A Group of Sixth Dynasty Titles Relating to Ptah and Sokar

Author(s): Henry G. Fischer

Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 3 (1964), pp. 25-29
Published by: American Research Center in Egypt
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A
Group
of Sixth
Dynasty
Titles
Relating
to Ptah and Sokar
Henry G. Fischer
PLATE XV
The false door that is the
subject
of the
following pages probably
derives from
Saqqara,
or at
any
rate a
necropolis
in the
vicinity
of
Memphis, being
inscribed for a certain
*Irt-Pthy
surnamed
^Iry,1
who was "revered
by
Ptah-
Sokar/'
and served this
god,
or
pair
of
gods,
in
several
capacities (PL XV). Although
the monu-
ment has twice been described and illustrated
in the Bulletin of the
University
Museum in
Philadelphia,
where it has
long
been
exhibited,2
it remains to be
pointed
out that the titles on
the six
jambs
form a rare and
interesting
group, which,
when studied in relation to
each
other,
contribute a
surprising
amount of
information on the
development
of the local
priesthoods
from the Old to the Middle
King-
dom. This is not to
say
that the false door
belongs
to the Intermediate
Period; although
its form and content show that it cannot be
earlier than the Sixth
Dynasty,
there are no
stylistic, palaeographic
or
orthographic peculi-
arities that
necessarily point
to a date later
than the
reign
of
Pepy
II.3 The isolated
pair
of
titles on the
crossbar,
which have no connection
with the rest of the
titulary
and will therefore
receive no further
mention,
are
particularly
characteristic of the late Old
Kingdom.
The
first is
\^
"noble of the
king,"
the second
^Jf
"courtier of the
(royal)
house."4 The
remaining
titles are the
following:
;:n^l|^iLeftouler]amb
(3) 1
^
)
v [^ ^ v _ > Left intermediate
jamb
(5)
Pf P&
iU
Right
outer
jamb
and
(6 only)
(6)
D
I
$t
I I right
intermediate
jamb
1
For the first name see
Ranke, Pevsonennamen II,
265.30,
where the museum number is to be
corrected,
and
ibid., 100,
where iri.t-Pth is
analyzed
as an
abbreviation of
nfr
-iri.t-Pth "what Ptah does is
good."
The second name is noted ibid., 343 (addition
to Vol.
I, 41.6).
2
Bulletin
of
the
University
Museum 2
(1930), 57-59
and
15, parts 2-3 (1950), 30,
and
Fig.
16 on
p. 32,
the
latter
being
H. Ranke 's
guide
The
Egyptian
Collections
of
the
University
Museum. The
registration
number is
E 1
43 18; purchased
in
1921,
without information
regarding
the
provenance.
The material is
limestone,
the maximum
height 133 cm.,
width 81 cm.
3
The
only abnormality
worth
mentioning
is the
presence
of five
jars
in the
hnt-sign
instead of the
usual
|U^|
or
fjjjj),
and this feature is
exceedingly
rare
at
any period.
The closest
parallel
known to
me,
in
an
inscription
dated to Amenemhet I
(Hammamat
199)
also contains five
jars,
but does not show the
sides of the rack. An earlier Old
Kingdom inscription
(Brussels
E
754; Capart,
Recueil de Mons.
II,
PL
54)
shows a double
rack, evidently containing
a total of
eight jars.
4
For these titles see de
Wit, Chronique d'Egypte 31
(no. 61, 1956), 89-104.
Further remarks are to be
found in AZ 86
(1961),
26-28 and
JAOS
81
(1961),
423,
where it is noted that the title
spsw
nhwt falls
into disuse after the decline of the Old
Kingdom;
it
should be
added, however,
that this term is still
occasionally
used in the Middle
Kingdom
as a
general
and non-titular term for a courtier:
e.g.,
Sinai
inscrip-
tion
136
and
413,
and BM
586 (Hieroglyphic
Texts
II,
PL
12).
