Nome (Egypt)

The nomes & towns of Egypt in hieroglyphics

The division of ancient Egypt into nomes can be traced back to prehistoric Egypt (before 3100 BC). These nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states, but later began to unify. According to ancient tradition, the ruler Menes completed the final unification.[7]

Not only did the division into nomes remain in place for more than three millennia, the areas of the individual nomes and their ordering remained remarkably stable. Some, like Xois in the Nile Delta or Khent in Upper Egypt, were first mentioned on the Palermo Stone, which was inscribed in the Fifth Dynasty. The names of a few, like the nome of Bubastis, appeared no earlier than the New Kingdom. Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes.

Lower Egypt nomes

Lower Egypt (Egyptian "Ā-meḥty"), from the Old Kingdom capital Memphis to the Mediterranean Sea, comprised 20 nomes. The first was based around Memphis, Saqqara, and Giza, in the area occupied by modern-day Cairo. The nomes were numbered in a more or less orderly fashion south to north through the Nile Delta, first covering the territory on the west before continuing with the higher numbers to the east. Thus, Alexandria was in the Third Nome; Bubastis was in the Eighteenth.

1. White Walls Nome
2. Travellers land
3. Cattle land
4. Southern shield land
5. Northern shield land
6. Mountain bull land
7. West harpoon land
8. East harpoon land
9. Andjety god land
10. Black bull land
11. Heseb bull land
12. Calf and Cow land
13. Prospering Sceptre land
14. Eastmost land
15. Ibis-Tehut land
16. Fish land
17. The throne land
18. Prince of the South land
19. Prince of the North land
20. Sopdu-Plumed Falcon land

Upper Egypt nomes

Middle Egypt nomes

Upper Egypt was divided into 22 nomes. The first of these was centered on Elephantine close to Egypt's border with Nubia at the First Cataract – the area of modern-day Aswan. From there the numbering progressed downriver in an orderly fashion along the narrow fertile strip of land that was the Nile valley. Waset (ancient Thebes or contemporary Luxor) was in the Fourth Nome, Amarna in the Fourteenth, and Meidum in the Twenty-first.

1. Bows land
2. Throne of Horus land
3. Shrine land
4. Sceptre land
5. The two falcons land
6. The crocodile land
7. Sistrum land
8. The Great land
9. Min-God land
10. Cobra land
11. Sha-Set animal land
12. Viper mountain land
13. Upper Sycamore and Viper land
14. Lower Sycamore and Viper land
15. Hares land
16. Oryx Nome
17. Anubis land
18. Set land
19. Two Sceptres land
20. Southern Sycamore land
21. Northern Sycamore land
22. Knife land

Some nomes were added or renamed during the Graeco-Roman occupation of Egypt.[8] For example, the Ptolemies renamed the Crocodilopolitan nome to Arsinoe. Hadrian created a new nome, Antinoopolites, for which Antinoöpolis was the capital.

The nomes survived into Roman times. Under Roman rule, individual nomes minted their own coinage, the so-called "nome coins," which still reflect individual local associations and traditions. The nomes of Egypt retained their primary importance as administrative units until the fundamental rearrangement of the bureaucracy during the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine the Great.

From AD 307/8, their place was taken by smaller units called pagi. Eventually powerful local officials arose who were called pagarchs, through whom all patronage flowed. The pagarch's essential role was as an organizer of tax-collection. Later the pagarch assumed some military functions as well. The pagarchs were often wealthy landowners who reigned over the pagi from which they originated.

• Bagnall, Roger S. (1996), Egypt in Late Antiquity, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Bowman, Alan K. (1990), Egypt after the Pharaohs, Oxford: Oxford University Press.