The administration of Egyptian Thebes in the Early Ptolemaic period

Abstract

This thesis examines the organization and evolution of the administration of Egyptian Thebes in the early Ptolemaic period, as reflected in the papyri and ostraca of a community of mortuary priests. It has long been known that most of the papyri from early Ptolemaic Thebes belonged to this community of mortuary priests, but it is now clear that many of the ostraca from early Ptolemaic Thebes also belonged to this community. Consequently, prosopographic evidence can be used to determine the dates and functions of many of the papyri and ostraca from early Ptolemaic Thebes. The civil administration of early Ptolemaic Thebes is represented in the documents of the community of mortuary priests for the most part by Demotic contracts. Demotic contracts embodied traditional Egyptian contract law, and coexisted with Greek contracts that embodied recently introduced Greek contract law. Demotic and Greek contracts were administered separately, each with their own notaries, registration systems and courts. Criminal and tort law was administered by the local representatives of the king and by the police. The financial administration of early Ptolemaic Thebes is represented in the documents of the community of mortuary priests for the most part by tax receipts on ostraca. The increased use of coinage in Egypt in the Ptolemaic period allowed the Ptolemies to supplement the traditional harvest taxes in kind and the occasional sales taxes in money with more regular money taxes, notably a poll tax with surcharges and several commodity monopolies. The Ptolemies also introduced the practice of tax-farming to collect the new money taxes, and probably introduced the widespread use of tax receipts on ostraca to protect the tax-payers from overzealous tax-farmers