Ancient Egypt - the civilization of the East. And it is not the geographical component that is of great importance here, but the cultural and civilizational one. Here, the leading role in the development of society was played not by private property, but by the royal temple economy. Thus, the social of Ancient Egypt, the country where one of the first states originated, developed very poorly. And this is a characteristic difference not only of this civilization, but also of other eastern ones. What were the features of the social structure of Ancient Egypt? Let's figure it out in the article.

Ancient Egypt: general information

Before starting a conversation about, I would like to make a brief digression into the history of the kingdom. So, on the path of development, Egypt went through several eras-kingdoms: Early (beginning of the III millennium BC), Ancient (from the XXVIII to the XXIV century BC), Middle (from the end of the III millennium to the XVII century BC), New (from the 16th-12th to the 11th-8th centuries BC) and Late (from the 7th to the 4th-1st centuries BC).

All these periods are characterized by extremely slow development of statehood. It should be noted that throughout its history, the civilization of the ancient Egyptians was either divided into two parts (Upper and Lower kingdoms), then united into one powerful state, and all this through civil strife. In addition, there were constant wars of conquest. Against the background of these events, the power of the pharaoh only grew stronger, and class inequality resulted in a slave system.

The population of the country - African-Hamitic Libyans, Nubians and Semites - comes from Africa. All these peoples chose the territory in the valley of the lower Nile for life - this was the natural boundary of the settlement, which ensured isolation and, to some extent, security.

Rich not only in fertile lands, but also in minerals, the area fully provided the people. The first arise at the moment when there is a need to regulate the floods of the Nile by the construction of irrigation facilities. Society is divided into those who direct the work and those who carry it out.

Education and development of the state

So, around the 5th century. BC e. the state of Ancient Egypt begins to exist. It consists of several nomes (as primitive settlements were called in the country), and by the 4th century. BC e. two kingdoms are formed from them - Upper and Lower. Their unification is associated with bloodshed. It all happens during the period of the Early Kingdom. The ancient kingdom was a purely centralized period of the existence of the country. After that, Egypt again breaks up into nomes, and each of them claims to be independent. Wars start again

It was possible to unite the country only during the Middle Kingdom. The city of Thebes became the center. At the end - again the collapse, wars and unification into the strongest empire, claiming dominance in the Ancient Eastern world (the period of the New Kingdom). This is the time of aggressive warriors. After - again the decline, from which Ancient Egypt no longer came out - it was conquered by the Persians, then A. Macedonian. Its isolated existence ends: now the once mighty civilization is just

Political system

What was the state of ancient Egypt? The social structure always comes from the political structure. It should be said that in times of both centralization and disunity, there has always been a division of the country into two districts - Northern and Southern. The governors of the pharaoh ruled there. He himself secured his administrative power with the title, which noted: "Lord of the two countries."

The state has always been strictly centralized, while periods of disunity in time were insignificant. On the basis of the unconditional power of the pharaoh, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus, also centralized, arises. After the pharaoh, the leading role in the administration of the state was assigned to the royal court, where the vizier was the main one. It was he and the pharaoh who were subordinate to the heads of departments, who had a large staff of small and large officials.

Local nomarchs ruled. They had unconditional power, but exclusively in their subject. The nomarchs also had local bureaucracy under their control. At the lowest rung in this system were community councils headed by an elected headman. They were responsible for judicial and administrative affairs, as well as for economic activities.

Development of public relations

Consider how the social structure of the society of Ancient Egypt developed throughout its history. Initially, the young country consisted of scattered city-states, each living according to its own laws and having its own ruler.

The state of the period of the Early Kingdom was a kind of tribal union. The country's population consisted of free peasants united in communities. The land for cultivation was allocated to them by the authorities. Part of the income from agricultural products had to be paid to the state.

It was during the period of the Old Kingdom that a rift occurred in society, dividing it into slaves and slave owners. The structure of the society of Ancient Egypt becomes heterogeneous: everything is determined by social and property relations. Priests come to the fore after the pharaoh. It is with their status and authority for the people that the pharaoh is endowed with unlimited power, equated with a deity.

The era of the Middle Kingdom is characterized not only by the large-scale growth of the slave system (now slaves are also used in subsidiary farms). The social structure of Ancient Egypt of this period is characterized by the fact that society is increasingly stratified. So, there are nedzhes, small proprietors. They, as well as scribes, farmers and merchants, live in abundance, but the peasants and other lower strata barely find the means to live.

The wars of conquest during the period of the New Kingdom primarily affect the increase in the class of slaves. All lands are finally assigned to the state and temples. Therefore, the landowners disappear as a class. Moreover, no one is allowed to work on the priestly lands, it is given to the guilty members of their own class. The priesthood is now a closed class, which can only be entered by the kinship principle.

General characteristics of ancient Egyptian society

So, let's make preliminary conclusions about what Ancient Egypt was like. Its social structure had the following features:

• At the head was the pharaoh, who was revered as a deity.
• The form of government is despotism, and it is for Egypt that the erection of the service of the king into a religious cult is characteristic.
• Priests played a special role.
• The basis of society is the rural community, on which local authorities relied.
• clear class division.
• The social structure of ancient Egypt in a hierarchical order from the highest to the lowest strata is presented as follows: the pharaoh - priests and court nobles - warriors - peasants and artisans - slaves. Moreover, the latter were completely excluded from public life, because they were not considered people, but were called “living goods”. We'll talk about this a little later.
• The bureaucracy was numerous, but poorly divided according to duties. One person could be responsible for administrative activities, and for economic, and even for the performance of certain religious rites.

The power of the pharaoh

Now let's talk separately about each social group. Ancient Egypt, whose social structure was based on despotism, was ruled by a pharaoh. The cult positioned him as equal to the gods. Accordingly, the priesthood developed a special ritual to worship the god-king. Yes, and the names of the pharaohs reflect the divine origin. For example, Amenhotep - "Amon pacified", Thutmose - "born of the god Thoth." The ancient Egyptians believed that crops, prosperity, the absence of wars depended on the god-pharaoh.

It was the king who was the main owner of the Egyptian lands, which he could give or take away. Judicial power was concentrated in his hands, he appointed supreme officials.

Power was inherited by primogeniture, because the pharaoh, in addition to the first wife, as a rule, blood related to him (often there were marriages even with sisters) had other wives and concubines. Everyone here was on an equal footing. But what about the times of unrest, when one dynasty succeeded another? And here the priests found "justification". According to the beliefs of the Egyptians, one relationship within the divine family is not enough, it is also necessary for the deity to move into the king. So there was a change of ruling clans. Moreover, the "entrance of God" could be made not only in the heir, but also in the sister, wife and others.

Priests

The features of the social structure of Ancient Egypt are such that the pharaoh, with all his despotic power, could not rule alone. He relied primarily on priests, as well as on noble officials.

The former are legislators of norms of behavior and life guidelines. Since the function of communication between society and the gods belonged to the priests, even the pharaohs listen to them. It was not so easy to get the rank of priest: it was necessary to study long and hard. From the age of four, the accumulated knowledge began to be passed on to the future generation.

The institution of serving the gods was highly developed: temple servants and those working in the secular field, keepers of secrets and manuscripts, seers - interpreters of all kinds of signs, and even astronomers.

In a word, the priests played a very important role in the life of ancient Egyptian society. Their knowledge about rituals, the will of the gods, medicine, and even about agriculture and cattle breeding, passed down from generation to generation, was considered sacred, hidden from ordinary people. Until today, Egyptologists continue to discover what the clergy knew.

Aristocracy

The social structure of the society of the civilization of Ancient Egypt, its top, was not limited to the priesthood. The pharaoh also relied on his court nobles. It was the aristocracy, those who actually controlled all spheres of the country's life.

Chief among them was the vizier, or jati. This man was the right hand of the pharaoh. As a rule, he was elected from the ruling dynasty. There were cases when the place of the vizier was occupied by a member of the aristocracy, not related to the pharaoh - this happened during periods of weakening the integrity of the country, the so-called transitional ones.

So, what functions were assigned to jati? In fact, the whole of Ancient Egypt was in his hands. The social structure was built in such a way that all the nobles in charge of various industries reported to him. In addition, the vizier headed:

• financial departments.
• Public works (for example, irrigation facilities).
• He controlled the life of the capital and exercised supervision in it.
• Responsible for the army.
• Headed the judiciary.

The rest of the aristocracy was subordinate to the jati and the pharaoh. These were rich people who built their own tombs and lived in luxurious houses.

officialdom

Scribes deserve special attention. They belonged to the highest aristocracy and enjoyed universal respect. Mostly illiterate people inhabited Ancient Egypt. The social structure of society thus allowed the scribes to have their own niche.

These employees not only wrote down his decrees for the pharaoh, but also knew how to calculate the water level in the Nile, assessed the consequences in case of floods, and knew the reserves in the reservoirs. They were important in agriculture and cattle breeding. After all, only a literate person is able to evaluate after the flood of the Nile what the crop will be like and calculate the number of livestock or wine made. The scribes were responsible for collecting taxes.

They were asked for help in order to compose a letter (including a personal one), to write down a ritual prayer.

What was bureaucracy as a social structure of Ancient Egypt? Briefly, we can say this: they were divided by rank. Each nome was in charge of a certain person, who in turn was subordinate to others responsible for specific areas of the economy.

Army

The powerful union of the pharaoh, nobles and priests could only be strengthened by military force. This is how the army is born.

The place of a warrior in ancient Egyptian society was very honorable: they had their own houses, property, and lands. The only thing they had no control over was their own lives. After all, according to the decision of the pharaoh, supported by the priests, a war could break out at any moment.

It is worth noting that the army entered the battle willingly. After all, it was as a result of wars of conquest that people acquired their property.

The army was also used to resolve internal internecine conflicts.

At the peak of the development of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, the army numbered 100 thousand people, it was the strongest in the world.

Peasants and artisans

The most numerous social stratum of Ancient Egypt was the peasants. It was they who fed the classes described above and ensured their comfortable existence. The peasants themselves could not boast of a comfortable existence. Rather, on the contrary: the land they cultivated was not their property, respectively, most of the crops and livestock were taken from the peasants. Beggars, hungry, they were often used for public works.

Exactly the same life was with the artisans of ancient Egypt. The workshops where they made products did not belong to them. And the owner-nobleman took almost all the products as rent and then resold them at exorbitant prices with the help of familiar merchants and merchants.

Slaves

But the most unenviable position was, of course, among the slaves. Egypt is not the only one with a slave system. It was a common social structure for that time.

Slaves were not considered human, they were a "living commodity" sold, bought and captured as a trophy. The fate of each slave was in the hands of the slave owner: he could be killed, maimed. Moreover, the violation of the law was the murder of someone else's slave (this is "damage" to property).

Weddings between slaves did not legally mean anything: a husband and wife could easily be separated, for example, resold to different owners.

Of course, slave uprisings broke out in the country. So, "thanks" to one of them, the country, weakened by the suppression of the rebellion, was easily obtained by the Arab nomads.

Social Causes of the Decline of Civilization

After analyzing all the estates of Ancient Egypt, we can make an unambiguous conclusion: there was no unity between them, rather, on the contrary, there was fierce enmity and hatred. Moreover, the confrontation was not limited to the line "slaves, peasants - to know." Having become rich, the aristocracy desires power and begins political games against the pharaoh. This is always the case in social systems with the oppressors and the oppressed. The result of the imperfection of the social structure was the decline of the civilization of Ancient Egypt.

Introduction
1. The state structure of ancient Egypt
2. The social structure of ancient Egypt
List of sources used

Introduction

The state of Ancient Egypt was formed in the northeastern part of Africa, in a valley located along the lower reaches of the Nile River. All agricultural production in Egypt was associated with the annual floods of the Nile, with the very early construction of irrigation facilities here, on which the labor of slave prisoners of war was first used. The natural borders of Egypt served to protect the country from outside raids, the creation of an ethnically homogeneous population - the ancient Egyptians.

Intensively developing irrigated agriculture contributes to social stratification, the separation of the administrative elite, headed by the high priests-priests already in the first half of the 4th millennium BC. In the second half of this millennium, the first state formations were formed - nomes, which arose as a result of the unification of rural communities around temples for the joint conduct of irrigation work.

The territorial location of the ancient nomes, stretched along a single waterway, very early leads to their unification under the rule of the strongest nome, to the appearance in Upper (Southern) Egypt of single kings with signs of despotic power over the rest of the nomes. The kings of Upper Egypt by the end of the 4th millennium BC conquer all of Egypt. He predetermined the early centralization of the ancient Egyptian state and the very nature of the economy, associated with the constant dependence of the population on the periodic floods of the Nile and the need to guide the work of many people from the center to overcome their consequences.

The history of Ancient Egypt is divided into a number of periods: the period of the Early Kingdom (3100-2800 BC), or the period of the reign of the first three dynasties of the Egyptian pharaohs; the period of the Ancient, or Old, Kingdom (about 2778-2260 BC), which includes the reign of the III-IV dynasty; the period of the Middle Kingdom (about 2040-1786 BC) - the time of the reign of the XI-XII dynasties; the period of the New Kingdom (about 1580-1085 BC) - the time of the reign of the XVIII-XX dynasties of the Egyptian pharaohs.

The periods between the Ancient, Middle and New Kingdoms were the time of the economic and political decline of Egypt. Egypt of the New Kingdom is the first world empire in history, a huge multi-tribal state created by conquering neighboring peoples. It included Nubia, Libya, Palestine, Syria and other areas rich in natural resources. At the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt falls into decline, becomes the prey of the conquerors, first the Persians, then the Romans, who included it in the Roman Empire in 30 BC.

The early kingdom (3100-2778 BC) existed under the conditions of communal land use: the nome state (headed by a nomarch and its religious center) was considered the supreme owner of the land, in favor of which a part of the income from this land was collected. In pre-dynastic Egypt, there was also a sector of the royal economy with its nobles, officials, tax-paying population and slaves from among the prisoners.

At first, after overcoming fragmentation, this kingdom consisted of two parts - Upper Egypt with the central city of Thebes and Lower Egypt with the cities of Memphis and Sais, which over time were influenced by the personal interest of the ruling king of Upper Egypt Menes (or Narmer) and a number of efforts towards centralization led to the creation of a unified state. The association was not strong, but played an important role in the care of irrigating the land.

