Who came up with the terms Old, Middle and New Kingdoms?
Tough one this. The most likely is the German historian Bunsen, writing in the first half of the 18th century, right at the beginning of Egyptology as a serious subject. He seems to have worked out that there were periods in which Egyptian culture was highly developed, and these he termed the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. This was probably not uninfluenced by the cyclical view of history as cultures waxing and waning. Later on, primarily in the 20th century, the term ‘Intermediate Period’ was coined to describe the periods of disunity which came between these great periods of stability.
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- Who came up with the terms Old, Middle and New Kingdoms?
