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a good lifetime in the palace.** This latter desire refers to his official duties as wb3 nswt
‘royal wb3’ as well as jmj-r3 pr wr n nswt ‘high steward of the king’ ,*” and to his honoured
position in the royal court. Besides being a member of the royal administration and
household, he held various religious titles that also demonstrate his sacral activity. The
two titles connected to Ptah (jmj-r hm.w ntr n Pth-hntj-Tnnt ‘overseer of the prophets of
Ptah, Foremost-of-Tjenenet’,** simw-hb n Pth ‘leader of the festival of Ptah’) and the one
connected to Amun (Am ntr tpj n Jmn m Hnt-nfr ‘high priest of Amun in Khenetnefer’**)
also confirm that Sennefer might have served in the royal palace of Memphis.
However, there is no information on his family or his burial#, as Helck suggests, #7
his religious title jmj-r3 hm.w-ntr n Mnw nb Jpw ‘overseer of the prophets of Min, lord of
Achmim’ might be an indication of his origin, as a position he had fulfilled earlier in
his career.
4* Gessler-Lohr raises the possibility of a connection between the office ’royal wb?’ and the service of
certain goddesses, based on the sistophor statues of Sennefer and Sarenenutet Tjaui (BM EA 1459)
dedicated to Bastet and Hathor respectively, and the statue of Neferrenpet (1) (Louvre E 14241)
depicted him as a scribe, also mentioning his role as mediator of Hathor. See Gessler-Léhr, 1990,
71-72. Apart from these three persons, however, there is no other ‘royal wb?’ in this corpus who held
any title or demonstrated any evidence relating to a connection with these goddesses. As all of the
three men were contemporaries, a possible explanation might be the popularity of sistophor statues
in the private statuary in this era.
4 Gessler-Lohr notes that in this position Sennefer might have been the predecessor of the well-known
Amenhotep Hui. Gessler-Löhr, 1990, 71-72.
#5 For the title, see Kees, 1953, 110.
184 A settlement at the southern boundary of the Memphite nome, see Gauthier, 1927, 182; Gardiner,
1947, 121-122.
+5 Helck, 1958, 374; Gessler-Löhr, 1990, 71.
48° Zivie raises the possibility that his tomb was in Bubasteion, based on the same name and the title ‘high
steward of the king’ of a person who might have had a tomb in common with Merire, however, it can¬
not be proved that he also bore the title ‘royal wh3’. See Zivie, 1988, 108, and n. 19; Zivie, 1997, 379.
#7 Helck, 1958, 374; see also Kees, 1953, 110.