Through change and tradition : the rise of Thebes during the Second Intermediate Period

This article attempts a historical, archaeological and social analysis of the rule of Thebes at the end of the Second Intermediate Period, through the diachronic survey of the funerary culture. At the end of the Middle Kingdom, the northern tradition was still predominant all over Egypt, but in the period following, all strata of Egyptian society were subject to embryological changes and transformations involving mainly the middle class and the areas far from the centre of power. The apparent sudden rise of innovations, including the appearance of the rishi-coffin and new assemblages of funerary objects noticeable at the end of the Second Intermediate Period, seems to have originated from the progressive contact of the northern tradition practised by the ruling class of the late 13th dynasty with the local background culture of Thebes.