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Functional titles: wb3 nswt
wb3 nswt w‘b “.wj
wb3 nswt wb Cw n nb B.wj
As a contemporary colleague of Ipay, Ipu also served in the royal palace in Memphis in
the post-Amarna period, based on the stylistic features of the figures on his stele (RMO
AP.9 (V 12)), with great certainty under Tutankhamun.” Sadly, similarly to Ipay, the
data available to us about Ipu are quite limited, as there is no other source on him, except
his stele. The inscriptions identify him by only one functional title, which appears in
three variations, namely wb} nswt ‘royal wb3’, wb3 nswt w°b ".wj royal wb3 clean of hands"
and wb3 nswt wb “wj n nb 83.wj ‘royal wb3 clean of hands of the lord of the Two Lands’,
and altogether seven times, which seems to be a rather high number compared to the
fact that they are on a single object.
The tomb of Ipu has not been found, however, it must have been located in the necrop¬
olis in Saqqara, according to the inscription on his monument, in which he is praying
for a beautiful burial in the west of Memphis (jmnt.t Mn-nfr) 5” The field of the limestone,
rectangular, naos-shaped stele is divided into two registers, framed by inscriptions and
a shortened depiction of a funeral procession on the base. In the upper register, Ipu
presents an offering to Osiris sitting under a canopy, while in the lower register, the
owner, his wife and his daughter do the same to his parents and three of his siblings.
This latter scene is informative, at least about the family of Ipu: his father was Neferhat,
hrj-hb.t n 3-hpr.w-R‘ wh n Jmn ‘lector priest of Aakheperure’ and ‘wab-priest of Amun’,
his mother Tjai, without any title, he had two brothers, Nakhtamun and Hui, and one
sister, Tausert, all of them must have died before him. The text also names the wife and
daughter of Ipu as Nia and Meritre, respectively. The scene on the base represents the
funeral at the tomb, before the miniature tomb facade itself,” with wailers and offering
bearers.” In both registers, the Gold of Honour can be seen around the neck of Ipu, who
was supposedly rewarded by Tutankhamun for his faithful services.*”
™ Berlandini, 1982, 202; Gessler-Löhr, 1989, 28; Freed et al., 1999, 280. Schulman mistakenly listed Ipu
among the Ramesside officials. Schulman, 1986, 201, Nr. 43.
55 Gessler-Löhr, 1997, 34, n. 29; Freed et al., 1999, 280.
7° For the possible tomb structures representing the model facade, see Gessler-Löhr, 1989, 28; Staring,
2015, 173-174.
57 | would hereby like to thank Rijksmuseum van Oudheden for providing me with the photo of the
object. The hieroglyphs on the base, however, are too small and less carefully carved, thus collating
of the text would be needed for an adequate transcription.
Binder, 2008, 246, 289.
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