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182 (d) OFFICIALS AND THE QNBT Officials of the bureaucracy presided over or worked within committees (DADAt/qnbt); the principle was so strongly established that it is to be doubted whether an Egyptian official was able to take an executive decision without first consulting his respective panel of advisers and yet, it seems clear from our available sources that having received advice he was not obliged to follow it. The introduction to the “Installation of the Vizier”998 runs: “Instructions enjoined upon the vizier Rekhmirea. The qnbt was admitted to the audience-hall of Pharaoh, and it was ordered that the newly appointed vizier Rekhmirea should be ushered in.” This possibly refers to the qnbt-aAt of the King (see above), with whose assistance the Vizier exercised his duties and over which he presided, deputising for the King. It is likely that the members of this committee, all represented those fields of administration over which the Vizier held sway directly or indirectly and thus centralised all these branches of government around his person, as chief executive in charge of bureaucracy. As will be seen later however, when the duties of viziers are analysed in detail, it will become apparent that the individual Departments of the State (pr-nswt) did not directly owe allegiance to him. The Vizier’s pre-eminence over the committee is emphasized in another part of the same text as above (p. 22, line 3) where the King says: “It is not a question of his (i.e. the Vizier) being compliant to the members of the committee (srw nw DADAt) nor creating for himself favourites/supporters of anyone.”999. In another part of his inscription1000, Rekhmirea informs us that: “He (the King) gave me a qnbt under my authority; there is not one of them who shall browbeat me (?).” It has to be noted that it was the King himself who appointed the members of the qnbt-aAt and this passage almost sounds as if Rekhmirea was saying that in spite of that, he intends to maintain his authority. A very important text is that of a very high official under Ramesses II, Setau by name. This official whose titles were Viceroy of Kush, Overseer of the Gold mining Region, Royal Standard Bearer and King’s Secretary (zX-nswt) was not a Vizier, it is therefore interesting to read his claim that:- ] ! !M i a N9 !NG h: RNF! 5 K\"a1K4 #7e]5 !4t' 1156 - He (the King) placed me in the qnbt in order to administrate the Two Lands. I was top of the companions and first of the king’s advisers.”1001 It seems that this official, although his functions as Viceroy of Kush probably placed him in the southern provinces, nevertheless, if I understand the text correctly, he was included personally within the qnbt assisting the king himself, namely the specialised committee as also the general assembly of the “30”. In that capacity he must have been centred in the capital of the Kingdom. What is further notable is that his status placed him directly under the King’s authority and not that of the Vizier. This may be further strengthened by his title ! 7t− , which in another section of this work, is argued to have represented membership of the 998 URK IV, 1086, 12 = Faulkner, Installation, (18). 999 Here again we observe DADAt and qnbt used synonymously. 1000 Gardiner, ZAS LX (1925), 67 (f), 11 - 13. 1001 d ! KRI III, 94, 6. The word qnbt actually seems to be written in the original as !5. The word i K\" in this case far more likely means to administrate than to judge and from the Egyptian point of view the two functions were so closely associated as to be too close to differentiate. 183 royal secretariat originally reporting directly to the King who thus himself maintained control over the administration1002. It has to be admitted, however that by the Ramesside Period this title almost certainly ceased to be much more than an honorific claimed by all high officials. A similar piece of evidence comes to us from Deir el Medina1003 where an official called Amenemope, who likewise claims the title zX-nswt and therefore possibly some access to the king, but whose day to day functions were concerned mainly with building works in the necropolis, says N t b IN G t about himself 1K! ( b!b5 :!7 X116 - “I was first in the DADAt and foremost of the praised ones.” Which DADAt Amenemope refers to is not certain and it may not have been the Great DADAt/qnbt of the king or the vizier although the term “praised ones” tends to support either. In the case of the Nomarch of Elephantine and Nubia, Sarenput under Sesostris I1004, who says that he was: - M M @ ! M n ! !h t !p t7tL 11tqF5 ,B - 5 - “(?)1005 of the king, beloved of his qnbt and known to the