Meryptah (High Priest of Amun)

Meryptah
mry-ptḥ "Beloved of Ptah"
Predecessor: Ptahmose	High Priest of Amun	Successor: Maya
Dynasty	18th Dynasty
Pharaoh(s)	Amenhotep III
Titles	High Priest of Amun
Burial	TT68, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna

For other pages by this name, see Meryptah.

Meryptah (transliteration: mry-ptḥ, meaning: "Beloved of Ptah") was High Priest of Amun under Pharaoh Amenhotep III of the Eighteenth Dynasty during the New Kingdom.

Attestation

Meryptah is known from a statue mentioning him with Anen, Amenemhat and Simut who were a 2nd, 3rd and 4th Prophet of Amun respectively. Aldred conjectures that Meryptah succeeded Ptahmose and served until the end of the reign of Amenhotep III. Meryptah would have served from ca. Year 20 of Amenhotep's reign until the end of that reign.

Burial

Meryptah's original tomb was TT68 at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. The whereabouts of his mummy remain unknown. Some of his funerary items were recovered from a pit excavated at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna in the early 19th century. These include:

• A kneeling statue of Meryptah singing a hymn of praise to Re.
• Another statue of Meryptah, currently held at the Oriental Institute in Chicago.
• Three stamped mud bricks inscribed for The First Prophet of Amun Meryptah, currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
• A polished boxwood kohl container-(statuette), girl with youth side lock, carrying oversized pot: The Durham Servant Girl.

Bibliography

• Aldred, C., 1959: Two Theban Notables during the Later Reign of Amenhotep III. Journal of Near Eastern Studies.
• Hayes, C.W., 1990: The Scepter of Egypt Vol.2: The Hykos Period & the New Kingdom.
• Reeves, N., 2000: Ancient Egypt, The Great Discoveries, a Year-by-Year Chronicle, 1816-1818.

Predecessor: Ptahmose

High Priest of Amun 18th Dynasty

Successor: Maya