This contribution reviews the genesis and use of the periodization term “First Intermediate Period” in the history of Egyptological research. Given that periodization is based on historical coherence, the question is raised (and answered in the negative) whether this time interval displays sufficient historical coherence to warrant its continued conceptualization as a separate period of Egyptian history. I advocate for a situation of competing coherences whereby the north would be the cultural scion of the Old Kingdom and the south the nucleus of the Middle Kingdom. Both spatial realms would overlap temporarily but not create a distinct and coherent entity sufficiently distinct from the late Old Kingdom and the early Twelfth Dynasty, respectively. This means in consequence that the First Intermediate Period should be abandoned as a distinct historical period within the historiography of ancient Egypt.
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