Sobekemhat was an ancient Egyptian

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury ...

under the king Senusret III in the

Twelfth Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some ...

. Sobekemhat is only known from his mastaba excavated in 1894 next to the pyramid of Senusret III at

Dahshur DahshurAlso transliterated ''Dahshour'' (in English often called ''Dashur'' ar, دهشور ' , ''Dahchur'') is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several p ...

. The mastaba was decorated on the outside with reliefs. These were only found in small fragments, but the fragments record the name and the titles of Sobekemhat. On an offering table he bears the title of the treasurer. The mastaba is in a chain of three mastabas, north of the king's pyramid. It is closest to the pyramid. The next mastaba belongs to the vizier (

Nebit Nebit was an ancient Egyptian official during the reign of king Senusret III. He held the position of vizier. Thus, he was the most important official at the royal court. Nebit is only known from his large mastaba, which was excavated next to the p ...

) and the third to another high official, perhaps again a vizier. Therefore, it can be argued that Sobekemhat's tomb was the earliest of the three. For a long time it was thought that Sobekemhat was vizier, but the relief fragments with the vizier's title come from the mastaba of Nebit nearby.Adela Oppenheim: ''Identifying artists in the time of Senusret III. The mastaba of the vizir Nebit (North Mastaba 18) at Dahshur'', in M. Barta, F. Coppens, and J. Krejčŕ (editors), ''Abusir und Saqqara in the Year 2005'', Prague 2006, 123, note 28

References

Literature

Wolfram Grajetzki Wolfram Grajetzki (born 1960, in Berlin) is a German Egyptologist. He studied at Free University of Berlin and made his Doctor of Philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He performed excavations in Egypt, but also in Pakistan. He publishe ...

: ''Court Officials of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom'', London 2009 p. 31-33 {{ISBN, 978-0-7156-3745-6 Ancient Egyptian treasurers Senusret III Dahshur