Amenhotep (Huy)

Last updated March 08, 2019

Block statue of Amenhotep, found at Abydos. British Museum. StatueOfOverseerAmenhotep-August19-08.jpg — Block statue of Amenhotep, found at Abydos. British Museum.

Amenhotep (Huy) was the high steward of Memphis under Amenhotep III in the Egyptian 18th Dynasty. With this title he was one of the highest officials at the royal court.

The high steward was an important official at the royal court in Ancient Egypt in the Middle Kingdom and in the New Kingdom. He was the main person in charge of the estates supplying the palace and the royal residence with food. The office appears in the 11th Dynasty. To the earliest title holders belong Henenu and Meketre. After the vizier and the treasurer this was the most important office at the royal court; important title holders of the 12th Dynasty were Siese and Khnumhotep III, both were later in their career appointed vizier.

Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, after his father Thutmose IV died. Amenhotep III was Thutmose's son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya.

Family

Amenhotep, with the nickname Huy, was a member of an influential family. His father Heby was mayor of Memphis. His brother Ramose was vizier under Amenhotep III.^[1]

The Ancient Egyptian noble, Ramose was Vizier under both Amenhotep III and Akhenaten. He was in office in the last decade of Amenhotep's III reign and at the beginning of the reign of the latter king. Ramose appears on jar labels found in the palace of king Amenhotep III at Malkata. Here appears also the vizier Amenhotep-Huy. Both viziers are also shown side by side in the temple of Soleb. In the New Kingdom the office of the vizier was divided in a northern vizier and a southern one. It is not entirely clear whether Ramose was the southern or northern one.

His son Ipy was high steward under Akhenaten. Ipy likely succeeded his father sometime after the first Heb-Sed festival of Amenhotep III.^[1] He appears in the tomb of his uncle Ramose at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III when he has taken over his father's duties.^[2]

Akhenaten, known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monolatristic, henotheistic, or even quasi-monotheistic. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, and later official language avoids calling the Aten a god, giving the solar deity a status above mere gods.

The Sed festival was an ancient Egyptian ceremony that celebrated the continued rule of a pharaoh. The name is taken from the name of an Egyptian wolf god, one of whose names was Wepwawet or Sed.

The family member's accomplishments are one of the rare cases where an influential family kept its high position under the latter king.

Biography

Amenhotep is known from a high number of monuments and artifacts. Another fine statue was found at Abydos. Already in the early 19th century (1821 or 22), his looted tomb was found in Saqqara. It contained a sarcophagus, a granite canopic chest, model scribal boards and a stele with a long religious text.

Abydos is one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, and also of the eighth nome in Upper Egypt, of which it was the capital city. It is located about 11 kilometres west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N, near the modern Egyptian towns of el-'Araba el Madfuna and al-Balyana. In the ancient Egyptian language, the city was called Abdju. The English name Abydos comes from the Greek Ἄβυδος, a name borrowed by Greek geographers from the unrelated city of Abydos on the Hellespont.

Saqqara, also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English, is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world-famous Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb due to its rectangular base, as well as a number of mastabas. Located some 30 km (19 mi) south of modern-day Cairo, Saqqara covers an area of around 7 by 1.5 km.

Canopic chests are cases used by Ancient Egyptians to contain the internal organs removed during the process of mummification. Once canopic jars began to be used, in the late Fourth Dynasty, the jars were placed within canopic chests. Although the first proven canopic burials date from the Fourth Dynasty reign of Sneferu, there is evidence to suggest that there were canopic installations at Saqqara dating from the Second Dynasty.

The scribal palettes are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Acc. No. 37.2.1), the Louvre (Inv. No. 833), in the National Archaeological Museum (Florence) (Inv. No. 133)^[3] and in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (72.663 a-i).^[4] The cubit rod (Inv. No. 132), the limestone stele (Inv. No. 2.), a grey granite pyramidion (Inv. No. 63) and 5 alabaster jars (Inv. Nos. between 83 and 110) are now all in the Museum in Florence. The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden has a red granite pyramidion (Inv. No. A.M. 6), a quartzite canopic chest (Inv. No. A.M.2) and a wooden leg of a stool.^[3]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the United States. With 7.3 million visitors to its three locations in 2016, it was the fourth most visited art museum in the world, and the fifth most visited museum of any kind. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the eastern edge of Central Park along Museum Mile in Manhattan 's Upper East Side is by area one of the world's largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from Medieval Europe. On March 18, 2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side; it extends the museum's modern and contemporary art program.

