The Thirteenth Dynasty appears in our sources as a period of decline. Several dozen kings ruled, each for a very short period of time. Kings were still buried in pyramids, but these were modest in size and mostly unfinished. The local centres so famous in the Middle Kingdom lost importance. Well-decorated tomb chapels for local officials, such as those of Beni Hasan or Meir in the Twelfth Dynasty, were no longer built. With the kings Neferhotep I and Sobekhotep IV (around 1760 to 1740 BC), the Thirteenth Dynasty stabilized. These kings reigned for about ten years each, providing evidence for two decades of relative prosperity before the troublesome Second Intermediate Period, thus reflecting a shift in art production during this time.
During the Thirteenth Dynasty, fully decorated tomb chapels were no longer seen as important. Instead, the number of statues and stelae dating to this period is surprisingly high. A substantial number
