From the time of the Middle Kingdom[[47]] (circa B.C. 2000) onwards the title
mer khetem,[[48]] “Superintendent” or “Keeper of the (Royal) Seal”[[49]] is constantly occurring in the hieroglyphic inscriptions. During the first half of the Twelfth Dynasty, while each province was yet ruled over by semi-independent chieftains, there appears to have been a Keeper of the (Royal) Seal employed in the administration of each nome,[[50]] whose duty it was to collect and transmit treasure to the central office. Next to the chieftain himself, he was perhaps the most important personage in the province, for he had control over its revenues, and all its public works were carried out under his supervision. Baqt, the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal in the Oryx nome, supervised the excavation and adornment of Khnemhetep’s magnificent monument at Beni Hasan.[[51]] When that great nomarch’s officials defiled before him, the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal stood in the place of honour[[52]] behind the uhem or “Herald,” and in front of the mer meshau or “General of the Troops.” He was the nomarch’s trusted friend, and accompanied him on his hunting and fowling[[53]] expeditions in the desert and on the river, while in Khnemhetep’s funeral procession to Abydos, his place was in the State barge at the side of the deceased prince’s children.[[54]] A very interesting scene at Beni Hasan shows the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal seated in his kha[[55]] or “office,” watching one of his assistants weighing gold, or some other precious metal, in a balance, while a seated scribe writes down the weight on a wooden tablet or sheet of papyrus (see fig. 15). The office here shown was very similar to that of the Vezîr;[[56]] it was a columned hall of six columns in two rows, the front being open to the air, while at the back was a door which gave entrance to the bêt el mâl or treasury.
Fig. 15.
THE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE SEAL.
(From a painting in a tomb at Beni Hasan.)
About the middle of the Twelfth Dynasty a great change appears to have taken place in the political constitution of Egypt; we no longer hear of the Chieftains of Nomes or Provinces, and it seems that the Government, for a short time at least, became much more strictly centralized than it had ever been before. With this centralization of the administration several new offices were created, the provincial “Keepers of the (Royal) Seal” appear to have been suppressed, and adenus, “wakîls” or “deputies” of the Chief Keeper, appointed in their stead. The Treasury Department, however, was still presided over by a single[[57]] “Keeper of the Royal Seal,” who henceforth was one of the most important and powerful personages in the realm;[[58]] he became, in fact, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,[[59]] an Lord Chancellor, Keeper of the Seal.
Unfortunately we have no long inscription recording this great official’s duties, as we have in the case of the Vezîr,[[60]] so it is only by gathering a fact here and there from many sources that we can obtain any idea of his multifarious duties. That he had charge of the Government stores, and supervised everything connected with the bêt el mâl or Treasury, is certain;[[61]] he had also to be responsible for the payment of all Government bills. If any important public monument had to be erected,[[62]] or if any government business was to be undertaken, it was his duty, together with his staff of assistants, to make all necessary arrangements regarding the payment of the employés, which must have been a most onerous task, when we remember that the Egyptians possessed no coined money until after the time of Alexander the Great. The supervision of the taxation of the country appears also to have been placed in the Chancellor’s hands, and it was his custom, as it still is with the heads of the departments of the various services of the Khedive’s administration, to make an annual tour of inspection throughout the length and breadth of the country.[[63]] In time of war a number of his officers accompanied the military expeditions, and when a town was plundered by the royal troops, they took possession of the spoil, some of which was kept for the Treasury, while the rest was given to the temples as an offering to the gods.[[64]]
But not only did the Egyptian Chancellor have charge of everything connected with the Treasury, he seems also to have had a considerable share of the responsibility of appointing various State officials. We have already referred to the story of Joseph’s appointment to the Vezîrate, in which case the Seal or Signet of office was given by the king personally. With other officials, however, it seems to have been the custom for the Chancellor to deliver the Seal, and this ceremonial in a bureaucratic country such as Egypt then was, must have entailed a vast amount of time. Possessing the authority to appoint high officers, and also the means of controlling the State Treasury, it is no wonder that these old Chancellors attained to a great degree of power, and there seems reason to believe that more than one dynasty had its origin in a Chancellor’s family.
So many and various were the duties of the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal, that it is hardly matter for surprise if we find that he employed a large staff of assistants to help him. Among these the
