Romanova O. The priests in social structure of Egypt during Old Kingdom.

The present thesis considers the position of Egyptian priests in social and administrative structure of Old Kingdom. The sources support the idea, that Egyptian priest was the state officer, priestly service was a state service. Priests held divers administrative posts. They were high state magistrates as well as the officers of middle level or clerks in various departments of government. The tendency of rising of the number of priestly titles together with increasing of position of the person in administrative system is observed. There was correlation between some kind of priestly titles of a person and sphere of his occupation in Old Kingdom Egypt. Priestly titles are proved to be present in the lists of titles of high rank officials as well as the representatives of professional elite or chiefs of some kind of works. Process of formation the Egyptian priests as a social group has been taking place during Old Kingdom. Consolidation of Egyptian priests proceeded on the base of officials dealing wi th the sphere of cult. The process did not complete then, because the priests of Old Kingdom did not consist themselves as a real united social group. The social status of five categories of priests (sem-priest, cherheb (lector-priest), prophet, wab-priest (purificator), ka-priest) has been analyzed in the thesis. Every priesthood category noted above had its own term of beginning and origin, position in administrative structure.