In this Chapter, I shift the focus from the institutions of the central state and its power, to the local organization of land tenure. I discuss the Egyptian tradition of property transmission, and the interaction of the Ptolemaic state to this ancient system. I will concentrate primarily on documents from the Thebaid, where the Egyptian material is at its fullest, and I will be concerned with two things: (1) the ancient institutions and social networks relating to land holding, and (2) the Egyptian tradition of property rights in land that were transferred by inheritance as well as by lease and sale contracts. In both cases, the documentary material shows that there was strong continuity with the pre-Ptolemaic period in the social and economic patterns of land tenure, and in the tradition of scribal practice with respect to contract-making. The Ptolemies did not alter the ancient property regime but, rather, established institutions designed to capture taxation revenue from production and from the circulation of property, and asserted the ancient pharaonic power of assigning rights to land.