Editing Middle Kingdom of Egypt (section)

==Administration==
When the Eleventh Dynasty reunified Egypt it had to create a centralized administration such as had not existed in Egypt since the downfall of the Old Kingdom government. To do this, it appointed people to positions that had fallen out of use in the decentralized First Intermediate Period. The highest among these was the vizier.<ref name="Shaw 174">[[#Shaw2000|Shaw. (2000)]] p. 174</ref> The vizier was the chief minister for the king, handling all the day-to-day business of government in the king's place.<ref name="Shaw 174"/> This was a monumental task, therefore it would often be split into two positions, a vizier of the north, and a vizier of the south. It is uncertain how often this occurred during the Middle Kingdom, but Senusret I clearly had two simultaneously functioning viziers.<ref name="Shaw 174"/> Other positions were inherited from the provincial form of government at Thebes used by the Eleventh Dynasty before the reunification of Egypt.<ref name="Grajetzki21">[[#Grajetzki2006|Grajetzki. (2006)]] p. 21</ref> The ''Overseer of Sealed Goods'' became the country's treasurer, and the ''Overseer of the Estate'' became the King's chief steward.<ref name="Grajetzki21"/> These three positions and the ''Scribe of the Royal Document,'' probably the king's personal scribe, appear to be the most important posts of the central government, judging by the monument count of those in these positions.<ref name="Grajetzki21"/>

Besides this, many Old Kingdom posts which had lost their original meaning and become mere honorifics were brought back into the central government.<ref name="Shaw 174"/> Only high-ranking officials could claim the title ''Member of the Elite'', which had been applied liberally during the First Intermediate Period.<ref name="Grajetzki21"/>

This basic form of administration continued throughout the Middle Kingdom, though there is some evidence of a major reform of the central government under Senusret III. Records from his reign indicate that Upper and Lower Egypt were divided into separate ''waret'' and governed by separate administrators.<ref name="Shaw 175"/> Administrative documents and private stelae indicate a proliferation of new bureaucratic titles around this time, which have been taken as evidence of a larger central government.<ref name="Richards 7">[[#Richards2005|Richards. (2005)]] p. 7</ref> Governance of the royal residence was moved into a separate division of government.<ref name="Shaw 175"/> The military was placed under the control of a chief general.<ref name="Shaw 175"/> However, it is possible that these titles and positions were much older, and simply were not recorded on funerary stelae due to religious conventions.<ref name="Richards 7"/>

===Provincial government===
[[File:House MK.jpg|thumb|right|Clay model of a Middle Kingdom house. [[Musée du Louvre]].]]
Decentralization during the First Intermediate Period left the individual Egyptian provinces, or [[Nome (Egypt)|Nomes]], under the control of powerful families who held the hereditary title of ''Great Chief of the Nome'', or [[Nomarch]].<ref name="Trigger 108">[[#Trigger1983|Trigger, Kemp, O'Connor, and Lloyd. (1983)]] p. 108</ref> This position developed during the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, when the various powers of Old Kingdom provincial officials began to be exercised by a single individual.<ref name="Trigger 108"/> At roughly this time, the provincial aristocracy began building elaborate tombs for themselves, which have been taken as evidence of the wealth and power that these rulers had acquired as nomarchs.<ref name="Trigger 108"/> By the end of the First Intermediate Period, some nomarchs ruled their nomes as minor potentates, such as the nomarch Nehry of Hermopolis, who dated inscriptions by his own regnal year.<ref name="Shaw 174"/>

[[File:Mesehtisoldiers.JPG|thumb|Wooden figures found in the tomb of 11th dynasty provincial governor [[Mesehti]]: Egyptian army of the [[11th Dynasty]]]]

When the Eleventh Dynasty came to power, it was necessary to subdue the power of the nomarchs if Egypt were to be reunified under a central government. The first major steps towards that end took place under Amenemhet I. Amenemhet made the city, not the nome, the center of administration, and only the ''[[haty-a]]'', or mayor, of the larger cities, would be permitted to carry the title of nomarch.<ref name="Shaw 175"/> The title of nomarch continued to be used until the reign of Senusret III,<ref name="Shaw 175"/> as did the elaborate tombs indicative of their power, after which they suddenly disappeared.<ref name="Trigger 112">[[#Trigger1983|Trigger, Kemp, O'Connor, and Lloyd. (1983)]] p. 112</ref> This has been interpreted several ways. Traditionally, it has been believed that Senusret III took some action to suppress the nomarch families during his reign.<ref name="Grimal 167">[[#Grimal1988|Grimal. (1988)]] p. 167</ref> Recently, other interpretations have been proposed. Detlef Franke has argued that Senusret II adopted a policy of educating the sons of nomarchs in the capital and appointing them to government posts. In this way, many provincial families may have been bled dry of scions.<ref name="Shaw 175"/> Also, while the title of ''Great Overlord of the Nome'' disappeared, other distinctive titles of the nomarchs remained. During the First Intermediate Period, individuals holding the title of ''Great Overlord'' also often held the title of ''Overseer of Priests.''<ref name="Trigger 109">[[#Trigger1983|Trigger, Kemp, O'Connor, and Lloyd. (1983)]] p. 109</ref> In the late Middle Kingdom, there existed families holding the titles of mayor and overseer of priests as hereditary possessions.<ref name="Trigger 112"/> Therefore, it has been argued that the great nomarch families were never subdued, but were simply absorbed into the pharaonic administration of the country.<ref name="Trigger 112"/> While it is true that the large tombs indicative of nomarchs disappeared at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, grand royal tombs also ceased being built soon thereafter due to general instability surrounding the decline of the Middle Kingdom.<ref name="Trigger 112"/>