An example of hydraulic structures can be considered a canal drawn from one of the branches of the Nile to the desert oasis of El Faiyum lying on the other side, which then became the most fertile region in the country. To carry out the canal, it was necessary to widen the mountain gorge in a certain place.

Since ancient times, farmers, and then astronomers, have been observing the rising of the Canis (Sirius) star in the sky, which coincided with the rise of the Nile waters and the beginning of a new calendar year. Over time, an agricultural calendar was invented, which was subdivided into three seasons with such distinctions: high water, coming out and dryness. The calendar year included 365 days. Special officials monitored the level of the rise of the Nile. The height of the flood was noted in different parts of the river. The results of the observations were reported to the supreme dignitary and then placed in the annals. The measurement data made it possible to foresee the size of the flood in advance and partly predict the future harvest. The news of the rising waters of the Nile was carried by messengers throughout the country.

During the period of the Old Kingdom (2778-2260 BC), a centralized state arises with an ordered administrative, judicial, military and financial hierarchy. Much attention is paid to irrigation and organization of public works. Members of the royal house hold many higher administrative and cult positions - supreme dignitaries, military leaders, treasure keepers, and high priests. The first dignitary in the system of centralized bureaucratic administration was the vizier (chatti), who was in charge of the court, local administration, state workshops and storehouses. According to some reports, the Chatti was also related to the supreme ruler. Economic activity was concentrated at the level of agricultural communities and royal and temple possessions.

For the period 2260-2040. BC. there is a lot of unrest of a social and political nature, and it is called a period of transition.

The Middle Kingdom (2040-1786 BC) becomes the heyday, also called the Age of Pyramid Building. There is a growth of slave-owning and private farms, a stratification of the community with the isolation of small proprietors. Large settlements arose, becoming city-states and called nomes by the Greeks. The hieroglyph denoting nome depicted the land with a piece of a river and a rectangular network of diversion channels. The rivalry of the nomes, which increased over time, led to the weakening of the country of Upper and Lower Egypt, and for a time it became the prey of the invading Hyksos tribes.

From 1770 to 1580 BC - the second transitional period.

The new kingdom (1580-1085 BC) was marked by the rise of the priesthood and the formation of a theocratic despotism ruled by a bureaucratic priesthood and governors in nomes. Chatti becomes the first and highest administrator, managing the entire land fund of the country, the entire water supply system from the capital's office. It exercises supreme judicial supervision and organizes control over the entire taxable population. During this period, under Pharaoh Thutmose III (XV century BC), the Egyptian state stretched from the Nile rapids to the Mediterranean Sea and to Northern Syria in the east.

The late kingdom (1085-332 BC) becomes a time of decline, rivalry between the priesthood and nobles, and at the same time a period of struggle against frequent external aggressions. The last and decisive event for the ancient civilization was the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great.

1. The state structure of ancient Egypt

Characterizing Ancient Egypt from the point of view of the state system, it should be noted that it was a unitary and centralized state, with the exception of periods of collapse, and with a territory at the beginning of its existence of about 27 thousand square kilometers.

According to the form of government, Ancient Egypt is a state of absolute monarchy in its most cruel form - oriental despotism, which has specific features. These include: the deification of the personality of the monarch, the union of all three main branches of state power in the hands of the monarch (king), the union of secular and ecclesiastical power in the hands of the king, the unlimited power of the monarch, the supreme right of the monarch to the main means of production (land and irrigation system), the presence a huge bureaucratic apparatus, administrative-command methods of managing society and the state, cruel forms and methods of ruling and protecting the existing system.

The head of state in ancient Egypt was pharaoh (king), which was called “lord”, “majesty”, “sovereign prince”, “king of Upper and Lower Egypt”, “god giving life”, “god-lord”, “god-ruler”, but the terms “ruler” were most often used. king, pharaoh, and majesty. To emphasize his exclusivity, speaking of him, as a rule, they used the words: “gifted with life, longevity, happiness, like Ra, forever, forever”; his "every excellent work"; thanks to "his excellent designs", etc.

The power of the pharaoh within the same dynasty, as a rule, was inherited according to the principle of primogeniture through the male line.

Upon accession to the throne, the tsar issued a decree, which contained information about domestic and foreign policy, about the order in the palace, i.e. a kind of program for the domestic and foreign policy of the new monarch.

When exercising power, the pharaoh relied on the wealthiest and most influential part of the free population (priestly elite, secular and military nobility, nobles, high dignitaries) and had to observe religious and ethical norms and openly not violate the laws of the country.

The management of society and the state was carried out by the king with the help of a huge bureaucratic apparatus, consisting of two links - the central (higher) apparatus and the local apparatus.

The head of the entire state apparatus was the first person after the pharaoh - vizier (jati) with broad powers. The vizier was the highest dignitary, whose official duties were determined directly by the pharaoh himself. First of all, he was the mayor of the royal capital, exercised control over public order in the capital and the observance of court etiquette. He was also in charge of the king's office, ensuring the storage of numerous laws and other state and private acts, including grants of land, movable property, titles, positions, etc.; listened to various kinds of reports, information and petitions, and then reported them daily to the king. He also sent behind his seal all orders issued from the palace to lower bodies and officials.

The vizier also performed judicial functions, heading the country's highest judicial authority - the "six great houses", where "secret words are weighed", and appointed persons to the "judicial presence". He was also considered the head of the financial department, exercising control over the receipt of taxes in the treasury, allotment of land, deferment of payments for three days or two months, depending on the circumstances. The vizier also carried out the management of the army, giving his superiors a "military order". It was also in charge of the appointment of "acting dignitaries of Upper and Lower Egypt", who were obliged to report to him every four months "about everything that had happened to them."

The structure of the central state apparatus in the period of ancient times was determined by the functions of the state, among which economic and military functions were highlighted. Taking into account these functions, its most significant links can be distinguished: the military department, the financial department and the department of public works. All these departments were characterized by the presence of a huge bureaucratic apparatus, functioning on the basis of certain principles. Among these principles, it is necessary to point out one-man command, appointment, strict subordination, centralization taken to the extreme, unquestioning subordination of the subordinate to the superior in position, the combination of posts, perpetuity, personal loyalty.

It was especially influential military department, because thanks to him, as a result of aggressive campaigns, the state treasury was replenished (the number of slaves, livestock, jewelry, etc. increased), and, consequently, the financial situation of the population of Ancient Egypt improved, first of all, its ruling elite.

IN finance department all the wealth of the country was taken into account: military booty, land, ships, gold, mines, quarries, workshops, pyramids, statues, temples, jewelry, slaves, etc. It also concentrated information about incoming taxes both from the Egyptians themselves and from subject peoples; the amount of taxes was determined taking into account the results of the census of the population and property and the needs of the country; issues of leasing land, mines, etc. were resolved.

Concerning public works departments, then it was in charge of the construction of the irrigation system (canals, dams, ditches, dams, locks), pyramids, temples, sanctuaries, palaces, walls, roads and maintaining them in proper condition; landscaping of streets and squares, sanitation issues. A large army of scribes and overseers was subordinate to this department, who controlled not only the quality and quantity of public works performed, but also their timely execution.

In order for office work in all departments of the state apparatus to be carried out at the proper level, special schools of scribes were established, in which officials of this rank were trained, in one of the instructions of students of scribe schools it was written: “Be a scribe! She will free you from taxes, protect you from all kinds of work.

The system of local government in Ancient Egypt was built in accordance with the administrative-territorial division and, as a rule, copied the structure of the central apparatus, taking into account its main departments. Despite the fact that Ancient Egypt was a centralized state, Upper and Lower Egypt have always been regarded as two special administrative territorial units, where special officials were appointed as viziers, who were called "acting dignitaries of Upper and Lower Egypt." Each of them personally reported on the state of affairs in the territory entrusted to him. The dignitary of Upper Egypt was directly subordinate to all the lower local bodies of Upper Egypt.

At the head of the nome was the ruler (manager), who carried out the current management of the nome. He was in charge of military, financial, police, administrative, judicial and other issues. He had a large number of officials subordinate to him (the head of the scribes of the place of food, the head of things, the head of the assignments of the nome, the head of the messengers of the nome, the head of the workshops of the nome, the judge-guards of the nome, the judge-counters of the nome, the doctors of the people of the nome, etc.).

Residents of each nome, taking into account the population census and property valuation, were required to pay taxes and perform certain types of work, and local officials were called upon to ensure their unquestioning implementation.

Thus, the state system of Ancient Egypt was characterized by a special kind of absolute monarchy - "Eastern despotism", an authoritarian regime and a numerous bureaucratic apparatus.

2. The social structure of ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was characterized by an extreme slowness in the evolution of the social structure, the determining factor of which was the almost undivided dominance in the economy of the state royal-temple economy. In the context of the general involvement of the population in the state economy, the difference in the legal status of individual strata of the working people was not considered as significant as in other countries of the East. It was not reflected even in terms, the most commonly used among which was the term denoting a commoner - meret. This concept did not have a clearly defined legal content, like the controversial concept of “the servant of the king” - a semi-free, dependent worker that existed in all periods of the unique and long history of Egypt.

The main economic and social unit in ancient Egypt in the early stages of its development was the rural community. The natural process of intra-community social and property stratification was associated with the intensification of agricultural production, with the growth of the surplus product, which the communal elite begins to appropriate, concentrating in their hands the leading functions of creating, maintaining and expanding irrigation facilities. These functions subsequently passed to the centralized state.

The processes of social stratification of the ancient Egyptian society especially intensified at the end of the 4th millennium BC. when the dominant social stratum is formed, which included the tribal nome aristocracy, priests, and wealthy communal peasants. This stratum is increasingly separating itself from the bulk of the free commune peasants, from whom the state levies a rent-tax. They are also involved in forced labor in the construction of canals, dams, roads, etc. From the first dynasties, Ancient Egypt was aware of periodic censuses of “people, cattle, gold” conducted throughout the country, on the basis of which taxes were established.

The early creation of a single state with a land fund centralized in the hands of the pharaoh, to which the functions of managing a complex irrigation system are transferred, the development of a large royal temple economy contributes to the actual disappearance of the community as an independent unit associated with collective land use. It ceases to exist along with the disappearance of free farmers, independent of state power and not controlled by it. Permanent rural settlements remain a kind of community, the heads of which are responsible for paying taxes, for the smooth functioning of irrigation facilities, forced labor, etc. centralized administrative apparatus and priesthood. Its economic power is growing, in particular, due to the early established system of royal grants of land and slaves. From the time of the Old Kingdom, royal decrees have been preserved that establish the rights and privileges of temples and temple settlements, evidence of royal grants of land plots to the aristocracy and temples.

Various categories of dependent forced persons worked in the royal households and the households of the secular and spiritual nobility. These included disenfranchised slaves-prisoners of war or fellow tribesmen, reduced to a slave state, "servants of the king", who performed the prescribed work rate under the supervision of royal overseers. They owned little personal property and received meager food from the royal warehouses.

The exploitation of the “servants of the tsar”, cut off from the means of production, was based on both non-economic and economic coercion, since the land, inventory, draft cattle, etc. were the property of the tsar.

The lines separating the slaves (of whom there were never many in Egypt) from the "servants of the king" were not clearly defined. Slaves in Egypt were sold, bought, passed on by inheritance, as a gift, but sometimes they were planted on the ground and endowed with property, demanding from them part of the harvest. One of the forms of the emergence of slave dependence was the self-sale of the Egyptians for debts (which, however, was not encouraged) and the transformation into slaves of criminals.

The unification of Egypt after a transitional period of unrest and fragmentation (XXII century BC) by Theban nomes within the borders of the Middle Kingdom was accompanied by successful wars of conquest by the Egyptian pharaohs, the development of trade with Syria, Nubia, the growth of cities, and the expansion of agricultural production. This led, on the one hand, to the growth of the royal temple economy, on the other hand, to the strengthening of the positions of the private economy of nobles-dignitaries and temple priests, organically connected with the first. The nobility, which, in addition to the lands granted for service (“nomarch’s house”), has hereditary lands (“my father’s house”), seeks to turn its holdings into property, resorting to the help of temple oracles for this purpose, which could testify to its hereditary nature.

The early inefficiency of the cumbersome tsarist farms based on the labor of bonded farmers contributed to the widespread development at that time of the allotment-lease form of exploitation of the working people. The land began to be given to the “servants of the king” for rent, it was cultivated by them mainly with their own tools in a relatively isolated economy. At the same time, rent-tax was paid to the treasury, temple, nomarch or nobleman, but labor service was still performed in favor of the treasury.

In the Middle Kingdom, other changes are revealed both in the position of the ruling circles and the lower strata of the population. An increasingly prominent role in the state, along with the nome aristocracy and priesthood, begins to play an untitled bureaucracy.

From the general mass of the “king's servants”, the so-called nejes (“little ones”) stand out, and among them are “strong nejes”. Their appearance was associated with the development of private land ownership, commodity-money relations, and the market. It is no coincidence that in the XVI-XV centuries. BC. the concept of “merchant” appears in the Egyptian lexicon for the first time, and silver becomes the measure of value in the absence of money (1 g of silver was equal to the cost of 72 liters of grain, and a slave cost 373 g of silver).

Nejes, together with artisans (especially such scarce professions in Egypt as stonemasons, goldsmiths), being not so firmly connected with the royal temple economy, acquire a higher status by selling part of their products on the market. Along with the development of handicrafts, commodity-money relations, cities grow, in the cities there is even a semblance of workshops, associations of artisans according to their specialties.

The change in the legal status of wealthy groups of the population is also evidenced by the expansion of the concept of “house”, which previously denoted a kin-clan group of family members, relatives, slave servants, etc., subject to the father-noble, etc. Now the nedjes could also act as the head of the house.

Strong nejes, together with the lower levels of the priesthood, petty bureaucracy, and wealthy artisans in the cities, constitute the middle, transitional layer from small producers to the ruling class. The number of private slaves is growing, and the exploitation of dependent farmers, allotment owners, who bear the main burden of taxation and military service in the tsarist troops, is intensifying. The urban poor are even more impoverished. This leads to an extreme aggravation of social contradictions at the end of the Middle Kingdom (which intensified under the influence of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt), to a major uprising that began among the poorest sections of free Egyptians, who were later joined by slaves and even some representatives of wealthy farmers.

