Ancient Egyptian Society

ABSTRACT: This lecture provides a broader background for the New Kingdom regarding Egyptian society --particularly in the New Kingdom. It starts with an overview of the hierarchical, "pyramidal" structure of Ancient Egyptian society (including gender roles), and proceeds with an examination of the elite through lower classes: The king, chief queen, secondary queens, princes, princesses, upper officials, mid-range officials, lower officials, crafts persons, peasant farmers, and others (including POWs and slaves), plus administration, control, organization and payment of labour.  The lecture incorporates a wide range of approaches and aspects, including iconography, symbolism, costumes, titulary, education and training (e.g., tutors), and other components within many of the above categories --especially for kings, queens, princes, and princesses in Ancient Egypt UPDATED: Feb., 6, 2021: Some editing, formatting, new images, and text.

Making full use of the thousands of documentary texts preserved from Deir el-Medina and its environs, this Handbook explores the methods used by the artisans in the design and creation of exquisitely-crafted tombs for their royal masters, as well as revealing the minutiae of everyday working life in the royal tombs of the Ramesside period. It has also mined this unique treasure trove of documentation in order to delve deeply into the colourful world of life within an ancient Egyptian community. It presents a society in microcosm, founded upon a highly developed system of personal piety and spirituality, an incredibly intricate and thriving network of personal business dealings, and a local legal system designed to dispense justice when the moral code was deemed to have been violated. Also featuring in this book are many well-known personalities whose actions (good or bad) are indelibly etched on the history of the village.

The Old Kingdom viziers bore the composite title tAyty TAty (n) zAb. Further hieroglyphic signs, such as the phallus-sign and the addition mAa, were appended in some cases to this title. The form of the vizier’s title with the phallus-sign occurred frequently in a limited period of time. For the understanding of the usage of the phallus-sign in the vizier’s title, contextualization is crucial. Analysis and comparison of the title sequences of both, the viziers with the phallus-sign and those without, brought proof of clear distinction in the structure of titles between these two groups and indicated that the occurrence of the phallus-sign within the highest administrative title coincides with the social change regarding the state administration and royal family.

The paper deals with the reign of Nyuserre, one of great Old Kingdom rulers who ruled in the mid-Fifth Dynasty. The gradual transformation of Egyptian society took place during this crucial period, and a number of innovations came about in various spheres (religion, society, administration, tomb architecture, etc.), mirroring a change in the participation in power. This situation was reflected primarily in dignitaries’ tombs dated to the given period, which became indicators of the transformation of society. The research is focused on an analysis of more than 100 tombs of high-ranking individuals and their family members, and particularly of their titulary, offering formulae, false doors, etc.
This treatise uses representative cases from social, administrative and religious areas to illustrate the innovativeness of the period of Nyuserre’s reign and the climate in which the concatenation of many changes came to pass, in order to provide a framework for a better understanding of the changes, innovations and processes which occurred.

Although the scientific discussion about the site and its monuments forms an independent research focus, the archaeological legacy of the Memphite necropolis of the second millennium BC remained uninvestigated for a very long time. The Memphite elite tombs of the New Kingdom (1539–1077 BC), which have been discovered and excavated during the past 45 years, eventually revealed much prosopographical data. Relevant texts and inscriptions are to be found not only on the walls of the tombs but also on different types of objects that were part of the tombs’ original equipment or decoration (e.g. coffins, stelae, statues, canopic jars, shabtis and decorated limestone blocks). By evaluating and comparing all prosopographical data, the Prosopographia Memphitica Project aims to attain a Memphite prosopography for the New Kingdom, which is intended to illuminate all identifiable social classes of the Memphite society and its relational patterns using historical network analysis.

