From the time of the Middle Kingdom[47] (_circa_ B.C. 2000) onwards the title [Egyptian **] _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.
[Illustration: 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.