Maya or May was a

High Priest of Amun The High Priest of Amun or First Prophet of Amun ('' ḥm nṯr tpj n jmn'') was the highest-ranking priest in the priesthood of the ancient Egyptian god Amun. The first high priests of Amun appear in the New Kingdom of Egypt, at the beginning ...

of ancient Egypt, until at least year 4 of

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...

Biography

May is known from an expedition in year 4 to Wadi

Wadi Hammamat Wadi Hammamat ( en, Valley of Many Baths, ''India way; gateway to India'') is a dry river bed in Egypt's Eastern Desert, about halfway between Al-Qusayr and Qena. It was a major mining region and trade route east from the Nile Valley in ancien ...

. The purpose of the expedition was to quarry stone for the statue of the king.Aidan Dodson, Amarna Sunrise: Egypt from the Golden Age to the Age of Heresy, The American University in Cairo Press, pp. 102, 2014 Further inscriptions on the way to the quarries, at Wadi Abu Quwei, record that the expedition of the High Priest was accompanied by a contingent of 253 soldiers. the soldiers were under the command of a standard-bearer named Ry and his second in command named Amenmose. Aldred suggested that Meryptah had succeeded Ptahmose as High Priest of Amun and served towards the end of

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...

's reign. And hence Maya would have been Meryptah's successor.

Donald Redford Donald Bruce Redford (born September 2, 1934) is a Canadian Egyptologist and archaeologist, currently Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He is married to Susan Redford, who is also an Egyptolo ...

speculates that Maya is short for Ptahmose and that Ptahmose served from the end of the reign of

until the beginning of the time of Akhenaten.Donald B. Redford: "The Identity of the High-Priest of Amun at the Beginning of Akhenaten's Reign", ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 83, No. 2 (Apr., 1963), pp. 240-241

Death and burial

Maya is not mentioned after year 4, and it is possible he died soon after this expedition. An

ostracon An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ston ...

with the name and title of the High Priest of Amun May was found by Fisher during the 1921-1923 expeditions in

Dra' Abu el-Naga' The necropolis of Draʻ Abu el-Naga' ( ar, دراع ابو النجا) is located on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes, Egypt, just by the entrance of the dry bay that leads up to Deir el-Bahari and north of the necropolis of el-Assasif. The ne ...

. It is now in the Penn Museum (Object Number: 29-87-419). The tomb of May was identified in

as being Tomb K99.1 by a German team led by D. Polz.Polz D. et.al.: Bericht Uber die 9. bis 12. Grabungskampagne in der Nekropole von Dra'Abu el-Naga/Theben West, in MDAIK 59 (2003), pp. 373-74 There is a statue of Maya, with placard that reads "Maya, Governor and Chief of the Priests of Lower Egypt, 1400 BC" at the Berlin Egyptian museum. A Chief of Priests of Lower Egypt would be head priest of the two religious centers of "

Sais Sais ( grc, Σάϊς, cop, Ⲥⲁⲓ) was an ancient Egyptian city in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile,Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. "Saïs." '' Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfiel ...

" and "On." https://www.alamy.com/berlin-germany-ancient-egyptian-seated-statue-of-maya-governor-and-chief-of-the-priests-wearing-the-gold-of-honour-neues-museum-new-kingdom-pe-image241818317.html

References

Theban High Priests of Amun Priests of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt 14th-century BC clergy 14th-century BC Egyptian people {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub