Third Dynasty of Egypt | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 2686 BC–c. 2613 BC | |||||||||
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| Capital | Memphis | ||||||||
| Common languages | Egyptian language | ||||||||
| Religion | ancient Egyptian religion | ||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||
| Historical era | Bronze Age | ||||||||
• Established | c. 2686 BC | ||||||||
• Disestablished | c. 2613 BC | ||||||||
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TheThird Dynasty ofancient Egypt (Dynasty III) is the first dynasty of theOld Kingdom. Other dynasties of the Old Kingdom include theFourth,Fifth andSixth. The capital during the period of the Old Kingdom was atMemphis.
After the turbulent last years of theSecond Dynasty, which might have included civil war, Egypt came under the rule ofDjoser, marking the beginning of the Third Dynasty.[1] Both theTurin King List and theAbydos King List record five kings,[2] while theSaqqara Tablet only records four, andManetho records nine,[3] many of whom did not exist or are simply the same king under multiple names.
The archaeological evidence shows thatKhasekhemwy, the last ruler of the Second Dynasty, was succeeded by Djoser, who at the time was only attested by his presumedHorus name Netjerikhet. Djoser's successor wasSekhemkhet, who had theNebty name Djeserty. The last king of the dynasty is Huni, who may be the same person asQahedjet or, less likely,Khaba. There are three remaining Horus names of known 3rd dynasty kings: Sanakht, Khaba, and perhaps Qahedjet. One of these three, by far most likely Sanakht, went by the nebty name Nebka.[2]
Dating the Third Dynasty is similarly challenging. Shaw gives the dates as being approximately from 2686 to 2613 BC.[4] The Turin King List suggests a total of 75 years for the third dynasty. Baines and Malek have placed the third dynasty as spanning the years 2650–2575 BC,[2] while Dodson and Hilton date the dynasty to 2584–2520 BC. It is not uncommon for these estimates to differ by more than a century.[1]
Some scholars have proposed a southern origin for the Third Dynasty.Petrie believed the dynasty originated fromSudan based on iconographic evidence, but Keita argued southern Egypt is equally likely.[5]
Thepharaohs of the Third Dynasty ruled for approximately 75 years. Due to recent archaeological findings in Abydos revealing that Djoser was the one who buriedKhasekhemwy, the last king of theSecond Dynasty, it is now widely believed that Djoser is the founder of the Third Dynasty, as the direct successor of Khasekhemwy and the one responsible for finishing his tomb.[6] These findings contradict earlier writings, like Wilkinson 1999, which proposed thatNebka/Sanakht was the founder of the dynasty. However, the two were not very far apart temporally; they may have been brothers, along withSekhemkhet,[7][8] as the sons of Khasekhemwy and his favoured consortNimaathap.
| Personal Name | Horus-name | Regnal years | Burial | Consort(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Djoser | Netjerikhet |  | 19 or 28 | Saqqara:Pyramid of Djoser | Hetephernebti |
| Djoserty | Sekhemkhet |  | 6–7 | Saqqara:Buried Pyramid | Djeseretnebti |
| Nebka | Sanakht |  | 6–28 years, depending on identification; most likely 6, 18, or 19 years | Possibly mastaba K2 atBeit Khallaf | |
| (unknown) | Khaba |  | 6 ? 24, if identical to Huni | Zawyet el'Aryan:Layer Pyramid | |
| Huni | Uncertain,Qahedjet ? |  | 24 | Meidum ? | Djefatnebti Meresankh I |
WhileManetho names Necherophes, and theTurin King List names Nebka (a.k.a. Sanakht), as the firstpharaoh of the Third Dynasty,[2] many contemporary Egyptologists believeDjoser was the first king of this dynasty, pointing out the order in which some predecessors ofKhufu are mentioned in thePapyrus Westcar suggests that Nebka should be placed between Djoser and Huni, and not before Djoser. More importantly, seals naming Djoser were found at the entrance toKhasekhemwy's tomb at Abydos, which demonstrates that it was Djoser, rather than Sanakht, who buried and succeededKhasekhemwy, who was the final king of the Second Dynasty.[2] The Turin King List scribe wrote Djoser's name in red ink, which indicates the Ancient Egyptians' recognition of this king's historical importance in their culture. In any case, Djoser is the best known king of this dynasty, for commissioning hisvizierImhotep to build the earliest survivingpyramids, theStep Pyramid.
Nebka's identification with Sanakht is uncertain; though many Egyptologists continue to support the theory that the two kings were one and the same man, opposition exists because this opinion rests on a single fragmentary clay seal discovered in 1903 byJohn Garstang. Though damaged, the seal displays theserekh of Sanakht, together with a cartouche containing a form of the sign for "ka," with just enough room for the sign for "Neb." Nebka's reign length is given as eighteen years by both Manetho and the Turin Canon, though these sources write over 2,300 and 1,400 years after his lifetime, so their accuracy is uncertain. In contrast to Djoser, both Sanakht and Nebka are attested in considerably few relics for a ruler of nearly two decades; the Turin Canon gives a reign of only six years to an unnamed immediate predecessor ofHuni.Toby Wilkinson suggests that this number fits Sanakht (whom he identifies concretely with Nebka), given the sparsity of archaeological evidence for him, but it could also be the reign length ofKhaba or evenQahedjet, kings whose identities are uncertain. (Wilkinson places Nebka as the penultimate king of the Third Dynasty, before Huni, but this is by no means definitively known or even overwhelmingly supported among Egyptologists.)
Some authorities believe that Imhotep lived into the reign of the Pharaoh Huni. Little is known for certain ofSekhemkhet, but his reign is considered to have been only six or seven years, according to the Turin Canon andPalermo Stone, respectively. Attempts to equate Sekhemkhet withTosertasis, a king assigned nineteen years by Manetho, find almost no support given the unfinished state of his tomb, theBuried Pyramid. It is believed thatKhaba possibly built theLayer Pyramid atZawyet el'Aryan; the pyramid is far smaller than it was intended to be, but it is not known whether this is due to natural erosion or because it, like Sekhemkhet's own tomb, was never completed to begin with. In any case, the duration of Khaba's reign is uncertain; a few Egyptologists believe Khaba was identical to Huni, but if Khaba is the same person as the Ramesside namesHudjefa II andSedjes, he could have reigned for six years.
For the first time, in a 2025 publication by the scientific journalNature, a whole-genome genetic study was able to give insights into the genetic background of Old Kingdom individuals, by sequencing the whole genome of an Old Kingdom adult male Egyptian of relatively high-status, radiocarbon-dated to 2855–2570 BCE, with funerary practices archeologically attributed to the Third andFourth Dynasty, which was excavated in Nuwayrat (Nuerat, نويرات), in a cliff 265 km south of Cairo.[10][11] Before this study, whole-genome sequencing of ancient Egyptians from the early periods of Egyptian Dynastic history had not yet been accomplished, mainly because of the problematic DNA preservation conditions in Egypt.[10]
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The corpse had been placed intact in a large circular clay pot without embalming, and then installed inside a cliff tomb, which accounts for the comparatively good level of conservation of the skeleton and its DNA.[10] Most of his genome was found to be associated with North African Neolithic ancestry, but about 20% of his genetic ancestry could be sourced to the easternFertile Crescent, includingMesopotamia.[10] The genetic profile was most closely represented by a two-source model, in which 77.6% ± 3.8% of the ancestry corresponded to genomes from the Middle Neolithic Moroccan site of Skhirat-Rouazi (dated to 4780–4230 BCE), which itself consists of predominantly (76.4 ± 4.0%) Levant Neolithic ancestry and (23.6 ± 4.0%) minorIberomaurusian ancestry, while the remainder (22.4% ± 3.8%) was most closely related to known genomes from NeolithicMesopotamia (dated to 9000-8000 BCE).[10][12] Genomes from the Neolithic/Chalcolithic Levant only appeared as a minor third-place component in three-source models.[10] A 2022 DNA study had already shown evidence of gene flow from the Mesopotamian and Zagros regions into surrounding areas, including Anatolia, during the Neolithic, but not as far as Egypt yet.[12]
In terms of chronology, Egypt was one of the first areas to adopt the Neolithic package emerging from West Asia as early as the 6th millennium BCE.[10] Population genetics in the Nile Valley observed a marked change around this period, as shown by odontometric and dental tissue changes.[10] Cultural exchange and trade between the two regions then continued through the 4th millennium BCE, as shown by the transfer of MesopotamianLate Uruk period features to the Nile Valley of the laterPredynastic Period.[10] Migrations flows from Mesopotamia accompanied such cultural exchanges, possibly through the sea routes of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea or through yet un-sampled intermediaries in the Levant, which could explain the relative smallness of genetic influence from known Chalcolithic/Bronze Age Levantines populations.[10]
Overall, the 2025 study "provides direct evidence of genetic ancestry related to the eastern Fertile Crescent in ancient Egypt".[10] This genetic connection suggests that there had been ancient migration flows from the eastern Fertile Crescent to Egypt, in addition to the exchanges of objects and imagery (domesticated animals and plants, writing systems...) already observed.[10] This suggests a pattern ofwide cultural and demographic expansion from the Mesopotamian region, which affected both Anatolia and Egypt during this period.[10]
Djoser is widely considered byEgyptologists to be the first Pharaoh of this dynasty. However, historical king lists had a different order of reigns to the commonly accepted order in the modern day. The table below lists the names used for different kings and numbers them in the order they appear on each list.Manetho'sAegyptiaca listed four additional kings who are not recorded on earlier surviving king lists and the reason for this is unknown.
| Historical Pharaoh | Abydos King List | Saqqara Tablet | Turin King List | Manetho[13] | Years of rule | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turin List[14] | Manetho[13] | |||||
| Djoser | Djeser-za (2) | Djoser (1) | Djoser-it (2) | Tosorthros (2) | 19 + 1 month | 29 |
| Sekhemkhet | Teti (3) | Djoser-teti (2) | Djoser-ti (3) | Tyreis (3) | 6 | 7 |
| Sanakht | Nebka (1) | Nebkara (3) | Nebka (1) | Necherophes (1) | 19 | 28 |
| Khaba | Sedjes (4) | – | Hudjefa (4) | Kerpheres? (9) | 6 | 26 |
| Huni | Neferkara (5) | Huni (4) | Huni (5) | Aches? (7) | 24 | 42 |
| – | – | – | – | Mesochris (4) | – | 17 |
| – | – | – | – | Soyphis (5) | – | 16 |
| – | – | – | – | Tosertasis (6) | – | 19 |
| – | – | – | – | Sephouris (8) | – | 30 |
| Preceded by | Dynasties of Egypt c.2686–2613 BCE | Succeeded by |
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