25
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(i)
Ss sdswt-ntr m hwt Pth "Scribe of the
treasure of the
god
in the mansion of Ptah"
"Scribes of the treasure of the
god"
are less
infrequent
in the Old
Kingdom
than
might
be
supposed.
One case is
probably
to be
recognized
in the Sixth
Dynasty
tomb of
Ppy-Cnh hry-ib
at
Meir, although
it has been
reproduced
as
^
b
jHQj
and
interpreted
as two titles: "treasurer
of the
god"
and
"draughtsman."5
Another
example (written
^J^lif)
appears
above the
head of an
offering
bearer in the tomb of
ihty-htp
at
Saqqara, dating
to the end of the
Fifth
Dynasty.6
A fourth occurrence
may
be
quoted
from one of a
pair
of Sixth
Dynasty
obelisks from
Heliopolis,
where the owners
name is
preceded by
g g {= ^ Jft |]jf
"scribe of the
god's
treasure
(in)
the
great
house
(at)
Helio-
polis,"7
while the other obelisk bears the com-
parable
title
jgf^ ^ \1Q "privy
to
the secret of the
god's
treasure
(in)
the
great
house
(at) Heliopolis."8
In both these cases the
context is
apparently secular,
with ntr
referring
to the
king,
and in another occurrence of the
second
Heliopolitan title,
which makes its first
appearance
in the Sixth
Dynasty,
ntr is
actually
replaced by
nswt :
J^ p ^q ^ ^.9
Towards the end
of the Old
Kingdom, however,
and somewhat
later, hry
sst? n sdiwt-ntr is sometimes associat-
ed with
temples:
"Privy
to the secret of the
god's
treasure in the
houses of MW
(Deir
el Gebrawi tomb
72)
10
(Deir
el Gebrawi tomb
46)
u
XO^ri^^Q]4>''--
in the
up.
land
temple" (El
Kab
grafitto)12
t P 3 3^1
^
& ^ ^
?
"- * the cham-
ber of
offering (?)" (Naga
ed-Deir
stela)13
Z P n & _ 1
"- of Min"
(coffin> Naa
ed-Deir tomb
3751).
14
Here,
as in the case under consideration
(and
in
the title
^ ^_,
to be discussed
presently),
it seems
likely
that ntr refers to the local
god.
A similar
reapplication
of a title that
formerly pertained
to the
king
is attested
by
two occurrences of
hry-tp
dd "overlord of the wardrobe:"
mMj$Mi 2
"overlord of the wardrobe
(dity
hp [ ?]J
in the
temple" (Naga
ed-Deir tomb
89)15
%l\*
*9
-
K3^6 if
"overlord of the ward-
5
Blackman,
Meir
IV,
PL
4A (1)
and
p.
2.
6
Davies, Ptahhetep II,
PL
34.
7
Daressy,
ASAE 16
(191 6), 212; Kuentz, Obelisques,
PL
3 (Cairo
Cat.
17002).
8
Daressy,
loc.
cit.; Kuentz, ibid.,
PL 2
(Cairo
Cat.
17001).
9
Junker,
Giza IV, 5, 18, 27 f.,
where the title is
translated "Der iiber den Geheimnissen der ver-
siegelten
Schriftstucke des
Konigs
steht."
Apart
from
the inconclusive reason that the same
titulary
includes
a scribal
function,
there is little to recommend
"versiegelte
Schriftstucke" as a translation of sdiwt
rather than
"treasure," particularly
in view of the
fact that one of the other titles refers to the
pr-hd.
Among
the evidence offered
by
Wb.
V, 637, Belegst.
2,
for this
meaning
of sd;wt,
note in
particular
p ^
"^^l^l^^
"bringing
the best of
gold
and
every
treasure"
(Daressy,
Mastaba de Meva, 571;
cf. ibid.
573,
LD
II, 22,
and
Steindorff,
Grab des
Ti,
PL
66).
10
Davies,
Deir el Gebrawi II, p.