The current state of Egyptological research faces a problem to process the huge volume of data. Researchers have dealt with the datasets consisting of thousands entities. Such a volume cannot be evaluated efficiently and rigorously using a traditional manual manner of paper and pencil. Although methods of complex networks (CNA) have been used for the quantification of a number of historical aspects, nobody has yet applied CNA to the Old Kingdom context.
This paper proposes a new approach based on the method of complex network analysis which provides new possibilities for the better understanding of the Old Kingdom social and administrative developments. The treatise demonstrates the first promising results of this technique on an assessment of nepotism in the second half of the Old Kingdom exemplified in the numerous illustrative graphical visualizations.

ScriptaAntiqua ScriptaAntiqua 132 132 études réunies par études réunies par Estelle GALBOIS et Sylvie ROUGIER-BLANC Estelle GALBOIS et Sylvie ROUGIER-BLANC Maigreur et minceur Maigreur et minceur dans les sociétés anciennes dans les sociétés anciennes Notice catalographique : Galbois E. et Rougier-Blanc S., éd. (2020) : Maigreur et minceur dans les sociétés anciennes. Grèce,

Egyptology is becoming a strategic scientific discipline in that it is instructive for contemporary civilization and makes it possible to avoid critical mistakes in its development. However, classical Egyptology tools need to be supplemented by modern procedures that are more efficient in terms of the speed of the production of results and the processing of much more extensive data volumes, delivering more accurate and reliable evaluation of the findings. Since the time of Plato, cybernetics has been providing methods by which models based on observations of the environment or sensor data are created to reflect the properties of systems and environments, and actions that change the environment are generated. Many of these practices, which include elements of learning and deduction techniques, are developed within the field of artificial intelligence. Methods that specialize in analyzing relationships that can be modeled by graph theory are now widely developed within the framework of complex network analysis. To emphasize the increasing rate of application of these scientific methods to cover new challenges in processing ancient Egyptian data, the concept of cyber-Egyptology has been introduced recently. Cyber-Egyptology deals with the interpretation of ancient Egyptian data and Egyptologists’ observations using techniques based on the principles of cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and complex network analysis that might be modified to cope with a limited amount of complex structures containing uncertainties and missing entries. We offer an overview of a selected set of such methods and their application to Old Kingdom data.

cerning land-tenure and the assessment of agricultural land is the great Wilbour Papyrus, a genuine official register, written in hieratic, dating to year 4 of Ramesses V of the Twentieth Dynasty (1142 nc).l Its great length, excellent state of preservation, and the wealth of valuable detail it contains make the Wilbour Papyrus one of the most important of all Pharaonic secular papyri. For all this, the Wilbour Papyrus poses considerable difficulties since the text as we have it does not identify either the authority under which the data were compiled, or the purpose for which the survey was made. These particulars were possibly contained at the beginning of the document, which is lost.

Hatiay, High Priest of Montu and Overseer of Prophets of all the gods, was one of the Ramesside period’s highest dignitary. He is now well known thanks to his tomb in the Abd el-Qurna necropolis, the TT 324. Nonetheless the dating of this character oscillates between the reigns of Ramesses II and Ramesses VI that is a chronological gap of sixty years. A search for historic precision in is not trivial, since as Overseer of Prophets of all the gods, he was probably one of the most influential figures of his time. But what time? On the one hand, his grave shows a characteristic style of the very beginning of the Ramesside period. On the other, rock inscriptions in the region of the First Cataract, showing him with his family, are dated from the reigns of Ramesses IV to VI. This article’s purpose is also to study once again the available documentation and try to determine at what period Hatiay has served. The statuary group Naples 1069 is the focus point of this analysis.

