A Bureaucratic Challenge? Archaeology and Administration in a Desert Environment (Second Millennium B.C.E.)

Abstract

Desert roads were important yet narrow bands of control through the desert hinterlands of the Nile Valley, and the Egyptians recognized both their importance and potential fears. During the First Intermediate Period, the bureaucratic challenge of warring nomes in Upper Egypt was tackled at least once through the annexation of desert routes. Middle Kingdom through Second Intermediate Period outposts might also provision allied foreign groups as well as Egyptian caravans. After the reorganization of the state and its administrative titles at the end of the Second Intermediate Period, pharaonic control of the hinterlands of the Nile Valley and the desert roads thereof, and the pharaonic presence in the deserts undergoes some basic changes. Although early New Kingdom officials in the regions of Thinis and Thebes might acquire several titles giving them oversight of areas and duties in the Western Desert, no general Nilotic hegemony is established over the oases. Keywords:bureaucratic challenge; desert road; Egypt; New Kingdom; Nile Valley