Early Dynastic Egypt (27 page)

The earliest attested specialist department is the oil-press, named on an ebony label of Den from Abydos (Petrie 1900: pl. XV.16). Many of the so-called year labels of First Dynasty kings were originally attached to jars of oil. The oil-press department of the treasury would have undertaken the processing of this valuable commodity. Also from the reign of Den, an unidentified department denoted by two sealed jars is mentioned on several seal-impressions. It probably had some connection with the production of commodities, but it is impossible to be more precise.

A department responsible for raising (and slaughtering?) pigs is mentioned on a sealing from the tomb of Merneith (Petrie 1900: pl. XXII.33) and on another from the reign of Anedjib (Petrie 1900: pl. XXVI.60). A further reference to meat production is a seal-impression from the reign of Peribsen which seems to have been made by the ‘seal- bearer of the daily meat ration’ (transliteration uncertain) (Petrie 1901: pl. XXII.185). The inscription of Pehernefer mentions a ‘house of beef-fat’ (
pr-
) as a department of the treasury (Junker 1939), perhaps indicating that products such as tallow were the responsibility of a separate operation. Meat must have been a prestigious commodity, beyond the means of many ordinary people. It comes as little of a surprise, therefore, that the government had its own slaughterhouses and that meat production was delegated to a specific department of the treasury.

The specialist departments listed in Pehernefer’s tomb inscription (Junker 1939) include those concerned with the production of the primary staples of the ancient Egyptian diet, bread and beer. The manufacture of bread was divided between the millers and the bakers. These tasks were subdivided in turn. The millers were split into at least two different departments, responsible for the milling of different grades of flour: flour to be made into
h 3
bread in one case, wheat-grain
(bỉ)
in another. Two different categories of baker are attested,
rth
bakers and
fsw
bakers, although it is not entirely clear how their functions differed. These two types of baker are named again in the Old Kingdom tomb of Kaninisut at Giza, where they are shown bringing offerings of bread to the tomb owner (Junker 1939). The word
fsw
(or its variant
psj)
is the most common verb associated with bread manufacture (Verhoeven 1984:85) and seems to have been the general term for ‘bake’, ‘prepare (bread)’; it could refer to the baking of bread directly over a fire or in a mould (Verhoeven 1984:208). The meaning of the rarer term
rth
is less clear, though a connection with bread used for cultic purposes is possible (Verhoeven 1984:169). Perhaps the two types of baker mentioned in Pehernefer’s inscription were responsible for baking bread for cultic purposes on the one hand and bread for normal domestic consumption on the other. The brewers seem to have been divided on geographical lines into those attached to the Lower Egyptian storage facility
(pr-šn Mhw)
and those attached to the Upper Egyptian storage facility
(pr-šn H nwt).

The processing of dates into sweet cakes and/or date wine was the prerogative of a separate department, as was the preparation and manufacture of linen and basketwork. Old Kingdom tomb scenes indicate that flax was an important crop in ancient Egypt, and this is reflected in the careful organisation surrounding the processing of this resource. The raw flax was supervised by one department
(hwt mh ),
the fulling (washing) of the flax by a second
(hwt hmwt)
, and the final manufacture of linen by a third
(hwt šm t).
Basketwork, using the abundant supplies of reeds from the Nile valley, was organised into a further specialist unit
(hwt m3t).

The departments of the treasury attested in the tomb of Pehernefer thus reflect the principal crops of ancient Egypt, and emphasise the importance of bread and beer in the Egyptian diet, even the diet of the court.

