Meketre

Meketre in hieroglyphs

Model of a paddling funerary boat (W) from the tomb of Meketre.

The Ancient Egyptian official Meketre was chancellor and high steward during the reign of Mentuhotep II, Mentuhotep III and perhaps Amenemhat I, during the Middle Kingdom.

Meketre is first attested in a rock inscription in the Wadi Shatt el-Rigala. Here he bears the simple title sealer. The inscription is dated to year 41 of king Mentuhotep II. On reliefs from the mortuary temple of the same king in Deir el-Bahari Meketre bears the title of chancellor and was evidently promoted in the meantime, succeeding Kheti.^[1] The same title was found on a statue in Meketre's tomb while on relief fragments in the tomb he held the main title of high steward. The tomb (TT280) is located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, part of the Theban Necropolis, and lies next to a large, unfinished royal tomb which was originally attributed to king Mentuhotep III and, after new researchs, to Amenemhat I. Therefore, Meketre most likely died under the latter king.^[2]

Meketre's tomb TT280 contained several wooden replicas, representing the daily activities and life in Ancient Egypt, together with figurines of ships and cattle were, miniature buildings and gardens.^[3]

References

1. ↑ Wolfram Grajetzki: Die höchsten Beamten der ägyptischen Zentralverwaltung zur Zeit des Mittleren Reiches. Berlin 2000, 45
2. ↑ James P. Allen: The high officials of the early Middle Kingdom, in: Nigel Strudwick, John H. Taylor (editors): The Theban Necropolis, Past, Present and Future, London 2003, ISBN 0714122475, p. 19
3. ↑ Amenemhat I

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tomb of Meketre.

• Dorothea Arnold: Amenemhet I and the Early Twelfth Dynasty at Thebes. In: Metropolitan Museum Journal. Vol. 26, 1991, ISSN 0077-8958, S. 5–48, online (PDF; 7,2 MB).
• H. E. Winlock: Models of Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. From the Tomb of Meket-Re at Thebes (= Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian Expedition. Vol. 18, ZDB-ID 86343-9). Published for the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1955.