Egyptian nome

A nome (/noʊm/, from Greek: νομός, nomós, “district”) was a territorial division in ancient Egypt. The word "nome" was the Ancient Greek term (νομή, nomé); the Ancient Egyptian term was sepat or spAt.

Each nome was ruled by a nomarch (Ancient Egyptian: heri-tep a'a). The number of nomes changed through the various periods of the history of ancient Egypt.

The Ancient Greek term νομή, nomé was derived from νομός, nomós, meaning "district"; the Ancient Egyptian term was sepat or spAt.

Today's use of the Greek rather than the Ancient Egyptian term came about during the Ptolemaic period, when the use of Greek was widespread in Egypt. The availability of Greek records on Egypt influenced the adoption of Greek terms by later historians.

The division of ancient Egypt into nomes can be traced back to the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC). These nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states, but later began to unify. According to ancient tradition, the ruler Menes completed the final unification.

Not only did the division into nomes remain in place for more than three millennia, the areas of the individual nomes and their ordering remained remarkably stable. Some, like Xois in the Delta or Khent in Upper Egypt, were first mentioned on the Palermo stone, which was inscribed in the Fifth Dynasty. The names of a few, like the nome of Bubastis, appeared no earlier than the New Kingdom. Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes.

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