Great video, this is interesting stuff! I'm just a layman, but maybe the overseer of the fields was more like a royal gardener? Look over the guys tilling them and such, making sure they get enough hydration, etc. While high steward could just look after the food stores in general, both from pharaoh's own fields and stuff brought in from the outside? No idea, just a random thought. Dr. Wolfram was great! I'll definitely have to check out his books
we do not have many texts about the duties of officials, but it is possible to reconstruct the careers of some of them. They appear on different monuments set up at different stages of a career. The overseer of the fields are a few times connected with scribal bureaux in the palace. I do not think that a royal gardener switches easily to a career in a scribal office. With the high steward i agree. There are indeed inscriptions saying that he also had to do with stuff from the outside,
@@WolfinLondon2 ah ok, yeah I honestly have no idea that was just my first thought. But I learned something new today thank you! I find the idea of how ancient governments were run fascinating so I appreciate you taking the time to correct me and illuminate more :-)
Would be interesting to know how the ideology of kingship, the organization of society, religious practices, and afterlife beliefs differed in the Middle Kingdom from the Old Kingdom. There were alterations in religious beliefs and practices, the king’s role as a political and spiritual leader, and the relationship between the king and his people. Would also be interesting to know how Egyptian religion changed from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom (the growing importance of Karnak during this period) and how the viziers and bureaucracy played a much more prominent role in it in the Middle Kingdom. For instance, pyramid complexes resumed in the Middle Kingdom, but also mastabas were constructed as memorials and burial places for the elite (for the viziers?). Also, there was a vast increase in the number of private monuments constructed at sacred sites such as Abydos and Elephantine, and these memorials feature depictions of large and extended family groups, including associates who were not kin. (Abydos developed into a wealthy city during this time, the most popular place of pilgrimage in all of Egypt, with the most coveted necropolis. People wanted to be buried near Osiris.) At the same time, over life size and monumental sculptures-largely, though not exclusively, depicting the pharaoh-became widespread. In the Middle Kingdom there were significant alterations in the form of the royal cult complex, which saw the emergence of different temple types, the shrinking of older ones, and changed location of the complexes.
Reginald Bauer you should read his books, I have 3 of them. Officials of the Middle Kingdom. Burials of the latter Middle Kingdom. And I think burial practices of the Middle Kingdom. The first and 3rd book are published by duckworth . I'm in the middle of moving house so I can't tell who published the 2nd one
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Egyptian Vizier 1. The position became very important in the Middle Kingdom, while the nobility lost its influence [Note: the “nobility” referred to here was the preceding nobles who governed as provincial nomarchs. They held government posts, and were rulers over the Nomes (provinces) of Egypt. From the Noble families often emerged the Royal dynasties of the Pharaohs. Towards the end of the Old Kingdom the positions of the nomarchs had become hereditary, so families often held onto the position of power in their respective provinces. As these nomarchs grew increasingly powerful and influential, they became more independent from the pharaoh. In the Old Kingdom, the courts of the local nobility where the royal center for cultural predominance. From the Middle Kingdom onwards the power and independence of the Nobility was diminished, and their administrative functions were taken over by the Viziers. The status of the local nobility was more independent of the central authority than that of the royal administrators such as the Vizier and High Priest who flourished around the person of the Pharaoh.] 2. Viziers were appointed by the Pharaoh, answerable only to the Pharaoh 3. Held the fabric of Egypt's administration system together, at various times, the vizier was also the High Priest 4. Not an heir to the throne or a relative of the Pharaoh 5. Most trusted allies and consultant of the Pharaoh, but were not of royal blood 6. The royal family members of the Pharaoh, particularly those who might hold a claim to kingship, could often not be trusted. But viziers where trusted by the Pharaoh to carry out his will without the fear of revolt 7. Sometimes they remained in office during the reign of more than one Pharaoh 8. All government documents used in Egypt had to have the seal of the vizier in order to be considered authentic and binding 9. Resolved all domestic territorial disputes, controlled the reservoirs, food supply and supervised industries 10. Overseeing the daily functioning of Pharaoh's palace and the protection of Pharaohs 11. Young members of the royal family often served under the vizier to receive training in government affairs 12. The position lost much importance in the Late Kingdom (25th-30th dynasties) (752-343BC) (a time in which the period is characterized by the constant foreign threats and invasions from Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians)
many thanks for this addition. I agree with most of that. Point 1, Viziers were already important in the Old Kingdom. They are often the main men behind the pyramid building. Point 8. I do not think that all government documents were sealed by the vizier. He would just collapse under this duties.
