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II.53.1. The occurrences of the titles wb3 nswt and wdpw nswt, and their extended variations
The first available attestations of the titles wdpw nswt, as well as wb3 nswt, are from the
Middle Kingdom, with one known example of each. The only known example of the
other title, wdpw nswt ‘royal wdpw’ occurs on the sarcophagus of Ashait, wife of Men¬
tuhotep II from Thebes (now in Cairo, JE 47267).”” The label inscriptions of the
decoration on the sides of the sarcophagus mention the title three times without iden¬
tifying the individual by name whom they refer to. On the outer right side of the
sarcophagus, the servant is presented with a cup into which he is pouring the contents
of a vase before the queen, on the outer left side, he is carrying a bird and presenting it
to the queen, and on the inner right side, he is offering two vases to the queen. Here, the
title is presumably applied as the designation of a person in a functional position in the
service of a royal person as a manservant, similarly to the representations of wdpws in
the offering scenes of the tombs in the Old Kingdom where the individuals labelled as
wdpw are often unnamed since the focus was on their activities and not on their person¬
alities. From the New Kingdom, however, there are no representations of an wdpw nswt
or wb3 nswt in the original functional role of an wdpw ‘cupbearer’ or wb3 ‘butler’ in the
tomb depictions, they are only depicted in a position as courtiers and high officials."
In contrast with the above mentioned example of the occurrence of the title wdpw nswt
‘royal wdpw’, the title wb3 nswt ‘royal wb? appearing on a sandstone funerary stele of
unknown provenance (now in Leiden, V 89), the owner of which was a certain rh nswt
m3 mrij=f wb3 nswt jmj-r3 Shnwtj ‘true acquaintance of the king, his beloved, royal wb3,
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chancellor’, Intef represents an official of high rank.” Besides the deceased, several
persons are represented on the stele, however, except his mother Satuser and his mater¬
nal grandmother Satre, there is no information about his relationship to the other
persons. As the functional titles of Intef reveal, he was in high position in the royal court
as his ranking title ‘true acquaintance of the king’ implies, and he served in the personal
service of the ruler in the royal household, as his two other titles ‘royal wb?’ and ‘chancel¬
lor’ demonstrate.
Reference to the original functional role in connection with food preparation and
service of the wdpw ‘cupbearer’ and wb3 ‘butler’ can be observed in some of the extended
versions of these titles.** Schulman sees evidence of the existence of different grades
7 Winlock, 1921, figs. 18-19, 22; Clere, 1948, 26-27.
750 See chapter II.5.1. Representations of duties in the tomb depictions on p. 70.
| Boeser, 1909, 10, Taf. xxvii.
#? Hannig, 2006, 648, 752-754; Hannig, 2006b, 201, 242-243.