UCLA UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
Title Land Tenure (to the End of the Ptolemaic Period)
Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1nr1d3s9
Journal UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 1(1)
Author Katary, Sally
Publication Date 2012-03-17
Peer reviewed
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LAND TENURE (T O THE END OF THE PTOLEMAIC PERIOD ) ( )
Sally L. D. Katary
EDITORS
WILLEKE WENDRICH Editor-in-Chief University of California, Los Angeles
JACCO DIELEMAN Editor University of California, Los Angeles
JUAN CARLOS MORENO GARCÍA Area Editor Individual and Society Université Charles-de-Gaulle
ELIZABETH FROOD Editor University of Oxford
JOHN BAINES Senior Editorial Consultant University of Oxford
Short Citation: Katary, 2012, Land Tenure (to the End of the Ptolemaic Period). UEE .
Full Citation: Katary, Sally, 2012, Land Tenure (to the End of the Ptolemaic Period). In Juan Carlos Moreno García, Willeke Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology , Los Angeles. http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002bfks5
8007 Version 1, March 2012 http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do? ark=21198/zz002bfks5
LAND TENURE (TO THE END OF THE PTOLEMAIC PERIOD ) ( )
Sally L. D. Katary
Feldereinteilung (bis zum Ende der Ptolemäerzeit) Le régime de la propriété foncière (jusqu’à la fin de la période ptolémaïque)
Land tenure describes the regime by means of which land is owned or possessed, whether by landholders, private owners, tenants, sub-lessees, or squatters. It embraces individual or group rights to occupy and/or use the land, the social relationships that may be identified among the rural population, and the converging influences of the local and central power structures. Features in the portrait of ancient Egyptian land tenure that may be traced over time in response to changing configurations of government include state and institutional landownership, private smallholdings, compulsory labor (corvée), cleruchies, leasing, and tenancy. Such documents as Papyrus Harris I, the Wilbour Papyrus, Papyrus Reinhardt, and the Ptolemaic Zenon and Menches archives provide evidence of various regimes of landholding, the status of the landholders, their relationship to the land, and the way in which the harvest was divided among cultivators, landowners, and the state. Ptolemaic leases and conveyances of land represent the perspective of individual landowners and tenants.