Lo, Nobles Lament, the Poor Rejoice: State Formation in the Wake of Social Flux

Despite the fact that Egypt's eras of political disintegration were fewer, shorter, and milder than those experienced by any of the other civilizations discussed in this volume, the aftermath of governmental collapse in the Nile Valley was nonetheless both traumatic and transformative for those who experienced it. Within this chapter I explore, utilizing both archaeological and textual lines of evidence, the ramifications of the radical reshaping of social order that occurred during the First Intermediate Period. I argue that although numerous parallels can be drawn between the processes of state formation and those of state re-formation in Egypt, it is misleading to regard the latter as a simple replay of the former