ABSTRACT
In Egypt the king was more explicitly recognized as equal in status and capacity with the gods than in any other culture. Egyptian political thought derived its conceptual force from the relationship between religion and the country's civil government. Etched on a rocky outcrop along a secondary channel of the Wdi Hammmt is a hieroglyphic graffito displaying the serekh of the pharaoh Narmer. Another rock graffito found at Gebel Tjauti reveals the extent to which the political unification of ancient Egypt under a single ruler relied on military action. A variety of graffiti dating to the Middle and New Kingdom testifies to the significant building programmes undertaken by Egyptian rulers. Ancient Greece comprised over a thousand distinct political communities stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, especially on the coastal fringes of the Mediterranean and Eurasia. Geography played a significant role in the socio-political configuration of the Greek world.