The Louvre, or the Louvre Museum, is the world's largest art museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement. Approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. In 2018, the Louvre was the world's most visited art museum, receiving 10.2 million visitors.

The National Archaeological Museum of Florence is an archaeological museum in Florence, Italy. It is located at 1 piazza Santissima Annunziata, in the Palazzo della Crocetta.

A stela belonging to Amenhotep was found at the Monastery of Apa Jeremias where it had been used as a window sill. Two statues belonging to Amenhotep have been found. One now in the Ashmolean Museum, and the other in the British Museum.^[3]

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–83 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677.

The British Museum, in the Bloomsbury area of London, United Kingdom, is a public institution dedicated to human history, art and culture. Its permanent collection of some eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence, having been widely sourced during the era of the British Empire. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. It was the first public national museum in the world.

In Memphis, there was found a statue reporting his building work for his king. The statue now in the Ashmolean museum records how Amenhotep donated land, serfs and animals. In return he would receive part of the daily royal offerings, which would be placed before his statue.^[2]^[5]^[6]

Tomb

Amenhotep's now lost tomb^[1] had been discovered in 1821 or 1822 and items such as the scribal palettes, the cubit rods and the jars had been removed. The tomb was possibly excavated by Nizzoli and Anastasi. The tomb appears to have been a standard New Kingdom tomb and had two subterranean chambers: an antechamber and a burial chamber. The tomb was undecorated, but a stele depicting Amenhotep and his son Ipy was likely found in the tomb. The tomb also contained a very large sarcophagus with a large lid, but those are presumably still in the tomb. The sarcophagus contained the small pyramidion, the cubit rod, an alabaster palette and at least some of the jars.^[3]

The tomb would have further consisted of a brick built chapel and this structure would have been topped by the granite pyramidion (now in Leiden). Another quartzite stele was likely situated in this chapel. The stele depicted Amenhotep and his wife Mey before the gods Osiris, Ptah, Isis and Hathor.^[3]

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References

1 2 3 Dodson, Aidan, Amarna Sunrise: Egypt from Golden age to Age of Heresy, The American University in Cairo Press, 2014, p 48, p50, p 184 n35, p198 n84.
1 2 O'Connor, David and Cline, Eric H. Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign University of Michigan Press. 2001, pp 65, 203, 214; ISBN 978-0472088331
1 2 3 4 5 William C. Hayes: A Writing-Palette of the Chief Steward Amenhotpe and Some Notes on its Owner In: Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 24 (1938), p. 9-24
↑ Andrew Gordon: A fragmentary Palette of the Chief Steward of the King, Huy In Göttinger Miszellen 42, Göttingen 1981, pp. 23-36
↑ Kurt Sethe: Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Heft 20-22. Berlin 1957, p. 1793-1811
↑ B.J.J. Haring, Divine Households. Administrative and Economic Aspects of the New Kingdom Royal Memorial Temples in Western Thebes, (Egyptologische Uitgaven 12), Leiden 1997

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[Dodson-Sunrise-1] 1 2 3 Dodson, Aidan, Amarna Sunrise: Egypt from Golden age to Age of Heresy, The American University in Cairo Press, 2014, p 48, p50, p 184 n35, p198 n84.

[OConnor-Cline-2] 1 2 O'Connor, David and Cline, Eric H. Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign University of Michigan Press. 2001, pp 65, 203, 214; ISBN 978-0472088331

[Hayes-3] 1 2 3 4 5 William C. Hayes: A Writing-Palette of the Chief Steward Amenhotpe and Some Notes on its Owner In: Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 24 (1938), p. 9-24

[4] Andrew Gordon: A fragmentary Palette of the Chief Steward of the King, Huy In Göttinger Miszellen 42, Göttingen 1981, pp. 23-36

[5] Kurt Sethe: Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Heft 20-22. Berlin 1957, p. 1793-1811

[6] B.J.J. Haring, Divine Households. Administrative and Economic Aspects of the New Kingdom Royal Memorial Temples in Western Thebes, (Egyptologische Uitgaven 12), Leiden 1997