Homepage Timeline Maps A-Z index Learning


On ancient institutions and sources

Economy and estate
Kingship
Administration - the vizier
Treasury
Fields
Granary
Labour
Temple

What we do not know: the redistribution question

It is often assumed that the Ancient Egyptian economy operated as a centralised unit in which the king/centre collected and redistributed national resources.

Specifically, many accounts of the Ancient Egyptian economy take at face value ancient written statements that the king was lord (interpreted as owner) of the land.

Modern commentators also often assert that there were kingly monopolies on economic operations, such as foreign trade.

Economy and estate

seal of the 'house official Sebef'

Sebef might have been responsible for a private estate of a high official

Kingship

Administration

the title TAty on a relief (click on the picture to see the whole relief)
viziers on Digital Egypt: Nefermaat, (Nebsum)nu, Panehesy

Treasury

seals with title 'treasurer' (imi-rA xtmt) and the name of the treasurer (snb-sw-ma - left; HAr - right)

 

Fields

seal of the Royal sealer and overseer of fields Ankhu.

Granary

  • Grain is main currency, making the granary a principal bank
  • The title ‘Overseer of the Granary’ (often ‘Double Granary’ – double to denote the national as opposed to local reach of the title) is prominent in some periods, not in others; at all periods administration of grain resources is crucial, given the variations in the height of the river Nile in its annual cycle of flood and low water

Institutions attested in some periods, not in others

Labour

Temple


 

Copyright © 2002 University College London. All rights reserved.