Seite 126 [126]
OCR
the New Years festíval, which demonstrates his special and favoured place in the royal household in the personal circle of the ruler. The other scene occupies the upper part of the eastern end wall of the transverse hall above the false-door, and it represents two kings receiving offerings from the figure of Montuiui. Both Murnane and van Siclen believe that this representation is proof of the coregency of the two kings, Thutmose III and Amenhotep II, based on the different sizes of the figures of the kings, both of them depicted in royal regalia.’ A stele with an autobiographical inscription occupies the western end wall of the transverse hall. Unfortunately, due to its poor preservation, there are long lacunae in the text. This is the only textual source from the tomb that is accessible at the moment.*” In spite of its fragmentary state, it informs us of several details of the career and life of Montuiui. He grew up in the palace, as he himself says in his inscription, under Thutmose III. According to Bryan, he also bore the epithet Ard n k3p ‘child of the kap’,”* however, this is not explicitly mentioned on the stele, but it probably is in another part of the tomb. At the beginning of his career, Montuiui served as 53k n jp.t nswt ‘servant of the royal apartments’, and he followed Thutmose III on his campaign to every foreign land as a youth. Then, because of his excellence, he was promoted to a position among certain attendants of the palace, but his proper function was lost in a lacuna. Bryan and Shirley agree that he was appointed to wb} nswt ‘royal wb3’ either during this stage of his promotion or sometime later, still under Thutmose III.° However, as there appears to be no indication of the exact time of his acquiring the title, it might also be conceivable that Montuiui had already been a ‘royal wb3’ when he followed his lord to foreign lands. The attendance of a person in this function would be rather more reasonable than that of a ‘servant of the royal apartments’. As a person who followed the king on his campaigns, he must have nevertheless borne the epithet smsw nswt ‘follower of the king’, as Shirley also refers to it, or perhaps that of jrj-rd.wj n nb B.wj ‘attendant of the lord of the Two Lands. After a longer section of praising the actions and approach of Thutmose III, Montuiui continues his biographical description informing us of his participation in the * Porter — Moss, 1960, 280. ”° Murnane, 1977, 53, n. 94; van Siclen III, 1982, 49(D); Shirley, 2011, 305, n. 71. #7 For the hieroglyphic text, see Hermann, 1940, 17*, 40*-41*; and Helck, 1955-1958, 1466-1468. “8 Bryan, 2006, 96. *® According to Taylor, he was the only known bearer of this title in the 18" dynasty. Al-Ayedi does not even mention the title. Taylor, 2001, 107; Al-Ayedi, 2006, 265. *° Bryan, 2006, 95; Shirley, 2011, 304. * Shirley, however, does not name the epithet itself. Shirley, 2011, 305.
