Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,195

Magistrates who had their own staff for investigation, who reported to a District Court and thence to the Emperor’s High Court.

The Watchers, as an institution, lasted into Roman rule.

Nomes

These were the equivalent of states and everyone disagrees about how many there were. There were probably forty-two, although by Strabo’s time there seem to have been twenty-seven. My favourite source, Herodotus, writes of Nomes but does not say how many there were, which would indicate that he didn’t know. I find it hard to believe that he didn’t ask. He does say that the Labyrinth of Government contained twelve halls so there may have been twelve major divisions and sub-nomes as well.

Each Nome had its ruler, or Nomarch, who was usually the biggest landholder. All land in Egypt belonged to the king however; ever since the Age of Chaos when a number of warring Nomarchs reduced Egypt to ruin. After that, no man could own any land—but was allotted it by the king, who owned everything; although this modified freehold could be given, sold or willed.

Every Nome also had its attendant god. For instance, the Nome of Uast—which is Thebes—had, as its capital, Thebes (or Uast); its symbol, the Ram; and its God, Amen-Re.

The Nome of Set had as its capital, Shas-hetep; its symbol, the Black Dog; and its God, Khnem (Amen the father, a phallus).

A full list can be found in Strabo, though he is late; or Pliny, who is later. In the 18th Dynasty, there appear to have been ten Nomes in Upper Egypt, ten in the Delta, and seven in the Heptanomis in Nubia.

Tax & Labour Systems

All land belonged to the Pharaoh; the land title system was a lesser form of freehold (see above); and taxes were assessed on variable factors—the rise of the Nile flood, the fertility of a given field, and the previous history of the land.

The harvest was assessed by inspectors, the seed allotted on that basis, and the farmer left to get on with it. When the grain was harvested the tax was collected. If the farmer had not worked diligently, he owed labour to the state; unless he had a good reason—which included death of a son or parent and climatic factors.

Egyptians used few slaves; those they had were all captives of war; and the child of a slave was not necessarily a slave. Therefore, during the reigns of the belligerent kings, say Rameses II, Egypt had a lot of slaves; and in the reigns of the politically ingenious pharaohs, such as Amenhotep III, there were correspondingly fewer slaves.

Indentured labour—farmers who had not paid their tax and labour levied in something similar to the feudal corvee in Europe—had to be fed and cared for; and their services could not be either demanded during the farming season or kept beyond the dry season.

All those monuments which astound the beholder were built either by indentured or by hired labour, and not by slaves. The Romans also used soldiers, not slaves, to build all those roads which led to Rome and all those remarkable water systems. As the 20th Century has shown, slaves do not make good labour.

On Meteorites, Heliopolis & the Bnbn Bird

Have I mentioned that much study on Egyptology drives people insane? Nowhere is this more clear than in the subject of pyramids. One look at the astounding symmetry and telemetry of the pyramids has fine scientific minds talking about a pre-existing and possibly alien race which must have existed before 10,500 BC; because how otherwise could such simple people align these monuments perfectly on 30 degrees of latitude.

You see what I mean? I don’t know how they did it either; except that assuming ancient people were stupider than we are (because we are so terribly modern and have computers and technology) is foolish.

For this reason—but more so because they were built long before the time I am considering—I shall say no more at all about pyramids.

But the bnbn bird, on the other hand, is fascinating.

Every visitor to Egypt in the ancient times was told about the long-awaited bnbn—or benben—bird. The Greeks called this self-created, self-generating creature the Phoenix. It was later adopted into Christian iconography as a symbol of Christ and his resurrection.

The temple of the Phoenix at Karnak is an open space surrounded by massive walls. In it is the Bennu pillar—a pillar with a rounded top, later a stele with a rounded top,—on which the bnbn bird will perch when it returns to Karnak. Escorted by all the birds of the