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ntroduction The títles wb3 nswt royal wb3" and wdpw nswt royal wdpw are already known from the Middle Kingdom, however, they became widespread as titles of high officials during the New Kingdom. The individuals who bore these titles were members of the royal household, as well as prominent persons in the entourage of the ruler. They played an important role in the royal administration as well as occasionally in the state administration during the whole New Kingdom, as one of the highest ranking officials in the royal court and in society, the importance of whom primarily derived from their intimate relationship with the ruler through their acting in his personal service. The official titles themselves and the scope of duties belonging to them, as well as the individuals who performed these functions, have not yet formed the subject of any previous detailed research. Several studies have been written on certain titleholders or their monuments focussing on the topic to some extent, however, all of them have been quite general and were mainly based on the works of Helck and Schulman and references to them, which dealt with these officials and their situation in the administration during the 18" dynasty and the Ramesside period, respectively, in a little more detail. Helck devoted a complete chapter to the representatives of this office during the 18" dynasty in his comprehensive work about the administration of the Middle and New Kingdom.’ Although he dealt with only a portion of the individuals represented in the present corpus, he made some relevant conclusions and produced some thought-provoking theories regarding the duties and the starting point of these officials’ careers. Schulman devoted more studies to the holders of these titles, to their personal background and origin, as well as to providing an explanation for the increasing importance of the office itself during the Ramesside period.” He saw a strong connection between the elevation of the officials within the court hierarchy, especially during this period, and the foreign origin of several ‘ Helck, 1958, 269-276. 2 Schulman, 1976, 1986, 1990.
