Did Egypt’s Old Kingdom Die—or Simply Fade Away?

The end of the great age of pyramid building in Egypt was long thought to be a traumatic collapse that plunged the Nile Valley into a long era of chaos. New research is changing that view.

By Andrew Lawler, National Geographic 
PUBLISHED THU DEC 24

As world leaders celebrate a new agreement to limit the impact of greenhouse gases on human society, archaeologists have been taking a fresh look at one of the most dramatic instances of a civilization confronted with devastating climate change.

For nearly a millennium, Egypt’s early pharaohs presided over a prosperous and wealthy state that built countless temples and palaces, enormous public works, and the famous Giza pyramids. Much of that prosperity depended on the regular inundations of the Nile River in a country that otherwise would be only desert.

Then, around 2200 B.C., ancient texts suggest that Egypt’s so-called Old Kingdom gave way to a disastrous era of foreign invasions, pestilence, civil war, and famines severe enough to result in cannibalism. In the past decade, climate data revealed that a severe and long-term drought afflicted the region during this same time, providing evidence of an environmental trigger that led to what has long been considered a dark age of Egyptian history.

But a number of Egyptologists argue that the simple story of a drought resulting in an abrupt societal breakdown doesn’t hold water. “The majority view today is that the Old Kingdom did not come to an end all of a sudden,” says Thomas Schneider, professor of Egyptology at the University of British Columbia. Instead, he and others say that climate stress affected different parts of Egypt in different ways—and not always for the worst. “We need to move away from this idea of collapse,” he says.

Study shows how ecology transformed through 6,000 years of Egyptian history

Ancient Egyptian artworks help scientists reconstruct how animal communities changed as climate became drier and human populations grew.

Depictions of animals in ancient Egyptian artifacts have helped scientists assemble a detailed record of the large mammals that lived in the Nile Valley over the past 6,000 years. A new analysis of this record shows that species extinctions, probably caused by a drying climate and growing human population in the region, have made the ecosystem progressively less stable.

The study, published September 8 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that local extinctions of mammal species led to a steady decline in the stability of the animal communities in the Nile Valley. When there were many species in the community, the loss of any one species had relatively little impact on the functioning of the ecosystem, whereas it is now much more sensitive to perturbations, according to first author Justin Yeakel, who worked on the study as a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute.

Around six millennia ago, there were 37 species of large-bodied mammals in Egypt, but only eight species remain today. Among the species recorded in artwork from the late Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC) but no longer found in Egypt are lions, wild dogs, elephants, oryx, hartebeest, and giraffe.

Saharan remains may be evidence of first race war, 13,000 years ago

Scientists are investigating what may be the oldest identified race war 13,000 years after it raged on the fringes of the Sahara.

French scientists working in collaboration with the British Museum have been examining dozens of skeletons, a majority of whom appear to have been killed by archers using flint-tipped arrows.

The bones – from Jebel Sahaba on the east bank of the Nile in northern Sudan – are from victims of the world’s oldest known relatively large-scale human armed conflict.

Over the past two years anthropologists from Bordeaux University have discovered literally dozens of previously undetected arrow impact marks and flint arrow head fragments on and around the bones of the victims.

This is in addition to many arrow heads and impact marks already found embedded in some of the bones during an earlier examination of the skeletons back in the 1960s. The remains – the contents of an entire early cemetery – were found in 1964 by the prominent American archaeologist, Fred Wendorf, but, until the current investigations, had  never been examined using more modern, 21 century, technology.

Some of the skeletal material has just gone on permanent display as part of the British Museum’s new Early Egypt gallery which opens officially today. The bones – from Jebel Sahaba on the east bank of the River Nile in northern Sudan – are from victims of the world’s oldest known relatively large-scale human armed conflict.

Polish scientists will study the climate of Egypt thousands of years ago

Eight several metres deep boreholes in northern Egypt have been drilled by a team of Polish scientists led by Prof. Leszek Marks of the Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw. Detailed analysis of the obtained cores will allow the reconstruction of climate in this area over the last 10,000 years.

Drilling was carried out in February in the area of Lakes Edku, Borolus and Mariout in the northern Nile Delta. Articularly important, however, will be the analyses of geological cores from the Fayoum Oasis - from the southern shore part of Lake Moeris (Birket Qarun), as these cores have provided interesting information.

