Juan Carlos Moreno García and Seth Richardson, Monarchies and the Organization of Power. Ancient Egypt and Babylonia Compared (2100–1750 BC), Cambridge University Press, 2025.
We are pleased to announce that a new volume of Ancient Egypt in Context series has just been published.
The series, edited by Gianluca Miniaci (Università di Pisa), Juan Carlos Moreno García (CNRS–Paris), Anna Stevens (University of Monash/University of Cambridge), is published by the Cambridge University Press within the frame of Cambridge Elements.
This Element explores the organization of power in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and the interaction of diverse social actors between 2100 and 1750 BC. On the one hand, the forms of integration of towns and villages in larger political entities and the role played by local authorities, with a focus on local agency, the influence of mobile populations, the
exercise of power in small localities, and the contrast between power reality and royal ideological claims, be they legal, divinely sanctioned, or other. On the other hand, the modalities of penetration of the royal authority in the local sphere, the alliances that
linked court dignitaries and local potentates, and the co-option of local leaders. Finally, the influence of such networks of power on the historical evolution of the monarchies and the adaptability of the latter in coping with the challenges they faced to assert and reproduce their authority.
The Element is available for free download from April 28 to May 12 at the following URL:
<https://www.cambridge.org/
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/
For more information about Cambridge Elements series:
<https://www.cambridge.org/
