Ancient History and Economic History: Studies on Economy and Society in Egypt Dynastic Period

The history of Ancient Egypt transcended its time and space and became a popularized knowledge in contemporary times. This does not mean, however, that Egypt is no longer an enigma to us. There is still much to be understood about the history of Ancient Egypt and the subject of the Egyptian economy has become an important place of effervescent and fruitful debates over the last few decades. In fact, in the History of Ancient Egypt, the study of elements that fall into the sphere of the economy - such as, for example, studies on transport and communication, agriculture, monetary system and market, work, manufacturing - offers important and elucidating information about the particularities not only of the economy but of ancient Egyptian society as a whole since there is no way to conceive of the societies of the ancient world as a reality that can be conceived only by the dimension of the 'economic' distinct from the 'social' and the scopes of ' political' and 'cultural'. Nevertheless, the economics of ancient Egypt still remains a difficult field. According to a specialized historiography, this is due, firstly, to the existence of some divergences among scholars about whether or not to use modern economic theories to explain the ancient Egyptian economy and, secondly, due to the absence of evidence or the difficulty of interpreting the documentation which, according to some authors, is characteristically permeated by the absence of certain data or present inaccuracies (BLEIBERG, 2007). Given these circumstances, we chose to approach the theme of "Economy and society in Pharaonic Egypt" in terms of a theoretical-methodological reflection, in a first moment, and historical, in a second moment, so that we can understand the construction and writing of an 'economic ' considered 'Egyptian' in 'society' of 'Pharaonic' Egypt context.