20 and PL 21.
M'm is the cult center of the
god (nty.
11
Ibid., p. 33
and PL
21;
the false door C in tomb
72 probably
has the same title; cf. also tomb
38 (A).
>I;krnt is the cult center of the
goddess
M;tit.
12
L.
Stern,
AZ
13 (1875),
PL 1
(k), facing p. 72.
13
Dunham, Naga
ed-Der
Stelae,
no. 16. Some of the
signs
have hieratic forms;
there is no
question
about
jfQ
however,
and the
reading
of o_d
(suggested by
Gardiner,
ibid.
p. 30)
seems
highly probable.
The
title is
preceded by imy-r
hwt-ntr "overseer of the
temple."
14
C. N.
Peck,
Some Decorated Tombs
of
the First
Intermediate Period at
Naga ed-Der, University
Microfilms,
Ann
Arbor, p. 135,
n.
4.
For the construc-
tion of the title see the discussion on
p. 123
of the
present
volume.
15
Quoted (in translation) by
C. N.
Peck, ibid., p.
136,
n. 1. Dr.
Peck,
to whom I owe the facsimile
made
by
Norman de Garis Davies,
has also
put
me
in mind of the
possibility
that the arm
might represent
ssp,
and I have
subsequently
come
upon examples
of
$sp (and Ssp.t)
as a word for cloth or
clothing
in
titles
(JARCE
2
[1963], 25).
The trace above the
arm is difficult to
explain, however,
unless this and
the
sign
<=> are
actually |P,
and =3 in itself
might
be
a determinative for
clothing (Gardiner, Gram.3, 507).
26
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robe of
Hathor,
Mistress of Dendera"
(Dendera,
tomb of
Mrrl).1Q
The first of these
examples may
be as
early
as
Dynasty
VI,
while the other is
probably
no
earlier than
Dynasty
VIII. At a
slightly
later
date the
closely
related title
try nfr-h?t "keeper
of the
Headdress,
"
which was
formerly
held
by
those who
arranged
the
king's wig,
is
readapted
to the local cult as follows :
^I^^I^t
"keeper
of the headdress
in
attiring
his lord
(namely)
his
city god"
(Naga
ed-Deir tomb
3737).
17
Among
the later evidence for ss sdswt-ntr
there is a Tenth
Dynasty example referring
to
the
pyramid
cult of
King Merykare
:
(
o ^c LJM
I J J J 1 (Pf
^ -18 At least one Twelfth
Dynasty
occurrence
again
makes mention of a local divi-
nity
-
the
god Amun,19
and this connection
is wrell attested in later times.20
(2)
Ss
htpw-ntr
"scribe of the
god's offerings
"
The
present
occurrence is the
only
one known
to me from Old
Kingdom
sources. At least one
other
example may
be cited for the Twelfth
Dynasty,21
but the title does not become com-
mon until the New
Kingdom.22
If ntr in the
preceding
title refers to the local
god,
the same
conclusion seems
equally justified
in this case.
(3)
yIt-ntr "Father of the
god"
Considering
the context of the other
titles,
and the absence of
tnry-ntr,
a
phrase
which is
generally
added to U-ntr when
courtly
rank is
involved,
or
relationship
to the
king,
it is
extremely likely
that this title
designates
a
priestly
office. If
so,
it is one of the earliest
examples
of its
kind, although
an
equally
good
case can be made for the same
interpret-
ation of U-ntr in the titularies of three Helio-
politan high priests
whose tombs
evidently
antedate the end of the Old
Kingdom.23
Here
the title in
question regularly
follows
wr-m^(.w)
"greatest
of the seers" or
hry-hbt
"lector
priest,"
and sometimes occurs between the
two. As Kees
points out,
examples
of U-ntr as a
priestly
function are rare even in the Middle
Kingdom;24
it does not seem
necessary,
how-
ever,
to
deny
their existence at a somewhat
earlier
period,25
when there is additional
evidence for the assimilation of
courtly
titles to
the
priesthood
of local divinities. This evidence
has
already
been discussed in connection
with the first of the
preceding
titles.
