Dieter Mueller

Some Remarks on Wage Rates in the Middle Kingdom

ANY government agency must keep track of its revenue and its expenditure, and needs an adequate system of bookkeeping if it is to function effectively. The demands upon its efficiency increase with the growing diversification of the administration, and we may safely assume that the Egyptians possessed, by the end of the Old Kingdom at the latest, methods of accounting sophisticated enough to cope with the exigencies of vast and complicated enterprises. Although administrative documents from the Middle and New Kingdoms are by no means rare, our present knowledge of Egyptian accounting techniques is still woefully incomplete. This lack of information is a serious impediment, as it is of paramount