ABSTRACT: Power point lecture-5 introduces the society and government in Ancient Egypt and an additional section on law, crime, and punishment in Ancient Egypt (in a summary form with text and pertinent illustrations), following the broad themes covered by chapter 4 in R. David (2007), Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt (revised edition). Many of the power point slides/pages were extracted from my pre-existing and on-going, more detailed lectures on Egypt in the Age of the Pyramids (Anth.309), and Imperial and Post-Imperial Egypt (Anth.310), which in-turn represent an expansion and modification of varied past lectures (at WLU; UCLA; UT; UWS; UAB).  In some areas, I follow more closely the data presented by R. David (e.g., the history of Egyptology; past-present research on mummification), while for other chapters I have edited and re-arranged my existing power points to fit the textbook and this course’s thematic approach.  This course actually began as Anth.207 (Introduction to Egyptian Archaeology), but after I expanded this material into two more detailed, and more chronological courses (Anth.309; 310), I realized a need for an additional course that incorporated (1) a brief thematic overview of Ancient Egypt (e.g., geography; history; social organization; architecture & art; cultic & mortuary religion; language & literature; military; trade; economy & industry; daily life), (2) some featured documentaries and response sheets on early to recent explorers and Egyptologists (e.g., Belzoni; Champollion; Budge; Petrie; Carter; others), and (3) a brief introduction to Egyptian hieroglyphs (Collier & Manley, How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs).  Hence, the development of the current course, which received very good reviews in Fall 2012 and will be offered again in Spring 2015.  In addition to these lectures, I have uploaded copies of my in-class power points following Collier & Manley’s chapters 1-8, and extracted exercise worksheets from their chapters for use in-class, while requiring my students to work through Collier and Manley’s chapters at home and pre-prepare the exercise for in-class sessions.  Collier and Manley’s excellent, introductory text, other textbook choices (see the separate syllabus), the aforementioned documentaries, and other Egyptological materials have sufficed to enthuse a few undergraduate students from UAB to pursue more detailed graduate training in Egyptian archaeology and languages.  Hopefully, these lectures may be of assistance to others in looking at various aspects of Ancient Egypt, in designing and improving upon such a thematic approach, or in providing any feedback regarding any omissions or errors that may have crept into the course materials.  I try to revise this material each time I teach the course (usually in alternate years), and remain indebted to my initial teachers, diverse Egyptological sources, online materials (mainly used for illustrative and educational purposes), and other dialogue with my students and colleagues for feedback and ideas incorporated into the course’s design and revision.  UPDATED: Dec. 2021, minor edits, and new formatting, plus selected sources at end of lecture.

ABSTRACT: This lecture covers a wide range of topics regarding Old Kingdom Egyptian society and other aspects.  It discusses and addresses what features distinguish the king, queen, nobility, officials, and peasants (i.e., regalia/garments; lifestyle; duties; housing; tombs; and interrelations); what similarities and differences occur between male and female roles in Old Kingdom society (i.e., positions? duties? education?); how reliable are ancient textual-pictorial sources (which reflect the perspective of the scribes, artists, and the elite patrons commissioning them) for portraying themselves, lower classes, foreigners & other data? What sorts of things did the lower classes do in Old Kingdom society? What other, less biased evidence can we draw upon for reconstructing Old Kingdom society and related aspects? Did the Old Kingdom really have slaves? Did slaves build the pyramids? Can we discern a gradation of “freedom(s)” from POWs to serfs and others?  Is there evidence for a moral code (ethics) in Old Kingdom society? (i.e., How did society encourage its members to behave well? [afterlife judgement]). How did the Old Kingdom state maintain law and order? Was it successful? Is there evidence for a fairness in treatment to all classes? (theory vs. reality?); How did Old Kingdom Egypt interact with its neighbours? Friends & foes?

The lecture addresses the aforementioned questions and topics, providing an overview in the following sections during the Old Kingdom (and some pertinent later periods/examples): (1). Social structure, from pharaoh to peasants & POWs; (2). Society and women in Ancient Egypt; (3). Slavery and slaves in Ancient Egypt (see also foreigners below); (4). Across classes: an example of interactions between officials; (5). Ancient Egyptian society and economy: a. Agriculture: farming and herding; b. The private sector: trade and exchange; c. Craftsmen: wide range of industries; d. Trends in arts and crafts; (6). Moral codes, laws, and punishment; (7). settlements: Examples of various types of urban settings; (8). Egyptian views about foreigners (including POWs); and (9). International relations: adjacent regions, peoples, and kingdoms.  The lecture ends with a series of summary notes on these topics.  UPDATED: 24 Feb. 2023. Bibliographic and other additions.