(4)
Sch
c;(?)
m hnw Skr "Noble
great (of
years?)
in the bark of Sokar"
The
reading
of the second
sign
is somewhat
uncertain;
the
slightly
bent attitude of the
figure
would favor iiw
"old,"
or smsw
"eldest,"
but this form also admits the
possibility
of c*
"great,"
which is sometimes written with the
same
sign.
A
particularly persuasive
instance of
the latter occurs in the
epithet
wr m
ist.f>
c/ m
sch.f,
the last half of which is written
$ ^ p -j*
^
*^ in the Sixth
Dynasty
tomb of 'Ibi at Deir
el Gebrawi.26 But if it seems
likely
that this
paraphrases
^jj},
so that the
reading
of the
latter is
&-h--?,
the bent attitude
might
still be
16
Petrie, Dendera,
PL 8
(lower
left: Cairo Cat.
1663) ;
discussed in
my
dissertation Denderah
during
the Old
Kingdom,
etc.
(University Microfilms,
Ann
Arbor), 269
ff.
17
C. N.
Peck, ibid.,
PL 12 and
pp. 109-110.
For
try nfr-hst
see
my
remarks in AZ
90 (1963), 39,
where
I should have mentioned Dr. Peck's discussion as well
as Helck, Beamtentitel, 42.
18
Cairo Cat.
39053,
coffin of
'Ipi-m-st.f, evidently
from the Teti
pyramid
cemeteries at
Saqqara;
one of
the other titles *
(^fl
ff j j j& 7 Q]

19
Cairo Cat.
20677
d.
20
For the later evidence see Wb.
V, 637, Beleg-
stellen
7-9.
21
Cairo Cat.
20335
c.
22
Wb.
Ill, 185, Belegstellen 15ft.
23Daressy,
ASAE 16
(1916), 198 (Mrw); 199*1.
(tSbky); 209! (Hw-n-Hr).
Helck
(Beamtentitel, 94)
mentions these
occurrences,
but
apparently
assumes
that
they
are
simply "Ehrentitel,"
without
any
reference to the local cult.
24
AZ 86
(1961),
121.
25
Ibid.,
120.
26
Davies,
Deir el Gebrawi I,
PL
6;
for other exam-
ples
of the
epithet
cf.
Janssen,
Traditioneele Autobio-
grafie I, pp. 6-7.
His second Sixth
Dynasty example
of the same
writing (Petrie, Abydos I,
PL
54)
is
actually
Middle
Kingdom.
27
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indicative,
for c/ can mean
"great
in
age/'27
and
an
early
Twelfth
Dynasty
nomarch at Beni
Hasan is in fact
fo^2 j^ +
I
"a noble
great
of
years
in the house
oi'Imy-Snt."28
A
yet
closer,
if less conclusive
parallel
occurs on a
Middle
Kingdom offering
table of about the same
date, belonging
to a
Memphite high priest
who is
W, $ ^k
^
ii
-29 The text is
only
known to me
from two hand
copies,
but both
copies agree
in
giving
the initial
sign
a
decidedly
bent attitude
;
the
preceding
context and the size of the
lacuna
suggest
that
^
might
be restored at
the head of the
title,
as in the case under con-
sideration. The false door of a Sixth
Dynasty
master-metalworker
again
associates
fy
(slight-
ly
bent
forward,
as
before)
and
p
- *
| 4fa
with
Sokar,
this time in a consecutive
pair
of
epithets
:
"great (of years?)
