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18th DYNASTY COURT OFFICIALS – WHO WERE THE OTHER AMENHOTEPS?

“The name Amen-hotp, which means ‘Amen is satisfied’, was a common one throughout the New Empire, and was borne by four kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, when the city of Thebes was the capital of the World and her god Amen obtained supremacy over all other gods.” 1

Looking back over 3,000 years to Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, differentiating between the many Amenhoteps who, like Amenhotep son of Hapu, served Amenhotep III, can be problematic. The aim of this ‘treatise’ is to highlight the possible entanglements by listing Amenhotep son of Hapu’s contemporary ’Amenhotep-named’ Court Officials (including an example which shows how easy it is to confuse ‘who was who’). Although there is no evidence that Amenhotep son of Hapu served earlier Pharaohs the list below takes account of three Pharaonic reigns: Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III, which cover his long lifetime. 

Hopefully, if we have made errors or omissions, someone will point them out to us.  

Some general pointers:

  • First names could be handed down by fathers to their sons – a generational, familial, gesture. (It is not known if Amenhotep son of Hapu’s father’s birth name was ‘Amenhotep’.) By the same token, Offices could traditionally be handed down through a family.2 By adding ‘son of Hapu’ to his birth name, Amenhotep was acknowledging a possible hereditary scribal lineage, i.e. inherited status. Again, there is no definite evidence that Amenhotep son of Hapu’s father was or had been a scribe or even a royal scribe.
  • Amenhotep son of Hapu held various titles during Amenhotep III’s reign which were not necessarily held by himconcurrently. Some Court Officials named Amenhotep held similar individual job titles. This may not be surprising when one considers the sheer volume of building works undertaken throughout the whole of Egypt during the reign of Amenhotep III.
  • Amenhotep son of Hapu held various titles during Amenhotep III’s reign which were not necessarily held by himconcurrently. Some Court Officials named Amenhotep held similar individual job titles. This may not be surprising when one considers the sheer volume of building works undertaken throughout the whole of Egypt during the reign of Amenhotep III.
  • Wherever possible, Amenhotep son of Hapu would ensure reference to his paternity, his identity, by the addition of “son of Hapu” to his birth name on his statuary, tomb furniture and at his mortuary temple. This description would then continue into his all-important afterlife. 

“The words which follow his name ‘the son of Hapu’ were as necessary to the ancient Egyptians as they are to us to distinguish him from his many namesakes.” 3

OTHER AMENHOTEPS DURING THE REIGN OF AMENHOTEP II (1425-1400 BC)

AMENHOTEP:
  • Scribe; Deputy of the Overseer of Sealings; Follower of the King in the foreign countries.
  • Burial at Thebes, Abd-el-Qurna, C3.4
AMENHOTEP:
  • Overseer of the Builders of Amun;  Overseer of Works in the Temple of Mut; Scribe of all the artisans of Amun.
  • Burial at Thebes, Dra’ Abu-el-Naga, A7.5

Here is an example of confusion of the name ‘Amenhotep’ which involved Amenhotep son of Hapu:

In 2012 Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia, staged a British Museum travelling exhibition “Mummy, Secrets of the Tomb”. During the event fragments of a Book of the Dead papyrus dating to the reign of Amenhotep II were noted by Dr John H Taylor, Assistant Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum and curator of the BM exhibition. Other fragments of this early New Kingdom papyrus were already identified, and held by the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, University Library of Amsterdam and The Redwood Library, Newport.

The Queensland Amenhotep was believed to have been Overseer of the Builders of Amun at Karnak Temple, a high status role,  during the reign of his own namesake, Amenhotep II.6

However, though only for a short time, the discovery was accidentally taken up by the internet as being a fragment of a Book of the Dead of Amenhotep son of Hapu (the reign of Amenhotep III). (The whereabouts of a Book of the Dead of Amenhotep son of Hapu is, to date, unknown). Dr Taylor and Queensland Museum had been under no such illusion, not least because so many of Amenhotep son of Hapu’s inscriptions included his patronym, as stated above.The fragments carried no patronym, and of course there was a noticeable time difference involved between both Amenhoteps.

