Land Ownership, Egypt
- Land Owned by the King and Temples -but texts are not clear - even land owned by temples may ultimately be owned by the King, but may just be leased on a very long term basis
- Based on texts known, there is not private, inheritable ownership of land
- Land leased to individuals - peasant farmers who will have to pay tax but will be allowed to live and grow on this land
Land Ownership, Mesopotamia
- Land Owned by the King and Temples -but texts are not clear - even land owned by temples may ultimately be owned by the King, but may just be leased on a very long term basis
- Private individuals also allowed to own some land
Marriage in Egypt
(Implied from documents)
- No evidence for ceremony
- Civil contract?
- Term for marriage = ‘to move in with’
- Either party could initiate a divorce
- Wife entitled to 1/3rd of her husbands property when he died
- Estate divided among their children
Marriage in Babylonia
(Legal codes extant)
- Elaborate rites inc. engagement/marriage contract, temple offerings, payment of the families of the bride/groom to each other (dowry and bride price) and ceremony/feast
- Bride moves to her father in laws home
- Could be nullified by non-virginity of bride or barrenness, for return of dowry
- Children by female servants/slaves could be legitimised
- Divorce generally initiated by husband
Laws of Ur-nammu
-death penalty for murder and robbery and women who cheat
Laws of Hammurabi
- An eye for an eye, literally
- If the eye belongs to a slave or freeman you could pay instead - Half the fine for hurting a slave than you would get for hurting a freeman
Egypt: Regional Administration
Nomes - division of Egypt into regions
-Nomarch - regional leader - power differs over time
• 20 Lower Egypt
• 22 Upper Egypt
Local Administration
• Mayor
• Local Council - may deal with local crimes, have some legal power
Vizier
Egyptian Prime Minister - second only to the king
- at some periods one for each half of country
- chief judge
- chief executive of palace
- founded dyn XVIII
Overseer of the Seal
Egyptian Chancellor - just below or in parallel to the vizier
- Senior financial role, esp. taxation
- Seal of treasuries, granaries
- Judicial role
Other Egyptian Overseers (2nd Tier Offices of State)
- Overseer of the Granary- grain supply
- Overseer of Houses of Gold and Silver- treasury
- Overseer of the Gate - controlled access to the palace
- Royal Herald -acted as king’s agent in palace and beyond
- Royal Messengers
Royal Household
- separate from state organisation
- Chief Steward of king
- Royal Butler
- Child of the kap
- Royal Nurse
Offices of Nubia (Kush)
- Conquered and becomes an integral part of Egypt in the New Kingdom, but has a separate viceroyalty
- Viceroy of Nubia
- Deputy of Lower Nubia
- Deputy of Upper Nubia
Religious Figures
- 1st Prophet
- 2nd Prophets
- Lector Priests
- God’s Fathers
- Pure- Priests
- Chantresses
- Many priests and prophets had a different, regular job and would only be a priest for a month out of a year
Crown Iconography
- White crown - Upper Egypt (South)
- Red crown - Lower Egypt (North)
- Double crown - pharaohs, and their Horus
- Blue crown - New Kingdom pharaohs in battle and ceremonies
- Uraeus - stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt - shows legitimacy of pharoahs
Modes of Succession
-
Female Kings of Egypt
e.g. Hatsheput, Sobkneferu, Tawosret, Cleopatra
Mesopotamian Kings
- Appointed by gods as their representatives on earth, to maintain order and laws
Officials in Assyria
• Commander-in-chief • Treasurer • Chief cupbearer • Chief eunuch • Palace herald • Vizier • Chief judge -“Deputy” system -some officials provided year-names: 'eponym' system
Minoan Palaces
Knossos, Phaistos
Organisation of Mycenae
-Bronze supplied by 32 different officials
-Regional organisation of Kingdom of Pylos
-Hither Province along coast
-Further Province –
Messenia
-Each province – 16 districts
-Each district governor & deputy governor
Megarons
Large central, highly decorated throne rooms e.g. Palace of Nestor, Pylos
The Polis
- Less a territorial grouping than as a religious and political association:
- most composed of several tribes/phylai,
- composed of phratries (common-ancestry lineages), and génea (extended families)
- Synoecism/conurbation:
- absorption of nearby villages and countryside
- incorporation of their tribes into the substructure of the polis.
- Self-governance, autonomy, and independence (city-state)
- Own coinage
- Colonies founded by the oikistes of the metropolis
Classical Greece- Political Life
- sovereign Ekklesia (assembly of all adult male citizens)
- the standing boule and other civic or judicial councils
- the archons and other officials/magistrates elected by vote or by lot
- laws, decrees, and major fiscal accounts published
- criminal and civil trials were held in public.
Social classes and citizenship in Classic Greece
generally divided into four types of
inhabitants, usually determined by birth:
• Citizens with full legal and political rights
• free adult men born legitimately of citizen parents
• had the right to vote, be elected into office, and bear arms,
and the obligation to serve when at war.
• Citizens without formal political rights but with full legal rights:
• Citizens’ female relatives and underage children (political rights
and interests meant to be represented by adult male relatives).
• Citizens of other poleis: (métoikoi):
• had full legal rights but no local political rights
• had full personal and property rights, albeit subject to taxation.
• Slaves: chattel of their owners
• no privileges other than those that their owner would grant (or
revoke) at will