The events of those days are described in the colorful literary monument “Speech of Ipuver”, from which it follows that the rebels captured the king, expelled the dignitaries-nobles from their palaces and occupied them, took possession of the royal temples and temple bins, defeated the judicial chamber, destroyed the books of accounting for crops, etc. “The earth turned over like a potter's wheel,” writes Ipuwer, warning the rulers against repeating such events that led to a period of internecine strife. They lasted 80 years and ended after many years of struggle with the conquerors (in 1560 BC) with the creation of the New Kingdom by the Theban king Ahmose.

As a result of victorious wars, Egypt of the New Kingdom becomes the first largest empire in the ancient world, which could not but affect the further complication of its social structure. The positions of the nome tribal aristocracy are weakening. Ahmose leaves in place those rulers who have expressed complete obedience to him, or replaces them with new ones. The well-being of representatives of the ruling elite from now on directly depends on what place they occupy in the official hierarchy, how close they are to the pharaoh and his court. The center of gravity of the administration and the entire support of the pharaoh significantly shifts to the untitled strata of those who come from officials, warriors, farmers, and even approximate slaves. Children of strong nejes could take a course of study in special schools led by royal scribes, and upon completion of it, receive one or another official position.

Along with the nejes, a special category of the Egyptian population appeared at that time, close to it in position, denoted by the term “nemkhu”. This category included farmers with their own farms, artisans, warriors, petty officials, who, at the behest of the pharaoh's administration, could be raised or lowered in their social and legal status, depending on the needs and needs of the state.

This was due to the creation, as centralization in the Middle Kingdom, of a system of nationwide redistribution of labor. In the New Kingdom, in connection with the further growth of the numerous imperial, hierarchically subordinated layer of bureaucracy, the army, etc., this system was further developed. Its essence was as follows. In Egypt, censuses were systematically conducted, taking into account the population in order to determine taxes, recruit the army according to age categories: youths, youths, men, old people. These age categories were to a certain extent associated with a peculiar class division of the population directly employed in the royal economy of Egypt, into priests, troops, officials, craftsmen and “ordinary people”. The peculiarity of this division was that the numerical and personal composition of the first three estate groups was determined by the state in each specific case, taking into account its needs for officials, craftsmen, etc. This happened during annual reviews, when the states of one or another state economic unit were formed, royal necropolis, craft workshops.

The “attire” for permanent skilled work, for example, an architect, jeweler, artist, classified the “common person” as a master, which gave him the right to official ownership of land and inalienable private property. As long as the master was not transferred to the category of “ordinary people”, he was not a disenfranchised person. Working in one or another economic unit at the direction of the tsarist administration, he could not leave it. Everything that he produced at the appointed time was considered the property of the pharaoh, even his own tomb. What he produced outside school hours was his property.

Officials, masters were opposed to "ordinary people", whose position was not much different from the position of slaves, only they could not be bought or sold as slaves. This system of distribution of labor power had little effect on the bulk of the allotment farmers, at whose expense this huge army of officials, military men and craftsmen was maintained. Periodic accounting and distribution to work of the main reserve of labor in Ancient Egypt were a direct consequence of the underdevelopment of the market, commodity-money relations, and the complete absorption of Egyptian society by the state.

List of sources used

1. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki
2. Ancient East: textbook. textbook for universities / Russian Academy of Sciences; State University for the Humanities; Scientific and Educational Center for History; N.V. Aleksandrova, I. A. Ladynin, A. A. Nemirovskii [and others]; hands project A.O. Chubaryan. - M.: Astrel: AST, 2008. - Ch. 1: Ancient Egypt.
3. History of the ancient world / Ed. I. M. Dyakonova, V. D. Neronova, I. S. Sventsitskaya. - Ed. 3rd, rev. and additional - M.: Ch. ed. east Literature of the publishing house "Nauka", 1989. - Vol. 1: Early Antiquity. - S. 97.
4. http://lawtoday.ru.

Abstract on the topic “General characteristics of the social and state structure of Ancient Egypt” updated: July 13, 2018 by: Scientific Articles.Ru

Region: Egypt

Creation date: 05/05/2010, modified: 01/13/2012, overall rating: 4.450

Pharaoh - Absolute Monarch

The king, or pharaoh, was considered a living god who, after his illusory death, must join other deities. He bore the title of the Son of the Sun and embodied religious, political and military power throughout Egypt. His assistant was the first minister (vizier), who headed the executive branch. "Pharaoh" is actually a Greek corruption of the Egyptian word for the royal palace. This word began to designate the person of the king only from the time of the New Kingdom after 1580 BC.

Civil and administrative structure

The Egyptians were divided into classes. The most revered were the priests who were entrusted with service in the temples. Wealthy and influential, they were exempt from taxes and supported by the temples. The remaining classes are the nobility, invested with political and religious power in the provinces; scribes - officials of the royal administration, and, finally, most of the people, consisting of artisans and peasants. Agriculture which were exported in large quantities. Paintings of different eras on agricultural subjects show us that the tools used are almost the same as those used by Egyptian peasants today.

Production and trade

Crafts and trade were quite developed in Egypt. The great variety of objects found in the tombs proves that the Egyptians knew how to work gold, silver, copper with rare skill and that they created wonderful jewelry from precious stones. Jewelry (rings, bracelets, pendants, earrings) was incredibly perfect during the 4th, 12th, 18th and 20th dynasties.

Using primitive tools, they successfully dressed precious fabrics, made ceramics, glass, and enamels. There were no coins: goods were exchanged by agreement. The peoples of Nubia, for example, gave away their agricultural products and handicrafts - wheat, onions, weapons, jewelry - in exchange for wood, leather, gold and ivory. Spices and incense were brought from Arabia, Phoenicia supplied large quantities of wood (cedar). Starting from the 18th dynasty, the Egyptians established quite profitable business relations with the countries of the Euphrates and the eastern islands of the Mediterranean Sea: copper, for example, was brought from Cyprus.

ScienceAccording to the teachings of the priests, the foundations of science were originally transferred to people by the moon god Thoth, who was considered the inventor of writing and created all his works inspired by the highest deity. The Greeks identified him with Hermes Trismegistus, which means "thrice omnipotent". Ancient Egypt was indebted to another Hermes for all civil institutions.

Astronomy reached unprecedented heights in Egypt. In ancient times, the Egyptians, based on the observation of the movement of celestial bodies, calculated the astronomical year, divided into 12 months of 30 days, grouped into three agricultural seasons of 4 months each: flood period, sowing period and harvest period. To 360 days of the year they added 5 days corresponding to the main holidays.

Medicine also appeared very early, but most often it was associated with magic. Numerous medical treatises have come down to us: on gynecology, on surgery, prescriptions and various medicines.

Without any doubt, the Egyptian physicians knew the medicinal properties of plants.

In the field of anatomy, by contrast, their knowledge was limited, despite their experience in embalming, since from a religious point of view, the corpse was considered sacred.

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The social structure of ancient Egypt: interesting facts :: SYL.ru

There is very little information that has come down to us about the social structure of Egypt in the most ancient eras, so scientists can only make assumptions. However, even these meager materials are enough to understand that it differed from the slave system or serfdom. Let's get acquainted with the social structure of Ancient Egypt and its features, some interesting facts.

general characteristics

Ancient Egypt was a state with centralized power, headed by a pharaoh, whose dominance was passed from father to son. Let us briefly consider the social structure of the society of Ancient Egypt. She had the following features:

• the dominance of royal and temple households;
• very slow development, therefore, in the era of the New Kingdom, the same classes existed in society as in the ancient one;
• a clear hierarchy, it was almost impossible to move from one class to another.

What classes stood out? The social structure of Ancient Egypt in hierarchical order looks like this:

• Pharaoh;
• officials, high priests and military leaders;
• nomarchs;
• average officials, average priests;
• artisans and farmers,
• slaves.

Belonging to one class or another was hereditary, so the son of a farmer, for example, could only dream of learning the profession of a scribe. On the contrary, a court official who provoked the wrath of the pharaoh could fall into disfavor and lose his wealth. Consider the social structure of ancient Egypt, the characteristics of all its layers.

tip

At the head of the ancient Egyptian state was the pharaoh, whose power was inherited and was not limited in any way. The subjects sincerely believed that the ruler was an earthly representative of the all-powerful gods, so the decisions of the pharaoh were not criticized. Most often, a man was on the Egyptian throne, but there are cases of the accession of female queens.

Also among the elite were:

• Close associates of the pharaoh, trusted people, often relatives, or those who proved their devotion, they were called "chati".
• Nomarchs are representatives of the ruler in nomes, this is an administrative-territorial unit of division of the country (like our regions and territories), the power in which, of course, belonged to the pharaoh, but was exercised and controlled by the nomarch - his confidant. Most often, relatives or representatives of the nobility who had proven their loyalty and became famous in battles were appointed to this position.
• The priests enjoyed special honor and respect, they possessed secret knowledge, were engaged in medicine, predictions, and transmitted the will of the gods.

Not always the relationship of representatives of the "top" were ideal. Thus, the pharaohs often clashed with the priestly caste.

About the role of chat

The main assistants of the pharaohs were called "chati", the more familiar to us "vizier" can be called a synonym for the word. These were the most important representatives of the social structure of Ancient Egypt. Their role can be briefly described as follows: the king's advisers, his right hand, it was the Chati who were often involved in government, in addition to the military sectors. Their responsibilities were varied:

• managed the treasury;
• supervised the construction;
• were supreme judges;
• supervised the burials;
• acted as mayor;
• were the keepers of the royal seal.

In the era of the Late Kingdom, two chats appeared: one led Upper Egypt, the other - Lower. The rules stated that this vizier had to be aware of everything that was happening both in the state and in the royal court. It was to the chat that all the royal visitors went before they were allowed to see the pharaoh.

Among the viziers there are many names that have survived to this day, thanks to special merits:

1. Imhotep. Chati of Pharaoh Djoser was not only a talented official, but also an outstanding architect, it is he who is credited with the construction of the first pyramid in history.
2. Hemiun. As historians believe, he was not only the right hand of Cheops, but also led the construction of the greatest monument of all eras, the giant pyramid at Giza.
3. Ptahhotep. He was considered one of the famous sages of ancient times, it is his authorship that is credited with the famous "Teachings of Ptahhotep", the first philosophical work in the history of mankind, written on papyrus and preserved to this day. This is the only work of the Old Kingdom that could survive the millennia.
4. Nebet. The only female vizier in history, she was distinguished by her education and was the mother-in-law of the ruling pharaoh.

So, chats were very important in the socio-political structure of Ancient Egypt, often the main power was concentrated in their hands. The viziers were also involved in the appointment of officials.

Other higher ranks

In the society of the country of the pyramids, in addition to the chat, other officials stood out who were close to the pharaoh, but already had less influence. These are the following positions:

• nomarchs, local representatives of the pharaoh's authority;
• stock purveyors;
• managers;
• warehouse managers;
• army leaders;
• bearers of royal sandals and fans.

The positions were hereditary in nature, but they were necessarily approved by the supreme ruler. Often the tombs of these officials were located near the pyramids of the pharaoh, the higher the merit, the closer their bodies rested to the sarcophagus of the ruler. On the sarcophagi of the dignitaries themselves, his devotion to the pharaoh and the main steps of the career ladder that he happened to pass were usually described. It is from these data that researchers manage to restore the specifics of the bureaucratic and social structure of Ancient Egypt.

military affairs

It has already been said earlier that all power belonged to the pharaoh and was absolute. The right hand of the powerful lord was the vizier - chati, but he was in charge of all affairs in the state, except for the army. And who led the army of the great pharaoh? It was a special dignitary, reporting exclusively to the king. Often he was the head of the House of Weapons. He was in charge of the construction of fortresses and fortifications, warships, it was him who subordinated the weapons workshops. Although the pharaoh directly led the army during the campaigns, the role of the military dignitary was enormous: he led both the preparation for performances and the recruitment of militias, that is, he largely determined the outcome of the campaign.

Priests

A feature of the social structure of ancient Egypt was the presence of a caste of priests who served at the temples. What were their characteristics?

1. Often the temple service was combined with the performance of state duties.
2. They enjoyed honor and respect, sometimes even the pharaoh was afraid of the priests. Although history knows cases of conflicts between the king and the servants of the temples.
3. The ancient Egyptians believed that only the priests had the right to communicate with the gods.
4. They knew how to treat diseases, often among the priests were talented surgeons for those times.

The pharaoh was considered the highest priest.

Features of land distribution

Egypt was an agricultural state, so the land was its main wealth. The main part of agricultural land belonged to the pharaoh, while it was divided into two layers:

• the pharaonic lands proper, the so-called royal fund, were used for the needs of the king and his family;
• royal lands, given as privileges to nobles, military leaders, they bore the name of noble households.

Temple farms - lands belonging to temples - were also separately allocated. They served a large caste of priests.

The position of the farmer in society

The processing of the royal land was carried out by small farmers who were forced to replenish the treasury. They paid taxes, did work on the land in favor of the pharaohs, while the class was made up of native Egyptians, slaves had nothing to do with farmers. The salient features of this layer are:

• lack of livestock;
• did not have their own tools;
• seed grain were forced to buy from the royal reserves at an inflated cost;
• all work was carried out under strict administrative control;
• part of the harvest was given as taxes in kind to the treasury;
• at will, the royal farmers could not change their place of residence;
• they were in a very disadvantaged position, if necessary, the amount of work needed to perform could be increased.

In the social structure of Ancient Egypt, farmers, referred to as the word "meret", played a crucial role: they were the main producers of food. On the images that have come down to us, you can see how the process of evolution of agricultural labor took place. At first, the land was cultivated by hand, using only primitive hoes. Then draft animals were domesticated, and peasants leading cattle behind them appeared on the frescoes.

Who else was in the noble household?

In ancient Egypt, the social structure of society was quite complex. The noble household, in addition to the closest pharaoh and the farmers already mentioned above, included several positions:

• house governors, otherwise - household managers, it was in their direct subordination that other positions were;
• scribes;
• measurers;
• grain counters;
• record keeper.

The former were in charge of managing all affairs, that is, all other inhabitants of the economy were subordinate to them.

