The nomoi
The nomoi
| In the Neolithie epoch, the nomadic people, settled along the Nile to
practise gardening, to fish and to hunt – in time they began to build villages
and cultivate the surroundings land – later these territories formed small
principalities that in time were joined to the independent reigns – hates, when
upper and lower Egypt were unified, the ancient territories became provinces,
both in the economical way and the agricultural way. Called nomi by the Greek and sepat by Egyptian, they had a chief town, a city (Nyut) always built at the junction of the main roads (in fact the hyerogliphic symbol represent a cross in a circle), a temple of the god protector of the city (Het net “God’s Castle”) a castle for the monarca (Heqa het), on insigna for him, local celebrations, ritual and alimentary prohibitions (but). During the ancient reign, there were about thirty-eight nomoi, later there were twenty of theme on the delta and twentytwo in upper Egypt. The foundation of a new nomos was always a reason for great celebrations Proper borders delimited the nomarca’s administrative area and the nomos, usually it was only 30-40 km long, over the Nile, if the area of its valley was narrow, or limited by the river as the desert, if it was a wider area. The borders of the nomoi varied varied according to the epochs, the subdivision in nomoi remained during the whole course of Egyptian history
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