Historians divide Egyptian history into thirty one dynasties, regrouped into four periods of political centralization: pre- and early dynastic Egypt (3150-2770 BC), the Old Kingdom (2270-2200 BC), the Middle Kingdom (2050-1786 BC), and the New Kingdom (1560-1087 BC).
The time gap between kingdoms was periods of disruption and political confusion. Women of ancient Egypt were more independent and involved in public life than those of Mesopotamia. Egyptian women owned property, conducted their own business, entered legal contacts, and brought lawsuits. They shared in the economic and professional life of the country at every level except one: Women were apparently excluded from formal education. The professional bureaucracy was open only to those who could read and write.
As a result, the primary route to public power was closed to women, and the power remained in the hands of men. During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, great pyramid temple tomb complexes were build for the kings. Within the temples, priests and servants performed rituals to serve the dead kings just as they had served the kings when they were alive. The founder of the Old Kingdom, King Zoser, who was an approximate contemporary of Gilgamesh, build the first pyramid temple, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. In the Old Kingdom population has been estimated at perhaps 1.5 million, more than 70,000 workers at that time were employed in the building these great temple tombs. Gradually the power of the king declined. The increasing demands for consumption by the court and the cults forced agricultural expansion into aeries where returns were poor, which resulted decreasing the flow of wealth.
The Essay on King Lear Struggle Of Power
William Shakespeares classic tragedy King Lear presents a mam who having given away the responsibility of the crown to his daughters, suffers their filial ingratitude, foolishness, madness blindness and both the national theatre company version (NTC) and Grigori Kozintscv's Russian version, despite using different methods are effective in showing the different strands of power and powerlessness ...
As bureaucrats increased their efforts to supply the needs of living and dead kings and their attendants, they neglected the maintenance of the economic system that supplied their needs. By around 2200 BC, Egyptian royal authority collapsed entirely, leaving political and religious power in the hands of provincial governors. Ahmose I, the Theban founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, forged the empire. He and his successors used their newfound military to extend the frontiers of Egypt south up the Nile beyond the fourth cataract and well into Nubia. Most Important was the Egyptian expansion into Canaan. Here Egyptian chariots crashed their foes as kings pressed on as far as the Euphrates.
Thutmose I (91506-1494) proclaimed I have made the boundaries of Egypt as far as that which the sun encircles Tutmoses immediate successors were his children, Thuthmose II (1494-1490B.C.) and Hatshepsut (1490-1468 BC) , who married her brother. After the death of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut ruled both as regent for her stepson Tutmose III (1490-1436 BC) and as co ruler. She was by all accounts a capable ruler, preserving stability and even personally leading the army on several occasions to protect the empire. In spite of the efforts of Hatshepsut and her successors, the Egyptian Empire was never as grand as its kings proclaimed.