AMENHOTEP SON OF NEBIRY:
  • This Amenhotep is believed to have held a high position among clergy of the province of Abydos. A scribal statue of him is thought to be found at Thebes, now at Brooklyn Museum, USA, although not currently exhibited; (https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/en-GB/objects/3940). 
  • Burial unknown.7

OTHER AMENHOTEPS DURING THE REIGN OF THUTMOSE IV (1400-1390 BC): 

AMENHOTEP SI-SE: 
  • Second High Priest/Prophet of Amun; Scribe of Recruits for Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III; Steward of Granaries and Treasure Houses.
  • Burial at Thebes, Sheikh Abd-el-Qurna, TT 75.8
(AMENHOTEP?) HUY:  Reign of Thutmose IV to Amenhotep III.
  • Sculptor of Amun;
  • Burial at Thebes, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, TT54.9    
AMENHOTEP:  Reign of Thutmose IV to Amenhotep III.
  • Viceroy of Nubia; Overseer of the cattle of Amun; Director of Works in the South and in the North; Head of the stable of his Majesty; King’s son of Kush; Overseer of the Southern Lands; Mighty One of the King; Praised one of the Good God; King’s Scribe.
  • Burial unknown.10

OTHER AMENHOTEPS DURING THE REIGN OF AMENHOTEP III (1390-1352 BC):

AMENHOTEP-HUY: 
  • Vizier of the North and attested in the south; Overseer of all works of the king in the nomes of Upper and Lower Egypt; Governor of Bahariya Oasis.
  • Burial at Thebes, Asasif, AT28 (currently under excavation and restoration by The Vizier Amen-hotep Huy Project).  Burial at Thebes, Asasif, AT28 (currently under excavation and restoration by The Vizier Amen-hotep Huy Project).11 
AMENHOTEP (ALSO CALLED HUY), SON OF HEBY:
  • High (Chief) Steward of Memphis; King’s Scribe; Controller of Works; Overseer of works in the Temple ‘Nb-M’t-R’-United-with-Ptah; Overseer of all Craftsmen of the King; Scribe of the Recruits.
  • Burial at Saqqara; (discovered by di Nizzoli in 1821/22); tomb now lost.12
AMENHOTEP CALLED HUY:  
  • (Successor to Merymose, Viceroy of Kush for Amenhotep III). Viceroy of Kush for Tutankhamun;  King’s Son of Kush; Governor of the South Lands.   
  • Burial at Thebes, Qurnet Mura’i, TT40.13
AMENHOTEP: 
  • Overseer of the Granary of Amun.
  • Burial at Thebes, Khokha, TT294.14
AMENHOTEP CALLED HUY:  (late 18th Dynasty)
  • Overseer of Sculptors of Amun in the Southern City.
  • Burial at Thebes,  Sheikh ‘abd el-Qurna, TT368.15
AMENHOTEP:
  • Overseer of Carpenters of Amun.
  • Burial at Thebes, Sheikh ‘abd el-Qurna, north-east slope: C1.16   
  1. Dawson, 1926:118 ↩︎
  2. Keller, 1984:119 ↩︎
  3. Dawson, 1926:118 ↩︎
  4. Porter & Moss, 1970: I: 457 ↩︎
  5. Reeves, 2013: 7-36 ↩︎
  6. Assmussen and Healy, 2012: 25-33 ↩︎
  7. Bothmer, 1966-67: 70 – 74 ↩︎
  8. Porter & Moss, 1970: 146-149, Murnane, 1998: 198/9, Bryan, 1987: 18-20 ↩︎
  9. Porter & Moss, 1970: 104-105 ↩︎
  10.  Kozloff, 2012: 47-50  ↩︎
  11. Martin-Valentin & Bedman, 2017: 377-383, Gordon, 1989: 15-23 ↩︎
  12. Hayes 1938: 9-25, Morkot, 1990: 339-350, Grajetzki, 2023: 28-31 ↩︎
  13. Porter & Moss, 1970: 75-78 ↩︎
  14. Porter & Moss, 1970: 376 ↩︎
  15. Porter & Moss, 1970: 431 ↩︎
  16.  Porter & Moss, 1970: 456 ↩︎