\paperw3990 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Egyptian society was a ôtheocraticö one, that is to say ruled by personages who were believed to have a divine nature.\par
The term ô
pharaohö first appeared in the Bible and was unknown to the rulers of Egypt.\par
The monarch was sometimes called ôGreat House,ö or Per-O, and it is from this that the word pharaoh was derived.\par
The government of Egypt was established by an elite th
at created a god-king, the unifier of the country.\par
There was little difference between religion and politics in Egypt and the balance of power often shifted between the king and the priests of Heliopolis, the seat of the temple of sun worship.\par
Over the course of the Old Kingdom Egypt was divided up into forty provinces, to which the Greeks later gave the name \i nomoi\i0 .\par
The sovereign personally appointed a governor in each province, and he later came to be known as a ônomarch.ö\par
In
addition to serving as the judge of the province, the nomarch was in charge of agricultural production and public works.\par
He decided the size of taxes to be levied and controlled the archives in which the scribes wrote down everything in great detai
l.\par
Money did not exist and so the taxes, paid in kind, were stored in the royal granaries and warehouses.\par
It seems that there was no written law in Egypt, and yet there was a legal practice guaranteed by the pharaoh and the governor of each pro