Christopher Eyre
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199673896
- eISBN:
- 9780191761478
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199673896.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This book reconstructs a history of documentary practice in pharaonic Egypt from the early Old Kingdom, when the writing system itself was technically very limited, to the major administrative ...
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This book reconstructs a history of documentary practice in pharaonic Egypt from the early Old Kingdom, when the writing system itself was technically very limited, to the major administrative changes imposed by the colonizing regimes of the Graeco-Roman period. It relates administrative and legal practice to the physical practicalities of the media used for writing, and through the close reading of primary textual sources it examines how different types of document — private and official — were created and used. The conclusions stress the unevenness of documentary usage, and the ways in which the writing of documents was deeply embedded in the interactions between customary social practices, that were essentially oral, and the penetration of outside hierarchies into local government. Limitations on the use of the written text as legal evidence are emphasized, in contexts where secure archival reference was impractical, but where the act of writing itself symbolized the exercise of hierarchical authority. Historical changes in contemporary attitudes to the nature and authority of documents are emphasized, within an essentially face-to-face society. It is argued that the potential of the document as evidence was never fully exploited in the pharaonic period, either in law or administration: that the written document did not itself become an autonomous proof, although its writing was a powerful symbol and display of hierarchical authority. Government is presented as a system rooted in personal prestige and patronage structures, lacking the effective departmental hierarchies and archive systems that would represent a true bureaucratic system.Less
This book reconstructs a history of documentary practice in pharaonic Egypt from the early Old Kingdom, when the writing system itself was technically very limited, to the major administrative changes imposed by the colonizing regimes of the Graeco-Roman period. It relates administrative and legal practice to the physical practicalities of the media used for writing, and through the close reading of primary textual sources it examines how different types of document — private and official — were created and used. The conclusions stress the unevenness of documentary usage, and the ways in which the writing of documents was deeply embedded in the interactions between customary social practices, that were essentially oral, and the penetration of outside hierarchies into local government. Limitations on the use of the written text as legal evidence are emphasized, in contexts where secure archival reference was impractical, but where the act of writing itself symbolized the exercise of hierarchical authority. Historical changes in contemporary attitudes to the nature and authority of documents are emphasized, within an essentially face-to-face society. It is argued that the potential of the document as evidence was never fully exploited in the pharaonic period, either in law or administration: that the written document did not itself become an autonomous proof, although its writing was a powerful symbol and display of hierarchical authority. Government is presented as a system rooted in personal prestige and patronage structures, lacking the effective departmental hierarchies and archive systems that would represent a true bureaucratic system.