Dr. Wolfram Grajetzki, would you say the following assessment is generally true? In the Old Kingdom, the Pharaoh had been deemed a "Follower of Horus", an incarnation of the god Horus, overseeing everything high up in the sky. Initially, Re surpassed the other deities, even Horus, the god of the sky and kingship. Re is a superlative of Horus. Re lights up the space in which Horus flies. Instead of the incarnation of the divine Horus in the king, a unique, filial relationship was initiated, and Pharaoh was seen as a god as was his father, Re. As Horus-Re, Pharaoh represented the eternal life of the united land, the everlasting existence of the created order. Gradually, the influence of the popular Osiris cult on the Heliopolitan priests became considerable. So we see the two-fold soteriological order emerging. But Re and Osiris were not yet one single deity. While ascending to the sky to abide with the deities (headed by Re), these spells granted the monarch an ultimate protection. The Pyramid Texts contain the core theological concepts of this Solar religion of the royal state. At the end of Dynasty V, the dead king did everything the Lunar Osiris did, receiving heart & limbs as did Osiris . He became Osiris himself to ascend to Re. The dead king ascended to the plane of Re and sat with Re, as the Pharaoh was the son of Re and so granted - during life - direct access to the sky of Re. After death he became Osiris and ascended to Re. By the time of Unas (Dynasty V), there were attempts to assimilate the mortuary cult of Osiris. By the time of Unas, the state theology of Re had for quite some time been competing with the popular cult of Osiris, the second major god of the Old Kingdom. In the Pyramid Texts, Heliopolitan & Osirian theologies co-existed. Although the Solar faith of Heliopolis was a state religion focused on Pharaoh, the Pyramid Texts evidence an ambiguous relationship with Osiris, the god of most people and popular beliefs. The prehistoric Osiris cult, probably local to the Delta, involved a hereafter. As a king of Egypt, he was killed by his brother Seth, recovered by his wife Isis (with the help of the secret name of Re) and resurrected by his son Horus, who avenged his father. His kingdom was conceived as situated below the western horizon, where it merged into the netherworld or Duat. He became the king of the dead below the earth, the "Lord of the Netherworld", monarch of a subterranean kingdom. So, there is an emergence of two faiths. Further, there is nothing in these primordial myths which suggests Osiris to have a celestial afterlife. However, the popularity of Osiris among the people forced the priests to incorporate him into the Solar creed. In this way, Heliopolitan Solar theology slowly incorporated Osiris. The resurrection of Osiris by Horus and the restoration of his body was affirmed to be Pharaoh's privilege. The Osirian hereafter was celestialized. Osiris was now called "Lord of the Sky" and Pharaoh was announced to Osiris in the sky precisely in the same way as he had been announced to Re in the Solar theology. Hence, we find Pharaoh ascending to the sky and then descending among the dwellers in the netherworld, implying the netherworld became somehow accessible from the sky. In the Osirian cult, the netherworld became the lower region of the sky, in the vicinity of the horizon, below which it also extended. An important link between Re and Osiris was the former's death every day in the west, the place of the dead. The dead Pharaoh and the dying Sun corresponded well, as did the resurrection of Osiris (as king of the dead) and the dawning of the Sun (as a child which is the father of the king of the living). The Pyramid Texts evidence that the celestial doctrines of the hereafter dominate throughout, and the later subterranean kingdom of Osiris and Re's voyage through it are still entirely in the background in these royal mortuary teachings. Among the people Re is later, as it were, dragged into the Nether World to illumine there the subjects of Osiris in his mortuary kingdom, and this is one of the most convincing evidences of the power of Osiris among the lower classes. In the royal and state temple theology, Osiris is lifted to the sky. So, in the Old Kingdom, Osiris became intimately related with the individual spiritual process of transformation happening after Pharaoh's physical body had died. For Osiris was the proto-type of a godman who had lived on the earth, had been dismembered but who nevertheless remained everlasting in a fine condition, alive after natural death - immortality. Later, Osiris was called "Lord of the Living" (i.e. of those living their afterlife). Osiris was the god of the dead because he gave eternal life to the dead as a result of his own permanent state of divine existence in the afterlife. Hence, the nexus of paramount importance between the monarchy and Osiris consisted in the fact that once the king of Egypt had died, he became Osiris, king of the netherworld. At death, the divinity of Pharaoh, embodied in the forms of (a) Horus the elder sky god and (b) the son of Re, took on a new divine manifestation. Pharaoh became the monarch of the underworld & the afterlife: Osiris. Consequently, in the Pyramid Texts, the dead Pharaoh is sometimes referred to under the name of Osiris (Osiris Unas or Osiris Pepi). The Old Kingdom developed three original notions: 1. the theo-political status of Pharaoh : as a "Follower of Horus" and "son of Re" : the unity of the Two Lands was guaranteed by the king who as a falcon oversaw all divisions of the earth and as a god maintained the unity (between earth & sky). This perspective may be summarized as the eternal life of Pharaoh during his existence on earth ; 2. the mortuary status of Pharaoh : as the one ascending to the sky to exist with the deities, headed by Re and Pharaoh as the one who does what Osiris did. This is the eternal life of Pharaoh after his existence on earth, as son of the creator or king of the dead (in the Pyramid Texts this tension was not resolved) ; 3. the innate justice of Pharaoh, both here and in the hereafter : truth & righteousness of the whole of creation and the unity of the Two Lands are realized because Pharaoh offers Maat to his father Re. This is the eternal order of life underlining creation and existence, both here and in the hereafter. Without Pharaoh everything would return to the original chaos of pre-creation (the Nun). In the Pyramid Texts, exclusively used to adorn the tombs of the kings, the divinity of Pharaoh is clearly attested. Many ascension-texts clarify that after he had died, he travelled to the sky and (being a god) returned to the realm of the gods. Only Pharaoh had that privilege.The Pharaoh was (as son of Re) a direct divine source and hence he alone had a soul ("ba") and was the ultimate high priest. Pharaoh was a god and also the only god who was actually physically present in Egypt (he was not in the same way in need of ceremonial installation as the images & statues). This exclusivity of the divine king, who united & sustained the Two Lands, was absolute. All of this points to his paradoxical nature, for although being a god he was the only god to dwell on earth, i.e. his "divine ba" was on earth. He alone ascended to the sky. So, in a way Pharaoh incarnated cosmic harmony and order. Never did these two notions conflict. Pharaoh was the divine institution par excellence and he guaranteed the continuity of both the cosmic as well as the social, political realm. In the Old Kingdom, only Pharaoh had a "ba", i.e. a "soul". He alone would operate the transition from earthly existence to divine immortality. While on earth he had been a living god, after death he would ascend into the sky to return to the abode of the deities. The "ba" is represented by the hieroglyph of a bird that flies away, suggestive of the rise towards another world, considered to be fully part of the created order but transcending the gross plane of physical existence of life on earth. The commoners were supposed to "hide" in their tombs of the Beautiful West (the abode of the dead). Ascension was not for them, but exclusively for Pharaoh. The common people might survive death as "revered ones", but they could not ascend. If Pharaoh was a living paradox (a god abiding on earth), then Osiris was a dead paradox (a man alive after death). In both worlds, they represented the exceptions: The divine Ba of Pharaoh lives in his body and may return to the sky when the king dies. Osiris natural body is mummified but he was raised from the dead to eternal life in the afterlife. Osiris became the great prototype of all dead men, to start with Pharaoh in the Old Kingdom. From the Middle Kingdom onward, everybody who was just and able to pay for the rituals could find a set of spells which would be helpful to him or her in the afterlife.
