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respected members of the local society at their place of residence but they were not
specifically high ranking persons. Neferhat, father of Ipu, was hrj-hb.t n 3-hpr.w-R° ‘lec¬
tor priest of Aakheperure’ and w‘% n Jn ‘wab-priest of Amun’ which also refers to the
middle social class rather than the upper one. The only case when the highest social class
demonstrably served in the social background of a ‘royal wb? is that of Suemniut, whose
father, Iamnefer, and even his paternal grandfather, Paahauti, bore several titles of high
rank, both ranking as well as functional ones. Tamnefer was a member of the most
important courtiers at the royal court bearing the ranking title jrj-pt h3tj-° ‘member of
the elite, foremost of action’, and took an important position in the local administration
as hrp-ns.tj controller of the two thrones’, hrj-tp 3 n Wnt ‘greatest among the chiefs in
Unet’, as well as h3tj-" n Nfrwsj ‘mayor of Neferusi’, and played a major role in sacral life
as hm ntr tpj n Dhwtj ‘high-priest of Thoth’, jmj-r3 hm.w ntr n Dhwtj nb Hmnw ‘overseer
of the prophets of Thoth, lord of Hermopolis’, sé htp-ntr Dhwtj nb Hmnw ‘scribe of the
divine offering of Thoth, lord of Hermopolis’ and wr dj m pr Dhwtj ‘the Greatest of the
Five in the temple of Thoth’.’°° Paahauti, the grandfather of Suemniut also served as
h3tj-" n Nfrwsj ‘mayor of Neferusi’. Thus, Suemniut had the proper background in order
to allow him to achieve a significant position in life, however, one should not deny his
own merits and achievements in the personal service of the rulers under Thutmose II
and Amenhotep II."7 As for titles of the female relatives of the officials — besides the
usual epithet nb.t pr ‘lady of the house’ which appears by almost all of the female rela¬
tives mentioned by name in the corpus -, the picture is rather undiversified since the
vast majority of them bore the title sm‘j.t n Jmn ‘chantress of Amun’. There are two
exceptions for this, namely the mother of Suemniut, Merit who was smj.t n Dhwtj
‘chantress of Thoth’ and his possible other (step)mother, Mi who held the title wr.t-hnr.
wt n Dhwtj ‘great of the ladies of the harem of Thoth’. Considering the religious titles of
their husband, Iamnefer closely connected to Thoth it is not surprising that the same
god appears in the titles of the wives as well.
Based on the pieces of evidence, it also became obvious that the offices of wh3 nswt
‘royal wb? and wdpw nswt ‘royal wdpw’ was neither hereditary nor prevalent in certain
families. The only one case when father and son also bore the title is that of Ptahem¬
wia (II) and Hori in the 20" dynasty during the reign of Ramesses III and Ramesses IV."*
Besides, there is only one other case when two male relatives, two brothers served in this
16 For the inscriptions on Iamnefer, see Edwards, 1939, 3, pls. II-III; Helck, 1955-1958, 1453-1455.
“7 For a discussion on the career of Suemniut, see p. 127.
15 Gregersen omits this information from the corpus of these officials in her analysis. Gregersen,
2007, 848.