تقديــــــــم
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

  يُعد التأريخ للحضارة المصرية القديمة بمثابة تشريف ومتعة لصاحبه ، فهي أقدم وأعظم حضارات العالم. وكان أن أثارت الحضارة المصرية إعجاب العالم كله ، فلا غرو أن نجد أمم بأكملها من أكثر الشعوب تقدما وحضارة مثل الشعبين الفرنسي والألماني علي وجه الخصوص - تجد في دراسة التاريخ المصري القديم متعة وهواية. وتزول الدهشة عندما نتأمل بعضا مما أنجزه المصريون القدماء من سبق حضاري ومنها أنهم أول حضارة تعرف التدوين والحروف الهجائية الحساب والهندسة والفلك والإدراة والتشريع القانون والدين والبناء بالحجر وتقوم الأهرام والمعابد المصرية مثل الكرنك وغيرها مقام الدليل علي العديد من العلوم ، فضلا عن الزراعة والري وإنشاء القناطر والسدود والكباري والرسم والتصوير والأدب والمسرح ، . والقائمة تطول حتي تستطيع القول وأنت مطمئن أن المصريين إخترعوا كل شيء. ويسترعي الإنتباه في هذه الحضارة ارتفاع شأن الوازع الأخلاقي وقيم إتقان العمل والتفاني بما لم تدانيه حضارة في الإنجاز منذ أقدم العصور وحتي الآن فقد تفخر أمة – عبر عصور التاريخ - بتقدمها في مجال بعينه وتتراجع في آخر. لكن لم تشهد الحضارة الإنسانية أمة أرتقت في جميع أعمالها إلي مصاف الخلود حتي في صناعة الموت فقد حفظت جثث موتاها لفترة تجاوزت آلاف السنين بلا كلل أو نفصان. 
لكن علي العكس مما سبق كان التراجع عندما تخلي المصريون القدماء عن عظمتهم وجرت عليهم سنة التاريخ والدهر ، إذ ما تم شيء إلا نقص. فقد اتسم التاريخ المصري في العصرين البطلمي والروماني بخصوصية منفردة عن تاريخ باقي حقب التاريخ المصري القديم إذ شهد لأول مرة أول استعمار استيطاني مستمر منذ آلاف السنين. وكان من شان ذلك أن ينعكس علي أحوال البلاد فشهدت تأثيرات كبيرة في جميع نواحي الحياة بين العنصرين الحضاريين الرئيسيين في البلاد اليوناني والروماني. وكان من شان ذلك أن يؤدي إلي تغييرات عديدة حيث انتشرت الثقافة اليونانية الدخيلة وهو الأمر الذي بانت ملامحه في العديد من مظاهر التأثر في الفن والأدب والإنتاج العلمي والحضاري. لكن البلاد ما لبثت أن شهدت من جديد تراجعاً في قوة المستعمر البطلمي وتنامي قوة العنصر المصري. وكان لقوة الكهنة التنظيمية وعمق الديانة والحضارة المصريين دورا ضخما ً في تنامي دور العنصر المصري. وتأكد هذا التأثير من خلال الطابع المصري الذي اكتست به دولة البطالمة خاصة مع حلول عصر "بطلميوس الخامس" الذي كان أول البطالمة الذي يتوج ملكا حسب التقاليد المصرية القديمة ويتخذ الأسماء الخمسة للملك. ولم تلبث المعابد المصرية القديمة أن حفلت جدرانها برسوم البطالمة وقد تزيو بزي الفراعنة ومارسو نفس الطقوس المصرية العريقة وشيدوا المعابد وأبدعوا وأضافوا لها عناصر معمارية جديدة تختلف عما كان معلوما من العناصر التقليدية في معابد العصر الفرعوني. وكان إنشاء مدينة الإسكندرية وما صحبها من نهضة معمارية هو الأثر الأكبر لحكم البطالمة وما تركته خلفها من مدارس علمية وفكرية في شتي مراحل العلوم. وبهذا المعيار تفوقت مصر عصر البطالمة علي نفسها في عصر لكونها حاضرة مملة كبري وإن كانت تحت الاستعمار الأجنبي وليس مجرد ولاية وإن كانت ذات وضع خاص كما صار الحال إبان العصر الروماني. وكان أن بقيت الثقافة اليونانية هي المسيطرة لكن من خلال استعمار وإدارة وطابع روماني كان أكثر تنظيما وكفاءة في إحكام السيطرة العسكرية علي البلاد ورفع كفاءة مرافقها في بداية العهد الروماني علي الأقل. وكان أحد أهم أوجه الكفاءة هو تنامي قدرة الإدارة الرومانية علي تحصيل الضرائب وهو ما عجل في ظل إدارة فاسدة واستغلال منظم لا ينقطع لموارد البلاد بأن تسير أحوال مصر نحو الخراب الإقتصادي والتراجع المجتمعي فخلت القري من ساكنيها اللذين هجروها إلي الفيافي والقفار. يتبقي القول أن الروح المصرية في العصرين البطلمي والروماني سرعان ما فرضت نفسها في كلا العصرين فازدهرت اللغة المصرية القديمة وعاشت اللغة المصرية بخطها الديموطيقي عصر إزدهارها الأدبي خلال العصرين اليوناني والروماني في مصر. ورغم الظروف الحالكة التي عاشها المصريون تحت الحكمين البطلمي والروماني فقد خلفت الحضارة المصرية عدد عظيم من المنشآت الخالدة مثل مدينة الإسكندرية بمكتبتها العظيمة وفنارها ودار الحكمة وغيرها وهي منشآت ظلت حية في الذاكرة وإن تجسد الحلم حقيقة جميلة حين تمت محاولة لاحياء مكتبة الإسكندرية من جديد. يتبقي القول أن اختصار هذه المرحلة في هذا الحيز القليل من الصفحات جاء كضرورة أكاديمة ويمكن للقاريء إن رغب في مطالعة الأحداث بتفصيل أكبر في عملين آخر لمؤلف هذا الكاتب وهما : "تاريخ وآثار مصر في عصر البطالمة" و "تاريخ وآثار مصر في عصر الرومان". والله من وراء القصد والسعي.