With the Middle Kingdom, direct contact between humanity and the gods did no longer exist. Between the human and the divine a sacred signification, a "transcendent function" bridged the gap. This was provided for by the temples, the state agencies, who represented Pharaoh. The gods were resident on earth as lords of a particular temple. Although their essences (or spirit or "akh") existed in the sky, their "kingdom" was "of this world" (through their "doubles", the "Ka's"). The temples of the nomes owned the land of Egypt and the local deity of the temple embodied the concept of "city", which was always the city of a particular deity. To belong to a city meant to be under the rule of the god of that city. A city was thus a temple situated on the primordial hill, home and domain of an independent deity. The temple was the center of municipal administration and those who lived in the city were automatically "hour-priests" serving in the temples in a monthly rotation under the authority of full-time priests (under the charge of a royal official representing Pharaoh). Hence, the Residence of Pharaoh determined which nome was dominant. The deities did not "dwell" on earth but they installed themselves "in their images". The deities of the old pantheon were in the sky as "spirits" and "souls" ("ba's"), but their physical images existed on earth. This physical double or "Ka" could embrace or fraternize with the world if and only if the proper rituals of "installation" were daily performed by the priests who were functionaries of Pharaoh, for he was the state and the state was the unity of the temples of the Two Lands. In the cult, the divine brought itself near the realm of human activity. Through the rituals, the deity "installed" itself in its earthly image & function and in the mysteries. At the end of the Old Kingdom the stable pharaonic system slowly broke down. What exactly happened is unknown, but Egypt was divided between the "kings" of two major nomes : Heracleopolis (IXth & Xth Dynasty) & Thebes (XIth Dynasty). The unity broke up and no great monuments were erected to consolidate the power of a unified state. These facts initiated the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2200 BC), which would last for about a century. During this period, the rulers of Herakleopolis may at first have ruled Egypt nominally, but it was not for long before many of the Southern nomarchs started to build their provincial empires (the rise of Thebes of Amun). The Theban ruling family assumed the royal titulary at about the same time as the nomarchs of Herakleopolis. Around ca.1980 BC, after a century of disunity, Herakleopolis fell and all of Egypt was again under the rule of a single Theban Pharaoh, namely Mentuhotpe III (ca. 1945 -1938 BC), but things changed considerably. Amenemhet I (ca. 1938 - 1909 BC), who initiated the XIIth Dynasty and with it the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BC), moved the royal residence away from Thebes to the North, thus removing the center of activity (Pharaoh) elsewhere. Thebes lost much of its political power but became the home of Amun, the "king of the gods". With this Dynasty XII, the "feudal age" started. It was a thousand years since the first pyramid had been built. The collapse of the Old Kingdom (from Djoser to Pepi II, i.e. ca. 430 years) and the subsequent decentralization which followed, put Egyptian culture in a state of crisis, but Ancient Egyptian literature was born. From the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2198 - 1938 BC) onwards, and especially in the classical age (or Middle Kingdom), Pharaoh was no longer an absolute ruler. The collapse of the Old Kingdom brought decentralization and as a result of the collapse of the Old Kingdom, three major changes in the cultural form of Egypt ensued: • political & economical: local potentates acquired the necessary goods for themselves and their subjects. Raids on neighboring regions and the peasants were common. The latter therefore formed armed bands. Safety was lost. Art sank to a provincial level. But in the walled homes of the rulers of the nomes (the nomarchs) an urban middle class was formed, focused on the accumulation of private property. These "nedjes" (a pejorative word for "small") designated these new "bourgeois" who made the cities into political centers. Some became powerful enough to claim kingship for themselves, albeit nominally, for the division of the Two Lands remained a political fact; • psychological, inter-subjective, social: the struggle against the terrible experience of returning to the banished chaos, triggered a flowering of literature; • theological & spiritual: the cultic importance of Pharaoh as sole mediator between the sky and the earth became less important than the deities themselves. They stepped into the foreground and their temples & cultic requirements increased. Especially Osiris, the "king of the dead" and Amun-Re, "the king of the gods", and pharaonic Ptah of Memphis gained in worship from the Middle Kingdom onward. Osiris & Amun-Re were harmonized in ways no myth or pre-rational construction had ever done before. The Old Kingdom became an ideal charged with nostalgia. It had been construed exclusively around Pharaoh and his temples. In the Middle Kingdom, Pharaoh left existing "dynasties" in place and created new ones. In this way, a "provincial" approach to power rose, and Pharaoh had to maneuver to maintain his now foremost political role as "king of Upper and Lower Egypt" and maintainer of the cult. The temples could become and became powerful states within the state. Pharaonic exclusivity would only re-emerge in the New Kingdom. After the fall of the Old Kingdom, the whole constellation of interrelated concepts about immortality (Heliopolitan ascension or Osirian resurrection) were no longer royal, pharaonic prerogatives. In the Old Kingdom, a living god, the Pharaoh, was an immortal being. His death only implied a transition, not a change in essence, for he was already a god on earth and he alone could thus ascend to reach the abode of his soul and the souls of all the other deities of the old pantheon. After the collapse of the Old kingdom, the priests could also attain immortality. With the coming of the Middle Kingdom, it had become the custom to append the epithet "justified" to the name of every dead person. In the Pyramid Text, this procedure had been exclusively used for Pharaoh and his royalty. Whereas at first only Pharaoh could benefit from this (being the one who spoke the Great Speech), the "heka" or "magic" of "divine words" was largely appropriated by the officials class. The Coffin Texts eliminated the royal exclusivity of ascension. Every deceased was an "Osiris", although the principal group of people to make use of them were the nomarchs and their families of the Middle Kingdom. In the Coffin Texts, we find the mingling of Solar and Osirian beliefs, which now completely coalesce (instead of standing next to each other as in the Pyramid Texts). As a result Re is projected in the subterranean hereafter and lights up the kingdom of Osiris.
I think it would have been more charming if Tjaty had been translated to Mayor of the Palace rather than Vizier. Prime Minister would have been a downright depressing translation. 😉
lets stick to the translation 'vizier' for tjati. When i say vizier, all Egyptologist swill know it is Tjaty. With the translation Mayor of the Palace, they will get confused. But Mayor of the Palace explains he duties very well.
Thank you for the lecture. I am curious as to how one becomes the Overseer of the Fields or the Pharaoh's hairstylist. I've heard that a man's work / trade was hereditary but I have to wonder if there was any room for meritocracy? If I were Pharaoh, I would want the best person for the job and not the guy from the family who has always done it or the most sycophantic. Also, if I worked for the Pharaoh, would I get paid in a way that I can accumulate wealth and take it with me or pass it on to my children? Do I have my own house or do I and my whole family live in the Pharaoh's household and get fed, clothed and educated with the rest of the Pharaoh's entourage? When I go on an official trip in the name of the Pharaoh, how are the group's travel expenses paid for? Who feeds the camels or pays the sailors? How to I get/buy food when I get to a new city or state? There are a lot of day-to-day living details that I would love to hear about if Dr. Grajetzki can share more with us. Finally, I do have to wonder what happened to the poor lines of Pharaoh's barbers and nail cutters from the Old Kingdom. Did they have to settle for styling hair and nails for lesser people? Were they able to retrain to a new profession? All that skill lost. . . ;-)
Funnily, especially for the Middle Kingdom, there is little evidence that offices at the palace were hereditary. It seems that the king choose his people out of a wider pool of middle officials from different families. Ancient Egypt never had a formal nobility as it is known in Europe. I do not think poorer people had a big chance to get to any special position. They could not read and write. That was needed at the palace. Ancient Egypt did not yet had money. We have little idea how officials were paid but it seems that officials received fields and estates, perhaps with people and livestock. Officials had own boats and ships and traveled on them. After death the fields and estates went back to the king. But I must admit, we are often just guessing. Haircutters were still needed in later periods and i am sure the king and the queen had haircutters in all periods. It is just in the Old Kingdom that they were big men at the royal court.
@@WolfinLondon2 Thank you so much for your response! This is a fascinating field and I look forward to hearing more about it. I hope you'll come back for more interviews here.
Read "Origin of the Hebrews". It discusses the period where all the people in the years of the GREAT FAMINE sold their lands and themselves to the king in order to survive. TIME OF JOSEPH!!! Only the priests beside the crown had land to grow food. They used the yield to feed themselves. they were exempt from tax. Seostros I, II, AMEN....Sesobek. Lehun where a king is buried! Where Joseph likely lived and managed grain storage, DIKE BUILDING ON THE NILE to create the Niles breadbasket (Fayum), and where he built the kings pyramid. Jacob and brothers lived in Avaris. Ephraim and Menasseh went to live with Jacob and later built their great residence over where jacobs house stood. Dynasty 12...Dynasty 13. Pi-ramses/ramesis was the name of the LAND; not the pharaoh. It also was the UPDATED name swapped in by the translators of the Torah in the Septuagent.
