Compulsion and Control in Ancient Egypt

How did the Ancient Egyptians maintain control of their state? This book considers this question from a wide variety of angles and across all periods of Egyptian history, from the Old Kingdom to Coptic times. Topics include the controlling function of temples and theology, state borders, scribal administration, visual representation, patronage, and the Egyptian language itself. These different strands are tied together by legal pluralism theory, which argues that a single state can rely on multiple – and at times even contradictory – strategies for upholding what it considers just within the bounds of what is nominally a single jurisdiction. This theoretical approach, while increasingly common in modern postcolonial studies and the history of law, is yet to be deployed in Egyptology. This book therefore aims to fill that gap. The chapters are expanded versions of papers originally presented at the 3rd Lady Wallis Budge Egyptology conference, organised by Christ’s College and held online on 27th–28th August 2020.