د.حسين يوسف

Las estelas privadas del Reino Medio procedentes del sitio de Abidos constituyen hoy en día una de las fuentes más importantes de información para poder analizar, comprender y reconstruir la sociedad egipcia. Es por ello que en este trabajo hemos seleccionado una de estas estelas (CG 20098) y la hemos documentado, traducido, analizado y contextualizado. Así, este trabajo se fundamenta en el estudio de la estela CG 20098, la cual pertenece a un sujeto sin títulos ni cargo alguno, llamado Antymmer, que se encuentra representado junto a miembros de su familia y servidores. Su importancia radica en el hecho de que se trata de un sujeto perteneciente a uno de los nuevos sectores sociales intermedios que comienzan a emerger durante el Reino Medio. En este trabajo se analiza, también, el proceso de surgimiento de esos nuevos sectores sociales intermedios en Abidos a partir de la evidencia procedente de dicha estela y del material encontrado en el sitio.



The Stela of Antymmer (CG 20098) and the development of intermediate social classes in Abydos during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom.
The Middle Kingdom stelae found at Abydos are some of the most important sources of information to analyse and reconstruct the Egyptian society. In this article, we are particularly interested on one of these stelae (CG 20098). The stela CG 20098, which belongs to a subject called Antymmer, with no job titles or ranks mentioned, represents him and his family together with his servants. Its importance lies in the fact that Antymmer belongs to one of the new intermediate social classes that rise during the Middle Kingdom. Thus, in this paper, we also analyse the development of these intermediate social classes during the Middle Kingdom based on the material evidence found in Abydos.