Great video, this is interesting stuff! I'm just a layman, but maybe the overseer of the fields was more like a royal gardener? Look over the guys tilling them and such, making sure they get enough hydration, etc.
While high steward could just look after the food stores in general, both from pharaoh's own fields and stuff brought in from the outside? No idea, just a random thought. Dr. Wolfram was great! I'll definitely have to check out his books
we do not have many texts about the duties of officials, but it is possible to reconstruct the careers of some of them. They appear on different monuments set up at different stages of a career. The overseer of the fields are a few times connected with scribal bureaux in the palace. I do not think that a royal gardener switches easily to a career in a scribal office. With the high steward i agree. There are indeed inscriptions saying that he also had to do with stuff from the outside,
@@WolfinLondon2 ah ok, yeah I honestly have no idea that was just my first thought. But I learned something new today thank you! I find the idea of how ancient governments were run fascinating so I appreciate you taking the time to correct me and illuminate more :-)
Love how he says Berlin. Fantastic video.
Would be interesting to know how the ideology of kingship, the organization of society, religious practices, and afterlife beliefs differed in the Middle Kingdom from the Old Kingdom. There were alterations in religious beliefs and practices, the king’s role as a political and spiritual leader, and the relationship between the king and his people. Would also be interesting to know how Egyptian religion changed from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom (the growing importance of Karnak during this period) and how the viziers and bureaucracy played a much more prominent role in it in the Middle Kingdom. For instance, pyramid complexes resumed in the Middle Kingdom, but also mastabas were constructed as memorials and burial places for the elite (for the viziers?). Also, there was a vast increase in the number of private monuments constructed at sacred sites such as Abydos and Elephantine, and these memorials feature depictions of large and extended family groups, including associates who were not kin. (Abydos developed into a wealthy city during this time, the most popular place of pilgrimage in all of Egypt, with the most coveted necropolis. People wanted to be buried near Osiris.) At the same time, over life size and monumental sculptures-largely, though not exclusively, depicting the pharaoh-became widespread. In the Middle Kingdom there were significant alterations in the form of the royal cult complex, which saw the emergence of different temple types, the shrinking of older ones, and changed location of the complexes.
Reginald Bauer you should read his books, I have 3 of them. Officials of the Middle Kingdom. Burials of the latter Middle Kingdom. And I think burial practices of the Middle Kingdom. The first and 3rd book are published by duckworth . I'm in the middle of moving house so I can't tell who published the 2nd one
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Egyptian Vizier
1. The position became very important in the Middle Kingdom, while the nobility lost its influence [Note: the “nobility” referred to here was the preceding nobles who governed as provincial nomarchs. They held government posts, and were rulers over the Nomes (provinces) of Egypt. From the Noble families often emerged the Royal dynasties of the Pharaohs. Towards the end of the Old Kingdom the positions of the nomarchs had become hereditary, so families often held onto the position of power in their respective provinces. As these nomarchs grew increasingly powerful and influential, they became more independent from the pharaoh. In the Old Kingdom, the courts of the local nobility where the royal center for cultural predominance. From the Middle Kingdom onwards the power and independence of the Nobility was diminished, and their administrative functions were taken over by the Viziers. The status of the local nobility was more independent of the central authority than that of the royal administrators such as the Vizier and High Priest who flourished around the person of the Pharaoh.]
2. Viziers were appointed by the Pharaoh, answerable only to the Pharaoh
3. Held the fabric of Egypt's administration system together, at various times, the vizier was also the High Priest
4. Not an heir to the throne or a relative of the Pharaoh
5. Most trusted allies and consultant of the Pharaoh, but were not of royal blood
6. The royal family members of the Pharaoh, particularly those who might hold a claim to kingship, could often not be trusted. But viziers where trusted by the Pharaoh to carry out his will without the fear of revolt
7. Sometimes they remained in office during the reign of more than one Pharaoh
8. All government documents used in Egypt had to have the seal of the vizier in order to be considered authentic and binding
9. Resolved all domestic territorial disputes, controlled the reservoirs, food supply and supervised industries
10. Overseeing the daily functioning of Pharaoh's palace and the protection of Pharaohs
11. Young members of the royal family often served under the vizier to receive training in government affairs
12. The position lost much importance in the Late Kingdom (25th-30th dynasties) (752-343BC) (a time in which the period is characterized by the constant foreign threats and invasions from Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians)
many thanks for this addition. I agree with most of that. Point 1, Viziers were already important in the Old Kingdom. They are often the main men behind the pyramid building. Point 8. I do not think that all government documents were sealed by the vizier. He would just collapse under this duties.
Dr. Wolfram Grajetzki, would you say the following assessment is generally true?
In the Old Kingdom, the Pharaoh had been deemed a "Follower of Horus", an incarnation of the god Horus, overseeing everything high up in the sky. Initially, Re surpassed the other deities, even Horus, the god of the sky and kingship. Re is a superlative of Horus. Re lights up the space in which Horus flies. Instead of the incarnation of the divine Horus in the king, a unique, filial relationship was initiated, and Pharaoh was seen as a god as was his father, Re. As Horus-Re, Pharaoh represented the eternal life of the united land, the everlasting existence of the created order.
