tour 1 of 14
Egypt in the Old Kingdom
Egypt in the Old Kingdom
The pyramids and tombs of Egypt's Old Kingdom (Third to Sixth
Dynasties, about 2686-2181 BC), with their magnificent reliefs,
paintings, statues and stelae, have often been seen as the epitome
of the whole of ancient Egypt. Indeed, if the Early Dynastic period
was the formative period in which the bases of Egyptian
civilization were firmly established, the Old Kingdom was when it
came of age.
From the Fourth Dynasty, the administration of the country was
highly organised, controlled by civil servants from the royal
residence at Memphis, where the king was supreme. The efficiency of
the administration is no better exemplified than in the building of
the pyramids: it is estimated that the Great Pyramid when complete
contained about 2,300,000 blocks of stone of an average weight of
2½ tons, all of which had to be transported from quarry to
site.
This tour features objects from the period in the British
Museum's collection, including remains of the fabric of the early
royal pyramids, architectural elements and sculpture from the tombs
of the officials that ran the country and a papyrus from one of the
most important adminstrative archives of the period.