The political history of the Archaic Period
is obscure; few documentary records survive to illuminate it. Later Egyptian
records describe two early dynasties and assign names to their kings, but
it is difficult for modem historians to confirm the accuracy of these lists
and assign them accurate dates, even though the tombs of some of the kings
in question have been located. The extent to which the state during this
period exercised truly effective control over all of the Nile Valley is
impossible to determine, but it is likely that it was an era when royal
authority regularly waxed and waned. At one point, the royal seat probably
shifted from Hierakonpolis to the town of This (near Abydos), but beyond
this little can be said with confidence.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the Archaic Period was one in which the basic patterns and forms of the "high" court culture of Ancient Egypt took initial form. Numerous regional cultural traditions were flourishing at the time of the unification, and the triumph of one of these at the expense of the others was a very long, slow process that was not completed until the end of the Old Kingdom Period at the earliest. The culture that prevailed was that which was espoused and patronized by the king and his court, and its progress was directly related to the success of the state in maintaining and extending its control over Egypt. This court culture was characterized by such elements as the hieroglyphic writing system and by the development of a particular canon of art and design. It was also characterized by the construction of architectural monuments aimed at the glorification of the kingespecially enormous funerary monuments, which in this period were constructed of brick. The most important of the royal funerary monuments of the Archaic Period are the tombs (or cenotaphs) of first dynasty kings at Saqqara; similar tombs of the same kings at Abydos, probably their true resting-places; and the huge, brick monument called the Shunat az-Zablib at Abydos, which is associated with the Second Dynasty king Khasekhemui.
