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Durham E-Theses A study of social and economic factors operating in ancient Egypt from the death of harnesses III to the commencement of the XXV dynasty Haycock, Bryan G. How to cite: Haycock, Bryan G. (1962) A study of social and economic factors operating in ancient Egypt from the death of harnesses III to the commencement of the XXV dynasty, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8094/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 A Study of Social and Economio Factors operating in Ancient Egypt from the Death of Baioesses III to the Commencement of the XXVth Dynasty. by Bryan Gr. Haycock B.A, (St, John's College, Durham) Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 1962. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and mformation derived from it should be acknowledged. (a) LIST OF CONTENTS Introduotlon. Page I - VIII, Section 1. Page 1 - 25, "Egypt in the International Scene", Section 2, Page 26 - 61, "A Consideration of the Material available for the Reconstruction of the Economic and Social History of Egypt from the late XXth to the XXVth Dynasty", Section 3, Page 62 - 96. "A Fuller Consideration of the Economic Data available from Papyrus Wilbour and other Evidence of the Period under Study", Section ii.. Page 97 - ll6, "The Social Structure of Ancient Egypt from the middle XXth Dynasty to the Commenoenient of the XXVth," Section 5. Page 117 - 123, "Conclusions", REFERENCE INDICES 1. Page 125 - 12?. "Index of References to other Authors cited in this Treatise"; 2, Page 128 - IJl. "Reference List of Egyptian and other Ancient Personal Names", i. Page 132 - 135. "Reference List of Names of Places and Peoples"• ifc. Page 136 - 138. "Reference Index of Technical Terms used in this Work." Bibliography Page I - VI. and List of Abbreviations, A STUDY OP SOCIAL AMD ECONOMIC FACTORS OPERATIN& IN MCIEKT E&YPT FROM THE DEATH OF BAMESSES III TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE XXVTH DmSTY. INTRODUCTION The need for a collation ef the mass of published material eonoeming the structure of Egyptian social and eeonomio organization might at first sight appear somewhat questionable. There are excellent works which deal very satisfactorily with pairtioular sectors of the social structure and administration of ancient Egypt at periods near to or including that under stufly. Indeed their treatment of these particular aspects of the wider subject is far more thorough than anything which can be attempted here. However, thou|^ no doubt scholars who have worked on the px>oblems posed by ancient Egypt at this period have their ideas fully evolved regarding the salient oharaeteristics of and changes undergone by Egyptian society, the present writer believes that there is a clear case for attempting to treat the subject as a whole in a single written work. Only in this way can such important sectors of the Egyptian social structure as the priesthood, which have been well treated in isolation in other works, be seen in their proper context as parts of the whole of Egyptian society and against the background of a changing economic structure. Only this kind of investigation can make fully intelligible the rise and fall in importance of certain families and sections of the priestly classes. Their prosperity and rights as priests depended intrinsically on the degree of contact which they maintained with men of influence in other fields of administration, and on their own more secular interests, Kees in his * KP (see Bibliography) brilliant work on the pj?iesth©od fully appreciated this, but the specifio limitations imposed upon him by the detailed character of his investigation ^to that limited topic prevented him from pursuing this side of the subject vezy far though he repeatedly brings out the very strong tendency, parti• cularly manifested in the Late Pezlod, for holders of important priesthoods to hold these merely for their emolument, while their main activities were militant and political, • Meyer in his analysis of the character of the so-called divine state of Thebes treated the subject on a much wider plans, but at that time the economic data which would have enabled him to describe more closely the eeonomio basis of the Theban religious oligareb^ were lacking or not appreciated at their true value. It is really only the publication of P. Irilbour which has given us sufficient data to describe in detail the real character of Egyptian land management prior to the Hellenistic period. As can be seen from the work of Mll^ Preaux and of B^stovtzeff, the general impression was that before Ptoleoy II the economy was largely uncontwUed, and Egyptologists such as Breasted had no idea of the elaboration of the system in which the great estates of the temples were integrated. Since * QMS (see Bibliography) •¥ W (see Bibliography) is the abbreviation henceforth used to describe this work of Sir Alan Gardiner, not the Papyrus itself, /S (see Bibliography): see for instance page 80 for an expression of the view that the "monopolistic" system of the Ptolemies was of recent origin, M. Rostovtzeff, Social and Eoonomie History of the Hellenistic World, Oxford, 19W., (see particularly Volume l) -ni• ne ooiapendious work has been written since P, Wilbour and the other intportant economic documentation became available, there seems to be a definite gap which should be filled in Egyptological literature, and the writer hopes that the present short study will do something to bridge it. The main work of Helek deals with particular aspects of ,the administration but it does not entirely cover the i^ele envisaged for this work, and finishes at the end of the XXth I^ynasty, Thou|^ the earlier Egyptologists were unwilling to recognize the detailed and pervasive control exercised by the machinery of state over the operation of the eoonosiy, particularly in the great periods of national vigour and expansionism, the publication ef W by Gardiner has made it necessary to devote proper attention to this aspect of Egyptian civilization, and to recognize that^althou^ Egypt in the Pharaonic period was still pz*imarily an agricultural country, it had evolved an extremely elaborate and durable form of social organization based on a centralised bureaucracy functioning az>ound the "superhuman" figure of the divine king. This regime was always nominally dependent on the will and initiative of the Pharaoh himself, and the reader will soon see that thiroughout this treatise the view is ccmsistently stressed that because the econonQr and very stability of the state depended to a considerable degree on the ability of the ruler and the control that he exercised over his people, the great ages of Egyptian pros• perity and influence could only occur in conjunction with periods during which all the resources and reserves of Egypt were concentrated under the control of the central administiration of the country. * Wolfgang Helck, VMNR (see Bibliography) The period under study was not of course such a time in more than a very limited degree: indeed during the later part of it it seems certain that the king was little more than primus inter pares. However, this detracts nothing from its interest for sociological and economic study. Until almost the very end of the period a kind of central control - thou^ perhaps more nominal than real - continued to function, and it is possible to reconstruct fairly accurately the icelationships which obtained between the rather decadent kingship and the leading families. This cannot be done at all satisfactorily in regard to the two earlier Intermediate Periods which also followed great ages of Egyptian power and cultuire. This study of the gradual but fundamental change in the social and economic structure of ancient Egypt to meet the needs ef a feudal rather than bureaucratic state is particularly rewarding since the mass of economic - documentation of the later XXth Dynasty permits the almost complete vuader- standing of the bureaucratic structure of the last phase of New Kingdom centralism, even as centrifugal forces became more active in the state. It is possible to some degree to tr&ce the mechanics and stages of the subtle transition thereby, and to relate it to political developments, thus con• structing the skeleton of a proper economic histozy for this period. Furthermore the period under study is sufficiently far advanced in Egyptian history for it to be possible and prudent, in many cases where documentation of a strictly contemporaneous nature is lacking or insufficient in itself, to make use of material derived from the Saite, Persian and * For the publication of most of this material see primarily Sir Alan Gardiner, RAD. the Ptolemaic periods to supplement and complete the picture of Egyptian society. Puller details will be found in the main body of the work con• cerning the degree and circumstances in which this has been regarded as legitimate.