Open AccessThe High Priesthood of Memphis during the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period. An Updating Study and a Prosopography
Author(s) -
Josep Cervelló Autuori
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
trabajos de egiptología
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1695-4750
DOI - 10.25145/j.tde.2018.09.01
Subject(s) - prosopography , period (music) , memphis , subject matter , context (archaeology) , history , kingdom , subject (documents) , genealogy , character (mathematics) , classics , ancient history , art , archaeology , library science , computer science , political science , law , mathematics , paleontology , biology , aesthetics , botany , geometry , curriculum
The inscriptions recovered from the looted necropolis of Kom el-Khamaseen, located in southwest Saqqara and dated between the end of the Old Kingdom and the beginning of the First Intermediate Period, document a hitherto unknown high priest of Memphis: Imephor Impy Nikauptah. This character must be incorporated into our prosopographical repertoires and placed in his historical and cultural context. This provides a good opportunity to return to the issue of the Memphite pontificate during the third millennium B.C. as a whole. The aim of this article is therefore to offer, on the one hand, a systematic and updated overview of the subject by integrating the new data from Kom el-Khamaseen, drawing upon the complete sources, and critically reviewing the literature on the matter. On the other hand, it is also about providing a new reasoned chronological list and a prosopography of the Memphite high priests of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period.