Scribe position

Speaking about the social structure of Ancient Egypt, we should separately mention the scribes, who represented a special privileged class of society. These were highly educated people of their time, who were well versed in the art of hieroglyphic writing, understood arithmetic, and often took part in translations. The scribes themselves had their own hierarchy:

• leaders held high positions in the state, took part in political activities;
• mentors and inspectors - the so-called middle link;
• assistants most often acted as secretaries.

As a rule, the position was inherited. The sons of the scribes, having previously received a special education, continued their work. The training was carried out at the temples, where libraries were equipped. Becoming a scribe was considered an honorable duty, it was possible only for representatives of the wealthy class, a simple farmer could only dream of this position.

It was easy to recognize the scribe: he always had a scroll, ink, a writing stick, and pens with him. His responsibilities included accounting. These educated people have always known how many people are employed in this or that job. We are aware of the following duties of scribes:

• offering counter;
• employee at the temple;
• archivist;
• livestock census taker;
• Secretary;
• accompanying;
• militia accountant.

This intellectual elite was of great importance, they not only kept records, but also left records, some of which have survived to this day. It is an invaluable source of knowledge about the class structure of the country of the pyramids.

Slaves

Often prisoners became slaves, especially Libyans and Ethiopians, they were completely deprived of their rights, the owner could sell his slave. Slaves were used as servants in rich houses; they rarely worked in the fields. Initially, they did not play a special role in the social structure of Ancient Egypt.

Captured Nubians and Libyans, strong and brave warriors, in the era of the New Kingdom began to be used as representatives of the police, hired soldiers. They helped collect taxes, pursued criminals and played the role of executioners.

How do scientists get information?

Many are interested in how scientists can judge the social structure of Ancient Egypt, because several millennia separate us from this civilization. Several sources have survived to this day:

• frescoes and rock paintings, which represent the work of farmers, scribes;
• the works of historians of a later period that have come down to us, for example, the Greek Herodotus, who described the facts known to them.

These sources helped to understand the principles on which the Egyptian society was built. Thus, the pharaoh himself was depicted in the frescoes as a figure of great stature, his wife and nobles were somewhat lower, ordinary people seemed tiny next to the mighty ruler. This fact already indicated that inequality reigned in the social structure of Ancient Egypt. However, such injustice was inherent in past eras, often it was possible to achieve a position only by having a noble origin, and not by one's own merits.

Some interesting facts

Having considered the features of the social structure of Ancient Egypt, we offer you to find out some interesting facts about the features of life in this unusual and mysterious country:

• unusual for the ancient world was the actual equality of women and men, and some of the fair sex of that time successfully comprehended the profession of a doctor, even the name of a medical woman, Merit Ptah, who was engaged in herbal treatment and was a midwife, is known;
• Among the representatives of the Meret class there were rather unusual positions, professions: bird-catchers, brewers, fishermen, later weavers, metallurgists, and plasterers appeared.

Ancient Egypt left behind many unsolved mysteries. The social structure and its features are somewhat similar to the division of society in other civilizations and countries, but in some ways they are an absolutely unique phenomenon.

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Society of Ancient Egypt

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Society of Ancient Egypt

Political system

Court and law

Kemet (Keme, Kemi, Ta-Keit, less often - Ta-Meti) - Black Land, as the Egyptians called their country. Egypt - the Greek name, dating back to the ancient Egyptian Hett-Ka-Pta (Hetkupta) - "the fortress of the soul of the god Ptah." By the way, one of the names of Memphis is Hikupta (Fortress of the spirit of Ptah), most likely our distorted one - Egypt, which has survived to this day, came from it. The ancient Egyptians themselves called their state Kemet (Black). This name is associated with the basis of the foundations of life in Egypt - the Nile silt (black earth), in contrast to another land - the land of deserts, red and arid, on which nothing grew.

The Egyptian civilization is one of the most ancient on Earth. It developed in northeast Africa along the banks of the great Nile. The floods of the river created fertile soil here - one of the main conditions for the life of an ancient person. From the west, the territory of Egypt was limited by the Libyan Desert, from the east it was separated from the Red Sea by a rocky ridge that was difficult to overcome, so that the country was naturally isolated. The "great river factor" stimulated the early emergence of classes and the state here. The first city-states - nomes - appeared in the 4th millennium BC. e. There were over forty of them. The military rivalry of the nomes led at the beginning of the III millennium BC. e. to the formation of a centralized state. The need to keep the vital irrigation system in good order (this was possible only with a strong central government) also contributed to the unification of Upper (Southern) and Lower (Northern) Egypt.

Upper and Lower Egypt were originally independent kingdoms and were finally united under Pharaoh Mentuhotep at the beginning of the 21st century BC. Traces of the independence of these kingdoms were preserved in the royal title right up to the 1st century BC. BC. Lotus flowers were considered a symbol of Upper Egypt, its patroness was the goddess Nehebt, depicted in the idea of ​​a kite. The symbol of Lower Egypt is papyrus, its patroness was the snake goddess Buto (Uto). The colors of Upper and Lower Egypt were also symbolically present in the color of the royal headdress (white and red, respectively) and in the names of the chambers managing their affairs (White House, Red House).

For several millennia, the Egyptians mostly managed to keep the country together, which distinguishes Egypt from most other ancient states.

Periodization of Egyptian history

Early Kingdom (XXX-XXVIII centuries BC)	The period of unification of the country. Board of I-II dynasties
Old Kingdom (XXVIII-XXIII centuries BC)	The heyday of the early slave state with its capital in Memphis. Formation of the bureaucratic system
I Transition period (XXII century BC)	War of the nomes, which led to fragmentation and decline
Middle Kingdom (XXI-XVIII centuries BC)	The new unification of the country under the auspices of the rulers of the city of Thebes.
II Transition period (mid-18th–17th centuries BC)	Conquest of Egypt by the Hyksos
New Kingdom (XVI-XI centuries BC)	The expulsion of the conquerors and the revival of unity under the rule of the pharaohs of the XVIII dynasty. The period of the highest military and economic power of Egypt
Late Egypt (XI-VI centuries BC)	The fall of the Egyptian state. Persian conquest of Egypt in 525 BC e.

Society of Ancient Egypt

The social structure of the Egyptian kingdom had a fairly clear class division. The upper class of ancient Egypt was the environment of the pharaoh - influential dignitaries and scribes. Priests and military nobility also belonged to it. Egyptian nobles owned colossal wealth, which increased significantly as a result of military campaigns and the capture of booty (especially during the period of great conquests of the New Kingdom). A distinction was made between “wealth in truth” (that is, hereditary) and “wealth in service” (granted by the pharaoh).

Temples and their priests played a special role in society. In Egypt, as in other ancient Eastern states, the priesthood constituted a closed and very strong caste, in a sense controlling the life of society. The temples owned vast lands and slaves, independently engaged in trade and tax collection, and often interfered in the affairs of the state.

Free farmers and artisans were a taxable estate. They paid a tax in kind to the treasury and carried labor service in favor of the state and the pharaoh. Farmers were united in communities. The communal organization served as a convenient form of exploitation of the Egyptians. On the other hand, the community protected its members - paid off debts and arrears, took care of widows and orphans, etc.

The most disenfranchised part of the population in Egypt were slaves. Slavery was born here early. Captured foreigners became slaves, and then impoverished fellow tribesmen. Since the time of the Middle Kingdom, debt slavery in Egypt has assumed enormous proportions, threatening the well-being of the state. The attempts of the pharaohs of Late Egypt to resist this were unsuccessful. Slaves were used in the most difficult jobs, mainly in private households. They were the complete property of the owner.

Slavery in Egypt was patriarchal in nature. Private slaves usually lived in the owner's house, often could have a family and property. The free population remained the main creator of material wealth.

In the religion of ancient Egypt there was polytheism, that is, polytheism. Each nome developed its own pantheon of gods, most often depicted as animals, which was a relic of early pre-state forms of religion (fetishism and totemism). The funeral cult played a very important role. According to the Egyptians, the main life begins outside the earthly existence.

2. State system

According to its political structure, Ancient Egypt was the most centralized bureaucratic state of the Ancient East. All power belonged to the king - the pharaoh. He was considered the supreme owner of all lands, the administrative head of state, possessed the highest judicial power, led the military forces and led the religious life of the country. A similar type of unlimited hereditary monarchy, which has developed in the East, has received the name of despotism.

A characteristic feature of the Egyptian state system was the deification of the personality of the pharaoh. This was expressed in the establishment of the cult of the ruler, who was considered the son of the sun god (the god Ra), the mediator between heaven and earth, as well as in special reverence for him during life and after death. The great pyramids speak eloquently of the latter - the burial place of the pharaohs. The rest of the population felt like “subjects and slaves” of the king, unworthy of kissing his feet (this was allowed to be done only by the closest courtiers). The name of the ruler (it consisted of five or more names) could not be spoken aloud. The headdress of the pharaoh was crowned with an image of a snake - the "eye of Pa" - a symbol of supreme power. The rod and whip are sacred symbols of royal power in ancient Egypt. They symbolized the two main functions of power - to restrain and drive.

However, in reality, the power of the pharaoh was not absolute. He had to reckon with the interests of the highest nobility - priestly, military, service. At the time of the strengthening of the priesthood, the supreme power acquired the features of a theocracy - a government that combines the features of political and religious domination.

In the early states there was no clear separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers. After the pharaoh, these powers in Egypt were held by the highest officials. The supreme dignitary was the vizier - the closest assistant to the king, the manager of the palace, the keeper of treasures, the keeper of the House of Weapons and the archive, where the tax lists were located. He exercised supreme supervision over the work of the entire bureaucratic apparatus, monitored the state of irrigation and tax collection, led the army in the absence of the pharaoh, etc.

The rank below was the treasurer, the head of the royal works, the purveyor of supplies, the ruler of the House of War (Minister of War) and others. The highest dignitaries were, as a rule, relatives of the pharaoh. Hierarchy was strictly observed in the administrative department: the lower ranks were subordinate to the elders, the duties of each bureaucratic rank were clearly defined. An important category of service people in the state were scribes. They were required in the king's office and courts, in the treasury and the royal library, in the capital and remote nomes. Scribes were trained in special schools.

Local government was carried out by nomarchs - governors in nomes - and persons subordinate to them. Their activity was controlled by the center. Sometimes the nove nobility entered into a struggle with the pharaoh, striving for independence (especially in the early period). However, fragmentation never lasted long, as the economic interests of the country (primarily concern for irrigation) required centralization. The lowest level of management were community councils and community elders, who were in charge of issues regulating the life of the country's population - administrative, legal, relating to property, tax collection, etc.

The army in Egypt consisted of a militia, which in the era of the New Kingdom was replaced by a permanent professional army. The guards of the pharaoh were in a particularly privileged position. Along with this, detachments of mercenaries recruited from the Libyan, Nubian, and Ethiopian tribes neighboring the Egyptians were used. In the middle of the II millennium BC. e. the Egyptian navy appeared, and with the spread of the wheel, the Egyptian army was replenished with detachments of war chariots. A supporting role was played by the police, which was often formed from captured Libyans. The supervision of public works, the collection of taxes, the maintenance of order and the protection of criminals were the work of the police.

The state organization in Egypt evolved gradually. Its development went from the primitive administrative apparatus of the Early Kingdom to a complex and ramified bureaucratic system that ensured the long existence and relative stability of the Egyptian state.

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Public Relations in Ancient Egypt.

Society in ancient Egypt was divided into classes. The way of life of the ancient Egyptian, his work activity, living conditions depended on the class to which he belonged, that is, on his social position, place in society. He could be a member of the royal family, belong to the nobility, be an officer in a large army of officials, be a peasant or a slave. At the very top of the society of Ancient Egypt was the pharaoh, he was revered and worshiped as a deity. The pharaoh had a lot of duties: he was the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army, the head of the government, the high priest, the supreme judge, etc. However, he delegated most of these duties to the highest royal dignitaries. In theory, all power belonged to the pharaoh, so the common people expected help from him. They wanted justice from the pharaoh. For this reason, the role of the supreme judge always belonged to the pharaoh, he had the right to forgive and pardon. The pharaoh took part in military campaigns, made sacrifices to the gods and gifts to temples. For the Egyptian, the pharaoh was the link with the gods, the one who provides peace, prosperity and immortality after death. The king lived in a splendid palace, he was surrounded by advisers, held receptions, handled state affairs, went hunting, enjoyed the spectacle of beautiful gardens. The Egyptian nobility consisted of royal dignitaries. Often these were members of the royal family, but it also happened that a person of a lower origin, if he was talented and had extraordinary abilities, was included in the highest circle of power. The position of dignitary of the pharaoh was hereditary, but this required the consent of the pharaoh. After the Tsar, the highest state post was occupied by the vizier - the highest dignitary of the pharaoh, who was responsible for the economy of the country, for observing ceremonial and office work. Royal dignitaries lived in the city, in magnificent villas. Some villas had several floors. They were surrounded by dense flowering gardens with a pool and a small chapel at the back. The Egyptians were very fond of gardening, as evidenced by wall frescoes and bas-reliefs in the tombs. The servants' rooms, the kitchen, the stables were located separately from the master's house. Nothing was to disturb the peace of the master and mistress. The rooms in the house were furnished with luxurious furniture, women had rich jewelry, wore beautiful dresses and magnificent wigs. They dressed with great taste and skill. Aristocrats often hunted birds in the swamps on the banks of the Nile, held feasts where they listened to music and admired the dancers. Most of the ancient Egyptian townspeople were artisans. Craftsmen also worked on construction sites. They performed work that required great skill and skill, such as stone carving, finishing work, painting and decoration. They carefully kept the secrets of their craftsmanship, passed them down from father to son. Craftsmen and craftsmen lived separately, in towns specially built for them, not far from the construction site. Their main work was the construction and decoration of the tomb of the king and the tombs of members of the royal family. People, at least those who lived in Deir el-Medina - the town of artisans in the city of Thebes, worked 8 hours a day, they returned home only on rest days (10, 20 and 30 days of each month). For their work, they received food and clothing allowances, they were supplied with the materials and tools necessary for work. If the supply was poor or delayed, the artisans went on strike, there were even grave robberies, texts from the 20th dynasty tell us about this. In the town of craftsmen, there was self-government in matters of law and order and observance of religious rites. Peasants were at the very bottom of the hierarchical ladder of ancient Egyptian society. Their work was the basis of the economic life and existence of the entire state. The peasants were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, they had little land of their own, they worked mainly on state or temple lands. In the ancient world, the land of Egypt was considered the standard of fertility, but despite this, the work of the peasant was very difficult and he received only a small part of the grown crop. During the flood of the Nile, when the fields were covered with water, the peasants were hired to build royal tombs. There were also slaves in Egypt, mostly they were captives captured in campaigns and wars. Their number was insignificant. The labor of slaves was used in the construction of temples and palaces of the highest nobility, some of the slaves were the property of the pharaoh.

