Governors at Elephantine ranked just below the pharaoh's royal family and often ruled like princes but each governor was appointed by the pharaoh and served at his pleasure. The office was not hereditary. However, the royal Residence at Memphis was far away to the north, and the 'law of political inertia' was strong, so soon, very early in the 12th Dynasty, a local dynasty arose in Elephantine to govern the province. The office didn't always pass from father to son, but it did stay within the family.
Elephantine was a boom town at the time, profiting from Egyptian expansion across the southern border into Nubia. The province was the jumping-off point for military expeditions -- usually aimed against the Nubian kingdom centered on Kerma
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Is it probable that the reason why the governors of Abu (Elephantine) are ranked just below the pharaoh was because they were his kinsmen? The 12th dynasty not only originated in the southernmost sepat of Ta-Seti but specifically in Abu Island.
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Recalling Doug's old thread 12th Dynasty a "Nubian" dynasty, and the 'Prophecy of Neferti', I am reminded of an error due to confusion. That is 'Ta-Seti' in that historical context was NOT Nubia but actually the 1st nome of Upper Egypt. Ta Seti as a kingdom in Nubia was eradicated (or most likely assimilated) by Kmt during the Archaic Period or Proto-dynastic times. By the Middle Kingdom, the region of Lower Nubia was called 'Wawat' by the Egyptians. Thus the Prophecy of Neferti and the 12th dynasty's family origins lay not in Nubia but in the southernmost sepat.
Now it is a fact that the culture of Ta-Seti-- A-Group Nubia did include the 1st nome.
But again, by Proto-dynastic times the people of the area became culturally subsumed by dynastic Kmt. Even records show Egyptian military campaigns that not only plundered Qustul but took back many thousands of captives who no doubt were resettled in the 1st nome hence the "depopulation" of Lower Egypt.
So was the 12th dynasty Nubian? No, not exactly but they did have Nubian ancestry from the predynastic.
-------------------- Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog-tulugan. Posts: 26243 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Anyway, it should come as no surprise that since the 12th dynasty originated in Abu (Elephantine) that the local rulers there would be elevated to more prestige. The nomarchs were thus related to the 12th dynasty if not by blood than by being members of the same w'hyt or township.
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