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vidual provincial officials.^63 The details of the process by which the
king transmitted his orders are still obscure.^64 The exemption decrees
illuminate to some extent the role and position of the temples.^65 In
the Fifth Dynasty, a general secretariat was formed, presumably to
help expedite the king’s orders.^66 A bureaucratic mechanism must
have existed for receiving complaints and requests; some royal edicts
seem to result from direct petition, the decree being addressed to a
specific official.^672.1.3.1.1 The central administration was headed by the vizier.^68
The office of vizier existed from about the Third Dynasty through
the Thirtieth Dynasty (fourth century). Until the later Old Kingdom the
holders of this office were generally royal princes.^69 There is consid-
erable New Kingdom evidence on the vizierate, but relatively little
from the Old Kingdom.^70 The limitations of the office are therefore
not clear; at times, there may even have been two viziers, one respon-
sible for Lower Egypt, one for Upper Egypt.^71 Some suppose that(^63) Hornung, Gründzuge.. ., 21.
(^64) Martin-Pardey, Untersuchungen.. ., 103–04. Garcia, “Administration.. .,” 126,
emphasizes the gradual extension of powers to officials with older titles (Fifth Dynasty),
a process leading towards the influential ̇ry tp ' 3 of the Sixth Dynasty.
(^65) See Eichler, Untersuchungen.. ., 289–93. On the connection between the royal
estates and the temples, see, e.g., Weeks, “Officials.. .,” 14–17.
(^66) Leprohon, Civilization.. ., vol. 1, 279. This office may have composed the royal
decrees and memoranda which guided the individual departments in their decisions
and actions. On the s“'-nswt(“scribe of the king’s documents”), see Martin-Pardey,
Untersuchungen.. ., 102–03; Eyre, “Work.. .,” 6. On the royal secretariat, see Helck,
Zur Verwaltung.. ., 277–78; Ward, “Old Kingdom.. .,” 382–83.
(^67) See Hafemann, “Arbeitspflicht im alten Ägypten. I,” 6; Théodoridès, “Charte.. .,”
693.
(^68) Lurje, Studien zum altägyptischen Recht, 31–32; Strudwick, Administration.. ., 330.
On the vizier in general, see Strudwick, Administration.. ., 300–335. He observes
(304) that the vizier often receives the designations t3yty, “he of the curtain,” s3b
“judge (?),” ∆3ty“vizier.” On the vizier’s functions, see Strudwick, Administration...,
328–34. On early juristic evidence for the vizier, see Goedicke,Königliche Dokumente...,
- One of the chief sources for the vizierate is the “Duties of the Vizier,” only
preserved in early Eighteenth Dynasty copies. Some scholars believe that sections
of this composition may derive originally from the Old Kingdom; see Lurje, Studien..., - See further Trigger et al, Social History.. ., 84, Boochs, Strafrechtliche Aspekte...,
38–39; Gestermann, Kontinuität.. ., 147–53. A rare example of a text illustrating the
administrative workings of the vizierate is Gardiner, “Administrative Letter” (Sixth
Dynasty). On the vizier as head of the bureaucracy, above the overseer of Upper
Egypt, see Hafemann, “Arbeitspflicht im alten Ägypten. I,” 18.
(^69) Hornung, Grundzüge.. ., 21. See also: Valloggia, “Vizier.. .,” 132; Helck, Zur
Verwaltung.. ., 17–64; Strudwick, Administration.. ., 312–13.
(^70) Leprohon, Civilization.. ., 1: 279.
(^71) See Van den Boorn, Vizier.. ., 20; Strudwick, Administration.. ., 321–28.
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