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Ancient Egypt: Society and State Establishment.

More than 5 thousand years ago, states appeared. The head of state was usually the king. He inherited power from his father, and then in turn passed it on to his son. Each kingdom had a certain territory on which cities were built. The army served the king. The main city (capital) housed the king's palace and the treasury. To count the treasures stored in the treasury and record royal orders, writing was invented.

People learned how to irrigate fields, drain swamps, grow abundant crops. But not everyone enjoyed the results of these achievements to the same extent: some were rich and free, others experienced the hardships of poverty and enslavement.

States appeared where agriculture became the main occupation. Especially successful people were engaged in agriculture near large rivers, where soft and fertile soil gave abundant harvests. One of the first major kingdoms arose on the banks of the Nile River.

There are huge deserts in Northeast Africa. Reddish-yellow sands are replaced by harsh rocks. One of the largest rivers in the world, the Nile, carries its waters through this land.

Date palms, fragrant acacias and tall papyrus reeds grew along the banks of the river. Pego was used to make a paper-like writing material, which is also called papyrus. Crocodiles and many fish lived in the waters of the Nile. In the coastal thickets one could see a hippopotamus and a wild cat, a hoopoe and a pelican, ducks and geese. Where there is water, there is life.

The course of the Nile encountered rapids on its way - rocky barriers at the bottom of the river, interfering with navigation. After passing the rapids, the river flowed calmly to the north. Flowing into the Mediterranean Sea, it was divided into several branches, forming a huge triangle - the delta. Away from the Nile, among the sands of the desert, only occasionally there were islands of greenery - oases. There grew palm trees and bushes around the water, which bubbled up from the ground. Egypt - this is the name of the country, which was located on the banks of the Nile from the first threshold to the Mediterranean Sea.

The source of the Nile is in Central Africa. At the beginning of summer there are torrential rains and snow melts on the tops of the mountains. Streams of water rush into the river, washing away the soil and carrying with them silt - particles of half-decayed plants and reddish rocks. Every year in June, the Nile began to flood. On the eve of the flood, the width of the river decreased by half. The black earth was dried up by the sun, the leaves were covered with a thick layer of dust. All living things were exhausted from thirst. It almost never rains in Egypt. But here in the Nile the water was arriving, the river became muddy green, and then red. The water rose every day, flooding the entire valley to the very mountain cliffs. The Nile revived the earth, thirsty for moisture. Adults and children frolic in the refreshing waters of a huge river. Wide waves carried fish with their scales sparkling. Flocks of birds circled above them.

Only in November, the Nile returned to its banks and the water again became blue and transparent. After the spill, not only moisture remained on the fields, but also fertile silt. That is why the soil in the Nile Valley is soft, oily. It is easy to work even with a simple wooden hoe. Thanks to the high yields, the land of Egypt could feed numerous people, including those who did not cultivate it themselves - artisans, warriors, servants and close associates of the ruler of Egypt.

The state, covering the whole of Egypt, did not develop immediately. At first, about forty small kingdoms arose. They constantly fought among themselves - each sought to conquer the neighbors. In the end, the Nile Valley turned out to be divided into two large kingdoms: in the lower reaches of the river, that is, in the delta, Northern Egypt was located, and upstream, Southern Egypt. The king of southern Egypt wore a white crown, similar to a high helmet. The crown of the king of Northern Egypt was red and had an elevation at the back.

There were fierce wars between the two kingdoms. The famous Egyptian relief tells about these wars - a convex image on a stone. It depicts a king in the crown of the Southern Kingdom, swearing at his opponent. Approximately three thousand years before our present time. era, the king of southern Egypt finally subjugated northern Egypt, uniting the whole country. He began to wear a double crown: one, as it were, was inserted into the other. The rulers of all Egypt are called pharaohs. The capital of the Egyptian state was the city of Memphis.

How farmers and artisans lived in Egypt

Numerous scribes were in the service of the pharaoh and nobles. The power of the pharaoh was provided by a large, well-trained army. In the fields, in construction, in the workshops, farmers and artisans worked, who made up the majority of the Egyptian people. They had to feed not only themselves, but also the pharaoh, his nobles, scribes, warriors. Farmers paid taxes - they gave to the treasury a significant part of the crop and livestock offspring. Huge work required irrigation of fields.

On the banks of the Nile, the Egyptians built earthen embankments that separated one field from another. Thanks to the mounds, the whole country (if you imagine that you are looking from above) looked like a chessboard. During the spill, the water stagnated for a long time in the squares formed by the embankments. Moisture soaked the earth, and fertile silt settled. The land became ready for plowing. Canals were dug to irrigate fields far from the Nile.

From the grown grain, the women will prepare flour by rubbing it between two stones. Dough is kneaded from flour and cakes are baked in hot ashes. There are few trees in Egypt, so children are sent to collect dry grass, branches and dung, which is dried and also used as fuel for the hearth. For lunch, in addition to flatbread, there can be one or two onions, fish dried in the wind and sun, and sometimes sweet fruits - dates, figs, grapes. On holidays, the Egyptians eat meat, drink beer and grape wine.

The house of a simple Egyptian is made of reeds smeared with silt, instead of a roof there is a reed mat. The doors here are rarely locked - there is nothing to steal anyway. There are also mats on the earthen floor, and earthenware stands near the hearth. And here are the owners - there are very few clothes on them: it's very hot. However, they love all kinds of jewelry and amulets - small objects (drilled pebbles, shells, beads, figurines, such as the dwarf Bes with an ugly face and crooked legs), which, according to the Egyptians, protect from evil spirits and misfortunes. An Egyptian artist who lived four thousand years ago depicted the construction of a house. One man digs clay with a hoe, another draws water from a pond with a pitcher, a third kneads clay; the rest make bricks, carry them on a yoke, lay out a wall and make sure that it stands level.

In Egypt there were potters, weavers, tanners, carpenters, shipbuilders - it is difficult even to list all the craftsmen. Scribes can also be seen in ancient Egyptian images. On their knees they hold sheets of paper. They have a writing reed in their right hand, and spare reeds behind their ears. Scribes are very necessary for the nobles and the pharaoh. They will count and write down everything they are ordered: how much grain is harvested, what is the size of the fields cultivated by the farmers, and what tax each of them is obliged to pay annually.

And farmers are afraid of scribes and complain about their fate: locusts and caterpillars spoiled crops, mice appeared on the fields. But at the right time, a boat approaches the shore. A scribe and several guards with rods and sticks sit in it - woe to those who do not have enough grain to pay the tax.

The Life of an Egyptian Noble

Looking at the images in the tombs, we see that the nobleman lived in a large and beautiful house. The house stood in a garden among flowers and fruit trees. There was a pond in the middle of the garden. In the heat, the owner could rest by the water, enjoying the shade and coolness. The clothes of the nobleman are made of thin linen fabrics. When he left the house or received guests, he put on gold bracelets, rings, necklaces with precious stones. In his rooms he has comfortable chairs of carved wood with ivory patterns, chests for jewelry and vases.

The inscriptions on the walls of the tomb list various dishes that were brought to the nobleman during his lifetime and should be given to him after death: all kinds of bread and biscuits, fried poultry, meat, fruits and sweets, different types of beer. The nobleman is entertained by musicians and beautiful dancers. Servants are ready to fulfill all the orders of the nobleman. He doesn't even have to walk outside the house. Slaves wear it on a special chair. Small figures of workers were also placed in the tomb. The Egyptians believed that they would come to life and work in the "land of the dead" for their master.

In the inscriptions on the walls of the tombs, the nobles talked about what they did during their lifetime and what favors they were showered with. They hoped that in the “land of the dead” they would retain their high position and live happily. The pharaoh gave various orders to the nobles.

One was in charge of the work in the royal quarries, from where the building stone was brought. The other administered the court and reprisal, sorting out the case of a conspiracy of secret enemies of the pharaoh in the palace. The third made sure that the farmers regularly handed over grain to the treasury of the pharaoh.

When the nobles carried out the will of their master, they had detachments of armed warriors, guards, as well as scribes who kept records of booty or taxes. During ceremonial receptions, the pharaoh sat on the throne, holding a rod and a whip. This meant that in his hands was the right to rule and punish all his subjects. The ruler of Egypt was approached with hands raised in adoration. Approaching the throne, they knelt down and fell face down, remaining in this position until the pharaoh ordered them to stand up and speak. Turning to the pharaoh, the nobleman concluded his speech with the words: “May the ruler act as he pleases, for we all breathe air only by his grace.”

All the honors that the pharaoh bestowed on the nobleman, he ordered to be listed in the inscription on the wall of his tomb. Often, noble Egyptians humiliatedly called themselves insignificant people who owe everything only to the pharaoh's good deeds.

The Egyptian nobleman Sinukhet accompanied the pharaoh's son during a military campaign. He accidentally learned that a messenger had arrived at the camp, announcing the death of the ruler of Egypt. The pharaoh's son immediately rushed to the capital, fearing that one of the brothers would seize the throne. Sinuhet himself was afraid that a war would begin between the heirs of the pharaoh, in which he might die, and fled from Egypt. He walked for a long time on the sands of the Asian desert, choked with thirst, his throat burned, and he thought: "This is the taste of death."

But then Sinuhet met the shepherds, who took him to the local prince. Tog fell in love with him, put him at the head of the army and gave his daughter to wife. Once, a certain strong man challenged an alien to single combat - the one who wins this fight will take all the cattle and property of the vanquished. Sinuhet accepted the challenge. The whole tribe gathered to watch this duel. The enemy fired several arrows, but missed. And when he came closer, Sinuhet pierced him with a spear.

Many years later. Word of Sinuhet reached Egypt, and the pharaoh sent him a letter: "The King of Egypt, the son of the Sun, invites his nobleman to return." Sinuhet returned, entered the palace and saw the pharaoh on the throne. He fell in front of him and lost consciousness. The pharaoh ordered to raise the nobleman, gave him a house with a pond and a garden. The servants shaved Sinuhet and combed his hair, washed him, dressed him in clothes made of fine fabric, rubbed his body with fragrant oil. He now slept on the bed, and not on the ground, like Asian shepherds. By order of the pharaoh, the masons built a tomb for the nobleman, inside which they placed his statue, decorated with gold. Few people had the honor of being in front of the pharaoh himself. It happened that at the sight of him, the nobleman's legs gave way from excitement, he was speechless, not understanding whether he was alive or dead. After all, the great lord of Egypt himself sat on the throne before him.

As a sign of special favor, the nobleman could be appointed, for example, "the bearer of royal sandals." But if the pharaoh was angry with the nobleman, he could take away his beautiful house with a garden, and order him to be beaten with sticks. Not only ordinary Egyptians had to fulfill all the orders of the pharaoh and cater to his whims. He considered the nobles his servants.

Military campaigns of the pharaohs

The rulers of Egypt sought to strengthen their power, expand their possessions and increase their wealth. In order to lead the conquests, they needed a standing army - large and well trained. The scribes kept a strict record of the population, and every tenth young man was taken into the army for many years. Of these, detachments of warriors were formed, skillfully wielding one or another type of weapon. Some were armed with bows, others with spears, battle axes or daggers. Spearheads, hatchets and daggers were made of bronze - an alloy of copper and tin. Bronze is harder than copper - bronze weapons gave warriors an advantage over those who had weapons made of copper and stone. However, bronze is not a very hard metal. We had to take care that the dagger did not bend upon impact - it was made short and massive.

The infantrymen defended themselves with small light shields covered with the skins of spotted cows or wild animals - a leopard, lynx, hyena. Sometimes metal plaques were sewn onto the shields. Enemy fortresses were stormed, placing long ladders against the walls. In the middle of the second millennium BC. e. The Egyptians began to use horse-drawn war chariots.

The chariot had two spoked wheels. A platform was fortified on the axis between the wheels, where two stood - a charioteer, who drove the horses, and a charioteer, who shot from a bow. The platform was attached to a long stick - a drawbar, for which two horses were carrying a chariot.

The entire chariot, including wheels and spokes, was made of durable wood. Leather-covered boards were made on the platform to protect the legs of both warriors. The chariot was decorated with metal plaques, and multi-colored ostrich feathers fluttered on the heads of the horses. Detachments on chariots could travel long distances and suddenly attack the enemy.

Major battles usually went like this: when the scouts reported the approach of the enemy, the Egyptian army prepared for battle. Archers came forward, showering the enemy with arrows from afar. Then came the chariots, bringing disorder into the ranks of the enemy. Then infantrymen armed with spears and axes entered the battle. The enemy, put to flight, was pursued in chariots. The chariot was very expensive. Therefore, only noble Egyptians could become charioteers. The war for them was a way to further enrich themselves.

The pharaohs sent their troops to the south, to the west, to the northeast. South of Egypt was the country of Nubia. It was famous for its gold mines. To the west of Egypt lived tribes of Libyans who had large herds of cows, goats, and sheep. In the northeast, in Asia, very close to Egypt, was the Sinai Peninsula. It was rich in deposits of copper ore. Further north were the countries - Palestine, Syria, Phoenicia. The riches of neighboring countries have long tempted the pharaohs. When they had a well-trained and armed army with light war chariots, they began to make campaigns there almost every year. The troops returned with booty to the capital of Egypt, which was then the city of Thebes. They drove cattle, brought valuable wood, gold, silver, woolen fabrics, vessels, jewelry.

