Oldal 43 [43]
OCR
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° ‘lector 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 relatives 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 Ptahemwia (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.