Gradually, the influence of the popular Osiris cult on the Heliopolitan priests became considerable. So we see the two-fold soteriological order emerging. But Re and Osiris were not yet one single deity. While ascending to the sky to abide with the deities (headed by Re), these spells granted the monarch an ultimate protection. The Pyramid Texts contain the core theological concepts of this Solar religion of the royal state. At the end of Dynasty V, the dead king did everything the Lunar Osiris did, receiving heart & limbs as did Osiris . He became Osiris himself to ascend to Re. The dead king ascended to the plane of Re and sat with Re, as the Pharaoh was the son of Re and so granted - during life - direct access to the sky of Re. After death he became Osiris and ascended to Re. By the time of Unas (Dynasty V), there were attempts to assimilate the mortuary cult of Osiris. By the time of Unas, the state theology of Re had for quite some time been competing with the popular cult of Osiris, the second major god of the Old Kingdom. In the Pyramid Texts, Heliopolitan & Osirian theologies co-existed.
Although the Solar faith of Heliopolis was a state religion focused on Pharaoh, the Pyramid Texts evidence an ambiguous relationship with Osiris, the god of most people and popular beliefs. The prehistoric Osiris cult, probably local to the Delta, involved a hereafter. As a king of Egypt, he was killed by his brother Seth, recovered by his wife Isis (with the help of the secret name of Re) and resurrected by his son Horus, who avenged his father. His kingdom was conceived as situated below the western horizon, where it merged into the netherworld or Duat. He became the king of the dead below the earth, the "Lord of the Netherworld", monarch of a subterranean kingdom. So, there is an emergence of two faiths. Further, there is nothing in these primordial myths which suggests Osiris to have a celestial afterlife. However, the popularity of Osiris among the people forced the priests to incorporate him into the Solar creed. In this way, Heliopolitan Solar theology slowly incorporated Osiris.
The resurrection of Osiris by Horus and the restoration of his body was affirmed to be Pharaoh's privilege. The Osirian hereafter was celestialized. Osiris was now called "Lord of the Sky" and Pharaoh was announced to Osiris in the sky precisely in the same way as he had been announced to Re in the Solar theology. Hence, we find Pharaoh ascending to the sky and then descending among the dwellers in the netherworld, implying the netherworld became somehow accessible from the sky. In the Osirian cult, the netherworld became the lower region of the sky, in the vicinity of the horizon, below which it also extended. An important link between Re and Osiris was the former's death every day in the west, the place of the dead. The dead Pharaoh and the dying Sun corresponded well, as did the resurrection of Osiris (as king of the dead) and the dawning of the Sun (as a child which is the father of the king of the living).
The Pyramid Texts evidence that the celestial doctrines of the hereafter dominate throughout, and the later subterranean kingdom of Osiris and Re's voyage through it are still entirely in the background in these royal mortuary teachings. Among the people Re is later, as it were, dragged into the Nether World to illumine there the subjects of Osiris in his mortuary kingdom, and this is one of the most convincing evidences of the power of Osiris among the lower classes. In the royal and state temple theology, Osiris is lifted to the sky. So, in the Old Kingdom, Osiris became intimately related with the individual spiritual process of transformation happening after Pharaoh's physical body had died. For Osiris was the proto-type of a godman who had lived on the earth, had been dismembered but who nevertheless remained everlasting in a fine condition, alive after natural death - immortality. Later, Osiris was called "Lord of the Living" (i.e. of those living their afterlife). Osiris was the god of the dead because he gave eternal life to the dead as a result of his own permanent state of divine existence in the afterlife. Hence, the nexus of paramount importance between the monarchy and Osiris consisted in the fact that once the king of Egypt had died, he became Osiris, king of the netherworld. At death, the divinity of Pharaoh, embodied in the forms of (a) Horus the elder sky god and (b) the son of Re, took on a new divine manifestation. Pharaoh became the monarch of the underworld & the afterlife: Osiris. Consequently, in the Pyramid Texts, the dead Pharaoh is sometimes referred to under the name of Osiris (Osiris Unas or Osiris Pepi).
The Old Kingdom developed three original notions:
1. the theo-political status of Pharaoh : as a "Follower of Horus" and "son of Re" : the unity of the Two Lands was guaranteed by the king who as a falcon oversaw all divisions of the earth and as a god maintained the unity (between earth & sky). This perspective may be summarized as the eternal life of Pharaoh during his existence on earth ;
2. the mortuary status of Pharaoh : as the one ascending to the sky to exist with the deities, headed by Re and Pharaoh as the one who does what Osiris did. This is the eternal life of Pharaoh after his existence on earth, as son of the creator or king of the dead (in the Pyramid Texts this tension was not resolved) ;
3. the innate justice of Pharaoh, both here and in the hereafter : truth & righteousness of the whole of creation and the unity of the Two Lands are realized because Pharaoh offers Maat to his father Re. This is the eternal order of life underlining creation and existence, both here and in the hereafter. Without Pharaoh everything would return to the original chaos of pre-creation (the Nun).
In the Pyramid Texts, exclusively used to adorn the tombs of the kings, the divinity of Pharaoh is clearly attested. Many ascension-texts clarify that after he had died, he travelled to the sky and (being a god) returned to the realm of the gods. Only Pharaoh had that privilege.The Pharaoh was (as son of Re) a direct divine source and hence he alone had a soul ("ba") and was the ultimate high priest. Pharaoh was a god and also the only god who was actually physically present in Egypt (he was not in the same way in need of ceremonial installation as the images & statues). This exclusivity of the divine king, who united & sustained the Two Lands, was absolute. All of this points to his paradoxical nature, for although being a god he was the only god to dwell on earth, i.e. his "divine ba" was on earth. He alone ascended to the sky. So, in a way Pharaoh incarnated cosmic harmony and order. Never did these two notions conflict. Pharaoh was the divine institution par excellence and he guaranteed the continuity of both the cosmic as well as the social, political realm.