The largest conquests were made around 1500 BC. e. pharaoh Thutmose. Under him, the Egyptians captured Nubia. The campaigns in Asia were also successful; the border of the Egyptian kingdom was pushed back to the Euphrates River. Only a few centuries later, the conquered peoples were able to free themselves from the power of the pharaohs. From the conquered countries, Egyptian soldiers drove crowds of people. The winner had the right to kill the vanquished. If he spared the prisoner, then he became the master of his life and death. Captives could be turned into slaves, branded like cattle, and sold. At the celebrations in honor of the victory, the people rejoiced, seeing the indestructible power of their ruler. The pharaoh divided the booty and gave the captives to commanders and charioteers who distinguished themselves in battle. Many thousands of foreigners had to work the land, enriching the pharaoh and nobles.

Religion of the ancient Egyptians

The ancient Egyptians believed that people and nature were ruled by powerful gods. If people do not please the gods, they will be angry and bring disaster to the whole country. Therefore, they tried to appease them with gifts, prayed for mercy and mercy. People built dwellings for the gods - temples. They carved large statues of gods out of stone, made figurines from bronze or clay. The Egyptians believed that God inhabits the image and hears everything that people say, accepts their gifts.

At the temples there were priests - servants of the gods. It was believed that it was the priest who was the best at talking with God - he knew special prayers that were kept secret from other people. The chief priest entered the temple where the god lived. He rubbed the statue with fragrant oils, dressed it, offered a tasty treat, and then moved away, backing away so as not to turn his back on God.

The pharaohs gave the temples gardens and arable land, gold and silver, and numerous slaves. Gifts were made to the gods, who supposedly lived in temples. The priests were in charge of them. The priests were rich and powerful because the Egyptians believed that they spoke on behalf of the gods themselves.

The most important, beautiful god, the Egyptians considered the Sun. The sun god was called Ra, Amop or Amon-Ra. Every morning appears in the east of Amon-Ra. While the day lasts, he slowly sails through the sky in his magnificent boat. A round solar disk dazzlingly sparkles on the god's head. Plants come to life, people and animals rejoice, birds sing, glorifying Amun-Ra. But now the day is drawing to a close, because the boat of Amon-Ra is descending from heaven. At the western edge of the sky, she floats into the gates of the underworld. Here the god of light Amon-Ra enters into a mortal battle with the god of darkness, a ferocious serpent, whose name is Anubis. The battle continues all night. When the serpent is defeated, the crown of the sun god shines again, heralding the coming of a new day.

People live on earth, and a huge tent of heaven is spread over them. The Egyptians depicted the god of the earth named Geb as a man with the head of a snake: after all, the snake is the most "earthly" animal. The sky goddess Nut was represented as a cow with a body dotted with stars.

In the beginning, Earth and Heaven were inseparable: Nut was the wife, and Geb was the husband. Every evening, Nut gave birth to stars. And all night they floated over her body, to the edge of the sky. And early in the morning, when Amon-Ra appeared, Nut swallowed all her children. Geb was angry with his wife, saying: "You are like a pig devouring its own pigs." It ended with the fact that Geb and Nut began to live separately: the sky rose high above the earth. The god of wisdom Thoth enjoyed special respect - he has the head of an ibis bird with a long beak. He taught people to read and write. Goddess Bastet is a flexible cat - the patroness of women and their beauty. The Egyptians worshiped animals - birds, snakes, fish, insects. At one of the temples in Memphis they kept a large black bull with a white mark on its forehead. His name was Anis. The whole country was plunged into sadness when this bull died. The priests were then looking for a new Anis. Archaeologists find in the sands of Egypt entire cemeteries of sacred bulls, cats, crocodiles, buried according to special rules.

The myth of Osiris and Isis

Once the king of Egypt was the god Osiris. Big dark eyes sparkled in his swarthy face, and his hair was shiny and black, like the very earth on the banks of the Nile. Good Osiris taught the Egyptians how to grow grain and grapes, how to bake bread. The younger brother of Osiris - Seth was the god of the desert and sandstorms. He had small evil eyes and sandy hair. Set envied Osiris and hated him. Once Seth appeared at a feast in the royal palace. The servants carried behind him a luxurious coffin, decorated with images and inscriptions. “Whoever will fit this precious coffin,” said Seth, “will get it!” The guests were not surprised by the gift: the Egyptians were preparing for life in the “land of the dead” from a young age. One by one, the guests went into the coffin, but it was too big for them. Now it's Osiris' turn. As soon as he lay down on the bottom of the wooden box, the servants of Set slammed the lid. They lifted the coffin and threw it into the waters of the Nile. Osiris is dead.

The faithful wife of Osiris, the goddess Isis, wept bitterly. She hid from Seth in dense thickets on the banks of the Nile. She nursed her little son there - the god Horus. When Horus matured, he decided to take revenge on Seth for the death of his father. Horus entered into single combat with him and in a fierce battle defeated the enemy. Isis searched for a long time in the swamps of the delta for the coffin with the body of her husband. Finding it, she miraculously revived Osiris. God resurrected, but did not want to stay on earth. He became the king and judge in the "country of the dead", and Horus - the patron of the earthly pharaohs. Isis became the protector of all wives and mothers. In Egypt, the most difficult time of the year is a drought in May - early June. The Egyptians believed that Osiris died then. But then the waters of the Nile spilled, the fields and trees turned green - it was Osiris who came to life again.

What did the Egyptians say about the "land of the dead"? There is light and warmth, blue water flows in the canals, grain ripens on zeros and sweet dates grow on palm trees. But not everyone will be allowed to live in that kingdom after death. The god Anubis, who was depicted with the body of a man and the black head of a jackal, is in charge there. Taking the deceased by the hand, he leads him to the court of Osiris, who sits on a throne with a rod and a whip in his hands. The deceased, standing in white robes, swears. The testimony of the deceased is recorded by the god Thoth. The veracity of the oath is checked: the human heart is placed on one scale, and on the other - the figure of the goddess of truth - Maat.

Balance means that the deceased did not lie: he was a kind and righteous person. Next to the scales, a ferocious monster with the body of a lion and the toothy mouth of a crocodile leans on its front paws. It is ready to swallow the one who did evil in life. And the righteous will be allowed into the wonderful fields of the dead. But in order to exist in the “land of the dead”, a person needs a body in which his soul could again inhabit. Therefore, the Egyptians were very concerned about preserving the body of the deceased. It was dried, impregnated with resin and wrapped in thin bandages - it turned into a mummy. Then the mummy was placed in a coffin, decorated with drawings and inscriptions - a sarcophagus on which spells were written and gods were depicted. The tomb where the sarcophagus stood was considered the home of the deceased.

The Egyptians deified the pharaoh and called him the son of the Sun. They believed that Amon-Ra was the king among the gods, and his son, the pharaoh, was the king among the people inhabiting Egypt. Without the pharaoh, just as without the Sun, life on earth is impossible. The Egyptians prayed to the pharaoh to make sure that there was a good harvest in the fields, and livestock brought offspring: cows - calves, sheep - lambs. Peel floods occurred regularly at certain times of the year, but the Egyptians said that there would be no flood unless the pharaoh commanded the river to flood. Everything must obey the will of the pharaoh - not only people, but nature itself.

Art of Ancient Egypt

Majestic stone pyramids rise on the western bank of the Nile. These are the huge tombs of the pharaohs. They are guarded by the Great Sphinx, carved from a whole rock. He has the body of a lion and the head of a man. The highest - the pyramid of the pharaoh Cheops was built around 2600 BC. e. Its height is almost 150 meters. This is the height of the house in 50 floors. To get around it, you need to walk a whole kilometer. The seven most famous buildings in the old days were called wonders of the world, and the first of them is the Egyptian pyramids. Many travelers wanted to see them. Indeed, only a miracle can be called the construction of pyramids in ancient times, when there were not even iron tools.

Many masons and other artisans constantly worked on the construction of the pyramids. But especially a lot of people were required in order to drag heavy stones. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus tells that one hundred thousand people performed this work continuously, changing every three months. It took years, and sometimes decades, to build a pyramid. The people were exhausted from overwork and those deprivations to which the pharaohs doomed them.

Temples are also famous. Let's go to one of them. Like guards along the road leading to the temple - two rows of sphinxes. Massive towers, decorated with reliefs, rise on both sides of the gate. In front of them, huge figures of a pharaoh sitting on a throne are carved from granite. At the entrance there are obelisks - stone "needles of the pharaohs". Their pointed tops, covered with gold, dazzlingly sparkle in the sun's rays.

Behind the gate is a wide courtyard surrounded by columns. From the courtyard one can see a huge covered hall with rows of columns that look like bundles of papyrus stalks. Their mighty trunks rise high. A man shy among these stone giants, his heart trembles at the thought of the power and greatness of the gods. Behind the main hall in the depths of the temple is the most hidden and mysterious room. Only the priests and the pharaoh have the right to enter where the statue of the god, the owner of the temple, stands.

On holidays in honor of the god, the priests carried his statue on their shoulders into the courtyard of the temple, where they were met by crowds of people. Then the procession slowly moved to the river and climbed onto the ship. God sailed down the Nile, as if visiting other gods in their temple dwellings. At the end of the festival, the statue was returned to its place - in the depths of the temple. In the second millennium BC. e. The Egyptians stopped building pyramids - they buried their pharaohs in rooms carved into the rocks. Over the centuries and millennia that have passed since the time of the pharaohs, their burials were plundered. Archaeologists have found only one tomb intact. Great was their excitement when, descending into the dungeon, they noticed that the seal of the pharaoh on the doors was intact. No one has entered here for more than three thousand years - all the treasures have remained in place.

In the middle of the first room stood a throne - on animal paws, covered with gold, decorated with ivory and multi-colored stones. There were also hundreds of items: furniture, vases of translucent stone, weapons and jewelry. In the main room there was a stone sarcophagus, and in it - the second sarcophagus, in the second - the third. Only in the last, fourth, sarcophagus of pure gold rested the mummy of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Writing and knowledge of the ancient Egyptians

The walls of Egyptian temples and tombs, as well as sarcophagi, are covered with mysterious signs. Here you can see a cobra snake, an ibis bird, and a pyramid. Such badges of the Egyptians in ancient times were called hieroglyphs - "sacred writings". There are over 700 hieroglyphs in Egyptian writing. Initially, they all looked like drawings. Once the Egyptians simply drew everything they wanted to say: O - “sun”, L - “go”, - “bread”, - “mouth”. But such writing did not convey the sounds of the language, and many words, such as names, simply cannot be depicted in a picture. The temples of the god Amun were very rich, and the priests tried to dictate their will to the pharaohs themselves.

But one day in the XIV century BC. e. pharaoh Akhenaten rebelled against the power of the priests of Amun. He declared the shining solar disk (in ancient Egyptian - Aten) the only god. Each ray of the sun is a hand. Stretching out his hands-rays to the earth, Aton caresses all living beings with small palms. The pharaoh built a whole city named after this god - Akhetaten ("Horizon of the Aten"). However, after the death of Akhenaten, the priests regained their former rights. The city of Aten was abandoned and turned into ruins. The pharaohs again began to worship Amon-Ra. But we remember the reign of the wayward pharaoh, looking at the portrait of his beautiful wife and assistant, Queen Nefertiti.

How Egyptian writing was discovered

Two centuries ago, a large black stone covered with inscriptions was found in Egypt. One of them was made in hieroglyphs, the other contained the same text in Greek. The French scientist Champollion noticed that some hieroglyphs were surrounded by an oval frame. Moreover, as many times as the name of Pharaoh Ptolemy appeared in the Greek inscription. The scientist suggested that this is how the Egyptians singled out royal names. On another stone, also containing the same text in two languages, he found the name of Queen Cleopatra in an oval frame. In the words "Ptolemy" and "Cleopatra" there are common sounds p, t, l - and the hieroglyphs in the two frames coincided. So Champollion proved that hieroglyphs are signs of writing that can convey the sounds of speech.

What did they write on

The papyrus stem was cut into long narrow strips. Then these strips were laid on a smooth table in a row, one next to the other. Other strips were placed on top, but already in the transverse direction. The entire two-layer masonry was pressed down with a flat stone, and the reed fibers released a sticky juice. After drying, a paper-like material was obtained. When a leaf of papyrus was written to the end, another one was glued to it. The book got longer and longer. For storage, it was rolled up into a tube - a scroll. One museum has a papyrus scroll more than forty meters long.

The school trained scribes and priests. Schools were usually located at temples, and priests were teachers in them. Not all Egyptians went to school. The children of ordinary farmers and artisans rarely became educated people. Papyrus was not cheap, and at first the boys were taught to write on shards of broken pottery. Then they were trusted with papyrus. They wrote on it with a fire reed, like a brush. There were two recesses in the pencil case: for black and red paint. Dilute the paint with water from a pot. The beginning of a new thought was highlighted in red. Children were taught not only to write, but also to count. Mathematical knowledge was needed to make calculations for construction work. They were also engaged in astronomy, determining the movement of heavenly bodies.

By observing the sky, the Egyptian priests compiled an accurate calendar and predicted on what day the Nile would begin to flood, because this was very important. They used water clocks to measure time. In a water clock, water drips from a vessel with a small hole at the bottom: how much water has poured out, so much “time has flown by”. It was not just the priests who watched the stars - they, as it were, penetrated the secret of the movement of the heavenly gods themselves. Much knowledge in ancient Egypt was passed down from generation to generation only in a narrow circle of priests, so that the secrets of the gods would not be known to ordinary people.

The source of information:

General history. Ancient world history. Grade 5: textbook. for general education Organizations / A.A. Vigasin, G.I. Goder, I.S. Sventsitskaya. M.: Education, 2014. 303s.

General history. Ancient world history. Grade 5: textbook. for general education Organizations / A.A. Maikov. M.: Ventana-Graf, 2013. 128s.

Ancient world history. Atlas. M. 2013.

History of the Ancient World: Grade 5: control measuring materials. Federal State Educational Standard / M.N. Chernov. - M .: Publishing house "Exam". 2015. - 127 p.

History of the Ancient World / ed. Kuzishchina. M. "Higher School", 2003.

Ancient world history. Workbook. Goder G.I. M. "Enlightenment", 2011.

Test materials on world history for grade 5. Ancient world history. Alabastrova A.A. Rostov-on-Don. Phoenix Publishing. 2010.

centr-intellect.ru

The social structure of ancient Egypt - State, law, economics, history

Ancient Egypt was characterized by an extreme slowness in the evolution of the social structure, the determining factor of which was the almost undivided dominance in the economy of the state royal-temple economy.

