Mery-Maat,an Eighteenth Dynasty iry ‘3 n pr ptḥ from Memphis and His Hypothetical Family

Abstract

The article publishes for the first time the stela Cairo JE 27947. The stela is Memphite in origin and can be dated to the reign of Amenhotep III on iconographical, stylistic, epigraphical, and palaeographical grounds. It commemorates the guardian of the gate of the estate of Ptah, Mery-Maat, and the chief servant Ibeby, presumably his son. The publication is an addition to the corpus of reliefs from the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara. It reconstructs three successive generations of an unknown Memphite family, of which at least two members occupied administrative positions in the Memphite temple of Ptah during the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The stela is especially important as it gives two late Eighteenth Dynasty instances of the title iry-‘3 n pr Ptḥ, otherwise attested solely for the Late Period on stelae from the Serapeum of Saqqara dating to the Twenty-Second and Twenty-Sixth Dynasties. Hence, it demonstrates that the economic and administrative importance of the Memphite temple of Ptah did not newly evolve during the Late Period, but that it enjoyed a long-term development that can be traced back to the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The author describes the stela, addresses its artistic significance and discusses the relationship of its individuals and the titles assigned to them.