Treasury officials

The earliest attested title connected with the treasury is an ‘official of the white-house’
(hrỉ- pr-h )
early in the reign of Den (Petrie 1900: pls XXII.35, XXIII.40). In the Third Dynasty, the official with similar responsibility was the ‘overseer’
(ỉmỉ-r3 pr-h ),
a title borne by Nefer, Meri (Weill 1908:236–42, pl. IV; Helck 1954:61) and Pehernefer (Junker 1939). Pehernefer also held three other titles connected with the treasury:
ỉrỉ-h t pr-h , sh ỉrỉ-h t pr-h
and
hrỉ-s 3t pr-h .
The first of these seems to indicate merely a functionary of the treasury, the second a higher level of official with a supervisory role over other employees. The third title probably designated the seal- bearer, an important role in ancient Egyptian administration; it was the bearer of the seal who, as the representative of authority, had ultimate responsibility for the daily management of a particular institution. However, the
hrỉ-s 3t pr-h
does not seem to have been at the very top of the treasury hierarchy; this position was occupied by the king’s personal representative, the
h tmw-bỉty,
‘royal seal-bearer’ (also translated as

‘royal chancellor’). This title is sometimes rendered as ‘chancellor of the king of Lower Egypt’. Rather than being a geographical designation, however, it is more likely that the word
bỉty
refers to the secular role of the king as head of state and government (see Chapter 6). Two ‘royal seal-bearers’ are known from the reign of Den: Setka (Emery 1958: pl. 81.37), and the more famous Hemaka (Emery 1938:64, fig. 24), whose status is reflected in his huge palace-façade tomb at North Saqqara, equipped with a wealth of grave goods. The pre-eminent position of the
h tmw-bỉty
in the royal administration (Málek 1986:35) is further illustrated by the fact that the title was borne by Imhotep, famed as Djoser’s chief minister and the architect of the Step Pyramid complex. In ancient Egypt, all political authority derived ultimately from the king. Hence, the individual who carried the king’s own seal was the representative and agent of the supreme power in the land. The title of
h tmw-bỉty
must therefore have carried considerable symbolic as well as executive authority. A seal-impression from the reign of Peribsen gives a title which may be read as
h tmw-nswt
(Petrie 1901: pl. XXI.164). (The proposed reading of this title on a sealing from the Shunet ez-Zebib [Newberry 1909: pl. XXV.XVII] seems rather more doubtful since the
‘h tmw’
sign looks indistinguishable from an
ankh.)
If so, this could be interpreted as an explicitly Upper Egyptian alternative to the more usual title
h tmw-bỉty
and would provide yet another indication of the emphasis placed upon Upper Egypt and Upper Egyptian titles by Peribsen. (The other possible reading of the title,
h tmw Sm ,
‘seal-bearer of Upper Egypt’, would have similar connotations.) Two further seal-bearers are attested during the reign of Peribsen, a seal-bearer of the daily meat ration and a seal-bearer of the Lower Egyptian delivery (see above), emphasising the important role played by such officials in the Egyptian administrative system.

We know comparatively little about the administration of the state granaries, and what evidence there is comes from the Third Dynasty. A ‘controller’
(h rp)
of granaries is mentioned on a sealing of the reign of Sanakht from Beit Khallaf (Garstang 1902: pl. 19.7; Seidlmayer 1996b: pl. 23), whilst at the end of the dynasty Pehernefer was in overall control of the central grain stocks in his capacity as ‘overseer of all the king’s granaries’
(ỉmỉ-r3 šnwt nb nt nswt).

The redistributive function of the treasury involved a number of different officials. A sealing from the reign of Khasekhemwy mentions an ‘executive of the house of redistribution’
(hrỉ-w 3 pr-hrỉ-w b)
who was probably in overall charge (Weill 1908:102). The other titles come from Third Dynasty sources and seem to indicate different ranks within the department:
zh pr-hrỉ-w b,
a scribal post (Weill 1908:226);
w -mdw (pr)-hrỉ-w b,
a title borne by Akhetaa, possibly denoting an official with decision-making authority (Weill 1908:262–73);
sh pr-hrỉ-w b,
a supervisory role, performed by Metjen (Goedicke 1966); and
ỉmỉ-r3 pr-hrỉ-w b,
the ‘overseer’ of the department, a position held by Pehernefer (Junker 1939). The obscure ‘estate of life’
(hwt nh )
seems to have had its own redistributive function at the end of the Third Dynasty: in addition to his many other titles, Akhetaa held the post of
hrỉ-w b hwt nh ,
‘head of redistribution of the estate of life(?)’ (Weill 1908:262–73). In later periods, the ‘house of life’
(pr- nh )
was the name given to the temple institution where religious texts were composed and copied, but the Early Dynastic
hwt nh
probably performed a different role.