In the context of the general involvement of the population in the state economy, the difference in the legal status of individual strata of the working people was not considered as significant as in other countries of the East. It was not reflected even in terms, the most commonly used among which was the term denoting a commoner - meret. This concept did not have a clearly defined legal content, like the controversial concept of "the servant of the king" - a semi-free, dependent worker, which existed in all periods of the unique and long history of Egypt.

The main economic and social unit in ancient Egypt in the early stages of its development was the rural community. The natural process of intra-community social and property stratification was associated with the intensification of agricultural production, with the growth of the surplus product, which the communal elite begins to appropriate, concentrating in their hands the leading functions of creating, maintaining and expanding irrigation facilities. These functions subsequently passed to the centralized state.

The processes of social stratification of the ancient Egyptian society especially intensified at the end of the 4th millennium BC. when the dominant social stratum is formed, which included the tribal nome aristocracy, priests, and wealthy communal peasants. This stratum is increasingly separating itself from the bulk of the free commune peasants, from whom the state levies a rent-tax. They are also involved in forced labor in the construction of canals, dams, roads, etc. From the first dynasties, Ancient Egypt was aware of periodic censuses of "people, cattle, gold" conducted throughout the country, on the basis of which taxes were established.

The early creation of a single state with a land fund centralized in the hands of the pharaoh, to which the functions of managing a complex irrigation system are transferred, the development of a large royal temple economy contributes to the actual disappearance of the community as an independent unit associated with collective land use. It ceases to exist along with the disappearance of free farmers, independent of state power and not controlled by it. Permanent rural settlements remain a kind of community, the heads of which are responsible for paying taxes, for the smooth functioning of irrigation facilities, forced labor, etc. centralized administrative apparatus and priesthood. Its economic power is growing, in particular, due to the early established system of royal grants of land and slaves. From the time of the Old Kingdom, royal decrees have been preserved that establish the rights and privileges of temples and temple settlements, evidence of royal grants of land plots to the aristocracy and temples.

Various categories of dependent forced persons worked in the royal households and the households of the secular and spiritual nobility. These included disenfranchised slaves-prisoners of war or fellow tribesmen, reduced to a slave state, "servants of the king", who performed the prescribed work rate under the supervision of royal overseers. They owned little personal property and received meager food from the royal warehouses.

The exploitation of the “servants of the tsar”, cut off from the means of production, was based on both non-economic and economic coercion, since the land, inventory, draft cattle, etc. were the property of the tsar. The lines separating the slaves (of whom there were never many in Egypt) from the "servants of the king" were not clearly expressed. Slaves in Egypt were sold, bought, passed on by inheritance, as a gift, but sometimes they were planted on the ground and endowed with property, demanding from them part of the harvest. One of the forms of the emergence of slave dependence was the self-sale of the Egyptians for debts (which, however, was not encouraged) and the transformation into slaves of criminals.

The unification of Egypt after a transitional period of unrest and fragmentation (XXII century BC) by Theban nomes within the borders of the Middle Kingdom was accompanied by successful wars of conquest by the Egyptian pharaohs, the development of trade with Syria, Nubia, the growth of cities, and the expansion of agricultural production. This led, on the one hand, to the growth of the royal-temple economy, on the other hand, to the strengthening of the positions of the private economy of nobles-dignitaries and temple priests, organically connected with the first. The nobility, which, in addition to the lands granted for service ("nomarch's house"), has hereditary lands ("my father's house"), seeks to turn its holdings into property, resorting to the help of temple oracles for this purpose, which could testify to its hereditary nature.

The early inefficiency of the cumbersome tsarist farms based on the labor of bonded farmers contributed to the widespread development at that time of the allotment-lease form of exploitation of the working people. The land began to be given to the "servants of the king" for rent, it was cultivated by them mainly with their tools in a relatively isolated economy. At the same time, rent-tax was paid to the treasury, temple, nomarch or nobleman, but labor service was still performed in favor of the treasury.

In the Middle Kingdom, other changes are revealed both in the position of the ruling circles and the lower strata of the population. An increasingly prominent role in the state, along with the nome aristocracy and priesthood, begins to play an untitled bureaucracy.

From the general mass of "king's servants" stand out the so-called nejes ("little ones"), and among them are "strong nejes". Their appearance was associated with the development of private land ownership, commodity-money relations, and the market. It is no coincidence that in the XVI-XV centuries. BC. the concept of "merchant" first appears in the Egyptian lexicon, and silver becomes the measure of value in the absence of money.

Nejes, together with artisans (especially such scarce professions in Egypt as stonemasons, goldsmiths), being not so firmly connected with the royal temple economy, acquire a higher status by selling part of their products on the market. Along with the development of handicrafts, commodity-money relations, cities grow, in the cities there is even a semblance of workshops, associations of artisans according to their specialties.

The change in the legal status of wealthy groups of the population is also evidenced by the expansion of the concept of "house", previously denoting a kindred-clan group of family members, relatives, slave servants, etc., subject to the father-noble, etc. Now the head of the house could also be the nedjes.

Strong nejes, together with the lower levels of the priesthood, petty bureaucracy, and wealthy artisans in the cities, constitute the middle, transitional layer from small producers to the ruling class. The number of private slaves is growing, and the exploitation of dependent farmers, allotment owners, who bear the main burden of taxation and military service in the tsarist troops, is intensifying. The urban poor are even more impoverished. This leads to an extreme aggravation of social contradictions at the end of the Middle Kingdom (which intensified under the influence of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt), to a major uprising that began among the poorest sections of free Egyptians, who were later joined by slaves and even some representatives of wealthy farmers.

The events of those days are described in the colorful literary monument "Speech of Ipuver", from which it follows that the rebels captured the king, expelled the dignitaries-nobles from their palaces and occupied them, took possession of the royal temples and temple bins, defeated the judicial chamber, destroyed the books of accounting for crops, etc. "The earth turned over like a potter's wheel," writes Ipuver, warning the rulers against repeating such events that led to a period of internecine strife. They lasted 80 years and ended after many years of struggle with the conquerors (in 1560 BC) with the creation of the New Kingdom by the Theban king Ahmose.

As a result of victorious wars, Egypt of the New Kingdom becomes the first largest empire in the ancient world, which could not but affect the further complication of its social structure. The positions of the nome tribal aristocracy are weakening. Ahmose leaves in place those rulers who have expressed complete obedience to him, or replaces them with new ones. The well-being of representatives of the ruling elite from now on directly depends on what place they occupy in the official hierarchy, how close they are to the pharaoh and his court. The center of gravity of the administration and the entire support of the pharaoh significantly shifts to the untitled strata of those who come from officials, warriors, farmers, and even approximate slaves. Children of strong nejes could take a course of study in special schools led by royal scribes, and upon completion of it, receive one or another official position.

Along with the nejes, a special category of the Egyptian population appeared at that time, close to it in position, denoted by the term "nemkhu". This category included farmers with their own farms, artisans, warriors, petty officials, who, at the behest of the pharaoh's administration, could be raised or lowered in their social and legal status, depending on the needs and needs of the state.

This was due to the creation, as centralization in the Middle Kingdom, of a system of nationwide redistribution of labor. In the New Kingdom, in connection with the further growth of the numerous imperial, hierarchically subordinated layer of bureaucracy, the army, etc., this system was further developed. Its essence was as follows. In Egypt, censuses were systematically conducted, taking into account the population in order to determine taxes, recruit the army according to age categories: youths, youths, men, old people. These age categories were to a certain extent associated with a peculiar class division of the population directly employed in the royal economy of Egypt, into priests, troops, officials, craftsmen and "ordinary people". The peculiarity of this division was that the numerical and personal composition of the first three estate groups was determined by the state in each specific case, taking into account its needs for officials, craftsmen, etc. This happened during annual reviews, when the states of one or another state economic unit were formed, royal necropolis, craft workshops.

The "outfit" for permanent skilled work, for example, an architect, jeweler, artist, referred the "common man" to the category of craftsmen, which gave him the right to official ownership of land and inalienable private property. As long as the master was not transferred to the category of "ordinary people", he was not a disenfranchised person. Working in one or another economic unit at the direction of the tsarist administration, he could not leave it. Everything that he produced at the appointed time was considered the property of the pharaoh, even his own tomb. What he produced outside school hours was his property.

Officials, masters were opposed to "ordinary people", whose position was not much different from the position of slaves, only they could not be bought or sold as slaves. This system of distribution of labor power had little effect on the bulk of the allotment farmers, at whose expense this huge army of officials, military men and craftsmen was maintained. Periodic accounting and distribution to work of the main reserve of labor in Ancient Egypt were a direct consequence of the underdevelopment of the market, commodity-money relations, and the complete absorption of Egyptian society by the state.

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Society of Egypt

Historical foundations of formation

For 5 thousand years, the population of Egypt lived in a highly centralized society, the basis of the well-being of which was agriculture on lands irrigated during the floods of the Nile. Until the beginning of the 20th century Peasants made up the vast majority of the country's population. Their whole life was determined by the rhythm of the annual floods of the Nile. The recurring cycle of the Nile floods, the ethno-cultural features of rural life that had not changed for many centuries, and the homogeneous composition of the population created the impression that the Egyptian society was forever frozen in its development. This situation continued until the beginning of the 19th century. Over the past few decades, due to rapid population growth, urbanization, labor migration abroad, early successes in industrialization and the inclusion of women in active work, Egyptian society has undergone a number of significant and sometimes dramatic changes.

social structure

Currently, the peasants make up approx. 55% of the total population of Egypt. The standard of living of the rural population of Egypt is very low.

Although the country has a system of compulsory six-year education, during planting and harvesting, rural children are often deprived of the opportunity to attend school.

In the pre-reform period, approximately 2,000 large landowners, including the king, owned 20% of all cultivated land, while over 2 million small landowners accounted for only 13%. Millions of peasants had no land at all and either turned into small tenants or were forced to take low-paid daily work. In accordance with the land reform of 1952, the area of ​​private cultivated land was reduced to 200 feddans (87 ha) per person, and in 1961 it was reduced to 100 feddans (43.5 ha). As a result of the land reform, approx. 266 thousand hectares of agricultural land.

Due to the shortage of arable land, millions of peasants were forced to migrate to Cairo and other cities. Some of them managed to find work in industry, construction or services. Both peasants and skilled workers and specialists go to work in the oil-producing states of the Arab East, where it is possible to earn five to six times more than at home. During the 1970s and early 1980s, at least 3 million Egyptian workers worked abroad.

Until the 1950s, the bulk of banks, industrial enterprises and foreign trade were in the hands of foreigners. As a rule, in Cairo or Alexandria, the British, French, Greeks, Italians, Armenians and Jews preferred to retain foreign citizenship. Their children studied in private schools, at home they spoke their native language and knew very little about their country of residence. After the Anglo-French-Israeli aggression in 1956 in the Suez Canal zone, most of the foreign property in Egypt was confiscated.

A significant role in the cities is played by the traditional middle class, predominantly its lower stratum, which includes shopkeepers, merchants, artisans, petty government and clergymen. Throughout the 20th century the modern educated middle class (doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, economists, managers of industrial enterprises, army officers, government officials who received a European-style education in local schools and universities) gained more and more influence and political weight in urban society. With the liquidation of the landed aristocracy in the 1950s, it was this layer that came to power. In the 1960s, many members of the middle class moved into leadership positions in the public sector of the economy. Since the mid-1980s, the role of the Association of Egyptian Entrepreneurs has especially increased. Business people seek to benefit from new opportunities for foreign capital and joint ventures to operate in the country.

Lifestyle

The family is the center of social life in Egypt. Traditionally, several generations lived together within the same family, but over the past decades, the trend towards separate living of small families has been increasing. At the same time, close ties between all its members remain in large families. A large family performs a number of important social functions. So, it often acts as a kind of bureau to find jobs for peasants who have moved to the city, or is a source of material support for needy or incapacitated relatives who are not covered by the state social security program.

Usually Egyptian families have many children. As a rule, village children from an early age begin to help their parents in field work; therefore, large families are considered economically more prosperous. Until now, the Egyptians are more happy about the birth of boys.

There are significant differences in the lifestyle and spiritual and cultural orientations of different layers of Egyptian society. The educated middle and upper class living in Cairo speak English or French, wear European clothes and prefer European and American movies, music, art and literature. The traditional men's clothing of peasants (fellahs) is a long, to the heel, shirt made of blue or white cotton fabric (galabey), which is worn over short pants. Headdress - felt yarmulke (lebda). Women's clothing consists of a long black dress with loose sleeves and a black scarf on the head, which covers the lower part of the face when meeting men on the street. People dressed in traditional clothes are also found in urban areas where the poor live.

The Egyptians preserve the traditions of their national cuisine, and it is one of the most exquisite in the Arab East. It includes cereals (wheat, barley, corn, rice, etc.), legumes (beans, peas, lentils, etc.), vegetables, herbs, onions, garlic, fruits, dairy products, less often meat and fish. In Egypt, the cult of coffee and tea flourishes.

Both in the villages and in the cities, the basis of the diet is flat cakes made from wheat, corn or oatmeal and porridge. Ful and taamiyya (boiled or fried bean dishes), koshri (boiled lentils mixed with rice) are popular. Meat is eaten on holidays and on market days (2-4 times a month), and poultry (chickens, pigeons, geese) is eaten somewhat more often. From dairy products they consume goat and buffalo milk, less often - cow's (usually sour), cottage cheese, salty cheese. In cities, European, most often French, cuisine is widely practiced.

Most Egyptians remain committed to conservative social norms of behavior. Nowhere, except on university campuses, unmarried men and unmarried women are encouraged to interact. The popularity of Islamic fundamentalism sometimes stems from the social practicality of the everyday demands of Islam.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Islamist movements began to gain particular popularity. Their emphasis on personal piety and piety, modesty, adherence to the principles of Islamic ethics in business and criticism of materialistic Western values ​​have earned respect among all walks of life. Islamist charities provide free medical care, maintain order in urban slums and create a sense of community among many unemployed and disgruntled young Egyptians. The direct involvement of Islamists in people's daily lives creates an attractive alternative model of empathy and willingness to help.