in
respect
to the divine office
in
smelting
; possessor
of rank
(as)
a
goldworker
in the retinue of Sokar."30 A further indication
that the idea of
age may
be
implied
in these
epithets
is
provided by
the title
(j ^ fy J
-
Q^j
"old one of the mansion of
Ptah,"
on the
false door of a
Memphite high priest
who lived
in the latter
part
of the Fifth
Dynasty.31
(5) }!>i sm(.w) "Inspector
of im-attendantsM
$hd sm is a lesser
counterpart
of the title
1 3^
hrp sm,
which is attributed to most of the
Memphite high priests
of the Sixth
Dynasty
and
is
regularly preceded by
another title
referring
to Sokar.L2 In one case the name of Sokar is
actually
attached to it
(g8icf lj,33
and the
same is
apparently
true of the one case where
the title is
simply
sm:
(oltfj
S A& T1 I
i 11 S ^
-U The im
(not
t0 be confused with
stm)
therefore
appears
to be a minor officiant of
this
god.35
For the
meaning
one should
prob-
ably compare
a verb of identical
appearance
which involves an attitude or action towards a
god,
and
which,
in the case of
Pyr. 892,
has
been taken to mean "revere" or
"respect.
"36
No further
examples preceded by
shd
appear
to be known until Saitic
times,
when titles
referring
to sm are revived
;37
such titles do not
occur at all
during
the
intervening periods,
from
the end of the Sixth
Dynasty
to the
beginning
of the
Twenty-sixth.
(6)
Wcb <; Pth "Great
ze>c&-priest
of Ptah"
Here the addition of c?
apparently
dis-
tinguishes
the head of the
priesthood
in
ques-
tion,38
and the title is in fact sometimes held
by
27
For a Sixth
Dynasty example
see
Sethe,
AZ 61
(1926), 74 (Papyrus
Berlin
9010,
line
3).
28
Newberry,
Beni Hasan
I, p.
22 and PL
7.
For
the
god
in
question,
see
Kees,
AZ
64 (1929), 107-112.
A somewhat similar Middle
Kingdom epithet
is
j^ ^
iTI Mf"
"overseer of
offering
tables as a
digni-
tary
of his
house,"
in this case
referring
to Horus
the Behdetite
(Alliot,
Tell
Edfou [1933],
PL 16
[1]).
29
Berlin
1189,
Hier. Inschr.
I,
208 andLZ>
II,
118
(i).
30
Goyon,
Kemi
15 (1959), p.
18 and PL
4. Goyon
translates the last
part
"Orfevre
pour
les ornements
de la cour," equating
skr with a Middle
Kingdom
word ^*
5 meaning
"adorn*
'
and
evidently
related to
Shkr
(Wb. Ill, 487.12;
cf.
IV, 318.13).
In this case,
however,
one
might expect
P
rather than
- -
in the
Sixth
Dynasty
text. For Snwt Skr cf. Wb. IV, 5
11.
13
flf.
"Hofleute eines Gottes." For the association between
Sokaris and metal
working
see also CT 660 a
(Vol. VI,
284):
l^-^-^n^ a s^ a Y/i^h
w^-JHIj./l f 1-1M
fn>
"It is this
skin
belonging
to Sokar and to his own
smelting;
indeed,
it is not the
smelting
of his craftsmen." I am
unable to
explain
the
particular significance
of
h>y.t
in this
passage, beyond
the fact that it is
apparently
related to h?w and hiw.t in Wb.
Ill, 225 (8, 9).
31
British Museum 682:
Mar., Mast., p. 113
and
James, Hieroglyphic
Texts
I2,
PL
17.
32
Mar., Mast., p. 113 (and
cf.
130) (Pth-spss,
BM 682:
James,
Hier. Texts
I2,
PL
17); p. 123^ R'-nfr,
Cairo Cat.
18-19), P- 157 (Ssbw-km), p. 375 (;bw/
>Ibbi).
33
Cairo Cat.
93 (statue
of
Pth-spss).
34
Mar., Mast., p. 250 (Ny-miH-Pth,
Cairo Cat.
1701),
35
Cf. Charles
Maystre, JNES
8
(1949), pp. 85-86.
For stm see
Gardiner, Onomastica I, 39*-4i*.
36
Wb.
