Meru was an Ancient Egyptian official under king

Mentuhotep II Mentuhotep II ( egy, Mn- ṯw- ḥtp, meaning " Mentu is satisfied"), also known under his prenomen Nebhepetre ( egy, Nb- ḥpt- Rˁ, meaning "The Lord of the rudder is Ra"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth ruler of the Eleventh D ...

in the

Eleventh Dynasty The Eleventh Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty XI) is a well-attested group of rulers. Its earlier members before Pharaoh Mentuhotep II are grouped with the four preceding dynasties to form the First Intermediate Period, whereas the lat ...

, around 2000 BC. Meru was ''overseer of sealers'' at the royal court and therefore one of the highest state officials. Meru is mainly known from his Theban Tomb (

TT240 The Theban Tomb of Meru TT240 is located in El-Assasif, Theban Necropolis. It overlooks the mortuary temple of the 11th Dynasty Pharaoh Mentuhotep II (around 2000 BC). Meru was the son of Iku and Nebti. Tomb The tomb consists of a great cou ...

). The tomb consists of the undecorated cult chapel and the underground burial chamber decorated with

Pyramid Texts The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterrane ...

and Coffin Texts. There is a sarcophagus sunk into the floor decorated with friezes of objects and an offering list. Meru is also known from a stela now in the

Museo Egizio The Museo Egizio ( Italian for Egyptian Museum) is an archaeological museum in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, specializing in Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities, with more than 30,0 ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. Here his parents Iku and Nebti are mentioned. The stela is also dated under king Mentuhotep II. Meru appears finally in two rock inscriptions in the

Shatt er-Rigal Shatt may refer to: *the Shatt people *the Shatt language *the Shatt al-Arab river, which empties into the Persian Gulf * Chott {{disambig ...

. Here he bears once the title ''overseer of the foreign lands''.W. Grajetzki: ''Court Officials of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom'', London 2009 {{ISBN, 978-0-7156-3745-6, p. 81-82, 173

References

Ancient Egyptian overseers of sealers Officials of the Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian overseers of foreign lands