Civilization Edition Gold Iii

Posted onNovember 20, 2011 - 12:33 pm by Admin | 0 Comments

During the reign of Amenhotep III (ca. 1390-1352 BCE) the Egyptian Empire had reached its greatest sustained proportions. From Nubia in the south to Syria in the north, a distance of 2,000 km, the Pharaoh ruled supreme. Today this area is administered by no less than six separate states, but during Eighteenth Dynasty the entirety of Egypt was controlled by one man. This feat was managed using a variety of methods to govern and administer this vast domain. The Egyptian Empire was based on the original consolidation of the Nile Valley from Aswan to the Delta which was the legacy of the first Pharaohs.

Lord Of The Two Lands

Egypt itself was acknowledged by the Ancient Egyptians as being two lands rather than one. The Pharaoh was commonly referred to as the “Lord of the Two Lands” in order to stress that the unification of Upper Egypt/Ta-Shemau and Lower Egypt/ Ta-Mehu was the founding political principal of the kingdom. During much of Pharaonic Egypt’s history the Pharaoh governed each half of his kingdom with its own Vizier. The two lands were each further subdivided into nomes, the Egyptian equivalent to our modern county.

During periods of history, where the power of the Pharaoh was waning, it was often the leaders of the nomes, known as nomarchs, who would rise to power. However, during periods of strong central Pharaonic control, the viziers controlled the nomarchs in their lands who were all royal appointees. Although the title “Hereditary Count” existed amongst nobles of the New Kingdom it was little more than an honorific, and real political power at the local level was held by a scribal bureaucracy not unlike a modern day civil service.

This bureaucracy was headed by The White Scribe, who oversaw production and distribution of grain and the Gold Scribe, who, as the name implies, was responsible for the acquisition of gold and other valuables for the crown. The Army Council was also dominated by the Scribe of the Army and the Scribe of Recruits. Although these officials were not field commanders, they directed the vast network of logistics needed to keep the Egyptian army running.

Overseer Of Priests

In addition to local civil administration each gnome had a temple power structure as well which was responsible for much of Egypt’s commercial and educational activities. In some gnomes such as Wasat, the Theban gnome, home of Karnak and Luxur, the temple administration overshadowed the civil. Although Egyptian cults, such as that of Amun, had famously competed with the Pharaoh for power along with the nomarchs all the temples were officially under the Pharaoh’s control.

New Kingdom Pharaoh’s used the post of Overseer of the Priests in an effort to keep the temples in line. This arrangement allowed the Pharaoh to appoint a priest to manage all the temples of each gnome, a position not unlike that of a bishop. All of these bishopric appointees reported in turn to the Overseer of Priests who was responsible for supervising all cult activity in the realm acting in the fashion of an arch-bishop. To extend the analogy the Pharaoh would then be in the infallible position of a Pope serving for life.


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