The Old Kingdom falls
Central authority dissolves, and a text laments that the land spins like a potter's wheel.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 126 years
- Known to
- ± 30 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
After the extraordinarily long reign of Pepi II, Egyptian central government fragments around 2181 BCE into the First Intermediate Period, with provincial governors ruling independently. Contemporary and near-contemporary literature describes famine, social inversion and the failure of the Nile floods. The collapse coincides closely with the 4.2 kiloyear drought, and low Nile levels are the most widely accepted contributing cause.