El Estado En El Antiguo Egipto

This book presents a new analysis of the organization, structure, and changes of the Pharaonic state throughout three millennia of its history. It sheds new light on this subject by contributing the latest advances in state theory and archaeology, especially the comparative study of the structure of ancient states and empires. The role played by Pharaonic Egypt in new studies often reiterates old opinions about the stability, conservatism, and "exceptionalism" of the Egyptian monarchy, which supposedly remained the same throughout the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, but this study dispels these established myths. Ancient Egypt shared many parallels with other societies of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as demonstrated by an analysis of the structure of the state, the limits of royal power, the authority of often overlooked local micro-powers (such as provincial potentates and wealthy non-elites), and the circulation and control of wealth. Egypt underwent profound changes in its social, economic, political, and territorial organization throughout its history, making the land of the pharaohs an ideal testing ground for the application of models of government and the definition of the dynamics that govern societies in the long term. From these new perspectives, the pharaonic monarchies seem less exceptional than previously thought and more dependent on the balance of power, their ability to control the kingdom's resources, and the changing geopolitical conditions of their time.