Previous researchers have made a number of geological drillings in the area, but without analysis as detailed as planned by the Polish team. Now, from only 8 cores researchers have collected more than 1,000 samples. Some of them will be tested in Polish laboratories by specialists in various fields of science.

"No one has ever obtained similarly complete cores from this area, or subjected them to such a detailed analysis. Therefore, the results of our project will be crucial for the reconstruction of the natural environment in Egypt, also with regard to research on the history of Egyptian civilization" - explained project coordinator, Dr. Fabian Welc of the Institute of Archaeology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.

"We will date the samples using the radioactive carbon C14 method, we will examine the residual remains of plants, diatoms, and molluscs. In addition, we will perform a number of specialized analyses, including granulometric, lithological and geochemical tests. As a result, we will be able to precisely trace the changes in the environment of ancient Egypt over several millennia" - said Dr. Welc.

Ancient art fills in Egypt's ecological history

Mammal populations shrank during three abrupt climate shifts over the past 6,000 years.

by Virginia Gewin

Ancient Egyptian rock inscriptions and carvings on pharaonic tombs chronicle hartebeest and oryx — horned beasts that thrived in the region more than 6,000 years ago. Researchers have now shown that those mammal populations became unstable in concert with significant shifts in Egypt’s climate.

The finding is based on a fresh interpretation of an archaeological and palaeontological record of ancient Egyptian mammals pieced together more than a decade ago by the zoologist Dale Osborn1. Thirty-eight large-bodied mammals existed in Egypt roughly six millennia ago, compared to just eight species today.

“There are interesting stories buried in the data — at the congruence of the artistic and written record,” says Justin Yeakel, an ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, who presented the research this week at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For example, the philosopher Aristotle said 2,300 years ago that lions were present, though rare, in Greece; shortly thereafter, the beasts appeared in the local art record for the last time, Yeakel says.

Mummy Teeth Tell of Ancient Egypt's Drought

By Becky Oskin, Staff Writer   |   July 16, 2013

The link between drought and the rise and fall of Egypt's ancient cultures, including the pyramid builders, has long fascinated scientists and historians. Now, they're looking into an unexpected source to find connections: mummy teeth.

A chemical analysis of teeth enamel from Egyptian mummies reveals the Nile Valley grew increasingly arid from 5,500 to 1,500 B.C., the period including the growth and flourishing of ancient Egyptian civilization.

"Egyptian civilization was remarkable in its long-term stability despite a strong environmental pressure — increasing aridity — that most likely put constraints on the development of resources linked to agriculture and cattle breeding," said senior study author Christophe Lecuyer, a geochemist at the University of Lyon in France.

Many studies have linked dramatic droughts to crises near the end of the Old Kingdom (the Age of the Pyramids) in the third millennium B.C. But Lecuyer and his colleagues also found a jump in aridity before the downfall of Egypt in the 6th century B.C. during the Late Period, when it was conquered by Alexander the Great.

However, the new study can't resolve the occasional drops in annual Nile River floods or short-term droughts that often caused widespread famine and upsets in Egyptian history.

Polish scientists will examine how climate changed in Egypt thousands of years ago

Polish scientists want to examine how climate changed in the Nile delta over the millennia. Head of the pioneering program that will also involve researchers from Egypt and China, is Prof. Leszek Marks of the Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw.

Group of researchers have just returned from reconnaissance expedition to the Egyptian Nile delta. During the three-year Nile Climate Change Project (NCCP) they will prepare the reconstruction of climate changes in the region over the millennia.

 

"We will drill a series of 40 meters deep wells near the lakes Mariut, El Brolus and El Manzija in the northern part of the Nile delta and Lake Karun (Birkat Qaroun) in the Fayum Oasis. We will obtain lake sediment core samples and subject them to lithological, palaeo-climatic, palaeo-ecological and chronostratigraphic analysis "- told PAP project coordinator, Dr. Fabian Welc from the Institute of Archaeology of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.

 

Scientists are interested in the changes that have occurred during the Holocene. This geological epoch began shortly after the end of the last ice age, about 11.5 thousand years ago. The project will reconstruct a scenario of climate change at the local (Egypt) and regional (north-east Africa) scale. Researchers will reconcile the results with each phase of the development of civilization of ancient Egypt, especially in the context of sudden and catastrophic climate fluctuations.