Zamonth or Samont (''son of

Monthu Montu was a falcon-god of war in ancient Egyptian religion, an embodiment of the conquering vitality of the pharaoh.Hart, George, ''A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses'', Routledge, 1986, . p. 126. He was particularly worshipped in Uppe ...

'') was an ancient Egyptian

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

who was in office at the end of 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 ...

, around 1800 BC.

Biography

Zamonth is known from a stela, showing him sitting in front of an offering table. The stela is now on display in the

Egyptian 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 a ...

of Cairo. Here he bears the titles ''member of the elite'', ''mayor''. ''overseer of the city'' and ''vizier''. The mother of Zamonth is a woman called Zatip. A ''mouth of Nekhen'' Zamonth with the same mother is known from several rock inscriptions in

Lower Nubia Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern p ...

. They date to the years 6 and 9 of king

Amenemhat III :''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.'' Amenemhat III ( Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dy ...

and report a small military campaign against Nubia. It seems likely that both sources refer to the same person, the Nubian inscriptions belong to the time before he was promoted to the position of a vizier.

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. 36, pl. 3 An offering chapel of Senwosret (Vienna AS 198), a reporter of the vizier, may belong to a servant of Zamonth.

Detlef Franke Detlef Franke (November 24, 1952 in Lüneburg – September 2, 2007) was a German Egyptologist specialist of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Biography Detlef Franke received his doctorate at the University of Hamburg in 1983 with his thesis "''Al ...

, in: Jan Assmann, Sibylle Meyer (editors): ''Egypt, temple of the whole world'', Brill, 2003, {{ISBN, 90-04-13240-6 pp. 104-105 A person with the same name and title is mentioned on the Stela in Cairo (CG 20102).

Family

Zamonth was married to a lady named Henutpu. Children include: *Senebtifi. The stela of Zamonth shows his son standing opposite him. The inscriptions identify him as the ''royal sealer'' and ''priest of

Amun Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as (Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → (Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egyptian ...

'' Senebtifi. *

Ankhu Ankhu was an Egyptian vizier of the early 13th Dynasty, who lived around 1750 BC. Family Ankhu was the son of a vizier. Labib Habachi proposed that his father was the vizier Zamonth. The mother of Ankhu is known as Henutpu, the name of Zamont ...

, a vizier, may have been a son of Zamonth. The wife of Zamonth is called Henutpu, while the mother of Ankhu bore the name Henut, possibly a diminutif. In addition, it is known that Ankhu was the son of a vizier.

References

Viziers of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian overseers of the city