Hello, and welcome back to the History of Egypt podcast, episode 145B, Funding the Regime.

Today we go slightly deeper into the Restoration project of King Tutankhamun, the Pharaoh and

his government invested heavily in temples and statues for the gods, but they had to pay for

those somehow. Today we meet some people who funded the King's projects. This episode

comes to you on behalf of Ryan, Bruce and Philip. They joined the Patreon as overseers

in February 2021, for which I am most grateful. May you find gold in the hills and enjoy a

safer turn. To everyone listening, thank you for joining me, on with the show.

The year was 1336 BCE, approximately. Reginald year 8 under the majesty of Neb Keparu Ra, the

living Horace Tutankhamun. The king of Egypt was 17 years old, give or take, and in the past few

years his government had invested heavily in projects up and down the Nile. The Restoration of

the temples was a worthy initiative. It is the most famous achievement of this regime, but as

impressive as those works are, they were also expensive. Tutankhamun's government spent nearly a

decade investing in temples, art and labour. Countless people worked for years to produce the

required goods. As you can imagine, all of that investment had a cost. Today we think of the

pharaohs as having unlimited wealth, but of course Tutankhamun's government was like any other,

their projects required resources, funding to achieve. In year 8 we get a really great example

of a pharaoh dealing with finances. A stone-stealer, now in a museum in Liverpool,

preserves the record of Tutankhamun's policies. It shows the young king organising the taxes.

The text is short, but informative. It says, quote,

year 8, third month of the growing season, Peret. Day 21 under the majesty of Horace,

the son of Rha, Tutankhamun, given life. On this day, his majesty commanded the overseer of

the treasury, Maya, to tax the entire land, to institute divine offerings for all the gods of

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