Six, thus he was one of the most important figures of that era and the king's confidence in him reached that he was investigating the king's cases related to With one of his wives.
Weni also tells us how he was given the task of raising an army of tens of thousands of men from all the countries of Upper Egypt, from Elephantine in the south to Atfih in the north, as well as members of the tribes living at that time in Nubia, and entrusted him with the command of this large army.
The young commander is proud that there was order among his soldiers and that all the men of the army were an example of what a soldier should be, as none of them harmed anyone in any country they passed through, and none of them raped anything of any value whatsoever.
Although he did not mention the name of a special place, but always referred to the inhabitants of the sand, this campaign was not against the Sinai Peninsula, but in Palestine, as he mentions fig trees and vineyards in his poetry, in which he sings of the army's safe return, and refers to a populated country.
The most important thing in this inscription is that Weni later mentioned that another revolt arose in that country and the king sent him to suppress it, so he prepared two armies, one of which traveled by land, and he traveled with the other army by sea and landed at a place that is very likely to be near the Carmel Mountains, and then marched into the interior of the country and triumphed, and suppressed that revolt.
Weni's campaigns in Palestine were his last important work during the reign of Pepi I. When his son, Merenre, took over the country, he did not spare him, but increased his value by appointing him governor of Upper Egypt, and from time to time he assigned him the task of bringing granite for his pyramid and temples from the Aswan region and bringing alabaster from the quarries of the Assiut governorate. The last major work he did during the reign of this king was digging five channels in the rocks of the first waterfall to facilitate the passage of ships, and he completed this in one year, and Merenre himself went to see the work after its completion and for the leaders of Aswan and the Nubian tribes to offer him their loyalty, and offer his offerings to the god Khnum.
Weni concludes his life history with the construction of the canals. He mentions that all the honors he received were due to his merits, personal value and dedication to the king's orders, and concludes his inscription by saying that he was loved by his father and praised by his mother, and his name is preceded by the greatest title he received, the title of ruler of Upper Egypt.
Egyptian Expeditions to Nubia and Harkhuf’s Legacy
The interest of Egyptian kings in the affairs of the south increased since the days of the Fifth Dynasty and this interest increased in the Sixth Dynasty, who made this task to the princes of the island of Elephantine to make these trips because those princes knew well the people of that country because they were close to them.
They were overseeing the Egyptian border in the south. Weni's policy bore fruit, especially since he assumed the position of governor of Upper Egypt. He strengthened his relations with the Nubian leaders, and these leaders and their followers used to volunteer in the Egyptian army when it carried out wars in Palestine, and they also chose from among these Nubians guards to ensure security since the days of the Sixth Dynasty in the capital and perhaps in other cities as well.
When Weni was the ruler of Upper Egypt, and was the man next to the vizier in importance, we see him interested in sending travelers to the south, so Harkhuf made his first three campaigns - as he told us in his life history inscribed on the front of his tomb in Aswan during the reign of King Merenre, and his fourth trip was during the reign of King Pepi II.
Harkhuf was the ruler of Elephantine, but at the same time he was a priest of some gods, and his main title, which he cherished more than anything else, was that of head of the campaign. In his first campaign, Harkhuf was in the company of his father and was walking to an area called the country of Eyam to open the road to that country, and the journey was completed in seven months.
Harkhuf continues to tell his story, mentioning that his king sent him alone the second time and he left Elephantine and then mentions the countries he passed through one by one and boasts that none of the travelers who traveled before him had the opportunity to visit the areas he visited or return from his trip with the same gifts he brought back.
On his third trip, he took a different route, as he traveled along the oases, and Harkhuf found that a war had raged between tribes living in western Egypt, so he reconciled between them and returned from that trip with three hundred donkeys loaded with incense, ebony, perfumes, leopard skins, elephant tusks, sesame seeds, and more.
He was also accompanied by some tribal leaders to show him the way. We do not know the details of what happened to him on his fourth trip, which he made in the second year of the reign of King Pepi II, because getting a dwarf from that trip overshadowed everything else.
Harkhuf sent word to the king that he had obtained the dwarf and received a letter from the king in his own handwriting, which Harkhuf cherished and inscribed verbatim on the side of the entrance to his tomb.
The Social Revolution and Collapse of the Old Kingdom
The state of Egypt reached the worst conditions in the late days of the Sixth Dynasty and chaos prevailed, and when the people had had enough, they had no choice but to revolt against these conditions and avenge themselves. Our sources about this revolution and the description of what happened in the country are limited to what was mentioned in two papyrus, one called Ipuwer Papyrus, and the second called Neferti Papyrus, the first of which was written by a wise person who was able to reach the headquarters of the unnamed king and ask him to work to save the country from its deterioration, and explain to him its bad condition in eloquent language.
As for the second. It was written after that revolution, written by its author as a political propaganda for King Amenemhat I (he calls him by his short name Amene in the text) and attributes the origin of its incidents to the reign of King Sneferu, the founder of the fourth dynasty, who asked the high priest chanting in the temple of the gods Bast, called Neferti, to tell him about something that will happen in the future, and he told him what will happen in the country from the chaos and prolong the description, then finally says that what will save Egypt from this ordeal is a king named Amene who comes from the south and his Nubian mother and is born in Upper Egypt. It is not possible for us to present the text of these two papyri here, but it is enough to point out some of what is mentioned in them.
The country turned into gangs, people no longer plowed their fields, people went on strike to pay taxes, foreign trade stopped, and people attacked the government stores and looted them and the state offices and dispersed their contents. Even the buried kings were attacked and their remains were scattered, and their pyramids were empty.
The people took their vengeance on the rich, looting and burning the palaces, and the owners were in mourning and weeping, while the common people were rejoicing and celebrating. Those who owned slaves walked around in rags. Those who had never owned anything in their lives wore clothes of the finest linen.
The writer satirizes what he saw, saying that the bald man who did not use oil became the owner of pots full of the finest perfumes, the one who never owned a small box became the owner of a large box, and the girl who used to go to the water to see her face became the owner of a mirror.
Even the policemen who were expected to stop these events became at the forefront of thieves, and the central government collapsed, and the rich became sad and distressed while the poor were happy. And every city was saying, "Let's kick each other out. To make matters worse, gangs of Bedouins who lived on Egypt's borders in the east and possibly in the west took advantage of this opportunity and started pouring into the Delta villages and looting what they found with people, and brother no longer trusted brother or friend.
But such a state of affairs cannot last forever; people must return to the calm after the revolution and try to create a new society and order. If the fields were left uncultivated and the Nile water was clouded with the color of blood and filled with dead bodies, people had to calm down and produce to survive. The people could no longer find someone to pour more of their anger on or something they could usurp from those who owned it, so they fell into calm and looked forward to those who occupied the place of leadership and advice to get them out of their situation to start a new life, because demolition is easy and easy, but construction is something else that needs goodness and practice. It was a long time before Egypt returned to what it used to be.
Written by H. Moses
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