Page 55 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

LOWER
Giza
Great Pyramid and Sphinx Djoser’s Pyramid
EGYPT
Heliopolis Saqqara
Akhetaten
(Tell el-Amarna)
EGYPT
Nubian Desert
Thebes Luxor
First Cataract =
Arabian Desert
Red Sea
G
u
l
fo
f
S
u
e
z
Sahara
N
i
l
e
R
0 0
50 100 50
150 Kilometers 100 Miles
Memphis Heracleopolis
UPPER
Arable land
Pyramid = Cataract
Mt. Sinai
Mediterranean Sea
NILE DELTA
Dead Sea
Gaza
Abu Simbel Second Cataract =
MAP 1.3 Ancient Egypt. Egyptian civilization centered on the life-giving water and flood silts of the Nile River, with most of the population living in Lower Egypt, where the river splits to form the Nile Delta. Most of the pyramids, built during the Old Kingdom, are clustered at the entrance to the Delta.
Q How did the lands to the east and west of the river help to protect Egypt from invasion?
Although theoretically absolute in their power, in practice Egyptian kings did not rule alone. Initially, members of the king’s family performed administrative tasks, but by the Fourth Dynasty, a bureaucracy with regular procedures had developed. Especially important was the office of vizier, “steward of the whole land.”
Nomarchs were confirmed as hereditary officehold- ers but with the understanding that their duties must be performed faithfully. These included the collection of taxes for the state and the recruitment of labor forces for royal projects, such as stone quarrying.
Egyptian Civilization: “The Gift of the Nile” 17
SINAI
CANAAN
Directly responsible to the king, the vizier was in charge of the bureaucracy, with its numerous departments, including police, justice, river transport, and pub- lic works. Agriculture and the treasury were the most impor- tant departments. Agriculture was, of course, the backbone of Egyptian prosperity, and the treasury collected taxes, which were paid in kind.
For administrative purposes, Egypt was divided into provin- ces or nomes, as they were later called by the Greeks—twenty- two in Upper Egypt and twenty in Lower Egypt. A governor, called by the Greeks a nomarch, was head of each nome and was responsible to the king and vizier. Nomarchs, how- ever, tended to build up large holdings of land and power within their nomes, creating a potential rivalry with the pharaohs.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM Despite the theory of divine order, the Old Kingdom eventually col- lapsed, ushering in a period of disorder. Eventually, a new royal dynasty managed to pac- ify all Egypt and inaugurated the Middle Kingdom, a new pe- riod of stability lasting from around 2010 to 1630 B.C.E. Several factors contributed to its vitality. The nome structure was reorganized. The bounda- ries of each nome were now settled precisely, and the obli- gations of the nomes to the state were clearly delineated.
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NUBIA
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