Vigilantes in Ancient Egypt
Introduction
In ancient Egypt there is no information about whether the pharaohs had a stable army to the new empire, that is, between the 1550s and 1069 before Christ. Nor did they have an organized police body and their work was to maintain public order. There were many types of security with their different tasks: the Sasha, the vigilantes including goalkeepers, Sa-Per, the Local Police, Soldados-Policías, the NUU and the Medjay. The court sovereigns had their own security body that were the bodyguards. From the surveillance of the real harem, that is, the women and children of the royal family, a group of men known as the Sasha.
Developing
The guards were officials who operated at local scale and were paid by the State in order to fulfill specific tasks. Example: In the city of the Pyramid Builders, there were the vigilantes who were responsible for controlling the constructions and making the Pharaoh mastery. Some of these guards also worked as goalkeepers-political, these were bribed by artisans who wanted to get out of the enclosure to rest. This we can find in the satire of the trades, a text of the new empire.
SA-Per was another group of Pharaoh police officers who accompanied tax collectors when they went, every two years, to collect the "cattle count". These hit the peasants against the scribes to declare their earnings, in addition to beating those who were unable to pay. In the small villages was the local police, who was responsible for maintaining the order of the markets, they used animals such as monkeys or dogs to intimidate people.
The security of the borders was in charge of military defense and to prevent the entry of "immigrants". This was mostly in Nubia, where a series of forts were built with soldiers-politicals responsible for preventing anyone from crossing the border by any means, water or land. Only blacks could happen when they came to trade in Iken or to give some type of message.
There were also border patrols in the Libyan desert, where they wandered Bedouins who made incursions to the Nile. To avoid this, groups of men named Nuu began to travel the desert, who were traveling accompanied by dogs specially trained in detection work. The Guardians of Tombs or also called Medjay, was the most evolved security group in ancient Egypt. They were mercenaries who had intervened at the service of the kings of Thebes in the struggles against the invaders of the country’s control. Their good offices in the expulsion of the Hicsos made the pharaoh make them a body of soldiers-political.
conclusion
In addition to patrolling the desert, they also protected the Valley of the Kings and other areas of special relevance for the sovereign. In the Valley of the Kings, the methods of these security forces are not known, they could be night patrols at certain hours, or traveled by the top of the cliff, controlling from above what was happening. But there is no doubt that this surveillance was not one of the best.
This is shown by the case of the tomb of Tutankhamun, which was looted twice a short of being buried in it the pharaoh. On the first occasion, the thieves took oils, ointments, small jewels, perhaps the papiros, etc. On the second occasion, the thieves were not so lucky because they were caught and the grave was sealed until 1922, when Howard Carter discovered it
Leave feedback