Unions

Despite the fact that the trade union movement in Egypt arose at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, trade unions were legalized only in 1942. The trade unions played a prominent role in organizing the mass unrest that preceded the military coup of 1952. After the establishment of the republican regime, the government in every possible way contributed to the creation of trade unions, pushing their functionaries to the role of leaders of the workers. In 1964, a law came into force, according to which at least 50% of the deputies of the National (later People's) Assembly were to be elected from among the workers or peasants. In addition, workers were to make up half of the committees for the management of enterprises in the public sector of the economy. Beginning in 1969, the chairman of the Egyptian Federation of Labor was also the Minister of State for Labor and Vocational Training. In the mid-1980s, almost 3 million Egyptian workers were members of 23 branch trade unions, which since 1957 have been part of the Egyptian Labor Federation.

The reforms of the 1990s had a noticeable impact on the development of the labor movement in the country. The rising cost of living, unemployment, and the gradual reduction of government subsidies for basic products and goods led to discontent among workers and a wave of violent strikes (which reached their peak in 1994), despite the fact that under existing law such strikes are illegal.

Religion and religious institutions

In the country's constitution, Islam is proclaimed the state religion, and the principles of Sharia are approved as the basis of legislation. Beginning in 1956, Muslim religious courts became an integral part of the state judicial system. In the jurisdiction of Muslim and Coptic religious courts are all matters of civil status: marriage and family and inheritance relations. The Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, built in 970-972, is the most important intellectual and spiritual Islamic center. The state provides financial support to all mosques in Egypt.

Traditionally, relations between the country's Muslim majority, Egyptian Copts, and Jews have been friendly and tolerant. For example, many Muslims celebrated Coptic holidays and vice versa. After the defeat of Egypt in the war with Israel in 1967, the social and political significance of Islam was significantly strengthened. In each district, a network of independent mosques was created, which took care of religious education, medical care, guardianship of students from all educational institutions and a number of other issues. A network of similar mosques and groups of pro-Islamic university students formed the social base of the Islamic opposition.

The success of military campaigns could not but affect the social structure of ancient Egyptian society. In the event of victory, the main booty of the warriors was not only land, jewelry, valuables, but, above all, people. These people, who were captured by the Egyptians, turned into slaves. It was hundreds of thousands of people. All of them became, basically, slaves. They were forced to work on the land: planting, sowing, harvesting, digging. Someone was a good craftsman and helped in the workshop. They also looked after cattle, participated in the construction of houses, temples, any organizations and institutions.

Also, a large proportion of the captives were brought to the royal court, the courtyards of temples. They brought them to the estates of nobles. A small part was divided between people of average origin, and even warriors selected slaves for themselves. In the royal court, they performed all household work: they dug, sowed, planted on the lands. In the house of the pharaoh: they cooked food, cleaned, did some construction work. If the slave was a good craftsman, then he could also be engaged in handicraft work. In the temple households, they also helped and did all the work of the servants. And for the soldiers who had plots of land, they worked on the ground. The masters of the slaves gave them meager food, clothing and a roof over their heads.

One of the documents says that the Egyptian soldiers were very fond of dividing the captured booty. They immediately shared the land with the slaves. Together with the captives, they brought a variety of livestock: horses, cows, bulls, goats. Also a variety of utensils and luxury items: things made of gold and silver, all kinds of vessels, necklaces and rings, bronze items.

In the old days, after the seizure of territories, the Egyptians only took their cattle, valuables and stole people, turning them into slaves. But this was not the case in the New Kingdom. In addition to the fact that they stole cattle, turned the people of the defeated states into their slaves, took away all the gold and other valuables, now they also imposed a large annual tribute on the occupied territories.

The tribute was paid every year at the same time. They gave away cattle, slaves, grain. Also, every country conquered by the Egyptians was obliged to give away the products that they themselves made. They also gave away part of their natural wealth.

From Ethiopia they brought gold and bones of elephants. Various metals from Palestine and Syria. They also brought a variety of fabrics and paints of different colors. They brought precious stones. From Lizana, the forest, in order to build ships, was especially valuable cedar.

A huge number of slaves, a variety of raw materials (metals) played an important role in the development of the Egyptian economy. The economy grew many times over, the country grew richer, people began to live better (the indigenous population, the Egyptians themselves). But despite the huge number of slaves, raw materials, values. They were mostly given not to ordinary people or even warriors, but to rich nobles, temples and the pharaoh. These riches were used to no avail.

The development of the Egyptian economy was facilitated not only by a huge amount of material resources, a large amount of labor, but also by the fact that the Egyptians improved their technical base. Improved production technology. Tools of labor in greater quantities began to be made of bronze.

There were no tin deposits on Egyptian soil; tin reserves were delivered from Syria, which was subject to the influence of Egypt. Bronze was used to make tools, weapons, which in their qualities are one of the best. The metal production process has also been improved. It was made in a different way: they used bellows, which provided a powerful flow of air. Thanks to the fact that they learned to cast metal, they could already make complex things. For example, they could make a large gate for the temple. They could also make thin products. All this made it possible to use metal very economically.

The Egyptians also received opaque paste glass and it became an independent industry. From this glass it was possible to make vessels, small crafts. These things were valued both within the country (both the poor and the rich bought them in the markets), and on the external market (these handicrafts were taken out of the country for sale).

Improved agricultural technology. A very convenient plow with sheer handles became widespread, there were special holes for hands. Huge hammers were made, which were hung on long sticks; it was convenient for them to break clods of earth.

It is known that in Egypt there was often a drought, and only after the flood and the return of the Nile to its banks, moisture remained and was. But not everywhere. Therefore, it was necessary to make structures with the help of which watering of fields and vegetable gardens was carried out.

Another advantage of the conquests was that the Egyptians learned to grow new types of plants, new breeds of livestock. Horse breeding has become a special branch of animal husbandry. Since it was necessary for the Egyptian chariots.

The pharaohs had a huge number of slaves, cattle, metals. They pursued a policy that contributed to the revival of economic life, the prosperity of agriculture.

The number of sown areas and the quality of their cultivation increased. The floods of the Nile were constantly monitored, the water level in the river was measured before and after its flood. The destroyed canals were repaired, irrigation facilities began to be built.

The pharaohs of the 19th dynasty began to carry out large-scale work on the reclamation of the Delta, drainage of wetlands, descents of excess water. Consequently, in the era of the New Kingdom, the economy made it possible to obtain much more products both in agriculture and in the handicraft workshop than in previous times.

The country now already had large reserves of material resources and economic potential. With the help of these riches, the pharaohs could supply the army and raise the economy and actively conduct the external economy. Various palaces and temples were also built.

Material opportunities were created for the further development of Egyptian culture.

The society of Ancient Egypt was divided into three classes: the class of masters, those who owned slaves, houses, workshops, estates, wealth; small producers - farmers and artisans, they obtained food by their own labor; slaves - people who worked day and night for their master: they cleaned, cooked food, drove cattle, looked after cattle, worked on land that belonged to the owner, participated in the construction of a temple, palaces.

But even in the period of the New Kingdom, with so many changes in economics and politics, there were certainly changes within each class. Some layers have become stronger, others have become weaker. New classes have appeared. Lost their value other classes. Slave-owning relations became an important change in this structure, and they became stronger every day. The number of slaves increased due to the fact that more and more new lands were captured by the pharaohs with their army. They turned captives, inhabitants of these states into slaves.

During the period of the New Kingdom, a layer of slave owners appeared, who possessed 2-7 slaves. Slaves could be bought by rich farmers who had land. They bought slaves to work on their lands.

Serious changes also took place among the ruling class. The middle strata of the population, the so-called small and medium slave owners, appear. They occupied the lowest and middle posts in Egypt. They received land and slaves from the ruler.

The World History. Volume 2. Bronze Age Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

The structure of the Egyptian society of the middle kingdom "small people"

Let's start with the fact that the weakening of the role of the center as a link between the regions, given the existence of traditional ties between the regions, could not but cause a revival of economic exchanges on the ground. In addition, the temporary unbundling of agricultural production contributed to the development of trade. In the Transitional Period, there is almost no information in written sources, characteristic of the Old Kingdom, about the huge latifundia of the capital's courtiers with impressive data on the number of livestock and crops. A large number of smaller farms appear in the country. For the documents of the Transition Period (up to the 19th Dynasty), the frequent mention of the term "small people" (nejes) becomes habitual. An analysis of the word usage of this phrase suggests that the meaning of the term at that time was significantly different from the current one. In Egypt during the period of decay, "small people" are most often found in the same row with "big people", that is, the highest nobility, and do not mix with the working and trading people.

The "small" middle kingdoms often turn out to be rich, big dignitaries with high court or state rank. They claim a special position in society, the position of people who have achieved success and prosperity through their own work and (often) military prowess. The image of such a “small”, who has climbed to the top at the cost of incredible tension and due to extraordinary personal qualities, acquires a special attraction in Egypt for a while. Even the nomarchs of the XI Dynasty reign willingly call themselves "strong fellows." This fact alone makes it possible to judge the degree of influence on the events in the country by a layer of active owners of relatively small estates, who call themselves "small people". Moreover, the main direction of their efforts by the end of the third millennium BC. e. unification of Egypt.

Initially very favorable for the revival of local economic activity, which led to the formation of a new layer of active land users, the state of disintegration of the old centralized system soon begins to interfere with the successful development of local initiative. For wealthy "small" people, the need to establish an order guaranteed by strict laws, that is, the construction of a strong centralized state, begins to look obvious.

The same was required by the needs of trade, which became more active during the Transitional Period. Recall that merchants had a chance to take on some of the functions previously performed by the central government. With more or less success, they tried to ensure the implementation of traditional exchange operations between regions and the delivery of materials, raw materials, rare or inaccessible in Egypt itself. From this point of view (especially in the implementation of internal trade), the collapse of the Old Kingdom undoubtedly played into the hands of merchants.

However, soon, as the system of "little people" estates developed, the emphasis in trade began to shift. It turned out to be more profitable for the merchant class to take on the role of an intermediary in the exchange of goods in kind between small and often geographically close farms. Not the least role was played by security considerations: the roads in Egypt during the Transition period caused serious concern for any merchant.

Previously, this role of intermediaries was not very promising: in large complexes of noble Memphis landowners, everything needed was produced right there, on the spot. The emergence of many small farms has destroyed the traditional autonomy of the existence of latifundia. The small size of the estates made it impossible to meet all the needs of the farms on their own, however, as a result of the weakening of the pressure of centralized requisitions, the owners had a surplus of certain products, sufficient for exchange transactions. Having burned themselves on trying to find a partner on their own, in accordance with the proposed terms of exchange (such ordeals of the villagers, busy looking for the right thing in exchange for the goods offered, are told in stories written during the X-XI dynasty: in one of them, a resident of the Salt Oasis (now Wadi Natrun) suffered enough before he was able to exchange the things taken from home to the capital for bread), the owners of the estates increasingly prefer to entrust the search for exchange options to intermediary merchants.

Under the 11th dynasty, a small private economy traded fabrics of its own production on the side, already exclusively with the help of intermediaries. It is interesting that in this case, too, grain and bread served as the main measure of the equivalence of exchange. An analysis of bills of sale of the Transitional period shows that the grain equivalent was typical for most exchanges.

Along with bread, they willingly pay and accept clothes, livestock, and dead birds for payment. However, there are completely unthinkable options for contracts, the benefits of which for both parties look very situational. One can only imagine how much effort each of the buyers spent searching for a seller who agreed to the proposed conditions. Naturally, the complexity of such transactions forced us to look for a simplified scheme for reaching the consent of the parties. It is noteworthy that approximately from the XXII century BC. e. (and at this time there is a peak of unusual sales contracts found) transactions using metals as a payment for a product or for the services of an intermediary - most often copper, processed and even "raw", by weight - are put forward from the category of strange ones. At the same time, it is obvious that the metal acts only as an intermediate chain of exchange, very rarely its production is caused by the direct economic needs of the estate. Occasionally, it is even possible to trace the chain of "expenditure" of the received copper to ensure the purchase of goods needed by the estate.

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Chapter 7 PYRAMIDS OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM Features of the pyramids of the Middle Kingdom Of the total number of pyramids of Ancient Egypt, nine belong to the era of the Middle Kingdom. In addition, there are also satellite pyramids. All these structures were erected during the XII dynasty, which

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Literature and Religion of Egypt in the era of the Middle Kingdom

From the book Ancient East author Nemirovsky Alexander Arkadievich

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Chapter 1. Egypt of the Middle Kingdom The periodization of the deep history of Egypt does not have rigidly defined points of reference. The last years of the reign of the kings of the VI dynasty are usually taken as the end of the Old Kingdom. At this time, the country, remaining at the level that researchers in

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The Decline of the Ancient Kingdom and the Beginning of the Construction of the Middle Kingdom Some Peculiarities of the Transitional Period Between the end of the Ancient and the beginning of the Middle Kingdom lies a long Transitional Period. For almost a quarter of a millennium, the era of fragmentation continued. However, as

From the book World History. Volume 2. Bronze Age author Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

The economic structure of the Egyptian state In the cities, therefore, the stratification in the period of the Middle Kingdom went quite far. However, the final destruction of the vast system of organizing the life of the Egyptians has not yet occurred even in the largest of them. Sources

From the book World History. Volume 2. Bronze Age author Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

The social structure of the heyday of the Middle Kingdom Around 2000 BC. e. Amenemhat I, founder of the 12th dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs, ascended the throne. It is with the rule of this dynasty that it is customary to associate the heyday of the Middle Kingdom, which lasted until the beginning of the 18th century.

From the book World History. Volume 2. Bronze Age author Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

Egyptian clothing from the ancient to the middle kingdom The work of the Russian art critic M. N. Mertsalova "Costume of different times and peoples" (part 1, M., 1993) contains unique information about the clothing of many peoples of antiquity, which allow you to more fully immerse yourself in the era under study,

From the book World History. Volume 2. Bronze Age author Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

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Society of the Middle Kingdom At the beginning of the II millennium BC. e. the Egyptians are achieving new technical achievements: they are improving the cultivation of the land, making wider use of the lands lying outside the zone of the Nile floods (the so-called "high fields"), mastering bronze (although due to the lack of tin this