people.” The qnbt here seems to refer to the committee surrounding and advising the King; but if so, Sarenput lays no claim of being a part of it himself, but just beloved by it. Interesting, however, is the immediately following assertion of being known to the “people”. This distinction of the former on the one hand and the latter on the other, may equally well indicate that his own, provincial qnbt was meant here. Such is certainly the meaning intended in the inscription of another Nomarch virtually of the same period, namely Khnumhotpe II at Beni Hasan in the reign of Ammenemes II1006 who, after assuring us that he was well established for M M B ! t , h t n ! ! B\B ! eternity in his tomb, then goes on to say that: e K + t tqF5.t+hL 4 e5 - “he perpetuated the status (lit. identity) of (the members of) his qnbt distinguished in accordance with the (seniority of) their office(s).”1007 This certainly referred to the Nomarch’s council of elders, and not the King’s. It also possibly implies that although members of individual qnbts were of different ranks in the bureaucracy, within the qnbt itself, as we already know, rank did not exist, apart from the presiding magistrate. (e) INSTITUTIONS, THE QNBT AND PROCEDURE. It was intimated above that every state department of administration, and this includes temples, was run from within a DADAt/qnbt. Indeed, every group of officials who participated in any specific enterprise was so described and presumably was jointly responsible for the running of that enterprise. In this way, we find a list of officials who accompanied the leader of an expedition to M t t t b ! ! h Sinai under the heading: >1h bb!521n<\ .-“List of DADAt - (committee members)- who came with him...”1008. It seems therefore that even a leader of an expedition, be it peaceful or 1002 Allam, JEA LXXVII (1991), 124 - 5 already suggested this and equates the Hellenistic εισαγωγεωζ royal representative at native law courts with the “Scribe of Pharaoh” participating in the qnbt-aAt. 1003 KRI I, 385, 6. (Sethos I). 1004 UMR VII, 6, 12; Gardiner, ZAS XLV (1908), Pl., VIII, F 1005 The sign @ in this context is otherwise unknown to me. It may relate to some function of passing intelligence to the King; this is, however, pure speculation. 1006 UMR., VII, 26, 1 - 3. 1007 This presumably enhanced their process of entry into the netherworld. 1008 Clère, JEA XXIV (1938), 126; Gardiner-Peet, Sinai, nr. 92; ibid. nos. 106, 115, 117; C-M, Hammamat, 87, cf. 47. 184 military, was not left entirely to his own devices. This seems to be emphasized by the appearance under the XVIIIth dynasty of a reference to the DADAt nt mSa.1009 best translated for this period as “staff of the army/committee of the army.” b !t f The bb!5 ! -H35 - “Committee for Land Administration” was a group of officials whose duty it was to measure and maintain the boundaries of allotted land and to deal with any disputes arising out of this function before they came to the attention of the Vizier himself1010 This particular DADAt/qnbt is most probably the one listed in the Papyrus Harageh 31011. It is possible and even probable that this committee was not itself independent, but formed an integral part of the local committee within the domain of agrarian administration headed by the Steward, responsible to the High Steward in the capital. This, however, is again discussed elsewhere. Other cases of committees of officials within individual departments of administration, which can be mentioned I t b S 1012 b !t here, are the bg! !5 ! \! - DADAt of the Produce Conversion Plant , bb!5 !#! - DADAt of the Treasury1013. As it is accepted in this work that temples of the gods were departments of state administration, it is therefore reasonable to include the committees of temples in this section. Thus, we find under the XVIIIth dynasty1014 statements such as “O, those who are alive upon earth (be it) officials and (common) people; prophets, wab-priests (and) soul-priests (namely) the DADAt of the n ! !t Temple of Karnak...” A number of times, we find mentioned the tqF5 ! 3& - qnbt of the Temple1015 and in a Papyrus dated to late XXth dynasty1016 we are told that on completion of a marriage settlement case before the Vizier accompanied by the qnbt-aAt in Thebes, the presiding magistrate, who in this instance was the vizier, “gave instructions to the t t ! t t F ! ! . M st− ! C !85!'! VO]1t! !jbe (wab-priest Scribe of the Cadastre of the qnbt B + of Temple (Hwt) of [Wsr-mAat-Ra mry-Jmn]) N, saying: ‘let this arrangement (eM:5 ) which I \ ,t have made stand recorded in the cadastre (M: 4 ! C ) in the temple of Usimarea Miamun.

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