Since the beginning of the pharaonic civilization, a recurrent trope in the royal ideology is that of the king defeating the ‘Nine Bows’, the foreign countries surrounding Egypt. Royal and private sources often showed the king’s power by representing his ability to defeat his enemies. However, beyond the ideological framework, one of the concrete results of these armed conflicts was the conquer of huge booties consisting of precious goods and prisoners. Especially during the New Kingdom, more sophisticated representations and texts were used to celebrate military events and the so-called Egyptian ‘Imperialism’, providing details about numbers, ethnics, genres and sometimes the final destination of the prisoners. There was also an echo of these themes in literary texts and private sources.
Existing studies on this subject deal mostly with narrative scenes and focus on the role of the pharaoh. In my paper I will steer the attention towards the prisoners themselves: subjugated, annihilated but also turned into workers. The evidence analysed in my PhD thesis show that the condition of prisoner was temporary and ceased after the arrival in Egypt, where captives were immediately converted into workers. The interest of this study is thus the distribution of these new inhabitants in the country, the various institutions (temples, army ...) or the people who used them and the social and economic consequences of these installations. The manner in which the prisoners are mentioned in the sources reveals their role in royal ideology and their perception in private or literary sources. In this paper I will presents the main conclusions of my study and the research prospects on this subject.

Resumen En este artículo se expondrá la vigencia de las proposiciones de Marx y Engels, con sus contradicciones y sus variaciones en el tiempo, respecto del modo de producción asiático. En particular, trataremos la conexión con el proceso histórico en el Antiguo Egipto, especialmente en relación con la organización estatal. Analizaremos, en parte también, cómo esas elaboraciones de los autores alemanes fueron recibidas y transformadas por la historiografía marxista más relevante. Abstract This article studies the validity of Marx and Engels' propositions-with their contradictions and variations through time-regarding the Asiatic Mode of Production. In particular, the relation to historical processes in Ancient Egypt, especially concerning the state organization, will be studied. The article will also analyze how these elaborations by the German scholars were received and transformed by the main exponents of Marxist historiography. Palabras clave modo de producción asiático Antiguo Egipto Estado Karl Marx Keywords Asiatic Mode of Production Ancient Egypt State Karl Marx * Versión traducida-con cierta bibliografía adaptada y actualizada-de "Asiatic Mode of Production: Considerations on Ancient Egypt" en: L. da Graca y A. Zingarelli (eds.), Studies on Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production. Brill, Leiden, 2015: 27-76.

The modern and occidental perception of friendship can be perceived as clear and understandable to all: it is a notion that is often associated with loyalty, love, patience and mutual comprehension. Was the ancient Egyptian view of friendship the same as ours? Did friends adopt the same behaviour with one another that characterises our own relations?

The word we can translate as “friend” in Egyptian is ḫnms(w), found in documents from the Old to the New Kingdom, mostly on funerary monuments such as stelae or in literary texts, but also in some other types of documents, although in much rarer occurrences. Only a few works have analysed the word ḫnms(w), mostly on Middle Kingdom stelae. These documents led us to the conclusion that the notion of friendship cannot be studied from our modern vision but should be analysed within an emic perspective. In this regard, adding literary texts to the debate allow us, through a renewed information, to explore this relationship in further details.

Funerary monuments manifest a degree of hierarchy concerning this relationship, even if the so-called “friend” is generally represented iconographically with or after the family. That fact is also noticed in some literary texts such as the Instruction of Ptahhotep or the Prophecies of Neferty. Other literary texts such as The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant or some other instructions clarify some aspects of the interaction between friends in Ancient Egypt as affection, generosity and reciprocity.

Basing our presentation on various sources, we will define how ancient Egyptians behaved as friends, the ways in which they had to act to maintain this relationship, as well as the aims of this “friendship”.

endnotes 54-73. Although old, Hans Bonnet's Reallexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte (Berlin: De Gruyter 1952) is extremely informative and detailed, and well worth consulting for any religious topic that might arise; for the subjects discussed here, the articles "Laienpriester" (pp. 413-416), "Priester" (pp. 596-607), "Priesterin" (pp. 607-608) are relevant.