Pahemnetjer ''(p3-ḥm-nṯr;'' "servant of the god", "priest") was a

High Priest of Ptah The High Priest of Ptah was sometimes referred to as "the Greatest of the Directors of Craftsmanship" ('' wr-ḫrp-ḥmwt''). This title refers to Ptah as the patron god of the craftsmen.Dodson and Hilton, ''The Complete Royal Families of Ancie ...

during the reign of

Ramesses II Ramesses II ( egy, wikt:rꜥ-ms-sw, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is oft ...

. Pahemnetjer succeeded

Huy Huy ( or ; nl, Hoei, ; wa, Hu) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the ''sillon industriel'', the former industrial ...

and was in turn succeeded by his son Didia.

Biography

Pahemnetjer was the son of a dignitary named Mahu according to a block from

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. He was married to a lady named Huneroy, and he was the father of both Didia and Prehotep II. Pahemnetjer held a vast array of titles: noble and count, ''Sole companion who is loved'', ''the Sem-priest and Chief Directing Crafts'' (= High priest of Ptah), ''Chief of secrets in the Temples, who sees the secrets of all the gods''. On his sarcophagus and inner coffin Pahemnetjer is also described as born of

Geb Geb was the Egyptian god of the earth and a mythological member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He could also be considered a father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb's laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops to g ...

, Ruler of Both Lands and the revered one before

Thoth Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a ...

.Kitchen, K.A., Ramesside Inscriptions, Translated & Annotated, Translations, Volume III, Blackwell Publishers, 1996, pg 297-299 The sarcophagus of Pahemnetjer is in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The location of his tomb is not known however, but it is presumed to be in

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...

Attestations

Pahemnetjer is attested in/on: * A statue in a ''naos'' frame originally from Saqqara, now in the

Cairo Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...

(JdE 89046). * A red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

sarcophagus now in the British Museum (BM 18).Kitchen, K.A., Ramesside Inscriptions, pg 298 * A sarcophagus, now in Berlin (Berlin 33). * A wall fragment (Cairo TN 29/6/24/12).Kitchen, K.A., Ramesside Inscriptions, pg 299 * A wall fragment now in Stockholm (National Museum Inv 54). * A pillar, now in Florence (No. 2607). Pahemnetjer is shown adoring

Sekhmet In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet ( or Sachmis (), also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, Sakhet among other spellings, cop, Ⲥⲁⲭⲙⲓ, Sakhmi), is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness. Sekhmet is a solar de ...

. The inscription identifies him as a son of Mehu and born of the Lady of the House Nena. * A black granite statue in the Cairo Museum (CG 1087); Pahemnetjer has the titles ''Greatest of the directors of craftsmen'', etc. * A statue of his son: ''Rahotep, Governor of the Town and Vizier, etc., son of Pahemnetjer, Greatest of the directors of craftsmen of Ptah'', Brit. Mus. EA 712.Kitchen, K.A., Ramesside Inscriptions, pg 39

References

Memphis High Priests of Ptah People of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt 13th-century BC clergy Ramesses II {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub