Kingdom Egypt also coincides with a decrease in windblown dust.

Nevertheless, any theory of historical change that puts primary emphasis on catastrophic climatic change needs to account for the natural human tendency to adapt. This Weiss has failed to do. A drought invites numerous adaptive measures that could have lessened its effects, such as diversification of crops and herd measures, relying more on imported food, etc. Why did the pharaoh not adopt such alternatives to stave off the undermining of his legitimacy? The answer, as this essay has emphasised, lies in the fiscal situation at the time. Towards the end of the Sixth Dynasty under Pepi I and II, the central administration was reaping the consequences of reckless spending on public works. Had the fiscal situation been stronger, it is likely that adverse climate change would have had much less impact. As Malek points out, 'the spectre of famine due to Nile failure in individual years must have haunted the Egyptians to greater or lesser degrees throughout all periods of Egyptian history'. Only if we assume that Egyptians failed to learn from past experience with drought - surely an implausible assertion - can one suggest that climate change brought about the collapse of the Old Kingdom.

III.

The Egyptians were not a civilisation incapable of adapting to climate change, however decades of expensive public works projects had led to a dire fiscal position that made adaptation extremely difficult. The public treasury had been drained, leaving few resources to assist during times of drought and famine. It is reasonable to think that this in turn led to an increase in scepticism of the pharaoh. The provincial lords were able to indict the failure of central authorities and generate goodwill by providing relief to the people themselves, which helped propel their rise.

Bibliography

David, Rosalie. Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt (New York: Facts on File Inc., 2003).

Frankfort, H. "Egypt and Syria in the First Intermediate Period." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 12 (1926): 90-95.

Gardiner, Alan. Egypt of the Pharaohs: An Introduction (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961).

Malek, Jaromir. "Old Kingdom", in Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 121-124.

Tainter, Joseph. The Collapse of Complex Societies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

Trigger, B. Ancient Egypt: A Social History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

Weiss, Harvey. June 1996. "Desert Storm: Drought, wind and dust, not failing leadership or military conquest, brought destruction to the first of the ancient civilizations". Available [Online]: <http://leilan.yale.edu/pub s/files/9_THE_SCIENCES_1996.pd f> [3 June 2009].

Learn more about this author, Sukrit Sabhlok.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

---

Add your voice

Know something about Ancient Egypt: The history of the Old Kingdom?
We want to hear your view. Write now!