Welcome back to the Egyptian history podcast. Episode 16, The Indestructible spirit.

When Jed Kare came to power, the Egyptian political landscape was a very different entity

than it had been 60 years earlier.

The kingdom was now governed by officials drawn from the elite families, whose

power and wealth had increased enough that they were building their own lavish tunes and

recording their achievements.

In the reign of Newusire, these developments had really crystallized, and the new king could probably

have sat back and enjoyed the fruits of a prosperous kingdom without worrying

too much about reformation.

But Jeddkarene enacted several more shake-ups to the kingdom's government structure.

To begin with, he enacted a general reorganization of many administrative offices.

Instead of allowing regions of the kingdom to be overseen by various men who dealt with several responsibilities at once,

Jedkare made each position responsible for one job at a time.

This specialization had two effects.

Firstly, it made the various jobs much easier for one man to tackle. And secondly, it made the administrators less likely to gather too much power into their own hands.

When there were more officials scattered throughout the kingdom, any single individual was less important than the whole, and the power of each person was restricted.

To give an example of this, let's turn very briefly to the island of Elefantini, a small community

at the southernmost border of Egypt, which served as a trading station and a guard post against raids from Nubian tribes.

By the 5th Dynasty, Alefantini had developed into a small but valuable administrative and military outpost.

Before Niusare, it was overseen by a small group dominated by an overseer.

After Niusare, up to three or more officials were in residence at once.

One acted as a troop commander, the other acted as an overseer of administrative documents,

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