In the Old Kingdom, only Pharaoh had a "ba", i.e. a "soul". He alone would operate the transition from earthly existence to divine immortality. While on earth he had been a living god, after death he would ascend into the sky to return to the abode of the deities. The "ba" is represented by the hieroglyph of a bird that flies away, suggestive of the rise towards another world, considered to be fully part of the created order but transcending the gross plane of physical existence of life on earth. The commoners were supposed to "hide" in their tombs of the Beautiful West (the abode of the dead). Ascension was not for them, but exclusively for Pharaoh. The common people might survive death as "revered ones", but they could not ascend.
If Pharaoh was a living paradox (a god abiding on earth), then Osiris was a dead paradox (a man alive after death). In both worlds, they represented the exceptions: The divine Ba of Pharaoh lives in his body and may return to the sky when the king dies. Osiris natural body is mummified but he was raised from the dead to eternal life in the afterlife. Osiris became the great prototype of all dead men, to start with Pharaoh in the Old Kingdom. From the Middle Kingdom onward, everybody who was just and able to pay for the rituals could find a set of spells which would be helpful to him or her in the afterlife.
With the Middle Kingdom, direct contact between humanity and the gods did no longer exist. Between the human and the divine a sacred signification, a "transcendent function" bridged the gap. This was provided for by the temples, the state agencies, who represented Pharaoh. The gods were resident on earth as lords of a particular temple. Although their essences (or spirit or "akh") existed in the sky, their "kingdom" was "of this world" (through their "doubles", the "Ka's"). The temples of the nomes owned the land of Egypt and the local deity of the temple embodied the concept of "city", which was always the city of a particular deity. To belong to a city meant to be under the rule of the god of that city. A city was thus a temple situated on the primordial hill, home and domain of an independent deity. The temple was the center of municipal administration and those who lived in the city were automatically "hour-priests" serving in the temples in a monthly rotation under the authority of full-time priests (under the charge of a royal official representing Pharaoh). Hence, the Residence of Pharaoh determined which nome was dominant. The deities did not "dwell" on earth but they installed themselves "in their images". The deities of the old pantheon were in the sky as "spirits" and "souls" ("ba's"), but their physical images existed on earth. This physical double or "Ka" could embrace or fraternize with the world if and only if the proper rituals of "installation" were
daily performed by the priests who were functionaries of Pharaoh, for he was the state and the state was the unity of the temples of the Two Lands. In the cult, the divine brought itself near the realm of human activity. Through the rituals, the deity "installed" itself in its earthly image & function and in the mysteries.
At the end of the Old Kingdom the stable pharaonic system slowly broke down. What exactly happened is unknown, but Egypt was divided between the "kings" of two major nomes : Heracleopolis (IXth & Xth Dynasty) & Thebes (XIth Dynasty). The unity broke up and no great monuments were erected to consolidate the power of a unified state. These facts initiated the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2200 BC), which would last for about a century.
During this period, the rulers of Herakleopolis may at first have ruled Egypt nominally, but it was not for long before many of the Southern nomarchs started to build their provincial empires (the rise of Thebes of Amun). The Theban ruling family assumed the royal titulary at about the same time as the nomarchs of Herakleopolis. Around ca.1980 BC, after a century of disunity, Herakleopolis fell and all of Egypt was again under the rule of a single Theban Pharaoh, namely Mentuhotpe III (ca. 1945 -1938 BC), but things changed considerably. Amenemhet I (ca. 1938 - 1909 BC), who initiated the XIIth Dynasty and with it the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BC), moved the royal residence away from Thebes to the North, thus removing the center of activity (Pharaoh) elsewhere. Thebes lost much of its political power but became the home of Amun, the "king of the gods". With this Dynasty XII, the "feudal age" started. It was a thousand years since the first pyramid had been built. The collapse of the Old Kingdom (from Djoser to Pepi II, i.e. ca. 430 years) and the subsequent decentralization which followed, put Egyptian culture in a state of crisis, but Ancient Egyptian literature was born.
From the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2198 - 1938 BC) onwards, and especially in the classical age (or Middle Kingdom), Pharaoh was no longer an absolute ruler. The collapse of the Old Kingdom brought decentralization and as a result of the collapse of the Old Kingdom, three major changes in the cultural form of Egypt ensued:
• political & economical: local potentates acquired the necessary goods for themselves and their subjects. Raids on neighboring regions and the peasants were common. The latter therefore formed armed bands. Safety was lost. Art sank to a provincial level. But in the walled homes of the rulers of the nomes (the nomarchs) an urban middle class was formed, focused on the accumulation of private property. These "nedjes" (a pejorative word for "small") designated these new "bourgeois" who made the cities into political centers. Some became powerful enough to claim kingship for themselves, albeit nominally, for the division of the Two Lands remained a political fact;
• psychological, inter-subjective, social: the struggle against the terrible experience of returning to the banished chaos, triggered a flowering of literature;
• theological & spiritual: the cultic importance of Pharaoh as sole mediator between the sky and the earth became less important than the deities themselves. They stepped into the foreground and their temples & cultic requirements increased. Especially Osiris, the "king of the dead" and Amun-Re, "the king of the gods", and pharaonic Ptah of Memphis gained in worship from the Middle Kingdom onward. Osiris & Amun-Re were harmonized in ways no myth or pre-rational construction had ever done before.
