3rd Intermediate Period

also: Third Intermediate Period of Egypt

movement 1077-664 BC Egypt North Africa

The 3rd Intermediate Period stretches from the death of Ramesses XI in 1077 BC, which ended the New Kingdom, to the reunification under Psamtik I in 664 BC. Politically Egypt fragmented - Tanite kings, Libyan chiefs, and finally the Kushite Twenty-fifth Dynasty - yet the art could be spectacular: the gold funerary masks and silver coffins buried at Tanis rival the equipment of earlier royal tombs, coffin surfaces grew dense with deities and religious texts, and the Book of the Dead was painted in fine polychrome registers (the Papyrus of Nedjmet is an early masterpiece). Temple relief continued in New Kingdom templates, as at Shoshenq I's Bubastite Portal. Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen argued the age was far from chaotic; the art likewise shows regional workshops keeping imperial traditions alive rather than decline.

Rulers of Kush, Kerma Museum
Rulers of Kush, Kerma MuseumPublic domain (credit: Matthias Gehricke) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Lavish metalwork: gold funerary masks and silver coffins from the Tanis royal burials
  • Densely inscribed coffins whose surfaces are covered with deities and religious texts
  • Book of the Dead papyri painted in fine polychrome registers
  • Continuity of New Kingdom templates with looser, more schematic provincial execution
  • Temple relief programmes recording royal triumph, such as Shoshenq I's Bubastite Portal

Key figures

  • Psusennes I (r. c. 1047-1001 BC) — Tanite pharaoh whose intact silver and gold burial equipment is the period's greatest find
  • Shoshenq I (r. c. 943-922 BC) — Founder of the Libyan Twenty-second Dynasty; his Karnak relief records the campaign against Judah

Example works

  • Gold funerary mask of Psusennes I — Unknown (Tanite royal workshop) (c. 1000 BC)
  • Book of the Dead of Nedjmet — Unknown (c. 1070 BC)

Sources

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