Craft Specialization in Administration in Pre- and Protodynastic Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Egyptology, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

2 Department of Egyptology, Faculty of Archaeology, Fayoum University, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Administration in Egypt is one of the key areas of research, which reflects on the organization of the government and the complexity of The Centralized Economy as well as of Society. Its evidence almost entirely dependes on textual evidence that contains information about the titles and hierarchy of officials, Their responsibilities and administrative units, and the nature of The bureaucratic transactions involved. Therefore, at the most basic level, administration deals with the recording of bureaucratic processes in the form of written records (Köhler 2010: 41).
Also, Bureaucracy/ administration is one of the parameters of Statehood in Predynastic Egypt. It is the most rational known means of exercising authority and its administrative apparatus are well represented in Pre- and Protodynastic Egypt by Various artifacts (Anđelković 2008: 1048).
I will discuss administrative items includes a numerous fragments of clay seals and mud jar sealings/ stoppers with impressions of ropes fabrics or hieroglyphic characters, Several cylindrical seal matrices, Ivory Labels, as well as a number of small clay artefacts probably also serving as complex tokens that appear to indicate potential administrative activities at settlement sites. The fact that they were intended for daily, clearly utilitarian use. They may have been related to trade activities once carried out in these sites with Varying intensity, being a collection of objects with commercial and bookkeeping applications (Kołodziejczyk 2012: 267; Anderson 2006: 237).

Keywords


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