The Old Kingdom became an ideal charged with nostalgia. It had been construed exclusively around Pharaoh and his temples. In the Middle Kingdom, Pharaoh left existing "dynasties" in place and created new ones. In this way, a "provincial" approach to power rose, and Pharaoh had to maneuver to maintain his now foremost political role as "king of Upper and Lower Egypt" and maintainer of the cult. The temples could become and became powerful states within the state. Pharaonic exclusivity would only re-emerge in the New Kingdom.
After the fall of the Old Kingdom, the whole constellation of interrelated concepts about immortality (Heliopolitan ascension or Osirian resurrection) were no longer royal, pharaonic prerogatives.
In the Old Kingdom, a living god, the Pharaoh, was an immortal being. His death only implied a transition, not a change in essence, for he was already a god on earth and he alone could thus ascend to reach the abode of his soul and the souls of all the other deities of the old pantheon. After the collapse of the Old kingdom, the priests could also attain immortality. With the coming of the Middle Kingdom, it had become the custom to append the epithet "justified" to the name of every dead person. In the Pyramid Text, this procedure had been exclusively used for Pharaoh and his royalty. Whereas at first only Pharaoh could benefit from this (being the one who spoke the Great Speech), the "heka" or "magic" of "divine words" was largely appropriated by the officials class. The Coffin Texts eliminated the royal exclusivity of ascension. Every deceased was an "Osiris", although the principal group of people to make use of them were the nomarchs and their families of the Middle Kingdom. In the Coffin Texts, we find the mingling of Solar and Osirian beliefs, which now completely coalesce (instead of standing next to each other as in the Pyramid Texts). As a result Re is projected in the subterranean hereafter and lights up the kingdom of Osiris.
I think it would have been more charming if Tjaty had been translated to Mayor of the Palace rather than Vizier. Prime Minister would have been a downright depressing translation. 😉
lets stick to the translation 'vizier' for tjati. When i say vizier, all Egyptologist swill know it is Tjaty. With the translation Mayor of the Palace, they will get confused. But Mayor of the Palace explains he duties very well.
Thank you for the lecture. I am curious as to how one becomes the Overseer of the Fields or the Pharaoh's hairstylist. I've heard that a man's work / trade was hereditary but I have to wonder if there was any room for meritocracy? If I were Pharaoh, I would want the best person for the job and not the guy from the family who has always done it or the most sycophantic.
Also, if I worked for the Pharaoh, would I get paid in a way that I can accumulate wealth and take it with me or pass it on to my children? Do I have my own house or do I and my whole family live in the Pharaoh's household and get fed, clothed and educated with the rest of the Pharaoh's entourage? When I go on an official trip in the name of the Pharaoh, how are the group's travel expenses paid for? Who feeds the camels or pays the sailors? How to I get/buy food when I get to a new city or state? There are a lot of day-to-day living details that I would love to hear about if Dr. Grajetzki can share more with us.
Finally, I do have to wonder what happened to the poor lines of Pharaoh's barbers and nail cutters from the Old Kingdom. Did they have to settle for styling hair and nails for lesser people? Were they able to retrain to a new profession? All that skill lost. . . ;-)
Funnily, especially for the Middle Kingdom, there is little evidence that offices at the palace were hereditary. It seems that the king choose his people out of a wider pool of middle officials from different families. Ancient Egypt never had a formal nobility as it is known in Europe. I do not think poorer people had a big chance to get to any special position. They could not read and write. That was needed at the palace.
Ancient Egypt did not yet had money. We have little idea how officials were paid but it seems that officials received fields and estates, perhaps with people and livestock. Officials had own boats and ships and traveled on them. After death the fields and estates went back to the king. But I must admit, we are often just guessing.
Haircutters were still needed in later periods and i am sure the king and the queen had haircutters in all periods. It is just in the Old Kingdom that they were big men at the royal court.
@@WolfinLondon2 Thank you so much for your response! This is a fascinating field and I look forward to hearing more about it. I hope you'll come back for more interviews here.
"Brazeer" "Viseer"
"Tax Collector"
Read "Origin of the Hebrews". It discusses the period where all the people in the years of the GREAT FAMINE sold their lands and themselves to the king in order to survive. TIME OF JOSEPH!!! Only the priests beside the crown had land to grow food. They used the yield to feed themselves. they were exempt from tax. Seostros I, II, AMEN....Sesobek. Lehun where a king is buried! Where Joseph likely lived and managed grain storage, DIKE BUILDING ON THE NILE to create the Niles breadbasket (Fayum), and where he built the kings pyramid. Jacob and brothers lived in Avaris. Ephraim and Menasseh went to live with Jacob and later built their great residence over where jacobs house stood. Dynasty 12...Dynasty 13. Pi-ramses/ramesis was the name of the LAND; not the pharaoh. It also was the UPDATED name swapped in by the translators of the Torah in the Septuagent.