Administration in Ancient Egypt
The administration in ancient Egypt consisted of the pharaoh , members of his family , the vizier and other higher administrative officials in the vicinity of the king, local heads of offices and the numerous lower officials.
The king (Pharaoh - the word goes back to the ancient Egyptian per aa and is translated as "big house") was worshiped in ancient Egypt as the son of the sun god Re . Thus he was for the people a representative of the divine on earth who held a divine office.
The Egyptian state was an absolute monarchy , that is, the king issued all laws and decrees . On behalf of the king, priests and officials took over duties in the country. The king was both a diplomat and a general who decided on war and peace and had to oversee the economy and trade. If only to receive the most urgently needed taxes.
development
Early days
The first evidence of an administration (although this certainly existed before) appears shortly before the 1st dynasty with the script . High officials immortalized themselves with their titles on their monuments or are known from administrative seals. Accordingly, the Egyptian administration arose out of the need to provide the palace and the king with food and other goods. Evidence of royal domains that supplied the palace also comes from this period. The administrators of these domains are the first known high officials.
Old empire
Administration became more complex with the Old Kingdom. The vizier now stood directly under the pharaoh . He oversaw the executive (executive power in the state, such as administration) in the country. His office can be compared to that of today's Prime Minister . Since the vizier supervised the executive in the country, he had to control and coordinate the administration within Egypt, perform legal tasks and ensure law and justice in the state. He had no legislative functions (legislation), as this was the sole prerogative of the king. The state administration and its subordinate offices at local and regional level were subordinate to him. All the archives that covered the country and its people were under his control. He was responsible for the content of these archives.
Especially at the beginning of the Old Kingdom , these often came from the royal family. The administration of the Old Kingdom probably did not yet have any fixed structures. A civil servant could hold one or more important titles and hold offices. These offices were awarded as needed. So the vizier could also be “head of the treasure houses” or “head of the barns”, or both together, while the next time these titles could be carried by one person as the only title.
The requirement for future civil servants was always the same: they had to be able to read , write and do arithmetic . This made it relatively easy to switch to another profession . They were paid in kind or in land so that they could guarantee their livelihood. Often the son followed the father into office , for example the viziero was for a long time in the hands of one and the same family.
Middle realm
In the Middle Kingdom (approx. 2000–1750 BC) the administration was organized more tightly. There was now the vizier, the treasurer , the domain administrator, and the troop chief. These people now had clearly defined tasks and mostly only held their office. The Great Labor Camp was an institution that organized the work. A certain part of the population was needed for certain state projects and organized from this camp.
New kingdom
The administration of the New Kingdom (approx. 1550-1070 BC) is similar to that of the Middle Kingdom. Under Thutmose III. the vizier's office was divided into a northern and southern vizier. Some of them were very powerful men. At the end of their careers , they were often given high priesthoods by the king in order to secure a kind of pension . The post of Supreme Domain Administrator was the most important at court after the vizier, certainly because all agricultural resources were subordinate to these incumbents.
Provincial Administration
Early on, Egypt was divided into administrative districts with regional administration. These districts were named after regional deities and are generally referred to as Gaue in German . The individual districts were partly administered by local governors who could form important families. In the course of the Middle Kingdom, these governors were replaced by mayors who only had individual towns and the surrounding area under them. The administration of the Gaue raised taxes and called in compulsory workers. With these taxes, which the vizier controlled, he financed state enterprises such as foreign trade and the army .
Legal system
In ancient Egypt there was no separation between the executive and judicial branches . In this judicial system , administration and judiciary formed a unit and so there was no professional judiciary . There was also no code of law in our sense, but it was judged according to customary law . Senior officials often acted as judges against their subordinates. Mayors were judges in their localities. From around the Middle Kingdom onwards, however, there were also colleges of judges, called kenbet , which consisted of the district governor and priests whose position allowed them to do so. The chairman of the great kenbet in Thebes was the vizier, although he can only be called the chief judge to a limited extent. In the great kenbet, for example, lawsuits over property claims and grave robberies were conducted. The court had the task of the prosecutor; there was no distinction between judge and public prosecutor . Although there are plenty of examples of assertions that justice should apply equally to all, in practice it was different. People of lower class were punished more severely than high officials and there is even evidence of a case where a middle craftsman (justified) sued a superior and was punished with blows with the stick.
Official costume and insignia
Official costumes can only be found in a few offices that have a long tradition. The official costume of the vizier, for example, consisted of a long skirt that reached under the sleeve and was held by two cords running around the neck.
As a sign of identification, officials carried a long stick, in the Old Kingdom also the Cherep scepter . They used a seal given by the king to sign documents . Certain offices had their own insignia. The vizier, for example, wore a necklace with a small picture of the mate hidden under his robe .
See also
literature
- Wolfgang Helck : Small Lexicon of Egyptology . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , p. 163–167 (→ state administration).
- Eva Martin-Pardey: administrative bureaucracy. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 115-118.
- Gabriele Höber-Kamel: Reich administration and civil service. Kemet issue 3/2003 . Kemet-Verlag, 2003, ISSN 0943-5972 .
- Erik Hornung : Introduction to Egyptology . 6th edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-534-21647-5 , pp. 78-79 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Elisabeth Staehelin: Official costume. In: Wolfgang Helck (Ed.): Lexicon of Egyptology. Volume I, Wiesbaden 1975, pp. 230-231.
- ^ Wolfgang Helck : Official insignia. In: Wolfgang Helck (Ed.): Lexicon of Egyptology. Volume I, Wiesbaden 1975, pp. 229-230.