IV,
120.8.
37
Maystre, Ibid., p.
88 and Wb.
IV, 121, Belegst. 7.
38
Cf. Gardiner,
On.
I, 54*. Compare
also the
terminal element in the title
hry-tp
'/
(n spt) "great
overlord"
(of
a
nome),
which is first attested at the
beginning
of
Dyn. VI,
and in which c/ is a
purely
titular addition
(JAOS 76 [1956], 103).
28
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overseers of hm-ntr
priests
in the Twelfth
Dynasty.39
In the
present case, however,
the
"great ze>c6-priest"
is not at the summit of the
local
hierarchy,
since there is no mention of the
title that is distinctive of the
Memphite high
priests (^ff),
and since he is
only
a slid sm
rather than
hrp
sm. The same status is indicat-
ed for a second
"great w'b-priest"
whose false
door is
apparently
as
early
as the Sixth
Dynasty
;
he is
~P?
L J | I I
an(i
-
5
$8**"
OX
"Inspector "
of the
L J | I I 5 OX wm
"
House of Min" and "Great
z#c6-priest
of
Min."40 The next earliest
examples
of
(^ J
occur on two
Saqqara
false doors of the First
Intermediate
Period,
one of which is
probably
as
late as the Tenth
Dynasty.41
There is no
indication that either of these
"great
wcb-
priests"
was of
very
exalted rank.
Conversely,
two
Memphite high priests
of the Sixth
Dynasty
are
merely
f$|
-
,42
but their
inscriptions
doubtless antedate the title that is under
discussion. Once the rank of
"great ze^ft-priest"
was
established,
it must have
conveyed
a
considerable
degree
of
importance
when it
referred to a cult so central and well-established
as that of Ptah.
Resume and Conclusions
The
foregoing group
of titles indicates that
while
*Irt-pth
was not at the summit of the
Memphite clergy (being only
a shd sm rather
than
hrp sm),
his
position (as
wcb </ and
it-ntr)
was
evidently very high indeed,
and it will
be recalled that one of his more distinctive titles
-
"noble
great (of years?)
in the bark of
Sokar"
-
recurs in the
titulary
of a Twelfth
Dynasty high priest.
If several of the individual
elements of
*Irt-pth's titulary
reflect
relatively
late
developments
in the
organization
of the
local
priesthood,
the same is
apparently
true
of the
specific position
to which
they
relate.
There is reason to think that the office of
high-priest,
which was shared
by
two individuals
during
most of the Old
Kingdom,
was restricted
to a
single
incumbent
early
in
Dynasty
VI.43
Since
'Irt-pth probably
attained his
highest
titles after that
change
had been
effected,
it
is
possible
that these titles
represent
a
position
of vice-command that was created to
replace
the second of the two
presiding
officials. The
most
interesting question
that is raised
by
his
titulary, however,
is the
reinterpretation
of
titles that
originally applied
to the
king
and
subsequently,
towards the end of the Old
Kingdom,
were associated with the cults of local
gods.
This
development
is doubtless to be
explained
in terms of the decentralization of
royal powers
and
prerogatives
that is characteris-
tic of the
period.
Metropolitan
Museum of
Art,
New York
39
Cairo Cat.
20514; Newberry,
Bersheh II,
PL
17;
Blackman,
Meir
II,
Pis.
10,
11.
40
Cairo Cat.
1407.
41
Firth and
Gunn,
Teti
Pyr. Cent.,
PL
70 (1),
and
Quibell,
Excav.
Saq. 1906-07,
PL
7 (3).
42
Mar., Mast., p. 130 (Pth-spss;
cf. note
32 above;
the architrave on
p. 377
is
apparently
the
same,
copied
in
reverse), p. 375 (S;bw ).
43
See
Maystre, JNES
8
(1949), 87-88, referring
to
Sethe's reconstruction of the
biography
of
&sbwjTty
in Urk.
I, 84-85.
29
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PLATE XV
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