"Going Govern-mental for administration": an investigation of the evolution of the structure and function of Egyptian administration in the Pre and Early Dynastic periods

The study of the administration in Egypt is ultimately a study of the control that the Egyptian government was able to exert over its population. However, despite the existence of scholarly works on later periods, there is comparatively little knowledge of the administration from the Late Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods. It is the goal of this research to track the evolution of the structure and function of the administration in Egypt from the end of the Predynastic Period through to the beginning of the Old Kingdom. This study will seek to combine textual, archaeological and iconographic data in order to provide both quantitative and qualitative data regarding the Egyptian administration. The expected outcome of this work is that it reveals the dynamic change experienced by the administration, and that we have a clearer picture in regard to how the early Egyptians viewed the administration, how it was utilised in the context of Egyptian society, and the role this entity played in the state formation process. This work also provides us with an understanding of how the perception of the administration has changed in modern scholarship throughout time.