A New Old Kingdom Inscription from Giza (CGC 57163),and the Problem of SN- D T in Pharaonic third Millennium Society

Abstract

Panel CGC 57163 provides both a new inscribed monument from the poorly preserved tomb D 203 at Giza and another reference to the rather obscure term sn-dt ‘brother of the endowment’. Study of the epigraphic evidence as well as the administrative documents from the Old Kingdom shows that the use of this term was not limited to the funerary sphere: it also refers to individuals who replaced another person in the performance of certain duties, both of a ritual and administrative nature. In a funerary context, a sn-dt was an administrator of institutional goods formerly granted to a particular functionary but subsequently allotted — under condition — to a secondary recipient. The probable goal of this procedure was to keep their assets separate. In any case, the sn-dt disappears from the epigraphic and papyrological record from the beginning of the Sixth Dynasty.