Meni
Meni is the name of two ancient Egyptian elders who are buried in the necropolis of Giza .
Meni I
His official title was "House Elder". The woman's name has not survived, but the names of three children have survived. Its unnumbered brick mastaba is directly adjacent to S 2530/2531 and is located far west of the Junker necropolis (G 4399-G 54040). It was excavated in 1926 by Hermann Junker . In the west wall of the arched corridor there were three false doors and behind them three grave shafts . The owner of the grave was buried in the southern grave shaft. A number of relief fragments were found in the cult room and in front of the mastaba . A rather damaged plaque shows the couple at a sacrificial table . The relief fragments are now in the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim (RPM 3035). They belong to the 5th dynasty .
Meni II
In six relief fragments, which Wolfgang von Bissing acquired in the antique trade at the beginning of the 20th century and donated to the Egyptian Museum in Munich , a Meni also describes himself as an elder. Is it identical to the Meni I mentioned above? Alexander Scharff has dealt with this question in detail. There are two false door parts and a door lintel with relief plate (GL24 a and 24 b). On the upper panel, a hollow relief, Meni and his wife Merutnes stand facing each other with five children. The children are named. On the lintel (a bas-relief) the couple is on a boat trip, in the front of the boat is the boy Aahathor, a son. Above it is a curse formula: “The crocodile in the water, the snake against the one on earth who will do something against the grave. None of those who made this grave for me had reason to be angry. Be it a sculptor or a stonemason, I rewarded him to his satisfaction. "
Identity of the two meni?
What speaks for the identity of the two meni? Both are elders. Three of the named children have the same names in Meni I and Meni II. What speaks against it? The name Meni and the official title “House Elder” may have been inherited in the family. It cannot be entirely ruled out that the names of the children were also passed down in the family. The most weighty objection, however, is that the Hildesheim reliefs can be dated to the 5th dynasty , but the Munich ones can be classified into the late 6th dynasty .
Scharff therefore considers it possible that Meni II is a grandson who erected his mastaba in the immediate vicinity of Meni I. Hermann Junker also deals with this question . For him the grave complex S2530 / 2531 directly to the northwest could be the grave of Meni II. The question will not be finally resolved.
literature
- Hermann Junker : Giza 9. Das Mittelfeld des Westfriedhofs , Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Philosophical-Historical Class, Memorandum 73, Treatise 2, Vienna 1950, pp. 140–152, Fig. 65–67, Pl. 3, 14.
- Alexander Scharff : The reliefs of the elder Meni from the Old Kingdom (with a contribution by Rudolf Naumann) , in: Communications of the German Institute for Egyptian Antiquity in Kairo 8, 1939, pp. 17–33.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Junker , Giza 9. Das Mittelfeld des Westfriedhofs, 1950 (see literature).
- ↑ Alexander Scharff, The reliefs of the elder Meni from the Old Kingdom (see literature).
- ↑ Alexander Scharff (see literature) p. 33.
- ^ Hermann Junker , Giza 9. Das Mittelfeld des Westfriedhofs, 1950 (see literature) p. 151.