Social life in ancient Egypt / by W.M. Flinders Petrie.

  • Flinders Petrie
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Social life in ancient Egypt / by W.M. Flinders Petrie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    exercises and a clear marching road at all times of year. However this may be, it seems that the special definition of these divisions, with separate names in every nome, which at first sight appears needless, is quite accounted for, if these were the allotted lands of the three landed classes in each nome. Let us get some sense of what this holding of the land implied. In the priestly holding the cultivation was done entirely by serfs, and it was free of taxation. It maintained, doubtless, as many persons per acre as the other divisions, but the produce had to maintain the religious and learned classes. It was much like the landed property of the monasteries, which endowment included the education rate and university grants of the time, besides a good deal of the civil service. As to the military holdings, the fullest popula¬ tion likely on a third of the land would be four millions, or two million males. The army of Ramessu II., according to Diodoros, was 650,000. That would mean that every male served for a third of his life. Excluding those who died before military age, that would be a service of half the adult life (i.e., from twenty to sixty-three in England). This is probably about the practical limit for active service. Hence there would not be any room for serfs on the land, the cultivation
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