The provisioning department would clearly have required a literate bureaucracy to keep detailed accounts of income and outgoings, and a ‘scribe of the provisioning department’
(zh ỉz- f3)
is attested from the reign of Peribsen (Petrie 1901: pl. XXI.166).

The specialist departments of the treasury which processed the agricultural produce and manufactured secondary products were each controlled by an ‘overseer’
(ỉmỉ-r3),
except for the bakers and date processors who were under the supervision of ‘controllers’
(h rp).
At the end of the Third Dynasty, certain vineyards were also administered by Pehernefer in his capacity as ‘controller’
(h rp).
In general, the usual title for an official at the head of a department or operation during the Third Dynasty seems to have been
ỉmỉ-r3,
whereas
h rp
appears to have been used to refer to an individual with a supervisory role over other employees.

The
pr-nswt

Although in theory all land probably belonged to the king, in practice a distinction was made between state income and the king’s private income. From the reign of Djet, inscriptions attest, in parallel with the
pr-h / pr-dšr,
a separate department of the administration responsible for the personal estates and income of the king (Petrie 1900: pl. XXXI.8). This institution, the
pr-nswt,
was presumably concerned with supporting the king, the royal family and the royal retinue, as distinct from royal building projects which were the responsibility of the central government. The
pr-nswt
was probably under direct royal control (Husson and Valbelle 1992:29), in contrast to the more outlying royal domains and estates which were administered on behalf of the king. Unlike these foundations, little is known about the composition, structure and organisation of the
pr- nswt.
At the end of the Third Dynasty, the inscription of Metjen mentions a parallel institution serving the queen mother
(pr-mwt-nswt)
(Goedicke 1966). (Note that a possible identification of the
pr-nswt
as the palace buildings seems to be ruled out by explicit references to ‘the palace’ [
h
] in Early Dynastic titles: see below.)

The
pr-nswt
seems to have had a separate administration. Three titles referring to the
pr-nswt
are known from the Early Dynastic period: ‘controller’
(h rp)
in the reign of Djet (Petrie 1900: pl. XXXI.8); ‘companion’
(smr)
on the stela of Sabef from the reign of Qaa (Petrie 1900: pl. XXX); and ‘servant/employee’
(hm)
in the late Third Dynasty (Weill 1908:262–73; Goedicke 1966). Both Akhetaa and Metjen bore the last title, suggesting that it enjoyed a certain status due to its close connection with the person of the king. Metjen was also a ‘servant/employee’
(hm)
of the queen mother’s estate.

THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COURT

Royal works

The effective management of royal building projects—mortuary complexes and state- sponsored temple construction—must have required a substantial administrative apparatus. Unfortunately, very little evidence survives from the Early Dynastic period concerning the organisation and administration of these activities. What sources there are

date exclusively to the Third Dynasty, so that we know nothing of how royal construction projects were organised during the first two dynasties. Several individual craftsmen are mentioned in inscriptions of Netjerikhet’s reign, including a controller of craftsmen
(h rp hmww)
(Lacau and Lauer 1965:64, no.156), an inspector of masons
(sh m hw)
(Weill 1908:180; Kaplony 1963, III: fig. 324) and a royal mason
(m h nswt),
the last being a member of a turquoise-mining expedition to the Sinai (Gardiner and Peet 1952: pl. I). At the very end of the Third Dynasty Pehernefer bore the title
ỉmỉ-r3 k3t nb nt nswt,
‘overseer of all the king’s works’. This was the office held in the Old Kingdom by the person in charge of royal building activities. Whether a similar position existed in the first two dynasties, or whether the advent of pyramid-building in the Third Dynasty made such a post necessary for the first time, cannot be ascertained from the meagre evidence at our disposal. According to the biographical inscriptions of Old Kingdom overseers of works, the position included responsibility for all projects requiring large resources of materials and/or manpower: royal building projects, the construction of boats and fashioning of large-scale statuary, expeditions to quarry stone, the transport of goods and materials, irrigation works, perhaps even agricultural work (Husson and Valbelle 1992:42).