Periodization of ancient Egypt
The periodization of ancient Egypt is the use of periodization to organize the 3,000-year history of ancient Egypt.[1] The system of 30 dynasties recorded by third-century BC Greek-speaking Egyptian priest Manetho is still in use today;[2] however, the system of "periods" and "kingdoms" used to group the dynasties is of modern origin (19th and 20th centuries CE).[3] The modern system consists of three "Golden Ages" (Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms), interspersed between "intermediate periods" (often considered times of crisis or Dark Ages) and early and late periods.[3]
Old, Middle and New Kingdoms[edit]
Bunsen[edit]
In his 1844–1857 Ägyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte, Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen became the first Egyptologist to propose what became the modern tripartite division for Egypt's history:[3]
Intermediate periods[edit]
First Intermediate Period[edit]
19th-century Egyptology did not use the concept of "intermediate periods"; these were included as part of the preceding periods "as times of interval or transition".[6]
In 1926, after the First World War, Georg Steindorff's Die Blütezeit des Pharaonenreiches and Henri Frankfort's Egypt and Syria in the First Intermediate Period assigned dynasties 6–12 to the terminology "First Intermediate Period". The terminology had become well established by the 1940s.[6]
Second Intermediate Period[edit]
In 1942, during the Second World War, German Egyptologist Hanns Stock's Studien zur Geschichte und Archäologie der 13. bis 17. Dynastie fostered use of the term "Second Intermediate Period".[6]
Third Intermediate Period[edit]
In 1978, British Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen's book The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC) coined the term "Third Intermediate Period".[6]