Haremakhet (also Horemakhet or, in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, Harmakhis) was an
ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ian prince and
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 beginnin ...
during the
25th Dynasty
The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV, alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty, the Kushite Empire, the Black Pharaohs, or the Napatans, after their capital Napata, was the last dynasty of t ...
.
Biography
A son of pharaoh
Shabaka
Neferkare Shabaka, or Shabako ( Meroitic: 𐦰𐦲𐦡𐦐𐦲 (sha-ba-ka), Egyptian: 𓆷𓃞𓂓 ''šꜣ bꜣ kꜣ'', Assyrian: ''Ša-ba-ku-u'', Šabakû ) was the third Kushite pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, who reigned fr ...
and possibly of his queen
Tabaktenamun, he was appointed by his father as the High Priest of
Amun
Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...
in
Thebes and he officiated during the reigns of
Taharqa
Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo, Akkadian: ''Tar-qu-ú'', , Manetho's ''Tarakos'', Strabo's ''Tearco''), was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of Kush (present day Sudan) from 690 to 664 BC. ...
and
Tanutamani
Tantamani ( Meroitic: 𐦛𐦴𐦛𐦲𐦡𐦲, , Neo-Assyrian: , ), also known as Tanutamun or Tanwetamani (d. 653 BC) was ruler of the Kingdom of Kush located in Northern Sudan, and the last pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. His ...
. Haremakhet's immediate predecessors are unknown and it is possible that the charge of High Priest of Amun was vacant for decades.
[ § 157] In any case, this once powerful and influential title had long lost its importance in favor of the
God's Wife of Amun
God's Wife of Amun ( Egyptian: ''ḥm.t nṯr n ỉmn'') was the highest-ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important religious institution in ancient Egypt. The cult was centered in Thebes in Upper Egypt during the Twenty-fifth and Twen ...
, a position which at the time of Haremakhet was held by
Shepenupet II and then
Amenirdis I.
Haremakhet is mainly known from a statue discovered in the Great Temple
cachette at
Karnak
The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (), comprises a vast mix of temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BC) in the ...
, formerly exhibited at the
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...
(CG 42204 / JE 38580) and now at the
Nubian Museum
The Nubian Museum (officially the International Museum of Nubia) is an archaeological museum located in Aswan, Upper Egypt. It was built following the UNESCO International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, to a design by architect Mahmoud ...
of
Aswan
Aswan (, also ; ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city ha ...
. On the statue, he is referred as
: King’s son of Shabaka,
justified, who loves him, Sole Confidant of king Taharqa, justified, Director of the palace of the king of
Upper and Lower Egypt
In History of ancient Egypt, Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the Early Dynastic Period (Egypt), unification of the realm. The concepti ...
Tanutamani, may he live for ever.
Noticeably, in this inscription king
Shebitku
Shebitku or Shabataka (, , or ) also known as Shebitqo, was the second pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt who ruled from 714 BC – 705 BC, according to the most recent academic research. He was a son of Piye, the founder of this dy ...
– who was commonly assumed to have ruled between Shabaka and Taharqa – is completely absent. Indeed, the inscription was among the seminal evidence supporting the 2010s chronological switch between the reigns of Shabaka and Shebitku, with Shebitku reigning first and Shabaka succeeding him.
26th Dynasty
The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVI, alternatively 26th Dynasty or Dynasty 26) was the last native dynasty of ancient Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC (although other brief periods of rule by Egyptians followed). T ...
, pharaoh Psamtik I
Wahibre Psamtik I (Ancient Egyptian: ) was the first pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the Saite period, ruling from the city of Sais in the Nile delta between 664 and 610 BC. He was installed by Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian E ...
.[
]
References
{{authority control
People of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt
Ancient Egyptian princes
Theban high priests of Amun
7th-century BC clergy