84 Environmental Catastrophes and Recovery in the Holocene
Wednesday, 30 July 2003
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
DYNAMICS OF CATASTROPHIC COLLAPSE AND RECOVERY OF EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION 2200-2000 BC
Paper number: 84-6
Program: SYMPOSIA
Time: 9:30 AM – 9:50 AM
Authors
Abstract
A series of exceptionally low Nile floods ca. 2150 BC was instumental in the sudden collapse of centralized government in ancinet Egypt signaling the end of the Old Kingdom. Famines, social disorder, and fragmentation during a period of approximately 40 years were followed by a phase of rehabilitation and restoration of order in various provinces. Egypt was eventually reunified within a new paradigm of kingship. The process of recovery depended on capable provincial adminstrators, the deployment of the idea of justice, irrigation projects, and an adminstrative reform.