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well," thus one must be cautious in applying this theory without further proof for declar¬
ing such attributions and each instance must be examined and determined on its own.
There are various criteria for determining the foreign ethnicity or ethnic origin of a par¬
ticular individual, as Schulman discusses in detail in the case of the ‘royal wb3s’ themselves”
and as presented regarding the representatives of the present corpus in the following (sum¬
marized in Table 7.), and the more criteria can be detected, the more likely the person was
a foreigner or an Egyptianized foreigner.
As for the officials during the 18" dynasty, there is only one person who bore a name
with the prefix hq3, namely Heqanakht from the reign of Amenhotep III. Unfortunately,
there is no information on his ancestors or family members except his wife Satre whose
name refers to the fact that she was native Egyptian. Thus, based on only the name of
Heqanakht in itself, Helck’s theory can be neither supported nor contradicted.
From the Ramesside period, indications for the foreign ethnicity other than the basi¬
liphoric name itself are available only in the case of officials under the reign of Ramesses II
and Merneptah. In some cases, individuals who bear a basiliphoric or another Egyptian
name have also retained their foreign name. Among the ‘royal wb3s’ Ramessesemperre
was called Benazan of Ziri-Bashan on his stele now located in Cairo (TR 3/7/24/17)** refer¬
ring to a settlement located in north-eastern Palestine, in the Trans-Jordanian region.
It cannot be ascertained when and under what circumstances he came to Egypt," but it
is reasonable to assume that he began his career under the reign of Ramesses II,”° as
implied by his basiliphoric name as well as his epithet pn R-ms-sw mrj-Jmn ‘he of (=son
of) Ramesses Meriamun’ in the same inscription. In addition, his father was a certain
Yupa, which also clearly proves his Semitic origin.” In two other cases, although the
officials themselves did not bear a basiliphoric name, the Semitic name of their relatives
seem to confirm their foreign roots. Both the mother and the sister of Pentawer had non¬
Egyptian names, Aurati and Ragasha respectively.”” On some occasions, ethnicity is
"° Helck, 1958, 273.
»7 Schulman, 1986, 194-196.
"8 For the inscription of the stele, see [53] Stele, Cairo, TR 3/7/24/17 on p. 493, and for a discussion on
Ramessesemperre, see p. 201.
“9 Giveon raises the possibility that he was a child-hostage who grew up in Egypt, Giveon, 1965, 202;
Varille mentions the general idea of taking him hostage as an adult, Varille, 1932, 12; Capart assumes
that he is a descendant of Syrians who settled in Egypt during the 19°" dynasty, Capart, 1905, 60.
Kitchen, 1976, 312; Davies, 2014, 89.
™ Schneider, 1992, 52-54.
Schneider, 1992, 157-158. For the inscription of the stele on which they are mentioned, see [54] Stele,
Cairo, TN 12/6/24/17 on p. 508, for a discussion on Pentawer, see p. 207.